sheweth that ioy sorrow hope desperation confidence feare loue hatred mercie enuie anger wrath waspishnesse rage shamefastnesse blushing staggering hastinesse humanitie morositie and such like haue their MOTIONS in the hart heating or cooling it and so dilating or contracting it more or lesse according to the differences and degrees of their impressions Zanchius a wise and worthy Diuine treating of the parts of the Body saith The second vse of the hart is to impart vitall spirits specially to the head in which the mind properly worketh and so to minister matter whence the sensitiue spirits are produced in the braine by which motion sense and cogitations are stirred The third vse of the hart is that it should also be the seate fountaine and cause of all our affections For there are in the hart two motions the one of pulse to maintaine life by the ordinary breathing in and out of the ayre the other of affection which followeth the thought of man and is made by the extraordinarie dilating of the whole hart as in ioy or compressing it as in sorow With sorow and griefe we pine away with ioy we reuiue Whereupon the hart in one affection is opened and cheered in the other it is shut and dryed Hereby we perceiue why the Scripture by the name of the hart vnder standeth the WILL and all the affections of man as by the name of the minde it noteth all the thoughts and knowledge of man Wherefore as motion sense and cogitations spring from the braine or head so all affections from the hart Then from the hart ascend to the braine vitall spirits whence sensitiue spirits are engendred By these sensitiue spirits thoughts are mooued and knowledge planted in the mind Againe those sensitiue spirits by cogitations and conceptions strike the whole hart and kindle diuers affections and raize diuers motions in it And this hath great profit in Diuinitie For besides that we vnderstand how the Soule vseth the Body and worketh by the Body two chiefe points of true godlinesse are illustrated by this Doctrine the KNOVVLEDGE and LOVE of God whence commeth obedience and the obseruance of all his commaundements For the holy Ghost sliding into our harts first lightneth the minde which worketh in the head and with that effectuall knowledge kindleth in our hart the affection of loue And from thence commeth the motion of all the parts to performe the will of God By this meanes God truely dwelleth in our mind in our hart and in our whole Body There is then neither good nor euill affection in the soule of man which is not somewhat communicated to the hart of man expressed by the very motions of the hart that the body may iustly be drawen by consenting and seruing in either to the reward and punishment of either The READY SVBIECTION of the Body to the Soule in all sinne is the last point that I mentioned of their mutuall communion For though vnderstanding and will were giuen at first with all facilitie to rule and gouerne the other powers and parts of Soule and Body yet the corruption of sinne once entering not onely diuided the Body against the Soule but euen the Soule against it selfe So that in good things this corruptible Body is now an heauie burden loading the Soule when it is lightned with grace and the inferiour and sensitiue powers of the Soule rebell and striue against the spirit which renueth the inward man of the hart Some ignorance infirmitie and selfeloue remaine still in the mind as defects till we come to the place where our knowledge and loue shall be made perfect but when we would doe good euen then the law of sinne in our members REBELLETH against the law of our mind and leadeth vs captiue to the law of sinne that is in our members The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are repugnant the one to the other so that we can not doe the things which we would For which cause the Apostle professed of himselfe that he did presse downe his body and bring it into subiection least the Body rebelling and preuailing against the spirit he should become a cast-away This sharpe and strong resistance which our earthly members make against the mind and will delighting in the law of God and guided by his spirit sheweth the willingnesse and readinesse of the flesh to conspire and ioyne with the WILL in the seruitude of sinne to make her members the weapons of vnrighteousnesse so that the will no sooner consenteth to any euill but the sensitiue and motiue powers of the Soule permixed with the bodily spirits attend with delight and forwardnesse to promote and execute ech sinfull purpose This is that greedinesse which the Apostle noteth in some to vncleannesse from which if either feare or grace restraine it is not without some sensible griefe to the flesh disappointed of her desires and lusts We see the manifest and manifold coniunction and communion of the soule with the bodie as well in good as in euill which is strange to none neither Philosophers Physitians nor Diuines but onely to this Discourser to whom all sound and true learning is strange For not onely vertues and vices are common to both but spirituall graces as faith hope and loue the soule in this life receiueth perceiueth and practiseth together with her bodie and by her body Vertue and vice saith Athenagoras can not so much as be conceiued in the soule without the bodie For the vertues that are we know to be the vertues of men as also the vices that are contrarie and not to be in the soule apart from the bodie or consisting by her selfe Of faith we said before it commeth by hearing and so doth hope since that is expected which is beleeued Touching loue God by his law commandeth himselfe to be loued with all our mind with all our heart with all our soule with all our strength not making an emptie variation of words but binding all the parts and powers of bodie and soule capable of that affection or seruiceable to it with one common duetie to perfourme him loue The soule then beleeuing and louing the promises and graces of God openeth the heart and diffuseth the spirits to accept and imbrace the goodnesse of God in like maner as she did before dilate it to entertaine the desires of earthly things and God detesting an h hard and frozen heart as voyde of all loue requireth to haue the bowels mooued towards him and the heart kindled with a vehement flame describing zeale and deuotion by the naturall motions and passions which are felt in the heart when it is affected with vehement and strong loue So in repentance the soule depresseth and humbleth the heart raising it againe with hope which before was exalted with pride and incensed with selfe loue by the same naturall meanes and motions testifying the one that she did the other
the extreamest part of his passion Gods wrath against mans sinne was indeede the cause of all that Christ suffered and not the extreamest part onely of his sufferings by which you would extenuate the rest as not extreame enough till that were added But the Booke of Homilies teacheth you no such Doctrine that proposeth the death of Christ suffered in his Body on the Crosse for the FVLL and ONLY satisfaction or amends of all our sinnes Heare the words that the Reader may see what a counterfeite pretence you make of publike Authoritie as if it were consonant to your new conceited errours when it plainly impugneth them So pleasant was this Sacrifice and oblation of his Sonnes death which he so obediently and innocently suffered that God would take it for the ONLY and FVLL AMENDS for all the sinnes of the world No tongue surely is able to expresse the worthinesse of this so pretious a death Yea there is none other thing that can be named vnder heauen to saue our Soules but THIS ONLY VVORKE of Christs pretious offering of his Body vpon the Altar of the Crosse. The death of Christs Body you thinke did not manifest the wrath of God against our sinnes the death of the Soule and paines of hell must be added before the wrath of God will appeare in Christs Crosse. So teach you but the Booke of Homilies teacheth the cleane contrarie Christ being the Sonne of God and perfect God himselfe who neuer committed sinne was compelled to come downe from heauen and to giue his Body to be brused and broken on the Crosse for our sinnes Was not this a manifest token of Gods great wrath and displeasure towards sinne that he could be pacified by NO OTHER MEANES but ONLY by the sweete and pretious bloud of his deare Sonne Therefore in the Booke of Homilies as there is no mention so is their no intention that Christ suffered spiritually the proper wrath of God which our sinnes deserued These are your phrases and fansies added to the booke of Homilies which neither speaketh nor meaneth any such thing as you idlely inferre Againe Christ bare all our sinnes sores and infirmities vpon his owne backe no paine did he refuse to suffer in his owne bodie But as he felt all this in his bodie so he must feele the greatest part primarily and much more deeply in his soule ergo he refused not to suffer all the paines of the wrath of God both in bodie and soule This kinde of ergoing passeth mine vnderstanding To the first proposition taken out of the booke of Homilies that Christ bare all our sores and infirmities vpon his owne backe refusing no paine in his owne bodie to deliver vs from euerlasting paine you put what pleaseth you without any proofe and then you inferre what you list without any sequele of reason or trueth For how hangeth this geere together Christ bare all our sores and infirmities in his owne bodie ergo he suffered all the paines of Gods wrath both in bodie and soule Are there none other paines of Gods wrath but the sores and infirmities of our bodies And if Christ did suffer all bodily paine incident to men heere on earth doth it therefore follow that he suffered all the paines both of bodie and soule that Gods wrath here and els where hath prouided for sinners If a man would set himselfe purposely to crosse the booke of homilies I know not how he might do it more directly then you do to conclude expresly the contrary to that which is there deliuered It is no maruell that so manie writers are of your side as you say when you can enlarge them and interlace them after this sort but you shall doe well to thinke that your Reader now hearkeneth after the publike doctrine of this Realme authorized by the lawes thereof in the booke of homilies as you professed and not after your secret conceits intercepting and peruerting the trueth there taught by your pernicious and erroneous glozes Christ you say must feele the greatest part of his bodily paines primarily in his soule Haue you not brought vs monsters enough in matters of faith but you must hatch vs more Must bodily paines for of those speaketh the booke of homilies as appeareth by the next words Christ refused no paine in his owne bodie and the first wordes are he bare all our sores and infirmities on his owne backe must I say bodily paines be felt primarily in the soule If you shift all sense to the soule then the bodie beareth that is feeleth nothing and so you refute the booke of homilies you follow it not If you allow sense to the bodie tell vs I pray you how violence first offered to the bodie is primarily felt in the soule It may be betwixt first in English and primus in Latine you haue found some deepe difference The soule you thinke doth primarily consider of the paines of her bodie that you meane by feeling Then leaue you to the bodie a second consideration of his owne paines and so you giue reason and memorie to the bodie distinct from the soule which well becommeth a man of your wisdome That Christ duely considered of the cause for which he suffered and of the Iudge by whose appointment he suffered these things in his bodie from the Iewes I haue often sayd it and you haue often reiected it as not sufficient to satisfie the wrath of God against our sinnes and therefore you euery where vrge the proper punishment and iust reward of sinne due to vs on the soule of Christ and when you come to proue it you rest on the religious consideration that Christ had of his sufferings and call that the wrath of God as if you might choppe and change the wrath of God to your best liking and neuer be constant in any thing Howbeit the question now is what the publike homilies teach the people to beleeue of the worke of their saluation and not how you can shift and sheere wordes to make them sort with your errours Shew therefore somewhat out of the booke of Homilies established by the lawes of this realme that may cleerely confirme or concurre with your doctrine and sell vs not the verdiuyce of your owne deuices in stead of good wine allowed by publike authoritie Christ tooke vpon him the reward of our sinnes the iust reward of sinne But the same homilie sayth the reward of our sinne was the iust wrath and indignation of God the death both of bodie and soule Therefore by the homilie Christ tooke on him for vs the iust wrath and indignation of God the death of the bodie and soule Your trade of iugling will but shame you if you can shift hands no cleanlier then here you doe Your first and second propositions here cited out of the Booke of Homilies are so curtayled by you that they seeme nothing lesse then that they are in their right places The writer of the Homilies hauing taught
a true and corporall punishment appointed by God for sinne though mans error inflict it on innocents or true repentance abolish the rest that would follow after this life if God were not reconciled vnto vs. In the wicked then which persist in their mischieuous purposes without repentance your reason taketh place that hanging to them is a part of that true and terrible curse the whole whereof shall be executed on them for their sinnes but in repentants it is starke false and in Christ of whom this question riseth it is irreligious and impious to say that he suffered the whole curse of the Law prouided for sinne or the death of the soule and of the damned which is properly due to sinners Now vnderstand Chrysostome thus as we before haue distinguished the punishment of Christ and of the damned and then we differ not Suppose Chrysostome to teach falsly and talke absurdly as you doe and then you may soone bring him to weare your badge but leaue him at libertie to tell his owne tale and hee is farre enough from your follies He sayth they were dââ¦erse curses in Christ and in the damned to signifie diuerse manners of one and the same curse in Nature He speaketh not of the damned at all he speaketh of the whole people of the Iewes which were vnder the curse of the Law for sinne till they were thence deliuered by Christ which the damned neuer were nor shall be His words are The people were in danger of another curse which saith Cursed is euery one which abideth not in the things written in the booke of the Law For not one of them had obserued the whole Law Christ then since he was not subiect to the curse of transgression admitted this curse to hang on the Crosse in steede of that to loose the people from their curse Chrysostome truely learnedly and consonantly to the rest of the ancient Fathers distinguisheth two kindes of EVILS or CVRSES incident to men which are sinne and the punishment of sinne The one is an vniust action pleasing man but displeasing God the other is a iust passion pleasing God but displeasing man Mala dicuntur Delicta Supplicia The OFFENCE and the REVENGE are both called ââ¦uils sayth Tertullian Duo sunt genera malorum peccatum poena peccati there are two sorts of Euils sayth Austen Sinne and the punishment of sinne For by Gods prouidence ruling all things as man doth the euill which he will so he suffereth the Euill which he will not Then sinne is not onely euill before it be punished but a greater euill then the punishment is since it is an euill in his owne nature repugnant to the righteousnesse of God Now as God is all good and therefore all blessed so sinne forsaking God falleth from goodnesse and so from blessednesse and is consequently more accursed with God then punishment is and ought so to be with men if they be rightly aduised as being the cause and continuance of their punishment For accursed signifieth as well detested and depriued of blessednesse as subiected to miserie or deuoted to destruction So that sinne in it selfe is a curse with God that is hated and detested of God and depriuing man of all communion and participation with the fountaine of blessednesse though no punishment did follow Yet because men would with neglect and despââ¦ght of God abide and reioyce in their wickednesse if sense of grieââ¦e and paine did not force them to feele theiâ⦠wretchednesse therefore the wisedome and iustice of God pursueth such as dwell and delight in their sinnes with sharpe and bitteâ⦠plagues that locââ¦ing on their miserie they may timely repent or eternally lament their obstinacie To these two kinds of curses Chrysostomes wordes and proofes doe leade The whole people were not damned as you deuoutly dââ¦eame but they had sinned and so were subiected to the danger of Gods displeasure foâ⦠sinne and of his indignation against sinne From this Christ was free for he did not sinne ãâã was guile found in his mââ¦uth as Chrysostom concludeth out of the Scriptures Since then Christ was not subiect to the curse of Transgression he admitted ââ¦other Curse euââ¦n the punishment of sinne which is a curse also for sinne though of an other Nature then the committing of sinne by one to dissolue the otheâ⦠that is by his owne paine to abolish the guilt of our sinne Chrysostomes woââ¦ds are as plââ¦ne as his proofes The curse of transgressing was another curse and not the ãâã which Christ suffered Yea Christ might not be subiected to that curse to which the people were for transgressing the law but changed that for another and so loosââ¦d their curse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã another and not the same be as forciââ¦le woââ¦ds to shew different natures and persons as any the Greeke tongue hath and your shift of diââ¦erse degrees in the same nature is a childish toy since much and little like and vnlike sââ¦ew diuers degrees or measures in one nature but another and not the same thing directly noteth the substance or nature to be diuers Austen on whom you triumph is stretched beyond his meaning he deaââ¦eth against a Mainichââ¦e who denied that Christ had true human flesh Now he proueth that Christ truely died because the Apostle saith he was made a curse for vs in that he hanged on a Tree I haue cause to content my selfe that so leaââ¦ned and religious a Father as Saint Augustine was so highly reuerenced in the Church of God did more then twelue hundred yeers since in his conflicts with Hereticks refute the greatest part of your positions as repugnant to the faith of Christ and the soundnesse of the Sacred Scriptures And I thinke few men so foolish as in the grounds of our Redemption and saluation by Christ to reiect the Doctrine which he taught as false and receaue your scambling conceits as true And in my Iudgement you were best to take heed least if the resolutions which Saint Austen and other Catholike Fathers made against Heretickes disprooue your new found faith you be taken tardy with bringing Baggage into the Church of Christ long since condemned and banished from the Creede of all Christians What Saint Austen proueth you are no fit reporter except you did read more attentiuely and iudge more sincerely For did you euer peruse the words wrong course in so wise a Father if he meant purposely to prooue against the Manichees that Christ truely died for vs and not in shew onely as they supposed to ouerskip all the Testimonies and circumstances of Christs true death recorded in the Scriptures as his giuing vp the Ghost Pilates examining and the Centurions confessing the truth thereof as also the Souldiers perceiuing him alreadie dead and so not breaking his lââ¦gges but pearcing his side with a speare and the* gazing and watching of his ââ¦nemies and of the whole multitude ouer him
will not distinguish what death is in it selfe euen to the godly and what is consequent after it by Gods mercie towards his Saints And heerein I say you want both trueth and iudgement for things are to be named by their natures and not by the sequents which often God sendeth cleane contrarie to the purposes and practises of Satan and his members Tyrannie shall it be no crueltie because it maketh Martyrs Sinne shall it not be displeasing to God because it humbleth the faithfull by repentance The corruption of mans nature shall it not be sinne because thereby God exerciseth his Saints to watchfulnesse and prayer Euen so the death of the bodie which God at first inflicted on all his Elect for sinne shall it be no punishment for that God doth comfort his in death and reward them after death I affirme death to the godly is no curse properly And I aââ¦irme that when you can not tell how to start from the force of truth you do nothing but lie or flie to your phrases of proper and verie which here as in other places do you no good In the fifteenth line of this page you say the death of of the godly may IN NO SORT be called a Curse or Accursed In the sixteenth whiles you offer to proue those words you confesse them to be false Death to the ãâã ãâã no Curse properly you say but a benefit and aduantage then improperly death is a curse and before you sayd It may in no sort be called a Curse to them If in no ââ¦rt then neither properly nor improperly What then is that Enemie that must be destââ¦oyed a cursing or a blessing Can it be an enemie to Christ and yet a blessing to the godly I cannot better refell your folly then S. Austen doth in this verie case If death be a bleââ¦ing to the bodies of the godly neuer desire to be deliuered from it what nââ¦ed you beleeue or loue the resurrection of the flesh which is the destruction of death in the bodie it death be a benefit to the bodie But if this be repugnant to Christian religion then hath death in it euen a shew of Gods curse on the bodie for sinne which must be destroyed before Christ can fully reigne in all his Saints Yet is it to the godly no curse properly The heigth of your learning hangeth on the helpe of this word PROPERLY we yet came to no point in all our defence but when you see your selfe pressed you straightwayes post to PROPER and VERY and yet you neuer define either nor take the paines to expound your selfe lest you should be taken with open heresie and blasphemie in applying one and the same curse properly and truely to Christ and the damned You say I am to young a Doctour to controll Saint Austen herein and I say you are a Doctour not olde enough to prooue Austen contrarie to me in this point A farre younger then I am will soone discerne by that I haue sayd that S. Austen is repugnant in this point to your proper and verie nouelties for where you say Death to the godly may in no sort be called a curse S. Austen thus expoundeth Christes words to the godlie Feare not those which kill the bodie as if Christ had sayd Nolite timere male dictum mortis corporalis quod temporaliter soluitur Feare not the CVRSE of a bodily death which in time is dissolued And so when he resolueth Moses had none other meaning in this sentence Cursed is euerie one that hangeth on a tree then if he had sayd Mortall is euerie one that hangeth on a tree Poterat enim dicere maledictus omnis mortalis aut maledictus omnis moriens For Moses might haue sayd Cursed is eââ¦ry mortall man or cursed is euerie man that dieth If Moses might truely haue so sayd as it is euident by S. Austens position then I trust death in some sort may be iustlie called a Curse euen to the godlie But S. Austen sayth that the death of the bodie is good to the good and euill to the euill That speech S. Austen sayth may be tolerated not in respect of death it selfe which is euill but of the mercies of God which follow the faithfull after their deaths His words which you skippe as your maner is to do when any thing maketh against you are Dici potest It may be sayd But vpon that speech he presently moueth this question in the beginning of the next Chapter If the death of the bodie be good to the good quo modo poterit obtineri quòd etiam ipsa sit poena peccati how may it be resolued that it is also the punishment of sinne His resolution you did not reade or not regard because it resisted your fansie but thereby the Reader may see what credit is to be giuen to your words when you crake of Fathers We must confesse sayth Austen that the first men were so created that if they had not sinned they should haue tasted no kinde of death but the verie same being the first sinners were so punished with death that whatsoeuer should spring from their root should be held subiect to the same punishment And discussing the question proposed more at large he resolueth Sic per ineffabilem Dei misericordiam ipsa pââ¦na vitââ¦orum transit in arma virtutis fit meritum iusti etiam supplicium peccatoris So by the vnspeakeable mercie of God the punishment of vice becommeth the armour of vertue and the reuenge of a sinner is made the merit of the iust Non quia mors bonum aliquod facta est quâ⦠antea malum fuit sed tantam Deus fidei praestitit gratiam vt mors quam vitae constat esse contrariam instrumentum fieret per quod transiâ⦠in vitam NOT THAT DEATH IS BECOME ANY GOOD which before was euill but so great fauour God hath yeelded vnto faith that death which most certainly is contrarie to life is made an instrument for the good by which they passe vnto life And to make men the better to vnderstand the effect of his speech he bringeth an example out of the Scriptures where the law is called the strength of sinne Why sayth he rehearse ââ¦e this Because that as the Law is not euill when it increaseth the lust of sinners so death is not good when it augmenteth the glorie of the sufferes but as the vniust doe eââ¦lly vse not onely euill but also good things so the iust doe well vse not onely good but euen things that be euill Hence commeth it that the wicked vse the Law ill though the Law be good BONI beââ¦Ã¨ moriantur quamuis sit mors malum and the good die well though death be euill I haue toucheâ⦠at large Saint Anstens reasons and resolutions in his owne words because the Reââ¦der should the more cleerely conceiue him and the discourser see him contrarie to his conceits euen in this point
considerate Readers howsoeuer it may content you for the time But let vs heare the rest I answere it is not true which you say That Gods Law alloweth no Suertiââ¦s Vnderstanding here by Gods reuealed will and his most holy and gracious ordinance for vs. Though indeede this is not his Law properly but his Gospell You lacke here English as well as trueth except it be the Printers fault and not yours Vnderstanding here in your words hath nothing to follow it I thinke you would say Vnderstanding hâ⦠by Gods Law Gods reuealed will c. I neuer made doubt whether the Gospell proposed the wonderfull loue mercie good will and fauour of God the Sonne towards vs in offering himselfe to make the purgation of our sinnes in his owne person and likewise the wisedome power iustice clemencie grace and goodnesse of the whole Trinitie in accepting that offer for our saluation but such I said was the infinite dignitie of the person being true God that he could by no Law be bound but onely ledde by his owne good will and pleasure as a voluntary and free Sauiour Which libertie the iustice of God so farre tendred and preserued in the humane nature of Christ that he could not in rigour exact death as a debt from a Suertie but receiue it as a voluntarie sacrifice from a willing and free Redeemer for which cause neither the desert of our punishment nor the filth of our sinnââ¦s nor the trueth of our curse could cleaue vnto him but his death was innocent and altogether vndeserued though he died iustly to God as well in ââ¦espect of vs for whom he suffered who deserued farre worse as in regard of his owne will and offer who refused not the smart of death thereby to breake thâ⦠chaines of death and to deliuer vs from the power of darkenesse For the name of the law in generall how farre that word might be stretched I did not question since you spake directly of that law which accurseth and punisheth sinne as the Apostle doth alleaging in plaine words both the curse and punishment of Moses law Otherwise I knew the Apostles words in this verie Epistle Beare yee one anothers burden and so fulfill the law of Christ which is in libertie and loue to serue one an other as Christ did vs. No similitude you say can proue Christ in taking our person on him to be sinfull defiled hatefull and accursed I denie this saying vtterly I like your wit well that when you should go to proue your affirmatiues you fall to denie my negatiues This is a short way to shunne all paines and proofs for you to say what you list and when you denie the contrarie the matter is fully proued But Sir you forget that my assertion hath in it the plaine words of the Holy Ghost and the maine grounds of Christian religion that Christ as well in his nature and actions as in his sufferings and sacrifice was holie harmelesse seuered from sinners and vndefiled This you vtterly denie If you make no more bones in denying the words of God your Reader will as easily denie you to be a Christian whatsoeuer I do In his owne nature and in respect meerly thereof he suffered both at the Iewes hands and before God the iust for the vniust A faire gloze and full against the text When Christ died was it for himselfe or for vs that hee suffered He suffered not in any respect of or for himselfe no not before God and yet he suffered the iust for the vniust sayth Peter Which words Peter could not speake in respect of the Iewes who killed Christ for they tooke Christ to be most vniust and they had no meaning nor power to put him to death for the redemption of the world but Peter speaketh this of Christ who knowing himselfe to be iust and innocent in the sight of God was yet patient and willing when he suffered for the vniust By this example Peter often exhorteth the godly to follow Christes steppes and to suffer wrong patiently when they do well For that is more acceptable to God then when they are buffeted for their faults because they are blessed that suffer for righteousnesse sake as Christ did You turne the text cleane contrarie and would haue men beleeue that Christ was not only sinfull accursed and defiled with our sinnes but the greatest sinner and most vniust person that euer suffered as guiltie before God of all their sinnes for whom he died Yet this is not inherently but by imputation the Lord translating by his ordinance the sinne of men vpon him Afore we enter to speake farther of the filthinesse or guiltinesse of sinne inherent or imputed and the malediction on either I thinke it fit for the Reader to know what is conteined in those termes lest the Defender carie his conceits in a cloud as his meaning and maner is to do In sinne besides the auerting of the will from God by defection and hardning of the heart against God by rebellion the loue and affections of the soule which should be inflamed with sinceritie and puritie of Gods holinesse and goodnesse are wholly deiected and egerly fastened vpon base vile vaine and vncleane things and thereby the soule growing like to that which it loueth for loue causeth a societie and similitude with the things loued bââ¦ommeth base vile and vncleane in all her delights desires parts and powers Which impurenesse and pollution of the inward man when God beholdeth he reiecteth hateth and detesteth as well this corruption inherent in the soule as the deeds and acts of sinne past with vs but present still with him and accusing vs in his sight by the witnesse of our owne conscience which we can not auoid This when God setteth before the eyes of the wicked letting them see what they haue refused and what they haue embraced and how deformed and defiled they are in comparison of his beautie and sanctitie as also what they haue done against the light and leading of their owne conscience they fall ashamed of their vncleannesse and confounded with their guiltinesse finding the iust vengeance of God to hang ouer their heads with a desperate and most dreadfull expectation thereof These things are not doubted by any good Diuines and therefore it shall suffice shortly to touch some places teaching no lesse then I haue sayd To the vncleane and vnbeleeuing sayth Paul nothing is clâ⦠but euen their mindes and consciences are defiled Of euill thoughts and deeds proceeding from the heart our Sauiour-generally pronounceth These are the things which defile a man S. Peter sayth of the wicked They are led with sensualitie as bruit beasts perishing in their corruption and are not onely spots and staines but after they had escaped from the filthinesse of the world turne againe as swine to wallowing in the mire This is the vncleannesse of sinne as well inherited from Adam as
So that all your platforme is quite ouerthrowen by the direct words of the Apostle freeing Christ and all his elect euen in this life from all power of the second death And therefore you set your selfe in this section euidently to confront the holy Ghost when you seeke to proue that Christ suffered the second death of the soule as the Scripture speaketh And besides the Scriptures if you talke of second deaths you may as well tell vs tales of a new world as of an other word without the witnesse of Gods spirit But you haue found out many places of Scripture where this last kinde of death is so called and named Eight you quote by the side in your margine but take not the paines to discusse one of them onely you pronounce after your stately manner that those places of Scripture prooue that which you meane to bee the death of the soule Now what if not one of them speake any such thing is not your Reader sure to find you a true man of your word when you quote eight places and not one of them to your purpose but this is your perpetuall course to mistake and misuse Scriptures at your pleasure and then to say you haue soundly prooued it On the contrary I affirme that none of these places intend any such thing as you imagine of your terrestiall and temporall hell but they exactly conclude against you that damnation is eternall and no death of the soule which is not euerlasting is expressed or intended in any of those Scriptures or in any other that you or your friends are able to picke out And though it may suffice me as well to say nay as you to say yea yet for the Readers better resolution I will not bee grieued to run through all these places as much as shal be needfull The first is l Ezech. 18. ver 4. the soule that ââ¦inneth it shall die These words may signifie either subtraction of grace in this life which is consequent to sinne in the wicked or exclusion Eight places of Scripture abused for the temporall death of Christs soulâ⦠from glory in the next world which is the iust and full wages of sinne But that euery soule which sinneth hath felt or shall feele in this life your temporall hell or the pains of the damned this is a grosse error to be fathered on those words and repugnant not onely to the trueth of this text but euen to the sense and experience of all the Godly and such as your selfe dare not auouch since you qualifie your conceit in that behalfe with these words that m Defenc. pag. 134. li. 15. some in some measure are conformed with Christ in these his sufferings But if God by Ezechiel ment your earthly hell then absolutely all men children not excepted must feele in this life paines equall with the damned for so much as they haue sinned and deserued euerlasting damnation The second is the commination that God made to Adam n Genes 2. ver 17. Whensoeuer thou ââ¦atest thereof thou shalt die the death or surely thou shalt die Here are all sorts of deaths threatned but not to be executed either on all men nor in this present life God reseruing to himselfe power and libertie to dispose of all mens soules according to his determinate counsell though they should all be guiltie and liable to all kinds of death by vertue of those words vpon the transgression of the first man This exposition the Apostle giueth when he saith o Rom. 5. The offence of one came on all men to condemnation which is the verifying of these words that all men died in Adam to wit were subiect to death not onely by dying the death of the bodie which is appointed for all men but to the guiltinesse of euerlasting death not executed on all though deserued by all The third which is the p Rom. 6. Apostles conclusion is either generally ment of all kinds of death which came in by sinne as the rewards and punishments thereof and then it is nothing to your intention or else it expresseth the full wages of sinne to be euerlasting death by opposition to eternall life mentioned in the next wordes following For eternall life is the gift of God as eternall death is the wages that is bothe the desert and repayment of sinne Take which you will either the generall or speciall construction of death it is no way pertinent to your purpose Lesse is the fourth that the Apostles were the q 2. Cor. 2. vers 16. sauour of death vnto death in them that perished as they were the sauour of life vnto life in them that were saued For the preaching of the Gospell which the Apostle meaneth in that place doeth not proclaime a terrestiall or temporall heauen to them that beleeue in Christ but life eternall and consequently neither doth it denounce a temporall death to them which refuse Christ but euerlasting death And therefore there can be nothing more absurd then to conuert these places to the proofe of your temporall hell for so you should doe the reprobate a very good turne if you could shew that the death threatned them for not beleeuing in Christ were to dure but for a time or in this life only where your new found hell hath power and place and no where else With like successe you note for your fifth that the r 2 Cor. 3. vers 7. ministration of death was glorious the Apostle so calling the law because it denounced death not temporall but eternall to all transgessours So that if the full wages of sinne be eternall death by the word of God then did the law not denounce a temporall death due to all men by course of nature be they good or bad though euen that at first entered as a part of the punishment of sinne but euerlasting death which is the second death is reserued as S. Iohn writeth for all sorts of sinners and liers Saint Iames is the sixth who sayth s Iames 5. He that conuerteth a sinner erring from the trueth shall saue a soule from death If a man conuerted shall be saued from your temporall hell which you here would intend by the death of the soule then much more the Conuerter and he that neuer erred from the trueth shall be free from your hell and consequently Christ was most free who was trueth it selfe and neuer erred But as trueth is the way to euerlasting life and freeth men from all bondage of sinne and Satan so errour and infidelitie haue another maner of death than your terrestiall hell which you make common to Christ and some of his members and he that is conuerted from errour or sinne shall be saued from euerlasting perdition which indeed is the death of the soule depriuing it of all blisse and ioy for euer The seuenth and eigth you take out of Saint Iohn who sayth t 1. Ioh. 5. vers 16 17. There is sinne vnto
ordained to be damned for vs. 364 Dauid neuer felt the true paines of hell 453 Dauids feare vnlike to Christs 442 What Death Christ died 19 A threefold death the wages of sinne 13â⦠Corporall death in all men is the punishment of sinne 149. 150. 151. 176 Death in Christ was the satisfaction for sinne 176 Euerlasting death the wages of sinne which Christ could not suffer 226 The death of the body is euill in it selfe though God to his make it a passage to life 244. 245 The consequenââ¦s after death doe not proue death to be good 246 The nature of death not changed in the godly 252 God so hââ¦teth death that he will destroy it as an enemie 254 Naturall death came not by the sentence of Mosâ⦠Law 261 Thââ¦e is no death of the Soule without sinne 366 All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before he died 389 The death and life of the soule here on earth mistaken by the Defender 430 What the second death is in the Scriptures 492 Eight pââ¦es of Scripture abused for the death of Christs Soule 493 By one lande of death Christ freed vs from all kinds of death 504 To be vtterly forsaken of God is the death of the Soule 517. 518 The extreamest degree of pains where grace doth not faile is no death of the Soule 524 What things the death of the body doth import 649 The Defender grosly peruerteth my words 44. 45 The Defender contââ¦adicteth himselfe 56. 57 The Defender contemneth the Fathers and their iudgements 82 The Defender deuiseth shifts to decline Scriptures and Fathers against him 94 The Defender would make the maner of Christes dying onely vnusuall 95 The Dââ¦fender doth grossely mistake the reiection of the Iewes to be the meaning of Christes complaint on the crosse 98 The Dââ¦fender not able to support his errors doth quarrell with the question 99 The Defender eludeth the Scriptures with his termes of single and meere 125. 126. 127 The Defender clouteth one conclusion out of diuers places 146 The Defender maketh the sufferings of Christs flesh needlesse to our redemption 168. 169 The Defender peruerteth the doctrine of the Homilies 224. 225 The Defender maketh Christ sinfull accursed and defiled 265 The Defender would not faile to cite Fathers if he had them 273 The Defender compareth Christ in want of comfort with the damned 291 The Defender vainly presumeth all places of his vnanswered to be granted 319 The Defender hath deuised torments for Christs soule 323 The Defender controleth the words of the holy Ghost by his new phrases 413 The Defender in steed of proouing falleth to granting his owne positions 5ââ¦3 The Defender misciteth S. Iohns words and on that error groundeth all his reasons 644 The Defender giuing a reason of nââ¦thing asketh a reason of all things 415 The Defender claimeth like reuerence to his words as to the Scripture 325 The Defender saith the Scriptures are ordinarilie true that is sometimes false 367 The Defender doth euery where mistake and misapply what is said 384 The Defender forgeth a pace new parts of the Christian faith 393 The Defender taketh the parts of Christs agonie for the causes thereof 401 The Defender is somewhat pleasureable 528 The Defender corrupteth S. Luke 402. 403 The Defender ascribeth a liuely affection to Christs dead flesh 422 The Defender vttereth a flat contradiction to his owne doctrine 422. 423 The Defender confesseth the Fathers prooue my meaning 425 The Defender is driuen to contrarieties 431 The Defender taketh from Christ inward sense and memory in his sufferings 440 The Defender yeeldeth perfect knowledge to Christ in his amazednesse 481 The Defender foolishly prooueth the death of Christs soule 495. 496 The Defender abuseth the Scriptures 534. 535 The Defender cannot discerne a conclusion from a quotation 568 The Defendours foure restraints of hell paines 4 The Defendours disdaine of the fathers 98 The Defendours vaine shifts 114. 115 The Defendours skill in framing arguments 327 The Defendours absurd deuises 490 The Defendours manner of reasoning as illogicall as his matter is false 336 Dereliction in the Scriptures neuer implieth the paines of the damned 415 Deepe what it signifieth 566 To what Deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 The true sense of Paul and Moses words Rom. 10. concerning the Deepe 568 The whoââ¦e church taught that Christ after death descended to hell 544. 545 New Writers teach Christs descent to hell 546. 547 Christ needed no long time to descend to hell 551 Of Christs descending and ascending 553 Christ aescended and ascended to be Lord ouer all 563 To what deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 Descending is to places below 569 How long this clause of Christs descent to hell hath been in the Creed 653. 654 What Ruffinus meaneth by Christs descent to hell 655 Descending to hades was not the buriall of Christs body 556. 557. 558 The causes of Christs descent to hell 666 Desââ¦ending to hell was a part of Christs exaltation 671 The descent of Christ to hell confessed by the Catechisme 677 The Lawes of this land doe binde all to beleeue Christs descent to hell 678 Desperation in hell is no sinne 71 Desperation is the sorest torment in this life 238 A small Difference of wordes may quite alter the sense 199 Difference of Christs offering and suffering 276 Difference of outward and inward temptatioÌs 314 Difference betwixt Gods threats iudgements 472 How the Diuell may discerne and incense our affections 192 The Diuell tormented not Christes soule on the Crosse. 295 Christ suffered as deepe paines but not as deepe Doubts as we may 321 E. ELect Who is enemie to Gods Elect. 233 The Elect are neuer truely accursed 252 The Elect cannot perish 364 Erasmus fouly mistaken by the defendor 653 Foure notable Errors grounded by the defendor vpon the facts of Moses and Paul 363 The first 363 The second 365 The third 367 The fourth 368 What impressions Euill maketh in the soule of man 341 Euill past present or to come worketh sorrow paine and feare in the soule of man 341 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it importeth 485 Is contrarie to feare 501 Esay doth not touch the death of Christes soule 526. 527 Esay 14. Shcol for hell 559. 560 Eusebius report of Thaddeus allowed by the best historiographers 660 F FAthers their iudgements may be called Authorities 83 The Fathers may be left in some priuate opinions 84 I leaue not the Fathers in the grounds of faith 85 The Fathers doc not teach that Christ suffered all which we should haue suffered 138. 139 The Fathers disclaime all necessitie in the death of Christ. 285 The Fathers determine not the exact cause of Christs Agonie 371 Wherein we should follow the Fathers 415 Some Fathers expound me in Christs wordes for my members 416 No Father auoucheth the death of Christs Soule 142. 143 Diuerse Fathers euidently corrupted for the death of Christs Soule 428. 429 By the iudgement of the Fathers Christ died
which hee bare our sinnes to the strength of his patience and so both his paines and his patience farre exceeded all mens The rather for that Christes sense did not faile him by degrees as ours doth when the paines of death are extreamest which driue our soules from our bodies but hee did in most perfect sense feele the sting and bitternesse of paine to the last breath by reason he was of his owne accord at an instant appointed by his Father to breathe out his owne soule and so did to the great admiration of the Centurion that obserued it and consequently hee retained firmnesse of voice and exactnesse of sense all the while his paines were at sharpest The soule is punished in this life by her vnderstanding will affections and senses according as their obiects directed and strengthened by God make violent and vehement impressions the torment of hell-fire being the iudgement of another world Neither is God the tormenter of soules in hell with his immediate hand but by his wisdome and power hath ordained euerlasting fire as an externall Agent aboue nature to take vengeance of damned men and diuels according to their deserts No Scripture doth teach That God with his immediate hand tormented the soule of his Sonne on the Crosse or in the Garden notwithstanding Christes soule was full of feare and sorow in the Garden and of griefe and paine on the Crosse all which outward and inward passions ne did ne could peruert Christs will nor oppresse his power but they must all be voluntarie that they might all be meritorious and the more Christs power was to admit them when he would as he would and because he would the more his obedience was to the will and hand of God who forced nothing on Christ against his will but by that which was offered and suffered tried the obedience of his Sonne and accepted all from him as a most willing Sacrifice The wrath of God punishing our sinnes in the person of Christ was neither such as the Damned in hell nor as the Reprobate in earth doe suffer but rather common to the members of Christ who must drinke of this Cuppe haue fellowship with his afflictions and be conformed to his death though they neuer feele the true paines of hell nor haue their soules tormented by Gods immediate hand Neither was it any other wrath than such as might stand with Gods loue towards his Sonne who did not hate him for our sakes but loued vs for his and was Fatherly tempered to the strength of Christes manhood and graciously ouerruled and quenched by the fauour that God bare to the person of his Sonne And therefore the termes of meere and proper wrath if they meane proper to the damned are false and impious in Christes sufferings which neither in maner measure nor purpose did agree with the torments of the damned The true and full satisfaction for our sinnes must not be deriued from the singularitie and infinitie of Christes paines longer and greater than which the damned and diuels doe euery one suffer but from the dignitie of the person who being the only and eternall Sonne of God that made vs humbled himselfe in our stead and in our nature to restore vs and offered recompense for our sinnes which was his submission and obedience vnto the death of the Crosse more pleasing to God than our condemnation to hell could haue beene for in this ballance betweene the wrath of God against our sinnes and the loue of God towards his Sonne neither was his iustice neglected nor his loue ouer swayed but a sweet and wise temper of both was prouided for the manhood of his Sonne first to suffer with patience and then to raigne with glorie that all the sonnes of God might be the more willing and readie by his example to obey the will and abide the hand of God before they did enter into his Kingdome The Scriptures witnessing that the Sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit this might not want in Christes Sacrifice for sinne but he approching the presence of God with and for our offences lawfully might and exceedingly did feare the greatnesse and iustnesse of Gods anger against our iniquities and as deeply sorrowed that Gods holinesse was so carelesly despised and highly displeased with our manifolde iniquities Which inward sacrifices of feare and sorrow for vs and our sinnes in the person of the Mediatour were no lesse acceptable to God than the simple suffering of paine Since Gods power is despised where it is not duely feared and sinne is iustified where the displeasing of God is not thorowly sorrowed in presenting vs and our cause to God Christ was to yeeld for vs and in our behalfe that infinite submission and feare to the power of God prouoked and contrition and sorrow to the holinesse of God offended which we could neuer haue done And without these to offer to beare the burden of our sinnes was to make light account of our sinne against God and of Gods wrath against our sinne which was farre from the Sonne of God There might therefore in Christes sacrifice for sinne not without iust cause appeare exceeding feare and sorrow yet both religious and measured by the rules of obedience and humilitie though passing grieuous to the soule of Christ. Neither were these submissions and afflictions of Christs soule answerable to his perfection and our transgression if they did not reach to the highest degree of feare and sorrow that mans nature in Christ was capable of without distrust of Gods fauour or dislike of his iustice Christ did not pray in the Garden contrarie to his Fathers knowen will but made an expresse and speciall reseruation thereof euen in the first part of his prayer Neither was he amazed and confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie as these Presumers teach but he prayed with faith and suffered with obedience both which require perfect vnderstanding will and memorie Manie things might concurre to increase Christes sorrow in the Garden as the reiection of the Iewes for spilling his bloud the dispersion of his Church all flying and forsaking him the continuall rage of Satan against his weake and fearefull members Christ now in his temptations and afflictions beholding theirs with great compassion and griefe of heart which is it that Hilarie saith Et tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est Christ sorrowed for vs and prayed for vs. An Agonie is properly a vehement contention of minde to preuaile in that we vndertake rightly weighing and striuing to remoue the difficulties and impediments obiected to hinder the euent Christes bloudie sweat if it were naturall must proceed rather from zeale and intention of minde than from feare and sorow which coole the bloud and quench the spirits whereas the spirits must be mightilie kindled and the bloud much heated and thinned before it can issue forth by sweat And since by the words of Saint Luke Christ fell into an
kindled against thee and against thy two friends though he willed them to sacrifice for their offence and promised to accept Iobs prayer for them The same may often be obserued in other places of the Scriptures The wrath of God is likewise taken for the threates whereby God denounceth what he will inflict on the wickednesse of men or for the sharpe reproofe which hee vseth against sinne committed I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest saith God of the disobedient Israelites in the wildernesse In miââ¦e indignation ââ¦d in the fire of my wrath haue I spoken it saith God by Ezechiel surely at that time there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel So Dauid Then shall â God â speake to them in his wrath and terrifie them in his sore displeasure Wherefore Dauid prayeth for himselfe O Lord reprooue me not in thine anger knowing that Gods rebukes and threates ought to be as much regarded and feared of the faithfull as his plagues Lastly all the Iudgements of God awaking the negligent scourging the disobedient obdurating the impenitent in this life or renenging the Reprobate here and in hell are in the Scriptures called the wrath of God of which speech there can be no question because the word of God giueth plaine plentifull euidence in euery of those parts onely the Discourser auoucheth that the two first are no degrees nor effects of Gods proper wrath though the Scripture call them wrath but are so termed by a very improper speech These are his words To suffer chastisements and corrections as the godly doe is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath except it be in a very improper speech And this is one of the maine points on which he putteth theissue of the question I affirme saith he Christ suffered Gods proper wrath and vengeance You thinke all afflictions whatsoeuer small or great and towards whomsoeuer are the effects of Gods wrath but that is not so except in a most improper speech To the godly their afflictions both small and great are Gods fatherly and gracious chastisements and no effects of his properwrath Thou must not forget Christian Reader from what beginning we come to this issue This Rouer taking vpon him to prooue that Christ suffered the true paines of hell and of the damned made this his foundation That Christ suffered the wrath of God for vs which he affirmed to be equall to hell it selfe and all the torments thereof Mine answere shortly was I did not see what this proposition Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God if it were granted could helpe his cause or hinder mine For the wrath of God extended to all paines and punishments aswell corporall as spirituall in this life and the next were they temporall or eternall So that no paine or punishment small or great could befall the bodie or soule of Christ but it must needs proceed from the wrath of God To this he now replieth To suffer as the godly do chastisements and corrections is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath nor indeed the punishment of sinne except it be in a very improper speech Where first obserue that these words as the godly do are not conteined in mine answer but intended by him in his replie The ground on which I stood was that all the miseries of mans life what soeuer they be came first from the wrath of God reuenging the sinne of our first Father and so are degrees and parts of that wrath wherewith God punished the transgression of Adam I named no miseries peculiar to the godly but common to them with the wicked neither did I touch any speciall maner of suffering as the godly do suffer but prooued that the Scriptures which must teach vs all how to speake in Gods causes called them wrath euen in the godly And consequently since Christ suffered sorrow paine and death which came for sinne and are common to all he might and did suffer the wrath of God for vs and yet not the paines of the damned You cast about afresh Sir Discourser in your defence and tell vs the Scriptures speake verie improperlie when they call the miseries of this life the wrath of God and therefore you bring vs a new phrase of your owne framing and say the godly in no wise doe suffer Gods proper wrath that is properly taken or properly so called which Christ did suffer as you affirme Is your learning so good Sir Defender that you will applie to God wrath indignation and furie properly so called which are the highest degrees of Gods anger against the wicked Haue you forgotten who tooke vpon you such knowledge in the Hebrue tongue that the vsuall words whereby the Scripture expresseth the wrath of God against the wicked do import the nose the heat the boiling the kindling the excesse aââ¦d rage of God against the wicked which words if you referre to God by way of proper speech you make of euery one of them a barbarous and blasphemous heresie So that your late coined distinction of Gods wrath by improper speech towards his children and his wrath properly so called against his enemies is vaine and foolish the words in Scripture that note Gods wrath against his enemies are most improper and are translated from the behauiouâ⦠of angrie men to God of purpose to strike a terrour into the wicked of that great and grieuous iudgement which they shall receiue But whatsoeuer the words designe in their naturall signification which the Christian faith forbiddeth vs to attribute properly vnto God because they expresse humane affections and corporall passions which are not in God by the anger which is in God against sinne the Scripture meaneth nothing els but his most holy dislike of sinne in whomsoeuer and his most iust and constant will and decree in some to reward sinne according to desert which is vengeance in this life and the next in others so to temper the punishment of sinne with loue and mercie that whatsoeuer he inflict on bodie or soule shall tend to the praise of his iustice and mercie and end with the consolation and saluation of their soules And by the anger which proceedeth from God are in the Scriptures intended either his threats against sinne or his punishments of sinne be they corporall or spirituall temporall or eternall mixed with mercie or proportioned only to iustice If you relinquish your holdfast of improper speech and rase that vnaduised shift out of your booke for God hath in him no wrath properly so called but his holinesse displeased and iustice prouoked by sinne are improperly named his wrath in the Scriptures Let vs come to the proprieties of the things themselues and see whether chasticements for sinne doe properly proceede from Gods loue onely or from his iustice tempered with loue and mercy Of the wicked I shall not neede to speake much we make no great question of them
howbeit euen their externall punishments in this life are not voide of Gods bountie and patience diuersly blessing them with earthly things often warning and sparing them by giuing them time and place to mislike and leaue their sinnes and length-fully expecting their submission and amendment which the Apostle calleth the riches of Gods bountie patience and long sufferance leading euen the obstinate and hard harted to repentance The doubt is of the godly whether their afflictions which are corrections and chasticements for sinne rise only from Gods loue or rather from his iustice mixed with loue I affirme the Scriptures doe directly and distinctly propose in the chasticements of the elect as well iudgement and wrath as mercy and loue and that not by abusing the words but by reseruing to either their naturall proprieties and seuerall consequents the one for the commendation of Gods iustice the other for the demonstration of his mercy and consolation of the afflicted For his wicked couetousnesse I was angry saith God and did smite him â but â I will heale him and restore comfort vnto him He must be more then absurd that will imagine God would or could say for his wicked couetousnesse I loued him that were to make God the abettour and embracer of wickednesse which is wholy repugnant to his Diuine sanctitie and glory the words therefore must stand as they doe without any euasion of improper speech and Gods anger in this place must plainely differ from his loue which cannot be added to these words without euident impietie Since then the cause was sinne which God doth perfectly hate in whomsoeuer euen in his owne and the smiting came for sinne and from anger it is not possible this chasticement should spring onely from loue but ioyntly both must worke together I meane Gods anger against sinne and his loue towards the person to make the punishment tolerable and comfortable to the bearer The like rule God giueth for all that belong to the true seed and sonne of Dauid which is Christ. If his children forsake my law and walke not in my iudgements I will visue their transgressions with the Rod and their iniquitie with sââ¦ripes but my mercy will I not take from him God threatneth no loue to sinne he threatneth anger the stripes here mentioned are not the loue of a father but mitigated by loue the mercy here promised is not adioyned as the onely cause of this correction which is ascribed to the transgressions and iniquities of the children but it serueth for a salue to heale the wound which Gods iustice prouoked by their sinnes should formerly make For he is the God that woundeth and healeth killeth and quickneth casteth downe to hell and rayseth vp againe not working contraries by one and the selfe same loue but when he hath iustly done the one for our offences he gratiously doth the other for his mercies sake in wrath remembring mercy least we should be consumed He then despouseth the Church vnto himselfe in iudgement and mercy not in iudgement forgetting mercy nor by mercy excluding iudgement for iudgement beginneth at the house of God but retaining both that the whole Church may sing mercy and iudgement vnto him as Dauid did yet with this difference that he doth not punish with the hart as the Prophet testifieth but his delight is in mercie Which plainly prooueth the Rod is not all one with loue as the Apostle noteth when he opposeth the one against the other saying Shall I come to you with a rodde or in loue but is guided by loue lest in displeasure God should shut vp his mercies These two therefore in God iust anger against the sinnes and tender loue towards the persons of his children together with their effects which are iudgement and mercy may not be confounded the one with the other but as they haue different causes and proprieties in God so haue they different effects and consequents in vs the Scriptures bearing witnesse that Gods anger riseth for our sinnes his loue for his owne names sake his anger he threatneth his loue he promiseth he hath no pleasure in punishing he delighteth in mercie he repenteth him often of the euill which he denounceth his gifts and calling are without repentance when we call vpon him he deliuereth vs out of all our troubles his mercy will he neuer take from his nor frustrate his truth Yea the godly haue a different feeling of his anger towards them from his loue they feare they faint they grieue and grone vnder the burden of affliction they waxe weary of it they pray against it they giue him thankes when they are freed from it none of which affections may with any sense of godlinesse agree to his loue But these are no effects of Gods proper wrath you thinke Christ onely hauing wholy suffered that for vs all What you meane by Gods proper wrath is knowen onely to your selfe you neuer expresse nor expound the word but with more obscure and doubtfull termes then the former At first you affirme Gods wrath towards his children was a most improper speech I haue now shewed that if you looke to the words vsed in the sacred Scriptures Gods wrath towards his enemies is as improper a speech as the other Your second wrench was that all chastisements for sinne are inflicted on Gods children properly by his loue I haue prooued that they proceede properly from Gods iustice tempered with mercie and not from his onely loue Your third shift is now they are no effects of Gods proper wrath which Christ did wholy suffer for vs all If you vnderstand by Gods proper wrath that which is only wrath and hath no admixture of his loue fauour or mercie then is your position ridiculous in your first maine point and blasphemous in the second For who euer auouched that God punished his children and his enemies with the same degrees and effects of wrath or who euer dreamed that God chastising the sinnes of his elect in wrath remembred not his mercie you doe indeede affirme of Christ that he suffered all Gods proper wrath which if you now interpret to be without all respect of loue or fauour towards him you light on a greater blasphemie then you are ware of Wherefore looke well to your new found phrases of Gods meere iustice and proper wrath with which you thinke to colour your conceits they will else proue you a weake Scholer and a worse Christian. The word proper applyed to Gods wrath may signifie either that which is not figuratiue or that which is not common to others or that which hath no mixture of loue or mercie to mitigate wrath but is wholy and onely wrath In God nothing is figuratiue he is naturally and wholy truth itselfe The words applyed to him are often improper and figuratiue because we can hardly speake or vnderstand many things that are in him but by such words as are knowen and familiar to
submission and patience of his Sonne on the Crosse. More then this if you will vrge on the person of Christ as needefull for our Redemption first proue it and then professe it at your pleasure otherwise if you boldly and vainely presume it your addle and idle wordes can not preiudice the setled and vndoubted principles of the Christian faith warranted by the word of God and fully receaued by the Church of Christ euen from the beginning To your maimed and ruinous foundation that Christ must suffer all and the very same punishment wages and vengeance of sinne which the damned doe suffer and we should haue suffered had we not beene excused by his suffering it for vs I haue plainly and sadly answered I know not how often it is a false and lewd imagination and so impious that your selfe dare not in your late Defence offer it to vew without many bridles to holde it from horrible blasphemie But Sir discourser why coyne you conclusions in christian Religion that must haue three or foure exceptions to saue them from open impietie and why see you not that your speciall reseruations ouerthrow the truth of your owne assertion for where the true and proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne in all the wicked is spirituall corporall and eternall death in your limitations at last which you forgate at first you except Christ from spirituall death which is sinne and from eternall death which is damnation of body and soule to hell fier yet you still affirme that Christ suffered the full proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne as though these two spirituall and eternall death were no parts of the punishment vengeance due to sin or these being excepted as vnfit for Christ to suffer you could truely say Christ suffered the full and proper punishment and vengeance of sinne which consisteth of these three kinds of death And who but you would send vs such headlesse and senselesse resolutions in Diuinitie as these are I affirme that Christ suffered all gods proper wrath and vengeance for sinne I say all that the very damned do suffer namely so described and limited as is aboue said And againe He suffered from Gods hand euen as the damned doe namely in these points which are both possible and reasonable Were you some new Euangelist or vpstart Apostle it were euen enough for you to referre Christs sufferings to your description and your limitation without any farther authority but when you take vpon you with your bare word to broch so many nouelties in Christian religion without one line or letter of holy writ to vpholde your dreames and deuices who can chuse but deride your follie You pinne mens faiths for the ground of their saluation to your descriptions and your limitations to possibilitie and reason measured by your rule without any text or title of Scripture to warrant your words and then you thinke the maine question is profoundly and fully handled but your sober and wise Reader will presently finde the lamenesse or leudnesse of your grand conclusion For if Christs person not only by your possibilitie and reason but by the soundnesse of trueth and sincerenesse of faith must be exempted from sinne which is the death of the soule and from damnation which is euerlasting death why write you so boldly that Christ must suffer all Gods proper wrath euen all that the damned do suffer whereas apparently those two being excepted Christ could suffer no kinde of death but only a corporall And if by your so describing and so limiting the matter you draw Christ within the staine or guilt of sinne or within the compasse or danger of damnation hope you to finde any Christian eares so patient that will endure that monstrous and sacrilegious indignitie But you will inuent a new hell for Christ which shall haue the substance but not the circumstance of damnation and shal be inflicted by Gods immediate hand properly ye a only in the verie soule of Christ which Gods owne infinite wrathfull power and iustice can inflict for satisfaction where and how it pleaseth him The question good Sir is not of Gods power what he can do but of his will reuealed in his Word and of his promise performed in the person of his sonne for our saluation and testified by the mouthes and pennes of the Prophets and Apostles that were guided by his holy spirit to speake and write the trueth I make no doubt but God can create another heauen another earth and another hell as quickly and as easily as he did these that now are yet if any man affirme that God will so do or hath so done I must holde him for an Infidell because he gainsayth Gods trueth and belieth Gods will by pretending Gods power Talke not therefore what God can doe shew rather by the word and witnesse of trueth what God hath done to that must we trust to that are you bound and from that are you slipt You haue not so much as any colour of Scripture for these desperate nouelties and vanities I will giue them no woorse words lest you complaine of my bitternesse and if any man be but so wise as to let your proue these things before he beleeue them he is safe enough for euer admitting them I may spare my paines in refuting them yet because destitute of all other helpe you appeale to possibilitie and reason to fourbish your new inuention of another hell let vs see how handsomely you hale it onward By the law of our creation as we are men hauing a soule besides our bodie so our soule hath in it a threefolde facultie of suffering paines First that which is proper and immediate iustly so called proper because it is proper only to reasonable and immortall spirits Immediate two wayes First because it can and doth receiue an impression of sorrow and paines made from God only by and in it selfe without any outward bodily meanes thereunto Secondly it is also an immediate punishment or els correction of sinne it commeth not for any other cause at all So that thus we meane when we speake of the soules proper and immediate suffering The soules second facultie of suffering paines is not proper but common to vs with beasts namely that which is by sympathie and communion with and from the body A third kinde of painfull suffering the soule hath namely her vehement and strong affections are painfull whether they be good or euill as zeale loue compassion pitie care c. neither are these immediatly for sinne whether punishments or corrections neither are they punishments or corrections at all properly in themselues accidentally they may be when they grow so strong that they paine and grieue the soule If the walles and roofe of your new hell rise no fairer nor stand no faster then your foundation doth a weake puffe of winde will blow all away If a man should shortly answer you That the soule of man hath but one
that whatsoeuer it were though you can neither prooue nor expresse what it was Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne though outwardly executed on the body could not but sinke deeper into the Soule and wound the soule properly yea chiefly though the anguish thereof bruised the bodie ioyntly also It is well yet at last that you find your selfe ignorant of some things and that you will not take vpon you to expresse in what precise manner or iust measure the wrath of God was reuealed and executed on Christ. For whiles you broched those secrets more boldly then wisely or truely you ranne your selfe out of breath and brought neither substance nor shadow of holy Scripture to warrant your vanities but daunced vp and downe with certaine licentious and ambiguous phrases of GODS PROPER VVRATH MEERE IVSTICE VERY VENGEANCE and such like flowers neither confirmed by the Scriptures nor so much as expounded by your selfe but because you checke your owne presumption I will spare it and come to that which you professe your selfe so resolutely to know that Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne though outwardly executed on the body of Christ could not but sinke deeper into the soule and wound the soule properly yea chiefly though the anguish thereof bruized his bodie also Wherein notwithstanding you keepe your accustomed phrases of Gods very wrath and proper vengeance which you neither doe nor dare describe by the parts thereof that we may discerne the trueth of your speech yet for their sakes that are simple I am content shortly to examine what wrath from God Christ suffered as farre as the Scriptures direct vs at whose hands he suffered it and what he did and must conceaue of those his sufferings There is no question but power to feele conceaue and discerne by sense reason or faith in man belongeth properly yea onely to the soule of man Life sense and motion appeare in the body and haue their actions perfourmed by the instruments of the body but euen in them the power and force that quickneth and mooueth the body and discerneth by the senses of the body commeth from the soule and so dependeth on the soule that the soule departing from the body leaueth it voyd of all motion sense and life Then in all Christs sufferings when any violence lighted on his body the paine pearced into his soule and his soule not onely fully felt the anguish thereof but rightly discerned the fountaine whence the cause why and the meanes by which it came Christ likewise knew himselfe to be endewed with such might and strength that of him selfe he could not onely resist the whole world if he would but euen commaund and represse men and diuels His ouerruling of seas windes and wicked spirits and giuing his Disciples power ouer them is so euident and often in the Scriptures that no Christian may be ignorant of it After his agony in the Garden with the word of his mouth he threw to the ground the whole band of men that came with Iudas to take him and when by this meanes he had shewed him selfe not destitute of his wonted force and vertue he voluntarily submitted him selfe not onely to be bound and brought whether they would but euen to be whipped mocked wounded hanged and euery way vsed at their pleasure Which he did not to satisfie their wicked rage but to obey the will of his heauenly Father who when he would punish the sinnes of men in the person of his owne Sonne Deliuered him into the hands of sinners from them to suffer whatsoeuer the hand and counsell of God had determined before to be done For those things which God before had shewed by the mouthes of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer he thus fulfilled by the malice of some and ignorance of others whom Satan incited with the greatest contumely and crueltie they could deuise to take Christs life from him In all which Christ suffered nothing but what the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God purposed and appointed should be done For this was the Cup which his father gaue him to drinke and this was the houre and power of darknes when the Prince of the world came against him howbeit neither man nor deuill could haue any power at all against him but what was giuen them from aboue So that in all those wronges reproches and paines which were offered and inflicted on him by the rage of Satan and the wicked he saw the secret counsell and hand of God punishing our sinnes in his bodie and by that meanes satisfiyng the diuine iustice that was prouoked by our transgressions But no where doe the Scriptures deliuer that God with his immediate hand tormented the soule or body of his Sonne much lesse that he impressed the very paines of hell and of the damned on the soule of Christ which is your new found Redemption and satisfaction for the sinnes of men By his agonie in the garden you boldly and rashly presume it but by what logick you conclude it neither doe I conceaue nor can you declare Christ was SORROVVFVLL and AFRAID in the garden and began to be AMAZED ergo you thinke he felt or foresaw he should suffer the paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God Well these may be your hastie thoughts but this hath no ground in Arte reason nature or Scripture For many other things Christ might feare and this of all other things he could not feare How many things are there in God when we approach his presence how many things proceede there from God when we aduisedly marke his counsels and iudgements which may iustly ouerwhelme the weakenes of mans flesh with admiration and feare euen to astonishment The brightnes of Gods glory the greatnes of his power the deepenes of his counsels the sound of his voice the presence of his Angels the sight of his vengeance prepared or executed on others how many good and perfect men haue these things strooken into feares and mazes When Saint Iohn in the spirite sawe the shape of the sonne of man and heard his voice he fell downe as dead for feare When Daniel had seene the vision of the goat and the Ram he was afraid and fell vpon his face yea he was stricken and sicke certaine daies being astonished at the vision When the parents of Sampson saw the Angell ascend toward heauen in the flame of the Altar they fell on their faces to the ground and one of them said we shall surely die because we haue seene the Lord. When a light from heauen suddainly shined round about Paul as he was trauayling to Damascus he fell to the earth trembling and amazed When Isaac perceaued that he had ignorantly blessed Iacob in steede of Esau he was stricken with an exceeding great feare and trembling When the people saw the Creeple walking that was dayly layd at the gate of the Temple to aske almes and
ourselues vnrââ¦ghteous and odious vnto him And yet in mercy towaââ¦ds ââ¦s and honor ââ¦wards his Sonne God would make him the Redeemer and Sauiour of the world not neglecting his Iustice nor forgetting his loue but so mixing them both together that his dislike of our sinnes might appeare in the punishment of them and his relenting from the rigor of his Iustice in fauour of his onely Sonne might magnifiâ⦠his mercy satisfie his wrath and enlarge his glory and declare in most ample manner the submission compassion and peââ¦fection of his Sonne as only worthy to performe that worke which procured and receaue that honor which followed mans Redemption Christ then suffered from the hand of God but mediate that is GOD DELIVERED him into the hands of sinners who were Satans instruments with all eproach and wrââ¦nge to put him to a contumelious and grieuous death God by his ââ¦ecret wisdome and iustice decââ¦eeing appointing and ordering what he should suffer at theiâ⦠hands Our sinnes ââ¦e bare in his body on the tree not that his soule was free from feare sorrow ãâã derision and temptation but that the wicked and malitious ââ¦ewes practised all kind of shamefull violence and cruell tortuââ¦es on him by Whipping Racking pricââ¦ing and wounding the tenderest parts of his body whereby his soule ââ¦elt extreame and intoleââ¦able paines In all which he saw the determinate counsell of God and receaued in the garden from his father this Iudgement for our sinnes that he should be ãâã dââ¦liuered into the hands of sinners For had he not humbly submitted himselfe to obey his fatheââ¦s will no power in earth could haue preuailed against him but as he had often fortold his Disciples what the Priestes Scribes and Gentils should doe vnto him so when the hower was come which was foreappointed of God to obey his fathers will he yeelded himselfe into their hands they persuing him to death of enuie and malice but God thus perfourming euen by their wicked hands what he had ââ¦oreshewed by his Prophets that Christ should suffer For they not knowing him ââ¦or the wordâ⦠of the Prophets fulfilled them in condemning him yea they fulfilled all things which were written of him So that no man shall need to runne to the immediate hand of God nor to the paines of hell for the punishment of our sinnes in the person of Christ the Iewes FVLFILLED ALL THINGS that were written of him touching his sufferings and therewith Gods anger against our sinnes was appeased and God himselfe reconciled vnto vs. Esay speaking of the violence done by the Iewes to Christ sayeth he was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Thus the Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of all vs and he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree by those sufferings before and on the Crosse which the Scriptures expresly declare and describe And as for the immediate hand of God tormenting the soule of Christ with the selfe same paines which the damned now suffer in hell which is this deuisers maine drift when he maketh or offereth any proofe thereof out of the word of God I shall be ready to receiue it if I can not refute it till then I see no cause why euery wandring witte should imagine what monsters please him in mans redemption and obtrude them to the faithfull without any sentence or syllable of holy Scripture I haue no doubt but all the godly will be so wise as to suffer no man to raigne so much ouer their faith with fancies and figures vnwarranted by the Scriptures vnknowen to all the learned and ancient councels and Fathers vnheard of in the Church of Christ till our age wherein some men applaude more their owne inuentions then all humane or diuine instructions The feare of bodily sufferings you thinke could not be the cause that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood You straine the text of the Euangelist to draw it to your bent Saint Luke hath no such words that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood he sayth Christes sweat was like drops of blood trickling downe to the ground Theophylact a Greeke borne and no way ignorant of his mother tongue expresseth Christes sweat in the garden by these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christes body or face DISTILLED with plentifull drops of sweat And albeit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sometimes signifie the congealed parts of that which is otherwise liquid and compacted pieces of that which els is poudered yet often it noteth that which is thickâ⦠in comparison with thinner or eminent in respect of plainer Now Christes sweat might be thicke by reason it issued from the inmost parts of his bodie and was permixed with blood or els it might breake out with great and eminent drops as comming from him violently and abundantly and being coloured with blood and congealed with colde might trickle downe like DROPS or strings of blood vpon the ground Howsoeuer the Scripture saith not his sweate was clotted blood but like to congealed or cooled blood neither that such clots were strained out from him but that his sweate being thicked and cooled on his face fell from him like strings of blood But grant there could be no reason giuen of Christs bloodie sweat in the garden no more then there can be of the issuing first of blood and then of water out of his side when he was dead which S. Iohn doth exactly note as strange but yet true will you conclude what please you because many things in Christ both liuing and dying weââ¦e miraculous I bind no mans conscience to any probabilities for the cause of this sweate but onely to the expresse wordes and necessarie consequents of holy Scripture and yet I wish all men either to be sober and leaue that to God which he hath concealed from vs or if they will needes be gessing at the reason thereof for certaine knowledge they can haue none by no meanes to relinquish the plaine words or knowen groundes of holy Scripture to embrace a fansie of their owne begetting The learned and ancient Fathers haue deliuered diuers opinions of this sweate which thou mayest see Christian Reader in my Sermons and which we shall haue occasion anon to reexamine euery one of them being as I thinke more probable and more agreeable to Christian pietie then this Discoursers dreame of hell paines or Gods immediate hand at that present tormenting of the soule of Christ. And if we looke to the order and sequence of the Gospell we shall finde that feruent zeale extreamely heating the whole bodie melting the spirits thinning the blood opening the pores and so colouring and thicking the sweate of Christ might in most likelihood be the cause of that bloodie sweate Which S. Luke seemeth to insinuate when he saith that after Christ was comforted by an Angell from heauen and so recouered from his
redââ¦mption Fuller or more sufficient than eternall redemption we neither expect nor euer shall haue any since that which is eternall admitteth no change nor increase Then that redemption which Christ hath purchased by his blood is most full and sufficient by the Apostles testimony and sooner shal you proue your selfe to be no sound Teacher than that to be no sound dóctrine which hath so manifest witnesse in holy Scripture I teach that the ioynt sufferings of Christ the soule feeling what the body suffered are most auailable for our saluation and that besides the sacrifice of Christes body there is no other sacrifice of his soule which can be neither bodily nor bloody If I alone did teach thus and not the whole Church of Christ with me or if the sacred Scriptures which must guide vs all what to affirme and beleeue in the worke of our saluation did not teach the same I wââ¦re worthy to be challenged but if I say no more than the Scriptures do warrant me to speake looke you Sir Discourser to your late created Creed that can not admit nor endure the words of the Holy Ghost That the true sacrifice for sinne was but ONE and ONCE made and that it required the BODIE BLOOD and DEATH of the Offerer is not my addition but the Apostles assertion Christ appeared sayth Paul in the end of the world once to put away sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe and by reason he was an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech and a Minister of the true Tabernacle and Sanctuarie it was of necessitie he should haue somewhat also to offer Wherefore when he commeth into the world he saith to God Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a bodie hast thou ordained me It is written of me that I should doe thy will O God by the which will we are sanctified sayth the Apostle euen by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Who after he had offered this one sacrifice for sinne sitteth for euer at the right hand of God For with this one offering hath he consecrated or made perfect for euer them that are sanctified That likewise without effusion of blood there is no remission and therefore Christ with his owne blood entred in once vnto the holy place and obtained eternall redemption as also that the death of the testator must be where a testament is in either of these the Apostle is euident and vehement Now if you Sir Discourser can conuey these things to the soules proper and immediate suffering the paines of hell from the hand of God and shew how these resolutions of the Apostle perteine properly yea only to the soule of Christ we shal greatly woonder at your wisdome For thereby shall you prooue that the soule hath not only a body but blood also that may be shed which are miracles I will not say monsters both in Scripture and nature A spirit sayth Christ hath no flesh and bones as ye see me haue If you can teach Christ that he neuer knew before by my consent you shal be allowed for more than a Creed-maker Howbeit you will marre your owne market in so doing For if the soule consist of bodie and of blood what shall become of her proper and immediate facultie of suffering without and besides the bodie which you so highly aduanced in the beginning as to make it the proper and principall humane suffering If you shrinke from these follies or rather frensies as I hope you will then must you grant the ioynt sufferings of Christ I meane the wounding of his body and shedding of his blood euen vnto death as the Scriptures describe it to be the true sacrifice for sinne and consequently most auaileable for our saluation If you thinke I exclude the soule of Christ from her part in this bodily and bloody sacrifice of Christ I haue so often said and shewed the contrarie in my former reply that I am weary of iterating one and the same thing though you be neuer weary of mistaking it My former words I repeat againe that the Reader may see I haue no cause to recant or controle them The true sacrifice for sinne which Christ offered must haue the body the blood and the death of the offerer none of which agree to the soule of Christ though the body without a soule could be no reasonable sacrifice and therefore I exclude not the soule whose obedience innocence and patience concurred to sanctifie this sacrifice but I note the parts of the sacrifice for sinne by the Apostles doctrine were those which I named the blood and death of the Sacrificer both which must needs be found in his bodie and not in his soule These words you quote in the margent but you take not the paines to refute them much lesse to establish your vnbloody and vnbodily sacrifice of Christs soule suffering hell paines from the immediate hand of God Which kind of offering for sinne is as strange to the Scriptures and to all the learned and auncient fathers as the rest of your vnknowne doctrine And therefore you doe well to straine still on the same string by censuring what you mislike and neuer proouing what you affirme least you should marre your musicke if you should proceede to the parts or proofes of your new found Redemption by the paines of hell Yet somewhere I seeme to yeeld wholy as much as you affirme as where I say the same part indeede might suffer in Christ which sinned in man I meane the soule Somewhat it is you find so many writers new and old on your side you here no sooner the suffering of the soule or the anger of God against sinne in any man but you presently count him vnder your coulours Euen as I make for you when I write against you so doe the Auncient fathers and later Diuines whose names you abuse But if I meane as I ought then at least I follow your meaning It is a peece of your skill when I speake directly against your fancies to make men beleeue I meane as you doe or at least I ought so to meane Indeed if you may be vmpeere what I ought to meane I shall be sure to iump with your meaning but looke to my words good Sir and measure my meaning by that which I speake and not by that which you would haue me speake I said Christs soule might suffer for sinne what collect you thence I did not adde without or with the body so that all the sufferings of Christ inflicted on his body might be and were impressed in his soule and you nothing the nearer to your purpose of hell paines suffered in the Soule of Christ. But graunt the soule of Christ did suffer for sinne without concurrence of the body must it needs follow he therefore suffered the paines of hell how many griefes and paines of the soule are there not proceeding from the body
your selfe to haue lesse iudgement in mainteining it than you had in mistaking it but you haue stood too long on these irifles which I thinke to be true for you trifle indeed and neither in defence of your selfe nor disaduantage of me bring any thing that is materiall You come therefore to peruse how you haue ignorantly and purposely peruerted my reasons That the true sacrifice for sinne must be indeed BODILY BLOODY and DEAD we doubt not we vnfainedly and heartily embrace it The Patriarks beleeued it the Iewes sacrifices of beasts figured it the New Testament confirmeth it But what will follow then ergo Christes bodilie death only and meerely was the whole ransome and price of our sinne for we must note that this is the very question indeed this is the point of our controuersie When you can say nothing to support your errours you beginne to quarrell with the question as if you had or could prescribe me what I should preach of What I by warrant of holie Scripture receiued into the contents of Christs crosse and what I excluded from the same is euident by my words you may not come after and alter the question to your liking Into the Crosse of Christ I admitted whatsoeuer the Holie ghost witnesseth the Sonne of God suffered either on his crosse or going to his crosse My words are plaine the rest which went bââ¦fore not being excluded as superfluous but continued and increased by that sharpe and extreme martyrdome which he endured on the crosse And good reason had I so to doe for all the paines and griefes of bodie or minde which befell him betweene his last supper and his fastning to the crosse endured and augmented on the crosse and so by no meanes might be excluded from his crosse What things I then excluded from the crosse of Christ is as manifest by mine owne words which neither I can hide nor you may change These they are Some men in our dayes stretch the crosse of Christ a great deale farther to the death both of bodie and soule and vnto the whole paines of the damned in hell but vpon how iust grounds when you heare you mââ¦y iudge as you see cause Then shewing what might be tolerated if men could therewith be contented and that I neither refuted those which tooke hell paines hyperbolically for great and intolerable paines nor those that by hell paines vnderstood either a wrestling with the very powers of hell or trembling at the terrour of Gods vengeance prouoked by our sinnes so they put no distrust nor doubt in Christes soule of his owne saluation or our redemption but leaue him firme faith alwayes fixed on God I repeated againe what it was I impugned to wit that some men in our dayes will no nay but that Christ on the crosse suffered the selfe same paines in soule which the damned do in hell and endured euen the death of the soule Heere Sir is the question as I first proposed it I no where alter it noâ⦠varie from it both these I meane the death of the soule and the selfe same paines which the damned in hell do suffer I excluded from the crosse of Christ and consequently from the worke of our redemption which I auouched to be perfect and full without either of those additions To this are all my proofs directed and from this by your leaue I may not suffer you to wander Your meere bodily sufferings without any proper sufferings of the soule take backe to your selfe I haue no such words nor make no such doubts the death of the soule and the selfe same paines which the damned doe suffer and we should haue suffered had we not beene redeemed which is the second death or the death of the damned are the things brought by me in question Wherefore howsoeuer you will vnderstand my meaning contrarie to my words because you would shroud your selfe vnder the couert of these wordes MEERE AND PROPER I must recall all my reasons to those two points to which I first intended them and whether I speake ambiguously or deceitfully or change my question or charge you vniustly that you slip from the question to certaine generall and doubtfull termes let the Reader in Gods name iudge My proofes to my purpose stand sound and good The true sacrifice for sinne by the Apostles Doctrine hath these three properties in it it must be BODILY BLOODY and DEADLIE that is it must haue the bodily and bloody death of the mediator who must be the Sonne of God This the Patriarkes beleeââ¦ed the Iewish sacrifices prefigured the new Testament confirmeth What followeth you aske Ergâ⦠Christs bodily death onely and meerely was the whole ransome and price of sinne Without your termes of proper and meere you are no body My reason is in sight The death which the Mediator must dye for the sinnes of the world must be bodily and bloody The death of the soule in this life and the death of the damned after this life which are the paines of hell could not be bodily and bloody Therefore neither of them was the death which the Mediator must or did die for the sinnes of the world If he dyed neither of those then he died the death of the body onely for so much as the Scriptures mention no kinds of death but onely these three except it be by way of figuratiue speech Doe you now see what followeth then what is your answere If I meane that the MEERE bodily sufferings of Christ without any proper sufferings of his soule are the intire and whole Ransome for sinne then you affirme expreslie there is no peece of reason in these words You are a PROPER and MEERE Gentleman to spott out matters of this importance I conclude by the Apostles assertion that Christ for the sinnes of the world died neither the death of the soule nor the death of the daââ¦ed which is the paines of hell and second death but ONELY a BODILY death You reele too and fro and stumble first at bodily and then at onely and in the end say you know not what If I meane that Christes MEERE BODILY sufferings without any proper suââ¦ings of the soule were the whole ransom for sin then you see no reason in my words Thus much reason you may heare in my words that Christ died neither the death of the Soule nor the death of the damned but ONLY a BODILY death that is the death of the body and none other kind of death What say you to this This is not your Controââ¦ersie you say the very question indeede is as you haue set it Haue you a Commission when I haue proposed questions which I mind to impugne to come after me and new set my questions Acknowledge the death of the soule and the death of the damââ¦d which are the true paines of hell to be no part of Christs sufferings and we shall soone conclude that Christ died onely a bodily death
owne words and hereafter by your leaue tell you it is a plaine lye and a meere shift if you father your termes of Christs meere blood and single bodie vpon me as any part of the Question which I mooued or Doctrine which I defend Wherefore I pray thee Christian Reader once more to take notice that I be not driuen in euery page to proue one and the same thing against the Discoursers vnsauery childish and Idle phrases with which he would faine elude the Scriptures and delude the world Your confession both of my Sermons and conclusion Sir Descourser is this Sundry times you teach that Christ did suffer peculiarly and seuerally some proper punishments in his soule besides his bodily sufferings yea that this was a part of his crosse and the effect of Gods wrath on his soule as well as the suffering in his body Against my words so often witnessed in my writings and so openly confessed by your selfe you take vpon you by some secret reuelation belike to know my meaning that no more but the shedding of Christs blood MEERELY is the full satisfaction of all our sinnes which MEERE BLOOD of Christ the Scriptures meane not nor onely his body SINGLY and SIMPLY considered The MEERE blood and SINGLE and SIMPLE body of Christ with such like couerts of your cause are termes fit for such a teacher as you are to which if you could once conuert the Question we must haue as many Lexicons to bring vs out of these Laberinthes as there be leaues in your booke Keepe them therefore as whelps of your owne litture the faith of Christ and the word of God hath stood without them these sixteene hundered yeeres What I meane by the body and blood of Christ giuen and shed for our Redemption and the remission of our sinne I haue meetly well expressed I must not in euery section fall to fresh repetitions When I speake as the Scripture speaketh I meane as the Scripture meaneth They know not your new termes of the MEERE blood nor of the single and simple body of Christ but by his blood and death they meane that manner of shedding his blood and that kind and course of death suffered in the body of his flesh which the Gospell describeth no way excluding from Christ when he presented himselfe before God to vndertake mans cause the due consideration of mans infirmitie and iniquitie abounding or of Gods iustice therewith displeased nor his humble and voluntary submission to the mightie hand and righteous will of his heauenly Father to excuse vs from the heauie iudgement that otherwise did hang ouer our heads So much as the Scriptures mention in declaring the manner of his death and bloodshedding so much they containe in the name of his Crosse blood and death For as the description which the holy Ghost maketh is in no point idle so the comprehension of all vnder one word excludeth nothing formerly described This I take to be a sound and sure way to expound the Scriptures by their owne direction and intention For since the manner and order of Christs death was so carefully regestred by the spirite of God that we should not be ignorant of it whensoeuer the Scriptures speake of Christs Crosse blood and death they referre vs to all that which either by the Prophets was foretold or in the Gospell is expressed touching the order and manner of his death And so Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures as Paul addeth Then to take any thing from it which is mentioned in the Scriptures or to adde any thing to it which is not there expresly recorded is to depart from the word of trueth and to dishonor and deface the death and bloud of Christ with our inuentions This being my meaning euen from the beginning as my words declare I moued these two generall questions The first Whether in the crosse and death of Christ described in the Scriptures the death of the soule or the death of the damned were by any good warrant of the sayd Scriptures comprised Secondly Whether the crosse and death of Christ as the Scriptures describe them be not the full and perfect price of our redemption from sinne and reconciliation to God by the testimonie of the same Scriptures without the death of the soule or paines of the damned The Discourser finding himselfe inclosed with these questions speaketh directlie to neither and prooueth nothing in either but declining the enuie of these speeches the death of the soule and the paines of the damned which indeed are the points misliked and reiected he changeth the first question into the generall termes of suffering Gods wrath and the soules proper suffering which may import manie things besides those two and in the second he euery where beareth the Reader in hand that by the death and bloud of Christ I meane the MEERE bodily sufferings of Christ without anie sense or sorrow of the soule in her spirituall powers And lest the Scripture should stand in his way he casteth them all behinde him that any way witnesse the force and merit of Christes death and bloudshedding as figuratiue speeches because they name not the MEERE bloud of Christ nor only his body SINGLY considered But Sir all this while you forget that you haue proued nothing but onely supposed and auouched what pleased you and that in matters of faith you may not adde to the word of God without manifest apostasie The things questioned by me were the death of the soule and the verie paines of the damned as appeareth euidently by my words when I first mooued the question Of these you say nothing all this while which yet you must soundly fully proue before you may adde them to the words of the Holy ghost testifying the power vertue of Christes bloud and death Therefore howsoeuer you seeme to shift off the Scriptures as figuratiue speeches with your MEERE and SINGLE termes they will sticke faster by you than so For as there can be no doubt of my meaning comprising all in the death and bloud of Christ which the Scriptures report of the order and maner of his sufferings when he yeelded himselfe to die for the sinnes of the world according to the counsell of his Fathers wil so you may not presume any thing to be conteined in the death or crosse of Christ as requisite for our redemption which is not cleerely witnessed by the Scriptures Proue therefore by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which are the true paines of hell and then adde it to the crosse of Christ when you will Till so you do the Scriptures which I haue produced stand in their full strength against you For as they bind all Christian men stedfastly to beleeue that which is written touching their redemption by the death and bloud of Christ so do they straitly prohibit all and euery be they men or Angels to adde any other
dull conceite or eger stomacke rather betrayed by your foolish rolling to so many what ifs then my reason any way refuted I alter you will say the order of it Though I spake then more shortly then now I doe because I had no leasure to stand so long thereon yet he that will Reade but the third part of that Section whence you take this shall finde the very same parts and words that now I vse there contained and expressed But I afterward defend the proposition with the condition annexed to bee simplie true When I saw your humour was so franticke that not vnderstanding my words you would presently pronounce them in the view of the whole Realme to be a notorious Paradoxe and impietie I bid you take your vttermost aduantage of my words and as they stoode though that were not my first intent they were sound and good and your impugning them was prophane and false I yet auouch the same For where the Scriptures teach no Redemption but by the death and bloud of Christ your other deuââ¦sed Redemptions by the death of the soule and paines of Hell I account no better then false and prophane And therefore if our soules be not that way redeemed which the Scriptures reueile which is by the death and bloud of Christ they are not redeemed at all And being not at all redeemed I would faine know by the best of your skill what benefit of Redemption our bodies shall or can haue more then the bodies of Infidels Yea set that redemption aside which the Scriptures attribute to the death and bloud of Christ and neither bodie nor soule can be saued but infidelity and the wages therof I meane damnation both of soule and bodie preuaile in all men So that you were not well in your wits when with such an heat and huffe you cried out What a Pradoxe is it yea what impietie But I must chuse whether I will speake this sophistically or absurdly you say Is it any sophistrie or absurditie to speake as the Spirit of God speaketh in the Scriptures Your MEERE bloud of Christ is indeed absurd Sophistrie for you imagine by that word that Christ shed his bloud for our sinnes without any meritorious action or passion of the soule concurring which in the Redeemer of the world was so impossible as nothing more If I speake otherwise than the Scriptures speake take your pleasure at it so you bring reason for it but whe I keepe my selfe within the compasse of their speech your aââ¦ouching that I speake Sophisticallie or absurdlie reprocheth the Scriptures whom I follow In either of those points which you impugne as that our soules are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that our bodies haue not redemption in this life I haue the Scriptures plainly precedent before me and therefore except they speake sophistically or absurdly I in retaining their speech and sense can do neither The difference betwixt the deaths of the faithfull and infidels is a thing well known to me and approoued by me yet must the Apostles words stand true that in this life we haue not the Redemption of our bodies but we must waite for it till the time that all things be restored That Christ hath already purchased and obtained it for vs by his death and passion I make no doubt as also that we rest in hope assured of it but hope which is seene is not hope and though the soules of the Saints retaine a firme faith and full expectance of Gods promise for the raising and Redeeming of their bodies from corruption and in the meane time discerne and feele as well the comfort that is in the death of Gods elect as the great blessings and benefites that follow their death yet their bodies lying in dust haue no shew nor sense thereof much lesse haue they that which Paul calleth the Redemption of the body From which words Saint Austen collecteth very truely Si Redemptio corporis nostri secundum Apostolum expectatur profecto quod expectatur adhuc speratur nondum tenetur If the Redemption of our body by the Apostles doctrine must be wayted for that which is expected is still hoped for but not yet obtained Take then the Redemption of the body for the incorruption of the same as Paul doth whom in that point I followed and tell me what benefite of incorruption which is the word you so much storme at the bodies of the faithfull haue more then the bodies of infidels You range aside as your manner is to the ceasing of sinne in the godly and their resting from labours as also the entrance of their soules into heauen as if the bodies of the wicked did sinne in their graues or were tossed with troubles when they were dead and rotten or in the Saints your sight did not serue you to distinguish their soules from their bodies For when I say as Paul sayth their bodies haue not yet redemption you replie their soules after death haue an entrance into heauen Euen so when I say that the death of the bodie to the saints is a part of that wrath curse and punishment which God inflicted on all mankinde for their sinne in Adam as shall after God willing more largely appeare you oppose the benefits which God of his peculiar goodnesse towards his children hath reserued for them after they haue obediently and patiently submitted themselues to his diuine pleasure in bringing their bodies to corruption for the sinne that dwelleth in them And thus by your mangling of matters you confound in the godlie their soules with their bodies and in God himselfe his iustice against sinne with his mercy towards his owne You might haue learned of S. Austen rightly to seuer them as he doth though you crosse him in this as in most of the things that are in question betwixt vs. Quamuis bonis conferatur per mortem plurimum boni vnde nonnulli etiam de bono mortis congruenter disputaverunt tamen hinc quae praedicanda est nisi misericordia Dei quòd in bonos vsus conuertitur poena peccati Though much good come to the godlie by death whereupon some haue accordingly written of the benefits of death yet what els in this must we acknowledge but the mercie of God that the punishment of sinne is turned to good vses And so that ancient writer of the booke Hypognosticôn amongst S. Austens works Vt moriantur homines poena peccati est vt reuertantur ad vitam Domini miserantis est That men die is the punishment of their sinne that they returne to life againe is the Lords mercie Before you depart from this point that not the bloud of Christ nor his flesh without respect to the merit of his whole soule was the full price of redemption you will shew how sundrie of the ancient Fathers doe agree with you sufficiently in this matter though afterwards in my booke I seeme to bring them against you If
where Christ suffered for vs besides the torments of the next world where Christ neither did nor could suffer any thing Cyprians words are far weaker for your purpose wider fro your matter He saith Christ was called sinne and a curse pro similitudine poenae non culpae for the likenesse of punishment not of fault LIKE is farre lesse then the same If therefore Christs punishment were but like there is no necessitie it should be the same Againe when Cyprian nameth the likenesse of our punishment suffered by Christ on the crosse he meaneth the punishment of sinne that God inflicted on Adam and all his of-spring in this life where Christ suffered for vs as sorrow shame reproch paine and death which were the punishments that God laid on Adams transgression in this life The death of the Soule Adam pulled on him selfe by sinning that Christ suffered not the other God inflicted with his owne mouth and by them accursed and punished sinne in this world reseruing his terrible and eternall iudgements which are the paines of hell to an other time and place when the bodies of the wicked should be altered and abled to endure those intolerable and euerlasting torments threatned but not executed in this world The first kind of punishment due to all men in this life for sinne Cyprian saw and knew full well and by the Scriptures found that to be in Christ on the Crosse the paines of hell Cyprian knew not much lesse could he be sure that Christ suffered them since no such thing is mentioned in the Scriptures Let then the Reader iudge whether Cyprian were likely to speake of that which he knew and read or rashly to pronounce that to be like which he neither knew nor read But if Cyprian bee the fittest man to declare his owne meaning Cyprian euen in that place speaketh directly against your supposed paines of hell suffered in the soule of Christ on the Crosse. Admiror te cruci inter damnatos affixum iam nec tristem nec pauidum sed suppliciorum victorem eleuatis manibus triumphantem de Amelec I admire thee ô Lord being once fastned to the Crosse amidst the condemned theeues to bee now neither sorrowfull nor fearefull but despising the punishments laid on thee with thine hands lifted vp to triumph ouer Amelec the enemies of Gods people If Christ once fastned to the Crosse had neither sorrow nor feare but a neglect of his paines and a ioyfull triumph ouer all his foes I trust hee felt not the paines of hell which were very easie if they brought with them neither sorrow nor feare but rather contempt and triumph Christ feared before in the garden you will say and for feare or paine did sweate bloud That Cyprian remembreth and explaineth wherein you shall see the difference betwixt his iudgement and yours of Christs sufferings Thou diddest Lord saith he professe before thine Apostles thy selfe to be sorrowfull vnto death and for exceeding griefe didst power foorth a bloudie sweate Hearing this in the gospel I was vtterly abashed For who will not feare if be feare whom all things feare His answere I wil set downe in Latine though it will be the longer as well to let the Reader heare Cyprians resolution in his owne words which many will desire and to discharge my selfe from all quarels of mistranslating whiles I sometimes seeke to make that plaine to the simple which in the text is more darke and obscure as for diuers other respects which I will after mention when Cyprians minde is fully knowen His words are Sed metus ille infirmitatis humanae communem exprimebat affectum generalitatem omnium in carne viuentium hoc dolore vrgeri dissolutionem corporeae spiritualisque naturae hac molestia non posse carere hanc poenam vniuersae successioni Adam sine exceptione impositam vt difficultas extremi transit us timeretur Hanc nemo anxietatem euasit nemo egrediente anima sine amaritudine expirauit But that feare of thine o Lord did expresse the common affection of mans infirmitie and the generall state of all liuing in the flesh to be pressed with this sorrow and that the separation of body and soule can not be free from this griefe but this punishment is laide on all Adams posteritie without exception that the difficultie of departing this life should be feared this wofulnesse no man euer escaped neither did euer any man breath out his soule without bitternesse Here you may learne first whence Ambrose who was a great follower of Cyprian tooke his words of humane infirmitie and affection and what hee meant by them Secondly that this is a punishment which you denie laide by God himselfe on all mankinde to feare and feele death separating the soule from the body Thirdly from this was no man euer exempted but euen Christ himselfe though he were free from that necessitie yet would hee be partaker of this our infirmitie Fourthly that where on the crosse Christ neither feared nor sorrowed but shewed him selfe terrible to his persecutors and a conquerour of all their malice and a triumpher ouer all their iniuries yet to his Disciples in the garden hee opened his affection incident to our nature thereby to confirme himselfe to bee a true man by his taking as well our infirmities as our flesh Lastly out of Cyprian in that Sermon you may learne that to Christ the sight of God his Father could not bee formidable that it was his Fathers will the sacrifice of his flesh should begin with feare and sorrow that hee sorrowed to heale our weaknesse and feared to make vs secure by repressing those infirmities in his owne person to cure them in vs for euer after All these and many moe good lessons you cleane ouerslip in Cyprian and broching a new doctrine quite contrarie to his you lay violent hands on one poore word in that whole treatie which yet maketh nothing for you and as though you had performed a worthy worke grossely to mistake the like for the same you muster Cyprian as a maintainer of your new made hell Say as Fulgentius saith and wee aske no more Quicquid fuit infirmitatis animae sine peccato suscepit pertulit Christ tooke vpon him and suffered whatsoeuer infirmitie may bee in the soule without sinne I hope you will your selfe accept the condition which you offer to others and I require no more But what is there in these words on which you so stoutly stand and so confidently crake that helpeth your deuice forward Grant them absolutely and what conclude you The griefe of hell paines suffered from the immediate hand of God is an infirmitie of the soule you must say if you will say any thing towards the matter you haue in hand But who euer said so that knew his left hand from his right What passing dulnesse and surpassing drowsinesse is this to make the suffering of hell paines from the immediate hand of
bodilie death which God had irreuocably pronounced and executed on Adam and his ofspring by returning him and them to the earth for manie thousand yeeres before Christ came but rather in that to partake with vs that he might saue vs from the rest which in all the wicked did accompany this death and in the end to raise vs againe to a better life lest we should faint vnder the hand of God who fastneth vs to the afflictions of this life by the example and fellowship of Christs sufferings For if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him and we must first die in Adam before we can be quickned againe in Christ. They are now profitable for vs you will say and so rather helpe vs than hurt vs in this corruption of sinne with which we are compassed I doubt not thereof and so were they from the first instant that they were imposed on Adam but how came this corruption of our nature if not as a punishment of sinne in Adam and consequently the remedies thereof do also witnesse Gods displeasure against sinne though they be farre more holesome for vs than to rot in the sores of our inward corruption Can any man doubt but God was and is able to cleere vs though neuer so corrupt from the infection and dominion of sinne by the working of his Spirit more mightilie and casilie than by troubles and griefs if it had so seemed good to his wisdome and iustice And had he determined to shew vs onlie loue without all regard to his iustice how readie was it for him in Christ to haue released as well all corporall and temporall affliction to his elect as he did spirituall and eternall But he resolued otherwise in his most wise counsell for the conseruation of his iustice and so now healeth our corruption with the salue of affliction to let vs haue continually presented before our eyes and impressed in our bodies what our sinne at first did and still doth deserue though he neuer withdrew his mercie from vs which in the end shall most abundantly recompense all Wherefore it is no reason that because troubles are profitable or necessarie for our corrupt state therefore they are not effects of Gods displeasure against sinne yea rather because God could haue otherwise cured sinne in vs and would not but by perpetuall affliction it is an argument that God so hated sinne in our first parents that he would haue the verie remembring curing thereof to be alwayes in this life painfull and grieuous to our outward man though he would also comfort vs in Christ whiles heere we liue and heereafter crowne vs with glorie for Christes sake Neither is this a question of words whether they be proper or improper in the Scriptures but a point of doctrine necessarie to be receiued of all men that the corruption and dissolution of our nature and life in this world doth manifest the exceeding hatred that naturallie God hath of sinne who rewarded it in all mankinde so seuerely that he spared neither the bodies soules states nor liues of his elect from sensible signes of his detesting sinne in them though for his sonnes sake in whom they were beloued and adopted he would by his wonderfull power rather further than indanger their saluation euen by those maladies and corrosiues of sinne This sheweth the greatnesse of Gods power and goodnesse of his mercie towards vs but this altereth not the iudgement which God pronounced and punishment which he inflicted on Adam and all his ofspring for sinne The corruption and infection of sinne which naturally and continually dwelleth in all the godly called by Diuines concupiscence is it no punishment of sinne because the guilt thereof is remitted in Baptisme and now it is left in vs to humble vs and awake vs to call for grace and to resist sinne that striuing with it we see not only the danger of sinne assaulting vs but the Spirit of God assisting vs and bountie of God rewarding vs The actuall sinnes of the faithfull shall we thinke them no sinnes but fauors from God because by them God worketh repentance submission conuersion yea faith zeale ioy and thanksgiuing in his elect God worketh sayth Austen all things for the good of those that loue him and so farre forth vtterly all things that if any of them stray and for sake the right way euen that God turneth to their good because they returne more humble and better taught The like I say of death and other miseries of mans life pronounced first by Gods mouth and still inflicted by Gods hand They are as they were degrees or effects of Gods anger against sinne in Adam pursuing him and all his posteritie for the confirmation of his iustice though by Gods mercie towards his they now serue as they did euen at the first in Gods children to represse sinne to worke repentance to raise confidence in God and contempt of all earthly things and to exercise the graces of Gods Spirit giuen them as patience obedience and such like and to giue them assurance of a better life The Church of Christ euer was and is of the same minde with me that the death of the bodie with her seeds and fruits in this life first entred and still remaineth as a PVNISHMENT of sin Men shunned saith Austen the death of the flesh rather than the death of the spirit that is the punishment rather than the cause of the punishment We came vnto death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death was the sacrifice for sinne Theodoret speaking of the separation of bodie and soule wherby that which is mort all sustaineth death the soule remaining free from death as being immortall asketh his aduersarie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Doest thou not thinke death to be a punishment Who answering The Diuine Scripture teacheth so much Theodoret inferreth Is death then the punishment of sinners The other yeelding that this is granted of all men Theodoret concludeth Why then since both the soule and bodie sinned doth the bodie alone sustaine the punishment of death Fulgentius Nisi praecessisset in peccato mors animae nunquam corporis mors in supplicio sequeretur Except the death of the soule had gone before by sinne the death of the bodie had neuer followed after as a punishment And therefore of our flesh he sayth Nascitur cum poena mortis pollutione peccati It is borne with the punishment of death and pollution of sinne And of yoong children By what iustice is an infant subiected to the wages of sinne if there be no vncleannesse of sinne in him or how do we see him strooken with death if he felt not the sting thereof which is sinne Maxentius in the confession of his faith We beleeue sayth he that not only the death of
the bodie which is the punishment of sinne but also the sting of death which is sinne entred into the world because we consent not to these men who say the contrarie but to the Apostle who testifieth that sinne and death went ouer all men Prosper The punishment of sinne which Adam the root of mankinde receiued by Gods sentence saying Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne and transmitted to his posteritie as to his branches the Apostle sayth entred into the world by one mans sinne and so ranged ouer all men Beda The death as well of vs men as of Christ is called sinne because it is the effect and punishment of that sinne which Adam committed The second councell of Arrange about 450 yeres after Christ confesseth no lesse If any man affirme that only the death of the bodie which is the punishment of sinne and not sinne also which is the death of the soule passed by one man to all mankinde he ascribeth iniustice to God and contradicteth the Apostle who sayth By one man sinne entred into the world and by sinne death passed ouer all men Our later writers though they fully defend that God doth not punish his either to destruction as he doth the wicked nor for satisfaction of sinne as he did his owne Sonne for the sinnes of all his Saints and to comfort the afflicted they set before them the presence of Gods power assisting them in their miseries or deliuering them from their troubles the purpose of God respecting wholy their good and the promise of God exceedingly recompencing their patience yet when they come to the causes prouoking God to this seueritie they acknowledge that to be sinne and teach euery man to descend into himselfe and to giue God the glorie in that his righteous iudgement beginneth at his owne house Of the euils which we suffer in this life there be many and sundry causes saith Bullinger but sinne it selfe is counted to be the generall cause For by disobedience sinne entred into the world and by sinne death diseases and all the mischiefes in the world The persecutions and cruell tortures inflicted on the Church of God or on particular Martyrs as they were offered them for the confession and testimony of the faith and truth of the Gospell so for the most part they had for their causes the offences and sinnes of the godly which the iustice of God did visite in his seruants though for the good and welfare of his Saints The people of Israell sinned against the Lord in the desert vnder the Iudges and Kings very often and very enormously and were grieuously punished by the Lord but againe they were speedily deliuered as often as they acknowledged their sinnes and turned vnto the Lord. If therefore any man suffer any euill for sinne committed let him acknowledge the iust iudgement of God vpon himselfe and humble himselfe vnder the mightie hand of God confessing it vnto God and asking pardon with lowly praier let him patiently beare that which he hath so well deserued to suffer It is certaine saith Zanchius that all the punishments and miseries which we feele in this world are from sin and inflicted for sinne In which place he resolueth by a plaine thesis that death is the punishment of sinne and so are all those things which are the fruits of death as well in Soule as in body and in our externall state It is an argument saith Gualther of a mind skant religious wholy to despise death quam per peccatum ingressam peccati poenam esse omnes Scripturae testantur which all the Scriptures witnesse came in by sinne and is the punishment of sinne In the Philosophers commendations of the death of the bodie there are some things saith Peter Martyr not agreeable to the Christian faith and to the sacred Scriptures For we say that death must not be accounted any good but an euill thing Quandoquidem Deus illam vti poenam inflixit nostro generi For so much as God inflicted it as a punishment on mankind And so else where Omnes pij statuunt in morte ââ¦rae diuinae sensum esse ideoque sua natura dolorem horrorem incutit All the godly resolue that in death there is a sense of Gods wrath and therefore of his owne nature it impresseth a griefe and terror And if there be any to whom it is contenting and acceptable to die they haue that from some other fountaine and not from the nature of death There might be assigned saith Musculus many kinds of the wrath of God but for this present we content our selues with a triple diuision thereof whereby we diuide it into generall temporall and eternall The generall wrath of God is that wherewith the whole posteritie of Adam is enwrapped for originall sinne Hence come all the miseries of mankind which equally follow the condition of men and cleaue as well to our minds as to our flesh The temporall wrath of God is that Qua peccat is non impiorum modò sed piorum irascitur ac paenas de illis sumit in hac vita whereby God is angry with the sinnes not of the wicked onely but of the godly also and taketh punishment of them in this life Whether I speake or thinke otherwise then these new and old Diuines haue spoken and taught let the Reader iudge But mine owne Authors in the very places which I alleadge doe say that the nature of death is changed and that God is angry with his elect as a Father with his beloued children to chasten and amend them Peter Martyr saith indeede the nature of death is chaunged by Gods goodnes making that profitable to vs which of it selfe is very harmefull but with what condition doth he say it is changed Puta si quis obediente animo eam sube at néque poenam illam reijciat quam diuina iustitia nos omnes voluerit exoluere If a man submit himselfe vnto it with an obedient hart and reiect not that punishment which the iustice of God would haue vs all to suffer And so it was chaunged euen when it was inflicted on the elect in Adams loynes For Christ was first promised to be the bruizer of the Serpents head Now if death afterward tooke full and euerlasting hold on Christs members then the serpent preuailed against Christ and his chosen and not Christ against the Serpent Wherefore God so moderated his sentence that he adiudged Christes members in Adam no farder then to the earth whence Christ should raise them and vtterly abolish from them all the Serpents poyson that is sinne death and corruption but this prooueth not death to be good in Gods Children or to be no punishment of sinne in them because God conuerteth it to their aduantage in the ende no more then their sinnes are good because God turneth them also to the benefite of his elect For as you heard before Saint Austen
saith of their sinnes as he doth of their death that God turneth them and all things else to the good of those that loue him Touching Gods fatherly Anger against the sinnes of the faithfull for their amendment which Musculus mentioneth He doth not say as you doe it is no Anger neither doe I defend any other kinde of Anger in God then such as a Religious and wise Father in some sort resembleth when he persueth the wickednes of his vnruly sonne Whose person though he fauour as being his Sonne and by chastisement seeke to reforme yet is he or ought he to be not in words or lookes onely but inwardly and truely displeased and offended with the lewdnesse of his Sonne And though loue doe temper the correction that he meane not to kill or ouerthrow his owne flesh and blood yet the zealous Father spareth not to make his Sonne throughly smart till he confesse mislike and leaue his former loosenesse and frame himselfe obediently to his Fathers will Doth not this Father as much hate the vices as he loueth the person and seeketh the welfare of his Sonne And since his Sonne will not be otherwise recalled may not the sharp correction which the Father vseth to represse the vnbridled and vntamed appetites of his licentious child be called punishment The Scriptures so speake and so doe the Fathers as also the later writers onely this fabler hath found out a new faith and new phrases of Gods improper wrath and vntrue punishment of sinne which God vseth toward his children that prouoke him with their impuritie and iniquitie It may not be said properly that Gods Iustice leadeth him to inflict these things on vs as you affirme but his holinesse and loue Your mouth belike is the measure of proper speeches If you intend that not onely Iustice but also Loue did and doth lead God to inflict these things on vs you say the same that I affirme but if you meane as you must if you will crosse my position that Loue without Iustice did and doth lead God to inflict these things on vs then speake you both absurdly and wickedly For the Scriptures ascribe Iustice and Iudgement to God in chastening his Church and punishing the sinnes of his seruants as well as they doe Loue and holinesse When the Prophet told Roboham and the Princes of Iuda that they had left God and therefore God would leaue them in the hands of Shishak the King of Egypt the King and Princes humbled themselues and said the Lord is iust When Ierusalem was burnt and her people caried captiue to Babilon the Prophet lamenting her miserie saith the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions and teacheth her to say Iust is the Lord for I haue rebelled against his mouth Daniel at the time when God would deliuer his people from that Captiuitie maketh confession of his and their sinnes and saith All Israell haue transgressed thy law and departed from hearkning to thy voice Therefore the curse is powred vpon vs because we haue sinned against him And the Lord hath watched ouer this euill and brought it vpon vs because the Lord our God is iust in all that he doth for we would not heare his voice The Leuites after their returne making confession of their sinnes vnto God mentioning their afflictions doe adde And thou Lord are iust in all that is come vpon vs because thou hast kep t thy truth and we haue done wickedly The Apostles confesse the like after Christs comming If our iniquitie saith Paul commend the Iustice of God what shall we say Is God vniust in punishing God forbid Very plainly the same Apostle denounceth Gods iustice and vengeance to all Christians that wrong their brethren You know saith he what Commandements we gaue you by the Lord Iesus that no man oppresse or defraud his brother for the Lord is the Auenger of all such things as we foretold and protested vnto you And to the Colossians He that doth wrong shall receaue at Gods hand for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons The recompence of a mans hands that is works shall God giue vnto him either in this life if he repent or in the next if he persist Lo saith Salomon the righteous are repayed on earth he meaneth the euill which they haue done to others how then the wicked and the sinner For here in this life is the time that iudgement beginneth at the house of God If it first begin with vs saith Peter what shall be the end of them who obey not the Gospell of God Howsoeuer you tattle that God vtterly forgetteth his Iustice in afflicting his Church the Scriptures teach vs that Iudgement beginneth here at the house of God for an example of the iust iudgement of God against the wicked and that the very righteous are repayed on earth the wrongs which they do to others God by his Apostle openly professing himselfe to be the Auenger of such beleeuers as wrong or defraud their brethren Now whether there may be Iudgement Requitall and Reuenge in this life from God against euill without some admixture of his iustice though he purpose not to destroy the penitent I leaue it to the Christian Reader to consider Hath not Christ then borne the burden of our sinnes to free vs from all punishment Christ hath not presently and generally freed vs and euery part of vs from all corruption and affliction of sinne he will doe it at his appointed time when the day of our redemption commeth In the meane time our inward man is freed though our outward man dayly perish For Christ must raigne till he haue put all his and our enemies vnder his feete The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death Then shall be the end of sinne death and corruption in all his and not before though we be alreadie redeemed by Christ from it in Gods purpose and promise which shall then bee fully performed and in part whereof we presently haue an assurance in that our soules are renewed in this life by grace and receiued in the next to a blessed rest and comfort till that day rise when Christ will set a crowne of righteousnesse on them all that loue his comming Againe we are presently freed from all that which is solely the punishment of sinne and hath no farder or other profit or vse in it then onely to punish and reuenge sinne And such are none of these things whereof wee speake For God in them all hath so tempered a taste of his iustice with his manifold and great mercies that it is not expedient for vs as yet to be wholly freed from them This respect preuaileth so farre with God that whiles the world must dure hee hath subiected his children to the capitall and penall lawes not of Christian Magistrates onely but euen of infidels also for that without discipline
or amended then was he not punished for correction On the other side much lesse did God purpose to destroy Christs person being his owne and onely Sonne as he doth the wicked whose bodies and soules he will destroy in hell and consequently Christ was not punished to destruction That is proper to the reprobate whose persons God hateth and leaueth in their sinnes that they may prouoke his iust wrath to their vtter destruction Then was Christ neither punished as the godly are for amendment nor as the wicked are for vengeance and so your partition is false and defectiue and all your collections grounded thereon are like the foundation that is voide of all strength and trueth What then was Gods purpose in punishing Christ for our sinnes euen that which you alwayes passe by with deafe and dull eares though it be often repeated and vrged vnto you because you will not be turned from the trade of your hellish paines Why God would not haue man redeemed but by the death and passion that I call the punishment of Christ Iesus the Scriptures yeeld many causes though of Gods will no cause may be required some respecting God himselfe some concerning Christ and some regarding vs. Touching God the crosse of Christ doth commend his wisdome shew his power manifest his loue content his holines preserue his iustice Christ crucisied as Paul sayth is the power of God and the wisdome of God to them that are saued howsoeuer the crosse of Christ seeme foolishnesse and weakenesse to them that perish Then to controle the carnall wisdome of the world and to confound the pride and strength of Satan and his members God would vse the basenesse and feeblenesse of the Crosse in sauing his elect Also to witnesse his loue towards vs he decreed the same So God loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling sauour vnto God With which Sacrifice the holinesse of God resteth so well pleased that he accepteth vs as holy and sanctified by the oblation of the bodie of Iesus Christ once made The vpholding of Gods Iustice by the death of Christ is often specified in the Scriptures By a man came death and by a man the resurrection from the dead Him that knew no sinne God made sinne for vs to wit a sacrifice for sinne that wee should be made the righteousnesse of God in him Therefore it was expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole Nation perished not He was wounded for our transgressions and by his stripes are wee healed The Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of vs all And where a Testament is there must be the death of the Testator for a Testament is confirmed when men are dead So that by the Scriptures themselues God decreed the Crosse of Christ in mans redemption to reueale his wisdome power and loue to the world and wholly to satisfie his holinesse and iustice which were thorowly displeased and prouoked with mans disobedience but as thorowly recompensed and appeased by the submission and obedience of Christ. As for Christ himselfe it is euident by the Scriptures that his enduring the crosse declared his obedience patience humilitie charitie perfection and power in more effectuall maner than without it he could haue done For therein he emptied and humbled himselfe and became obedient vnto death euen to the death of the crosse When hee was reuiled he reuiled not againe when he suffered he threatned not He was oppressed and afflicted yet did he not open his mouth For so he loued vs that he gaue himselfe for vs and greater loue than this hath no man to bestow his life for his friends But God setteth out his loue towards vs that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. Once then he suffered the iust for the vniust that he might bring vs to God and being consummate through affliction was made the Prince of our Saluation For in that he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted and became a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people And therefore he died and rose againe that he might be Lord of the dead and the liuing and through death destroy him that had power of death euen the diuell On our behalfe it was not needlesse that Christ should die the death of the crosse For besides that we are bought with a price lest we should be our owne euen with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe vnspotted and vndefiled and reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne which couenant is irreuocable being sealed with his bloud by his crosse Christ left vs an example how we should follow his steps and be partakers of his sufferings that when his glorie shall appeare we may be glad and reioyce For it is a true saying if we be dead with him we shall liue with him if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him We are buried then by Baptisme into his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorie of his Father so we should also walke in newnesse of life knowing this that our olde man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroyed that hencefoorth we should not serue sinne He died for all that they which liue should not hencefoorth liue vnto themselues but to him which died for them and rose againe Infinite are the places of Scripture witnessing the causes effects and fruits of Christs death on the Crosse all which this Dreamer must denie or delude before he can defend that Gods purpose in Christes sufferings was only to punish our sinne lying on him For if Gods purposes in appointing Christes Crosse were so acceptable to the Father so honourable to the Sonne and so profitable for man as the Scriptures mention with what face can it be said that God punished his Sonne only for vengeance or that whatsoeuer Christ suffered all his life long specially at his death was verie wrath and vengeance from God properly taken Christ suffered the same things here on earth which the godly likewise do in this life as appeareth by the history of his death and passion and other paines or deaths in Christ the Scriptures doe not specifie Gods counsell in decreeing the Crosse of Christ for mans redemption considering the true desert of our sinne and terrible vengeance prouided for others was varie fauourable and fatherly not ouerpressing the patience of Christes humane nature nor wearying his obedience and had in it farre more gracious and glorious intents and euents than our afflictions can or ought any way to match or approch If then Gods fauour to his elect make their sufferings in this life no wrath nor vengeance nor so much as punishments why should
shall neuer inferre by phrases of your owne making which only serue to hide your owne meaning that Christ suffered the paines of hell As for Gods wrath against sinne it hath many degrees and parts by the verdict of holy Scripture though you will not heare thereof For as Gods blessings benefits when he first made man were of his heauenly goodnes richly prouided for man and plentifully powred on the body and soule of man as well for the leading of this life in plenty safety and delight as for the surer attaining of euerlasting ioy and blisse in an other place so when man by sinne fell from God by iustice God depriued him and his of all those earthly and bodily fauours and comforts no lesse then of the spirituall and inward gifts and graces of the mind by that meanes making way to his euerlasting and dreadfull Iudgements against sinne Now if these externall things bestowed on man in his first creation were iustly called and must be confessed in their kind to be the blessings and fauours of God afforded to all mankind when he made man and the whole world for his vse then out of question the taking them away from man and subiecting him by iustice to the contrary for sinne committed may as truly be named and must be beleeued to be the signes and effects of Gods displeasure against sinne which the Scripture nameth wrath And so God calleth either of them when he promiseth the one to the obseruers of his Law and threatneth the other to the breakers thereof who vseth not to promise or threaten words but deeds Neither hath it any reason because the reiecting of man from the greater and higher blessings of inward grace and eternall blisse was farre the sorer and sharper punishment of mans sinne that therefore the withdrawing of these should be no degree nor effect of Gods wrath against sinne no more then the losse of a legge or an arme should be counted no mayme because a man hath an head and an hart which are more principall parts of his body Wherefore though in comparison they may be iustly diminished and abased farre beneath the worthinesse of the rest of Gods blessings which are reserued for his Children in an other life yet can they not be denyed to be Gods blessings euen in this life and if to giue them to man when he was first made were the fauour and bountie of God towards man which no Christian may deny to take them from man for sinne must truely argue Gods displeasure against sinne not in improper speech as you gloze but in a lesse degree then those which bring with them perpetuall subuersion of Body and Soule And when the Scriptures meane to expresse the spirituall and eternall wrath of God they doe it not by proprietie of words as you pretend but by different circumstances either of the TIME after this life when no wrath is executed but that which is euerlasting as Christ deliuereth vs from the wrath to come and thou heapest vp wrath against the day of wrath which is the day of iudgement or of the PERSONS who are wicked and the vessels of wrath prepared to destruction and for whom is reserued the mist of darknesse for euer as for such things commeth the wrath of God on the Children of vnbeliefe or of the CONTINVANCE which neuer ceaseth as the wrath of God abideth on him that beleeueth not or of the HIGTH thereof when it is full as the wrath of God is come vpon them to the vttermost or of the CONTRARY when it is eternall life as God hath not appointed vs vnto wrath but to obtaine Saluation by Iesus Christ or of the CONSEQVENTS which are suddaine destruction and such like as kisse the Sonne least he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burne blessed are they that trust in him By these and such like particulars we may perceiue when the Scriptures speake of the one wrath and when of the other but otherwise the wordes are common to both as also the cause which is sinne O Lord saith Moses why doth thy wrath waxe hote against thy people turne from thy fierce wrath and desist from this euill towards thy People And againe I fell downe saith he fortie daies and fortie nights before the Lord because of all your sinnes which yee had sinned doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord and prouoking him For I was afraid of the wrath and indignation wherewith the Lord was kindled against you to destroy you and the Lord heard me at that time also Exceeding many are the places which teach vs that our iniquities auert the outward blessing of this life and that our sinnes hinder good things from vs Though God after that comfort his people when their warrefare is accomplished and they haue receaued sufficient Correction at the hands of God for all their sinnes Surely these warnings of the holy Ghost are not empty words or improper speeches but effectuall and faithfull instructions for the Church of God to learne them that God doth visite their sinnes when they forget to repent and obey though he spare them in comparison of that wrath which is effunded on the wicked And therefore the name of wrath is rightly and truely applyed in the Scriptures euen to those afflictions wherewith God scourgeth his owne Children for their negligence and impenitence though God haue an other and greater which is eternall wrath laid vp in store for the Reprobate who die without Repentance and Remission of their sinnes Howsoeuer the strife for words standeth wherein I confesse I may not be brought to disalow the tongue and pen of the holy Ghost it is most certaine that the Gospel reporteth of Christs sufferings nothing but what was common to him with his members euen in this life where he suffered The Apostles plainely prooue as much to wit that we haue fellowship and communion with Christs afflictions and are conformed to his death Now there is no communion but where the same things are common to both though the degrees may differ And you your selfe when it maketh for you can vrge that the Apostle speaking of Christs sufferings saith He was tempted in all things like to vs yet without sinne So that in my iudgement it is a most cleere case as well by the witnesse of Scripture as by your owne confession that all Christes sufferings were LIKE yea the SAME that ours are as being common to both and consequently if you any way vnderstand what belongeth to trueth or reason the sufferings of the godly must either bee wrath as well as Christes or if their bee not his were not since they were the same And so the godly must either in all their afflictions small and great suffer as Christ did the proper wrath of God and true paines of hell which you make equiualent or if the godly doe not so
none can ransome a Prisoner condemned to death but by suffering the same death which the other should haue done How come you then to conclude of Christ because it pleased him to be our Mediatour and Redeemer that therefore he was guiltie of our sinne or liable to the same death of bodie and soule which otherwise we should haue suffered A ransome he payd for vs of farre more value than we were woorth which was his obedience vnto death and the shedding of his precious bloud for vs. But he neither owed nor payed the destruction or damnation of himselfe who neither by his person could nor by his office needed to suffer any such thing He came to giue his flesh for the life of the world and to lay downe his life for his sheepe that his death might be a ransome for vs and for our transgressions Farder or other ransome than this the Scripture mentioneth none and therefore God required none who by his will reuealed hath thorowly expressed what recompense for vs best contented both his holinesse and iustice Could not Christ stand euer blessed and beloued in his owne Nature and yet be truly accursed and hated in our condition and person In the wicked God hateth and accurseth their persons for their sinnes because their iniquities are neither ransomed nor repented and so not pardoned but in Christ and his members it was and is farre otherwise God still hateth and abhorreth the sinnes as well of the faithfull as of the wicked but because he loueth the persons of his elect whom he hath adopted in Christ his Sonne therefore he destroyeth their sinnes in them by repentance and remission thereof for Christes sake and saueth their persons whom he can not be sayd to hate though he truely hate their sinnes by reason that loue and hatred in God can not be permixed or varied as they are in men For Gods loue is perfect and constant as likewise his hatred and for that cause either in him is perpetuall without ceasing or altering If Gods loue to men for Christes sake be so setled that it can not be remoued nor transferred to the contrarie how much more then was the naturall and eternall loue of God towards the person of his Sonne so fixed and feruent iu the highest degree that for no cause and in no condition he could be truely hated or accursed of God The partaking with vs in penurie sorrow shame and death which first came in as signes and effects of Gods iust displeasure against sinne and curse vpon sinne made him the more blessed and beloued of God since the voluntarie submitting himselfe to these things in his humane nature taught vs obedience and patience vnder the mightie hand of God and how rightly to distinguish and willingly to want temporall and earthly blessings that we may be partakers of eternall and heauenly It is no consequent therefore in vs that we are truely accursed or hated of God because we are often depriued of his earthly blessings and so subiected to his temporall and externall curses for that we enioy by faith and hope greater and perfecter blessings which being in honor comfort and vse farre aboue the other make vs blessed and so remaining blessed for possessing the better we can not be accursed for wanting the smaller which indeed doe not truely make men blessed or cursed since the lacke of them doth not exclude the true and eternall blessings of God Much lesse then might the nature or person of Christ which so greatly abounded in all spirituall and heauenly blessings be counted accursed and hated of God because he was content to taste of those things which were inflicted on our condition as remembrances of Gods displeasure against our sinne For since no mans person can be truly blessed and truely accursed with God in as much as they are perfect contraries and so the preualent state doth prooue the person to be either blessed or cursed but not both much lesse then might the person of Christ be both though he did vndergo some things in this life which were the priuations of Gods outward and earthly blessings and so kinds of curses in their first entrance and ordinance And yet because those temporall and externall curses were nether permanent nor predominant in Christs person or condition whether you respect his owne or ours in him and he otherwise was a fountaine of blessing for himselfe and all vs it is euident that Christs suffering those outward and earthly curses for so the Scripture calleth the priuations of Gods blessings in the same kinds imposed on mans condition for sinne could not preuaile to make him accursed or hated with God For as Christ was made sinne for vs and yet no sinner but still continued holy harmlesse vndesiled and separate from sinners so was he made a curse for vs and yet not accursed by reason he endured the smart of our sinne and tasted of our curse in this life but he no waies receiued the guilt or endured the dominion of either much lesse was he by them depriued of any part of his inward and euerlasting blessings which being by many degrees superiour to the other must needs vphold his blessednesse and ouerwhelme the griefe and name of those curses which were temporally and tolerably laid on mans state and condition to make him the humbler in him selfe the mindfuller of his maker and the warier against the flatteries of that old and craftie Serpent the Diuell You shall doe well therefore Sir Collector to learne more reason if not more Religion and euen in naturall things to remember that the night is darkenes though it haue some light and the tree may be fruitfull though some bough wither and the ââ¦thiope is blacke though his teeth be white and the Bones be hard though the Marrow be soft and so in all cases and creatures the most preuaileth and nameth the subiect though there be in them some small admixture of the contrarie The next thing you vndertake is the saluing of a contradiction with which you say you are charged by me wherein the patient Reader if he be at leasure and haue the Booke at hand may take a plaine view of your idle Rouing and litle vnderstanding For I doe not charge you with saying that Christ suffered ALL he suffered in his whole manhood as you vntruely report I doe Let the Page 248. of my conclusion which you cite be perused by him that will I there expresly touch the contrary My words are This Antecedent as you vtter it doth neither good nor hurt to the Question That Christ suffered in his whole Manhood for the Redemption of our sinnes is a thing by me neuer doubted nor denied and that he suffered all that hee suffered in his whole manhood your selfe doe disclaime in the next Page Your Indefinite proposition I said prooued nothing and your selfe disclaymed the generall Where now doe I charge you with saying that Christ suffered all he suffered in
We inherite pollution by Adams flesh before our Soules come to our bodies and that sufficeth for my reason though the pollution which we inherite be deriued as well from the Soules as from the Bodies of our Parents because their bodies when they begat vs were ioyned with their Soules whose naturall and animall faculties were still in them wholy corrupted and their sinnes communicated vnto their bodies though their spirits were renued and sanctified The very Seed of which we were begotten and conceaued was an vncleane thing as Iob calleth it when he saith Who can make a cleane thing of an vncleane and corruptible that is full of Corruption as Peter nameth it when he saith borne againe not of corruptible Seed of which we were borne by our Parents The corruption of sinne then is first deriued by our Bodies though our Soules be likewise wrapped in the same pollution and condemnation that our bodies are and sinne still abideth and rebelleth in our flesh so long as we liue though our Soules be washed and clensed from sinne And therefore the Apostle calleth our flesh the flesh of sinne in the similitude of which Christ was sent and confessed that in his flesh dwelt no good thing assuring vs that though Christ be in vs the body is dead because of sinne when the Spirit is life or liueth because of righteousnesse Neither is this newes to Zanchius whom you cite in your Treatise as if he fauoured your error Quod attinet ad contagium illud certe citra controuersiam in corpore primum inest deinde per corpus in animam deriuatur Iob docet aperte cap. 14. Quis potest facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine Quid autem proprie de immundo concipitur semine Caro. As for the contagion of originall sinne that is surely without Question first in the body and after by the body is deriued into the Soule Iob teacheth vs plainly in his fourteenth Chapter Who can make one cleane conceaued of vncleane Seede Now what is properly conceaued of vncleane Seede Flesh. If any man list to read more I remit him to that place of Zanchius least I should be ouerlong or else to Peter Martyr where he largely treateth thereof against Pigghius The common receaued Opinion is saith he that the Soule draweth originall sinne by her coniunction with the body which is infected and vitiated from our Parents Wherefore if any aske what is the seate or subiect thereof as they vse to speake We answere that originall sinne hath place in the flesh as in the roote and beginning thereof afterward from that fountaine it occupieth the Soule and so is extended through the whole man Idcirco semen est instrumentum quo hoc peccatum ex parentibus traducitur in filios Therefore the Seede of man is the instrument whereby this sinne is traduced from the Parents to the children And least he should seeme to rest himselfe on the receaued opinion onely not long after he addeth Now reasons are to be brought which may firmely and soundly prooue that originall sinne is propagated in men by Seede and generation And that we will therefore shew out of the Scriptures because many reclaime and thinke this whole matter to be a fiction With one breath you ouerthrow your selfe For you say we haue pollution before the soule commeth whence soeuer it commeth Yea whence soeuer What if the soule doe come in and by generation you see how you crosse your selfe To that peruerse and false supposition of yours that the soule of man commeth in and by generation which now you cleaue so fast vnto for an aduantage I neuer gaue any allowance or forbearance Looke to my words as narrowly as you can I say the minor proposition of my reason is cleere without intermedling with the question whence not when the soule commeth I there resolue that the soule is the life of the bodie not of seede nor of blood as you grossely would wrest my speech and therfore before life come the soule which bringeth life commeth not to the bodie Then if pollution cleaue to the flesh before life come as Ambrose teacheth and consequently before the soule come which commeth not before the bodie is made as I auouch whence soeuer it commeth it is euident that Adams flesh defileth and so condemneth vs before the soule come You in the abundance of your wit take whence soeuer to be as much as when soeuer and so by your misconceiuing you would fasten a contradiction to my words But coaxe not your selfe with such contrarieties grounded vpon your owne most ignorant mistaking I made no question of the time when but of the roote whence the soule commeth I learned by Leo that the Catholike faith did truely and constantly teach that the soules of men were not before they were inspired into their bodies and consequently the bodie must first be framed before the soule can be inspired And the contrarie conceite which you now take holde on is a manifest repugnancie to the Church and faith of Christ. I saw that inconuenience which you see not when you pronounce sinne is not in our flesh without a soule that is neither before nor after the soule For if the soule of man arise in and BY GENERATION and that can be no man which neuer had mans bodie what kind of creatures I pray you call you those abortions and scapes that passe from their mothers when they are yet but seede or blood before the body be framed Soules they haue in and by generation as you now suppose bodies they haue none that be humane Men therefore they be not for want of bodies other kinds they are not seeing they haue soules what name then will you giue to these vnfashioned births hauing reasonable and immortall spirits as you imagine or what place will you assigne them after this life We all must appeare before the Tribunall of Christ euery one to receiue things done in or by his bodie They haue nothing to receiue for any thing done in or by their bodies which they neuer had neither can they expect the resurrection of the bodie which pertaineth not to them It is sowen saith the Apostle a naturall body it is raised a spirituall bodie These haue no naturall bodies of men and so shall neuer rise with spirituall and glorified bodies yea they haue no part in Christs resurrection which was corporall since they do not communicate with him in their bodies which may be conformed to his glorious bodie You must then deuise some new name and some new place for those new creatures of yours which hauing no bodies of men can not by the Scriptures looke either for the resurrection or for the saluation promised to men You doe not auouch it you will say you did but obiect it Your most euident truth as you call it that sinne cannot be found being in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting
doth directly inferre that either we were not begotten and conceiued in sinne which is an euident heresie repugnant to Dauids wordes or els the vntimely fruites and scapes of women haue reasonable soules at the very instant of their conception when sinne is found in them by Dauids words which is this grosse absurd and false conceite that now you would shunne If you flie for helpe to actuall sinne haue children actuall sinne in their mothers wombes or as soone as they haue reasonable soules Or is actuall sinne traduced and inherited from Adam or spake I of actuall sinne when I said we inherite pollution from Adams flesh before the soule commeth Will you sticke to it and say originall pollution is no sinne Dauid conuinceth you who saith he was begotten in sinnes and conceaued in iniquitie and Paul affirmeth that death went ouer all men infants not excepted for so much as all men haue sinned and euen ouer them also who sinned not after the likenesse of Adams transgression that is who did not commit sinne as Adam did actually and voluntarily but naturally inherited sinne from Adam which dwelleth in them from the houre of their conception to the time of their dissolution and worketh the euill in them that they would not leading them captiue to the law of sinne which is in their members But how could Dauid say he was conceiued in sinne when at the time of his conception he had neither bodie nor soule Howsoeuer mans reason iudge thereof which yet often giueth the name of the whole to a part and the titles of things represented to their images with God nothing is more frequent than to call those things which are not as though they were because he not only made all things of nothing but quickeneth the dead and hath things past and to come present before him Leui is sayd by the Scripture to haue payed tithes to Melchisedech by Abraham as being then in Abrahams loines when Leuies grandfather was not yet borne So God by his Prophet spake to Cyrus many yeeres before Cyrus was borne calling him his anointed and saying to him by name thou art my shepheard So certaine is the counsell of God and his purpose so immutable that he speaketh in the Scriptures of things to come as if they were past or present Out of this infallible decree of God Dauid and Iob call that seed which was prepared to be the matter of their bodies by the names of themselues because it could not be altered what God had appointed But the void conceptions of women which miscarie before the bodie be framed neuer had either life or soule and so neither name nor kinde but perish as other superfluous burdens and repletions of the bodie which God hath appointed to no vse saue to ease the bodie In satisfaction for sinne you runne the same course that you do in the rest for neither vnderstanding my words nor almost any mans els rightly you fight with your owne fansies as if they were parts of my faith I sayd the Scripture acknowledgeth no satisfaction for sinne but by death I did and do so say what then Still we must note that by death you meane onlie the bodilie death In Christes person I alwayes meane by the death which he suffered the death of the bodie though you would include the death of the soule which I do not In the wicked I take death for all kinds of death corporall spirituall and eternall What can you hence distill Then surely the wicked should satisfie easily for their sinnes Farre be it from me to vtter such a sentence Doe the wicked with any kinde of death satisfie for their sinnes or is their condemnation to hell paines therefore eternall because by no death they can satisfie for their sinnes Were the iustice of God once satisfied by any thing the wicked could suffer their torments should cease but their punishments euerlastingly continue for that no satisfaction can be made to God by them suffer they neuer so much or neuer so long Whose follie then is it to pronounce that the wicked may satisfie for their sinnes mine or yours I sayd no such word I directly auouched the contrary The paines of hell haue neither worth nor weight sufficient in themselues to satisfie the anger or to procure the fauor of God Satisfaction for sinne I ascribe to none but onlie to Christ and in him to no death but onlie to that of his body Will it thence follow the Scripture acknowledgeth no satisfaction but by some kind of death ergo the wicked may satisfie for their sinnes by the deaths which they suffer Be it farre from all wise men to make such consequents and from all Christian men to make such conclusions The antecedent in effect is confessed by your selfe The Scriptures you say do shew indeed that Christ should not satisfie without death I sayd the same By satisfaction I meant full satisfaction when no more could be exacted as the word importeth and not the concurrents or precedents to satisfaction when the chiefest is vnpayed Why then doth your absurd and leud conclusion folow more vpon my words than vpon your owne My proofs are not good with those you finde fault If yours were no worse they would go more currantly The Apostle sayth Christ is the Mediator of the new Testament that through death which was for the redemption of transgressions we might receiue the promise Heere death is auouched to be the redemption which is all one with satisfaction for sinne for wherewith we are redeemed therewith God is satisfied Christes bodily death meerely and alone you say without any thing else together therewith which is my intent is not heere mentioned You will not tell where your shoo wringeth Death was for the redemption or satisfaction for sin sayth the Scripture Now the death of Christes bodie or of his soule or of both must here be contained The death of Christes soule you dare not openly professe and therefore all this while you carrie it couertly vnder the sufferings of Christes soule But you must come plainly to it for these assertions of the Apostle Death was the redemption of our transgressions and we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne will make this to be the question as I first set it whether the death of Christes soule or the death of the damned which is the true paines of hell be a necessary part of Christs satisfaction and our Redemption Other sufferings of the Soule are meere shifts to harbor your folly if you striue in words or your impietie if you striue indeede for the death of Christs Soule as requisite by the Scriptures to our Saluation That Christ did not die the death of the Soule I doe not prooue there is no cause I should it is your assertion that he did and must be prooued by you which you be so farre from comming neere that you purposely
by the death of his Sonne who bare our sinnes in his body on the tree that we might be deliuered from sinne and healed with his stripes And without satisfaction to God for sinne we haue neither remission of sinne nor redemption from sinne nor reconciliation with God Vpon this ground I then did still do reiect your maior as guarded neither with text nor truth but leaning only to your priuat liking as the best helpe to commend it From thence I came to your assumption or second proposition that Adam first and we euer since most properly committed sin in our soules our bodies being but the instruments of our soules following the Soules direction and will The which because it had diuerse branches one touching Adams transgression an other touching ours and likewise two parts the soule body in either I reserued for diuers answers In Adams sinne if you meant as your words made shew that his Soule and bodie were ioyned in transgressing Gods Commandement the Soule as the agent the body as the instrument That I said was MOST TRVE but repugnant to your intention and maine Conclusion For then as Adams Soule transgressed the Commandement with and by her bodie so in fatisfying for sinne Christs Soule must be punished by and with her bodie which was the thing you so much laboured to ouerthrow To this you now replie Nay the Conclusion will follow that the immortall part the minde was punished peculiarly and not by and from the body onely seeing in all euen outward sinnes the Soule sinneth both principally and also in a proper and peculiar manner by it selfe yea before the body sinneth Albeit the body sinneth also secondarily and in a manner proper to it selfe euen as the instrument as you say The principall and peculiar action of the Soule in sinnes that be common to the Body and Soule maketh no proofe that the Soule must haue a distinct and seuerall punishment from the body or that it may not be punished from and by the body The true and full punishment of all sinne in all the wicked is the casting of Body and Soule into hell fire where one and the same punishment is common to both euen as their sinnes were notwithstanding the proper and peculiar manner which the Soule hath in sinne by it selfe aboue the body The punishments of this life are likewise common to both For the Soule feeleth whatsoeuer greeueth the Body neither can any thing offend the Soule which doth not likewise disquiet the Body How beit the effects and impressions of one and the same punishment are different in Soule and Body not onely because the Soule is the chiefe patient and sentient in all paine as it was the chiefe agent and disponent in all sinne but also for that the Soule seeth and greeueth farder vpon feeling the paine then the body can doe For the Sense of the Body can onely iudge how tolerable or intolerable the paine is but the Soule reacheth vnto the cause continuance and consequence thereof which often times afflict the Soule as much or more then the paine it selfe This difference dependeth on the nature of the Soule which because it is endued with reason remembrance and intelligence perceiueth not onely things present and subiect to sense as the Body doth but things past and future together with their dependences and things spirituall as well as corporall and the losse of ioy and blisse no lesse then the anguish of perpetuall paine and miserie So that in all punishments of sinne which be common to the Soule and Body the Soule is farre deeper engaged in the griefe thereof then the Body can be But this is no reason to proue that Christs Soule must die the death of Soules or feele the paines of hell because his Soule considered better of his paines then his body could doe Two Rules of Gods Iustice in punishing the sinnes of men the Scriptures report Which though they be kept in all others yet may no man affirme them of Christ farder then the Gospell giueth euident Testimonie to them The one is the meanes the other is the measure of punishment As Wherewith a man sinneth by the same also shall he be punished and How much she exalted her selfe and liued in pleasure so much torment and sorrow giue yee to her Neither of these ruies could rightly fasten on Christ because he neuer sinned and therefore touching the meanes by which he satisfied for our sinnes the Scriptures and not your imaginations must be consulted Now they testifie that he dyed for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and that we were Redeemed by his pretious bloud which was shed for Remission of sinnes Here is the satisfaction for the sins of men which the Scripture deliuereth without any other death of the soule or of the damned which men must suffer if they be not freed from it by the death and blood of Christ but Christ neither did nor could suffer For the measure of paine which Christ suffered in the death of his body described in the Scriptures we must leaue it to God who only knew what proportion of paine in the person of his Sonne was sufficient for the sinnes of the world not therein trust the deceitfull ballance of your presumption who neither know what degree of pain Christ suffred on the crosse nor how much in the person of Christ would satisfie the iustice of God for our sinnes Only this we are assured that he learned obedience by that which he suffered his patience was thereby proued but neither of them ouerwhelmed or endangered And therefore that Christs paine on the Crosse was equall to hell paines or the very same which the damned do suffer these be your rash and violent intrusions vpon Gods iustice allotting to Christ out of your owne braine the same punishment as you call it in substance that the wrath of God inflicteth on the wicked and damned for their sinnes but in all these collections you rest on the rules of your owne reason without any warrant of the word of God which neuer sorteth our Sauior in his sufferings with the reprobate damned and contrary to the Christian faith which groundeth the waight of our redemption and strength of our Reconciliation to God vpon the infinitie of the person that died for vs and not of the paine that was suffered in our steeds Yea farder I meane that some sinnes the Soule acteth in and by it selfe meerely and therefore it suffereth likewise some punishments meerely in it selfe which touch not the body at all vnlesse it be by Sympathie onely and that onely when they grow vehement What you now meane vpon better aduise maketh nothing to the Conclusion which you would haue forced out of your former words Your assumption was that Adam first did and we euer since doe commit sinne most properly in our Soules our bodies being but the Instruments of our Soules In which words you speake of
with both parts as well with bodie as with soule and so Christ if your proportion were any thing needfull which I wholly reiect as needlesse in the Sonne of God by this reason of yours needed no proper sufferings of the soule without and besides the bodie Paul vnderstoode Rom. 7. vers 7. when hee became a Christian that the desiring of euill is sinne before the outward act bee consummate You alleage Saint Paul as you doe the rest for matters that he neuer meant Paul speaketh not there of the actuall desire of euill when the will hath thereto consented such as was in Adam when hee resolued to eate the forbidden fruite but of the naturall inclination and first motions to sinne which are in vs after Adams disobedience but were not in him before his fall For that precept thou shalt not lust conuinceth and condemneth our nature to be corrupt and sinfull to which originall concupiscence the roote and spring of all sinne in vs cleaueth so fast that euen in our cradles this corruption excludeth vs from the kingdome of God if we be not regenerate in Christ by water and the holy Ghost In Adam besore sinne there was no such thing his nature was vpright and sincere as it was first created and voide of all concupiscence intended by this precept as the best learned of our time teach till by his transgression sinne entred and infected both body and soule Neither doe you conceiue right of Paul as he was a Pharisee when you suppose he tooke the outward fact of sinne onely to bee sinne Neuer read he thinke you when he was a Pharisee the words of Esay Aram hath taken wicked counsell against thee but it shall not stand Nor of Salomon The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord and the euill thought of a foole is sinne Could hee not tell what to iudge of Hamans thoughts against the Iewes or of Achitophels purpose against Dauid or of Balams counsell against the Israelites The very heathen Philosophers placed vertues and vices in the minds of men and the prophane Poets would haue mens enterprises measured by the intent not by the euent The Pharisees were neuer so blinde as to thinke all counsels thoughts desires and lusts to bee lawfull against the manifest and expresse words of the law and Prophets but they blindly mistooke the law of God as forbidding externall facts onely which are hurtfull to others vpon paine of malediction and damnation They rather stood vpon the Popish opinion of veniall and mortall sinnes and did not thinke that veniall sinnes did exclude them from the righteousnesse of the Law nor from the kingdome of heauen Of that opinion was Paul when he was a Pharisee but vpon his conuersion and better instruction by the spirit of Christ hee vnderstoode that not onely euill desires and thoughts were forbidden by the seueral precepts of Gods law as deadly sinnes which the Pharisees would not admit to vphold their owne righteousnesse but that euen the secret tentation to sinne and the inward propension and corruption of our hearts are interdicted and condemned by this precept thou shalt not lust as sinne sufficient to exclude vs from the kingdome of God Your doctrine is very strange where you teach that the soule properly committeth no sin but by with the body that is the soule in it selfe by it selfe alone sinneth not You say all prouocations and pleasures of sin the soule taketh from her body all acts of sin she committeth by her body which speeches are exceeding vntrue and hurtfull To him that either fully can not or rightly will not vnderstand what is said all things seeme strange otherwise set aside your olde ordinarie phrases of proper and meere without which you can say nothing and the matter which you so much maruaileat is very plaine as well by the rules of Scripture as proofes of nature Is it so strange a doctrine with you that the whole man and not this or that part of man is by the word of God charged with the committing of euery sinne and guiltie thereof in such sort that the whole person is defiled therewith and shal be condemned therefore Depart from me Lord saith Peter to Christ for I am a sinfull man Blessed is the man saith Dauid to whom the Lord imputeth no sinne O God be mercifull vnto me a sinner saith the Publicane Tribulation and anguish vpon the soule of euery man that worketh euill saith the Apostle By which as by infinite other places of Scripture wee are taught that the whole person which is man himselfe is the sinner by which part so euer he sinneth Euery one that committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne saith our Sauiour Can the soule be in bondage for sinne and the body bee free Cursed is the man saith Moses that keepeth not all the words of the law to doe them Can the soule bee accursed for sinning and the body be blessed as not sinning The wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Shall death preuaile against the Soule for sin and the Body escape death as voyd of sinne Surely no. Sinne defileth the whole Man by what part soeuer it is committed yea the very thoughts of the hart coinquinate the whole man When the Pharisees held opinion that meate eaten with vnwashen hands defiled the Body our Sauiour reprooueth that error in them and teacheth his Disciples that nothing without a man can defile him when it entreth into him but the things which come foorth of him are they that defile the Man For from within out of the hart of Man come foorth euill thoughts couetousnesse wantonnesse a wicked eye pride foolishness All these euils come from within and defile a Man Where we see that enuie which Christ noteth by a wicked eye and pride and such like inward sinnes yea and euill thoughts defile the Man that is as well the Body which the Pharisees tooke to be defiled with vncleane hands as the Soule The Apostle stretcheth the infection of sinne farder euen to the meates them selues that are eaten of the wicked All things saith he speaking of meates which the Iewes counted vncleane are cleane to the cleane but to the vncleane and vnbeleeuers nothing is cleane but euen their minde and conscience is vncleane So that the vncleannesse of the inward Man defileth the outward Man and all things which the outward Man vseth This is so true that not onely the guiltinesse and filthinesse of sinne is in this life communicated from the Soule to the Body but both shal be therefore condemned in the righteous iudgement of God to euerlasting fire We must all appeare before the tribunal of Christ euery man to receiue the things done by his Body Where all sorts of sinnes in thought word or deede are by the Apostle called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or as others read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã things done
by the body or the things proper to the Body And though we expound it as some doe for the things done in the Body yet all three expositions conuince that the Soule can not sinne without the Body but by or in the Bodie and that the condemnation for sinne reacheth as well to the Body as to the Soule Else the resurrection of the Body were superfluous in the wicked if Gods Iustice did not determine for sin to punish the Body together with the Soule Where Tertullians Rule taketh place to prooue them both guiltie of sinne that shall be both punished for sinne They can not be seuered in the reward which were ioyned in the worke Let not the flesh be partaker in the sentence that is of iudgement if it were not partaker in the cause that is in sinne Of his opinion in this point were all the learned Fathers of Christs Church Athenagoras an ancient and Christian Philosopher and writer in his Treatise of the resurrection of the dead veââ¦ie learnedly persueth this argument and by manie reasons proueth that the whole man sinneth and not this or that part and therefore the whole as well bodie as soule must be iudged for euerie sinne If tâ⦠whole nature of man sayth he be vniuersally composed of an immortall soule and a bodâ⦠made and at tempered thereto and God hath not giuen either birth breath or this whole life to the soule by her selfe or to the bodie apart but to men consisting of these two it is altogether necessarie since one liuing creature consisteth of both and feeleth all the affections of the soule and doth and performeth whatsoeuer belongeth to the bodie and all things needing the iudgement of sense or reason the whole course of these things should be referred to one end ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that all should wholly concurre to one harmonie and sympathie that is to one ioynt action and passion of the whole man And if there be one ioynt action and passion of the whole liuing creature as well in those things that proceed from the soule as in those that are performed by the body then must there be one close and reward for all these things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I affirme both together to be a man composed of bodie and soule ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the man so composed to be brought to iudgement for all his actions and for them to receiue either honour or punishment It is therefore apparent to euerie man that according to the Apostle this corruptible though it be dispersed must put on incorruption that euerie one may iustly receiue the things that he hath done by his bodie whether they were good or bad Gregorie Nysââ¦ene teacheth the verie same in effect What define we a man to be both a bodie and a soule ioyned together or either of them seuered It is manifest that the coniunction of both maketh a man Let vs also consider this whether those things which men do and commit for example adulterie murder theft and whatsoeuer is consequent to these or on the other side sobrietie continencie and euerie action that is opposite to vice may be sayd to be the effects of both or be referred to the soule alone But in this the trueth is manifest For in euerie action both coupled ech with other doe ioyntly vndertake and performe the things which are done If then in good deeds the bodie laboureth and suffereth together with the soule and in sinnes it is not absent what moueth thee to bring the soule without her bodie into iudgement Thine assertion is neither iust nor well aduised For if the soule alone and by her selfe haue sinned God will then punish her alââ¦ne but if she haue a manifest helper the iust Iudge will not let that escape Epiphanius refuââ¦ing those that thought we should rise with another bodie than here we liue in sayth How shall the soule remaine alone the bodie not present that sinned together with it Such a soule may contradict the iudgement of God and say I alone sinned not but the bodie with me For since I departed from the bodie I committed neither fornication nor adultrie nor theft nor murder nor idolatrie neither did I any euill and her defence shall be found reasonable Vpon this reasonable defence of hers what shall we say Shall the iudgement of God cease or will God punish men vniustly God forbid Therefore as God made the man one compound of bodie and soule the iust Iudge will raise the bodie againe and giue it his owne soule and so shall the iudgement of God be iust both parts communicating either in punishment for sinne or in reward for vertue Ambrose giueth the same reason for the resurrection of the bodie Et haec est series causa iustitiae vt quoniam corporis animique communis est actus quae animus cogitauit corpus efficit vtrumque in iudicium veniat vtrumque aut poenae dedatur aut gloriae reseruetur This is the course and ground of iustice that because the act of sinne is common to bodie and soule the bodie performing what the minde deuised both should come into iudgement and both be awarded to punishment or reserued to glorie For it seemeth almost absurd where the law of the flesh impugneth the law of the mind and the minde often doth that which she hateth whiles the sinne or corruption of the flesh dwelling in man worketh that the soule should be subiected to the iniurie as guiltie of anothers fault and the flesh should enioy rest which is the author of the miserie and the soule alone should be punished which alone did not sinne or alone be glorified which alone did not striue for glorie Theodoret treadeth the same steps though with a larger processe To suspect that soules alone shall be released or punished and the bodie cast away to corruption as a brute thing and altogether vnprofitable what reason can it haue that the ââ¦le depriued of the bodie should be adiudged to torment For being condemned shee may worthily say to the Iudge I did not alone transgresse thy lawes Lord but together with the bodââ¦e ãâã fall on the rocks of wickednesse or rather if I must speake the trueth the bodie drew me into the pit of sinne Snared with his eyes did I curiously view the beautie belonging to others and affected both lands and riches they compelling me to behold such things The affections of the bodie brought me to seruitude and tooke away the libertie which thou gauest me I was forced ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as bred with him and his fellow-seruant to minister vnto him and prouide for his wants Often times grieued therewith haue I yeelded to the necessities of the flesh yea not knowing what els to do and verie much sorowing haue I beene driuen to wait on the desires of the bodie And often haue I resisted and stifly repelled his snares but his continuall conflicts manie
times ouercame me When I repressed him I afflicted my selfe for I receiued backe the griefe when I cherished him I was impugned by him enduring his wanton assaults Therefore assigne not me alone to punishment ó Lord but either free me together with the bodie from these straits or cast that together with me into torment Howbeit the Iudge needeth no such supplication but as he gouerneth wisely so he iudgeth iustly restoring the bodie to their soules and so giuing to euerie one according to their deserts Damascene alledgeth the coniunction of the soule with the bodie and the cooperation of both in all vertues and vices as causes sufficient why the bodie must be iudged and rewarded together with the soule If the soule alone sustained the trials of vertue alone shall she be crowned and if she alone were intangled with pleasures iustly she alone must be punished ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but because she had no seuerall being from the bodie neither passed thorowe vertue or vice without the bodie iustly shall both together receiue rewâ⦠of good or bad For the better conceiuing the trueth of these speeches we must know what these Fathers meane by the bodie and what powers and faculties of man they comprise in that name and why so shall wee the sooner discerne what cooperation in sinne mans bodie hath with his soule The bodie as it is the instrument or seruant of the soule to do good or euill is no dead nor senselesse lumpe of flesh but hath annexed vnto it besides life both sense and motion and those as well inward as outward For externall and internall sense and motion are not only performed by vitall and animall spirits which are plainly corporall though their vigor and force be from the soule which bringeth life and sense but so affixed to the bodie that they die with the bodie and are not found in the soule so long as she is separated from the bodie Those faculties these Fathers ascribe the rather to the flesh because in some sort they be in beasts who in their kinde haue sense and motion both outward and inward and sensitiue desires and affections depending thereon which all must needs be corporall for that brute beasts ledde only by sense to desire and delight in things present before them haue no spirituall nor immortall part from which they should proceed The same powers of sense and sensitiue appetites and affections in mans bodie these learned Fathers account and call corporall not that they discerne or moue without the soule but that the sensitiue and inferiour powers of the soule are mixed with corporal spirits in man and by them apprehend and desire externall sensible things by which corruption of senses and affections the soule is drawen to diuers delights and desires that are continuall occasions and inducements to sinnes Therefore Theodoret nameth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the desires affections assaults and conflicts of the bodie seeking by pleasures and sundrie lusts to conquer the soule Neither want they the warrant of holy Scripture in so speaking Let not sinne reigne in your mortall bodies sayth Paul to obey it in the lusts thereof neither giue your members to be weapons of vnrighteousnesse vnto sinne So that the members of our mortall bodie are called by the Apostle the weapons of vnrighteousnesse by which sinne fighteth against the soule Whence are warres and strifes in you sayth Iames not hence euen from the pleasures which fight in your members Abstaine sayth Peter from carnall desires which fight against the soule I delight in the law of God sayth Paul according to the inward man but I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my minde and leading me captiue to the law of sinne which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from the bodie of this death Where the inward man which is the mind lightned and the will directed by grace is diuided against the outward man which must nââ¦eds be the inferior powers of the soules ioyned with the parts and spi it s of the bodie wherâ⦠and whereby sinne still dwelling in our earthly aud irregenerate members iusteth agaââ¦nst the spirit and striueth against the minde which Peter calleth fighting against the soule To strengthen this doctrine which you thinke so strange it shall not be amisse to consider somewhat further what communion the soule hath with the bodie that thereby we may perceiue what vse the soule hath of her bodie in well or euill doing The habitation of the soule in the bodie and her coniunction with the bodie making one man of two contrarie parts mortall and immortall visible and inuisible reasonable and vnreasonable is so wonderfull a worke of God that the manner thereof wholly pasââ¦eth our vnderstanding onely by consequents and effects wee gather what she vseth in the bodie what she perceiueth by the bodie and what she imparteth to the bodie Howbeit her habitation in the bodie and vnion with the bodie composing one person of both called man is sufficient by the Scriptures if we knew no more of the communion that is betwixt them to make both parts guiltie of all sinne committed and liable to the punishment thereof both in this world and in the next And so much the Scriptures teach vs when they require confession of our sinnes or promise remission of our sinnes or threaten vengeance for our vnrighteousnesse wherein the bodie is not seuered nor excepted from the soule but both are conââ¦oyned in one person to whom and euery part of whom either mercie is afforded vnto saluation or iustice awarded vnto damnation And yet because the communion which is betwixt the soule and bodie will giue vs some light how the soule vseth the helpe of her bodie in accomplishing her actions I may not omit to speake thereof though happily it will be somewhat obscure to the simple and more remote from their vnderstanding then in this case I could wish As man was ordained of God to haue in him the seuerall operations of life of sense of reason so was the soule created with three diuerse faculties answerable to those three functions to wit with a vitall or vegetatiue for the first with a sensitiue and motiue for the second with a reasonable or intellectiue for the third The vitall facultie prouided for the quickning nourishing increasing and preseruing of the bodie in moderate strength to the discharge of our dueties to God and our neighbour is so fastned to the bodie that without the bodie it hath neither vse nor action The second facultie called sensitiue was giuen of purpose to the soule not onely to perceiue by sense the natures helpes and vses of all externall and sensible things and by voluntarie motion to pursue that which was profitable for vs but chiefly that by seeing the workes hearing the words of God we should come to the knowledge of his will and open our lippes to praise his name and to
direct and comfort others as also stretch out our hands to aide and relieue our selues and our brethren and with all the partes of our bodie to performe all outward actions and dueties of pietie and charitie To which ends because sense and motion both externall and internall were requisite as well as reason the wisedome of God hath placed in the body and specially in the head and heart the seates of vnderstanding and will certaine thinne quicke and aeriall vapours or spirits which rise from the blood and are brought by the braine to a marueilous force and agilitie that they should carie to the minde of man with incredible celeritie the resemblances of all things subiected to sense and with like vehemencie stirre and excite the heart and will of man with consent to imbrace and with all the powers and partes of soule and bodie to follow after that which prouoketh and delighteth the sensitiue spirits So that these corporall and actiue spirits are the meanes whereby particular things and circumstances together with their profites and pleasures are in a moment presented to the mind and the heart and will likewise mooued and inflamed to accept and allow that which contenteth and pleaseth the senses For according as the things obiected to sense or remembred after sense seeme good or euill to the powers of the soule vnited with these spirits so is desire or anger kindled by pleasure on the one side and dislike or griefe on the other which presently and violently preuaile with the soule where grace wanteth and lust and striue euen in the Saints against the spirit of God This is that part of the soule which in the faithfull is not regenerate whiles here they liue lusting still after the things of this world euen the delights of the flesh the desires of the eye and the pride of life and by these baits and snares fighting against the Soule The third power of the Soule is intellectiue that is the mind endued with vnderstanding and will which in the naturall man is ignorant of God and auerse from God by corruption of sinne and so caried through the loue of it selfe either to carnall pleasures at the prouocation of the senses or to vaine desires vnder color of humane reason and glorie This part in the faithfull is lightned and perswaded by the Spirit of God to see and acknowledge the good and acceptable will of God and strengthned with a measure of grace to resist the dominion of sinne dwelling in our mortall bodie that is in the sensitiue powers and affections of the soule mixed with the members and spirits of the body though in this life the mind euen of the regenerate hath not that perfection of knowledge and loue which the law of God requireth and therefore shrinketh often from the leading of Gods spirit by ignorance and infirmitie but neuer by rebellion and obstinacie This much being said touching the powers of the Soule which may more largely be perused in that learned worke of Zanchius alleaged by this Discourser It is most euident by the very grounds of humane and Diuine learning and experience that the principall part of the Soule which is the mind enabled with reason and will hath in all sorts of sinnes a manifest communion with the Body either by information of the senses or by tentation from the affections or by impression on the spirits and parts of the body or by the ready subiection of the whole body to the will besides originall corruption which the Soule draweth from the Body sufficient of it selfe to make the Body guiltie of all euill committed by the Soule and actuall execution whereby the Soule needeth and vseth the Body to effect and accomplish whatsoeuer she intendeth And first of information for the senses The knowledge of good and euill which the Soule of man hath in this life is not infused by creation as it was in Angels to whom that kind of knowledge is peculiar but collected from the sense and taught by time as we see by experience in all mankind without exception I still reserue the reuelation and inspiration of Gods Spirit when where and to whom pleaseth him A plaine proofe of the former point we dayly behold in children who vtterly know nothing no not their right hand from their lââ¦ft as God himselfe testifieth till by sense and vse they learne to distinguish and at length to conceaue the things set before them The Rule of naturall Philosophie expressing that the vnderstanding hath nothing which came not from the sense you would faine tumble out of your way but it is very true and consonant to the Scriptures if it be taken as it was ment and the reuelation of Christs Spirit thence excepted of which in deed the Philosophers knew nothing For that was not spoken of conclusions in reason as if they must be first in sense before they could be inferred by consequent nor of the diuiding and compounding things in mans imagination that came from the sense as dreames and fictions but of the principles or premisses in reason which must be plaine to the sense and of the naturall and true proprieties and differences of all particular things which the sense must first apprehend before the mind can rightly discerne them So that the mind conceaueth truely no singular things which were not first apparent to the sense since man hath no naturall meanes giuen him of God to get the true knowledge of any thing that is not reuealed or inspired from aboue but onely his senses To this the Scriptures beareth witnesse where the meanes to informe mans Hart of good and badde in which sinne consisteth are set downe to be the eyes and the eares still sauing to God what he reuealeth by the power of his spirit Ignorance and neglect of Gods will whence all sinne commeth are described in the Scriptures by the dulnesse of the eare and blindnesse of the eye God hath giuen them saith Paul the spirit of slumber euen eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare vnto this day Our Sauiour confirmeth the same out of the Prophet Esaie The Hart of this people is wexed fatte they heare dully with their eares and winke with their eyes least they should see with their eyes and heare with their eares and so vnderstand with their harts But blessed saith he to his Disciples are your eyes for they see and your eares for they heare In so much that the Apostle doubteth not to assure vs faith commeth by hearing when the hart beleeueth vnto righteousnesse and without hearing there is no beleeuing How shall they beleeue in him of whom they haue not heard And God requiring his people to be wise and learne saith Heare ye deafe and yee blind behold that yee may see As God then vseth no outward meanes besides his works and his words to teach vs his will so hath he giuen vs no naturall course to learne but by the eyes and
and drawing the body with the powers and parts thereof to the obedience of faith so farre as the law of sinne lusting in the flesh will permit and the measure of grace giuen vs doth preuaile Against this doctrine you would seeme to bring many obiections but they are such as will prooue you either to vnderstand nothing at all besides your owne fansies or to play with shadowes when you most professe to be serious and earnest Your first is Heresies Turcisme and Atheisme are committed and determined simplââ¦ly in the mind without any necessarie imployment of any parts of the bodie If you can tell me what religion you were of in your cradle before you did speake or vnderstand your instance were of some waight But if men be taught as well errors as trueth by their parents and masters then this is a wodden reason to make vs beleeue that heresies are inspired without teaching or hearing S. Paul saith Faith commeth by hearing and so I trust you did first learne it and not by reuelation If we be not borne Christians in knowledge but must be taught no more are any men borne Iewes Turkes or Heretikes but their eares and hearts must be first infected with the tongues or pennes of others This is one of your surest weapons wherewith you thought to doe great workes but put it vp at such strawes children will not stumble The first inuenters of heresies you will say were not taught The first authors of errours shut their eyes or eares against the trueth offered them and so declined from trueth to falsehood by leaning rather to their owne corrupt iudgements grounded on earthly reasons then to the voyce of God directing them aright For why doe men disbeleeue and impugne the word of God as all heretikes do but because they measure diuine things that passe their reach by humane sense and experience which are not gathered without the bodie The Turkes are strangers you thinke to the word of God and Atheists are vtter despisers of it The Turke destitute of trueth and so notable rightly to iudge of Gods fauours in this life bendeth his eyes on the worldly miseries of Christians and comparing them with the victories and felicities as he thinketh of his owne nation condemneth the faith of Christ as displeasant to God by reason of the manifold afflictions of the faithfull and preferreth his owne profession and Mahomet the first erector of it as most acceptable to God because they haue their desires in this world and are conquerors ouer Christians not knowing the finall reward of the one and of the other after this life Atheists are caried with almost the same respects to denie or despââ¦se the power and prouidence of God For they being earthly minded and seeing the wicked and prophane persons not onely free from punishment but most to flourish in this life doe hence collect there is no God whose patience and iustice they deride because hee dispenseth not transitorie things according to their expectation Further as the Angels sinned in the beginning by their meere spirituall conceit against God so nothing letteth but that man in his Angel-like nature the reasonable soule may sinne likewise without any bodily meanes thereunto This is another of your reasons not much vnlike the former For in Angels which now are deuils their vnderstanding and will might and did sinne because they were spirits and other essentiall partes in them we doe not know In men that cannot be because they consist of bodie and soule and haue many powers of the soule permixed with the bodie and so must sin in both the parts of their nature before they can sin as the Angels did that is in their whole substance If then you see no difference betweene Angels that are only spirits and men that must haue bodies as well as soules before they can be men your Angel-like nature is not very bright If you see the difference and yet vrge your consequence that is a meere spirituall conceite of yours but vtterly voyde of all reason For as well men as Angels must sinne in their whole natures least whiles you place one part in hell as nocent and the other in heauen as innocent you bring vs as strange iudgements as you doe doctrines In Gods iudgement Ea solummodo quaeruntur quae cum corpore gessit those things onely are required saith Cyrill which man committed with his bodie Neither will this serue your turne that the bodie is the instrument of the soule For as whiles man liueth many faculties of the soule are tempered with the bodie so when man sinneth the whole soule is not guiltie if the sensitiue powers and affections of the soule be exempted from sinne And since by Gods ordinance after Adams fall the corruption of sinne first riseth in the bodie the information and tentation to sinne commeth from the bodie and the consent of the soule to sinne is impressed on the bodie as also willing subiection to sinne is yeelded by the bodie this is let sufficient why the soule alone neither can nor doeth sinne in this life without her bodie Also as we can thinke well without vsing our bodie God so inspiring vs so may we thinke ill which is sinne our inborne corrupt vnderstanding and reason and will moouing vs only If Gods power be not tied to the course of nature prescribed vs will you thence inferre that we are likewise freed from it He that framed the heart can open it and alter it as pleaseth him but that is no charter for vs to chalenge any knowledge saue what is naturally gathered with our eyes or with our eares or supernaturally reuealed to vs. Wisedome infused from our cradles we haue none we KNOVV not our right hand from our left till by time we be taught and our teachers be they men or Angels must vse our outward senses or our inward imaginations to direct and instruct vs otherwise we can neither conceaue nor vnderstand what they say or shew since they can not lighten our hearts And when God doth inspire vs with that which is good he not onely openeth our hearts but filleth them with the loue of his truth goodnesse without which all knowledge is nothing Now the loue of God diffused in our hearts here on earth raiseth the selfe same inward and naturall motion of the heart which is incident to that affection and which other kindes of loue doe least our hearts should be colder and slower in louing God who requireth all the partes and powers of soule and bodie to be deuoted to his loue then they were in affecting and louing the world So that first your Antecedent is false for things inspired must be embraced with the whole heart before they can please God and your consequent is ââ¦orse since God worketh aboue nature in things that be good and leaueth vs in things that be euill to the naturall course of our corrupt condition which receaueth sinne from the soule and
is the chiefest agent in so much that these faile when the Soule departeth from the body yet that doeth not pââ¦ooue that in all these things the Soule doeth noâ⦠vse her body You say occasion of sinne is not giuen by the senses but taken by thâ⦠ãâã Then doeth the world which onely offereth things to the senses giue lesââ¦e occaââ¦on to sinne and Saint Iohn had no cause to say All that is in the world thâ⦠ãâã of the flââ¦sh the dââ¦sire of the eyes and pride of life is not of the Father but of the world and ãâã whole world ââ¦eth in euill For the things which are in the world are the good creatures of God and by their first institution serued to show the bountie of God and to pââ¦ouoke man to thankfulnesse and expectation of better things which shall not peââ¦ish But man poysoned with sinne abuseth them all and turneth his desire and loâ⦠from God to transitorie and earthly delights And so now considering his corruption they are not onely occasions but prouocations to induce and intise him to sinne And therefore God knowing vpon the fall of Adam what snares they would become vnto Man for whose sake they were made subiected them all to vanitie calling Satan ãâã Prince and Ruler of this world for that by infecting man with sinne he had altered and iââ¦uerted the vse and ende of the whole world If then the creatures which in themselues are senselesse and altogether innocent bee now baites to drawe men from God and so made occasions of sinne how much more are the senses of man alluâ⦠ãâã sinne which not onely present these pleasures to the minde but inflame the afââ¦ctions to persue them and worke the will to imbrace them The corruption you say is properly and principally in the minde which being first sinfull abuseth their operation As if all the powers of the Soule obeying the will that is euill were not subiect and seââ¦uants to sinne as well as the minde Or the senses and affections of man rebelling against the minde and incensing the will with their delights and desires were not sinfull as well as the minde It is the Soule that taketh her pleasures of sinne as well by her senses as by her vnderstanding and to that end setteth her sensitiue powers on worke the naturall action of the vnderstanding is no more sinfull in it selfe then is the sense but the corruption of the Soule abuseth them both in their kinds to content her sinfull appetites Though then the senses bee not the very causes of sinne which resteth chiefely in the will yet since the Soule ioyneth her selfe vnto the powers of sense by them to imbrace and enioy the pleasures of this life aboue or against the loue of God at least they must be occasions of sinne if they be no more For you to affirme that the Soule committeth all acts of sinne by the body and that God did not forbid Adam to like or desire that fruite is more then strange doctrine In you nothing is strange no not new hels new heauens new deathes of the Soule and new redemptions of mankind vnknowen to the Scriptures and all the fathers of Christes Church but vnto you euerie thing is strange that fitteth not your distempered taste My words that the soule committeth all acts of sinne by her bodie what differ they from Cyprians which I cited that the spirit by the flesh performeth whatsoeuer it affecteth What diuersitie finde ye betwixt them saue that I say soule for spirit bodie for flesh all for whatsoeuer and acts for things affected my words being somewhat plainer and easier than Cyprians and for ought that I see hauing no disagreement The other words that God did not forbid Adam to like the fruit smell of your owne forge which reporteth nothing truely For to prooue that Adam transgressed the commandement with more than his minde I obserued that God did not say to Adam Thou shalt not like it which the soule of Adam did but Thou shalt not eat thereof Which precept since Adam did wholly violate it followeth he sinned with his hand mouth and not with his minde alone You clippe off that which I concluded and neglecting the affirmatiue which I adioyned you note the negatiue which I did not simplie exclude but augmented with an addition of another part that Adam sinned also with his bodie and therefore not with his soule alone or without his bodie The place of Scripture which Tertullian as you say pointeth vnto that out of the heart come euill thoughts being considered will prooue the contrariâ⦠For Christ heere meaneth not by heart any part of the bodie but meerely the minde and soule of man and that with opposition to the bodie in this case of sinning You found in your Note-booke that the heart of man is taken in the Scriptures for his will and affection moued with knowledge either from the vnderstanding or from the sense but the reason why it is so vsed you neuer read or doe not remember For if a man should aske you why the hart of man rather then his hand or his heele doth import in the Scriptures his knowledge and will what answere would you frame That it is a figure of speech without all reason or cause Such indeed are your figures but the holy Ghost vseth no such The Scriptures by the parts of mans body expresse the powers of mans soule there seating and there working as sight by the eye hearing by the eare speaking by the tongue going by the feete doing by the hand lusting by the raines and many such The very same reason causeth the hart of man to be taken in the Scriptures for his will which is seated in that part and by which all his cogitations affections and Actions are made good or euill So that the vse of the hart in the sacred Scriptures well considered doth first plainely prooue that the chiefe Seate of the Soule is the hart and next that there it worketh where it dwelleth euen in the hart and on that part impresseth all her affections resolutions when they once grow to be liked or disliked And this is so farre from opposition to the Body in cause of sinning that it doth manifestly communicate sinne vnto the Body In effect Christ saith not the Body sinneth by taking in but the Soule by sending out that is to say the Soule onely properly sinneth and not the Body at all no not in grosse facts except as the Body is the Instrument the Soule being the Agent Your exposition of our Sauiours words and your illation vpon them doe well become one the other Our Sauiour doth not say the Body sinneth not But that which goeth into the mouth or eating with vnwashed hands defileth not the man Now this must be your reason if hence you make any Eating or meate defileth not a man Ergo the Body sinneth ââ¦ot How good this argument is I leaue to
your friends and your selfe to consider But you farder inferre That which commeth out of man defileth man ergo the Body sinned not at all no not in grosse facts except as an Instrument This is figuratiue Logicke to make the consequent cleane contrarie to the Antecedent Out of our Sauiours words that which commeth out of man defileth man it rightly followeth that sinne comming from the hart defileth man to wit the whole man and so both Body and Soule For man is not this or that part of man but the person composed of both Who then besides you vpon these words of Christ that murders adulteries thefts lyes and slaunders defile a man would conclude that these defile not the Body or else though they defile the Body yet that sinneth not as if Christ spake here of any pollution but of sinne The Body you say sinneth not except as an Instrument How the Body sinneth we neede not discusse so long as it is cleere by our Sauiours voice that the sinne of the hart defileth the Body as well as the Soule that is the whole man more I doe not affirme not require And so much doe euill thoughts no lesse then euill deeds by the position of our Sauiour euen they defile the man as well as adulteries thefts murders and such like Your admitting at last the Body to be an Instrument of sinne doth rather strengthen then weaken mine Assertion For since the Body is no dead but a liuing instrument and so capable of pleasure in sinne as also of paine in punishment it iustifieth my Collection that sinne is common both to Body and Soule and the satisfaction for sinne must likewise be common to both But yet as I obserued the ancient Fathers haue in this Question comprised in the name of the Body the powers of life and sense permixed with the Body as also the sensitiue desires and affections which sometimes obey and sometimes rebell against the mind and these in man are not onely capable of sinne but the causes of sinne and in that respect the Body with his sensitiue powers and desires is more then an Instrument That which you adde of boââ¦ly infirmities letting the operation of the Soule as in Lethargies Apoplexies sleepe frensie c. Peraduenture then it thinketh and considereth more freely in it selfe and by it selfe then when the Body setteth it on worke otherwise aâ⦠other times To let the simpler sort see that the Soule doth not sinne in her vnderstanding and will without coniunction with her Body and some concurrence of her Body I specified three or foure cases open to all mens eyes as sleepe frensies Lethargies Apoplexies which are often so strong that they leaue in man no vse of sense reason memorie nor will whereby he may or doth sinne To this you answere Peraduenture the Soule then considereth more freely in it selfe and by it selfe then when the Body setteth it on worke A Resolution without peraduenture agreeable to the rest of your Doctrines that men depriued of their senses wits and memories perhaps perceiue more iudge righter and remember better then when they were indued with all three Surely if madnesse with you may be sobrietie if Lethargie may be memorie if the ouerwhelming of sense reason and remembrance as in strong Apoplexies may be the encreasing of them you shall doe well to professe this new Phisicke with your new Diuinitie that it may shew the perfection of your puritie Many such Conclusions will driue vs to thinke that your considerations are wiser when you sleepe then when you wake If this conceite be true you were best perswade men to runne out of their wits or to desire and procure Lethargies and Apoplexies as much as they can that their Soules may be then more considerate What it pleaseth God sometime to reueale or shew to men in sleepes and traunces we are not to meddle with they are things to vs vnknowen the naturall and ordinarie course of vnderstanding and remembring appointed by God for men is that which we reason of and that is often so stopped and hindred by sicknesse or violence that neither reason memorie nor will can rightly performe their functions Which is so well knowne not onely to Philosophers and Phisitians acknowledging strong Lethargies and Apoplexies to be the decay and sometimes the ouerthrow of reason and memorie but vnto Diuines that with one consent they grant men oppressed with violent furie or naturall follie not alwayes to sinne in their actions no not of murder adulterie theft and blasphemie for want of iudgement and memorie to direct their willes But how commeth this sudden change in you now to confesse that the bodie setteth the soule a worke in her thoughts or considerations good or badde who not ten lââ¦nes before vtterly denied that the bodie sinned at all no not in grosse facts otherwise then as an instrument Doth the axe set the hewer on worke or the saw the drawer or the penne the writer The Agent moueth the Instrument the Instrument setteth not the Agent on worke And if the bodie setteth the soule on worke I hope it is to do euill as well as good vnlesse you will defend that from the bodie commeth nothing but that which is good Why then if the bodie set the soule on worke when we are waking and well aduiââ¦ed shal not the bodie haue communion in sinne with the soule which is the verie point you here impugne and yet here you acknowledge before you be ware It can neuer be proued that the soule in those accidents and infirmities vtterly ceaââ¦h operaâ⦠and cââ¦n doe nothing If it could not what is that to this purpose The operation of the soule is so hindered by them that often it doth not sinne and that is sufficient to prooue all sinne to be common to soule and bodie which is our queââ¦n Let the soule pââ¦incipally and properly sinne if in the soule you comprise all the powers of reason sense and life which proceed from the soule and the bodie be only her instrument yet so long as the soule can not actually sinne except the bodie haue lââ¦fe and sense it is euident that in sinne the bodie must concurre with the soule Now if we adioyne life and sense to the bodie which is the subiect of both though the cause of neither as the learned and ancient Fathers doe and the Scriptures likewise when they speake of the temptation and rebellion of the bodie and the members therof conteining no more in the soule of man then the will and vnderstanding which they call the minde or the inward man then apparently the bodie is not only the instrument or occasion of sinne by his desires and pleasures but the first and last sââ¦at of corruption in this life and the continuall Agent and Atturney for sinne and Satan during thââ¦s life insomuch that infecting and subiecting the soule to the lusts of the flesh it maketh the soule be called flesh which she can not be in substance but
in coheââ¦nce and obedience to the flesh Crââ¦imus carnis resurrectionem non tantââ¦m quia reparatur anima quae nunc propter carnales affectiones caro nominatur sed haec etiââ¦m visibilis caro quae naturaliter caro est cuius nomen anima non propter naturam sed propter affectiones carnales accepit We beleeue the resurrection of the flesh sayth Austen not oââ¦ly because the soule is repaired which now is called flesh for her fleshly affections but euen thâ⦠vââ¦ble flââ¦sh which is naturall flesh whose name the soule taketh not by admitting the nature but the affections of the flesh So Ambrose Victa anima libidine carnis fit caro The sââ¦le ouercome with the lust of the flesh becommeth flesh And againe Qui secundum corporis appââ¦tentiam viuit caro est He that liueth according to the desires of the body is flesh For flââ¦sh is vnderstood to be sometimes the world sometimes the bodie of man or the soule it selfe following bodily vices Ierome likewise Anima inter humum ignem hoc est inter caââ¦m spiritâ⦠consistens quando se tradiderit carni caro dicitur quando spiritui spiritus appââ¦llatur The soule consisting in the middle betweene earth and fire that is betweene the ââ¦sh and the spirit when she yeeldeth her selfe to the flesh she is called flesh and when she yeeldeth her selfe to the spirit she is then termed a spirit And shewing more largely that by the flesh is meant the body he addeth The flesh feareth colde disliketh hunger is ââ¦ned with watching burneth with lusting mollia quaeque iucunda desiderat desireth all eââ¦e and pleasure So that the delights and desires of the bodie which are sensuall and cââ¦ll do not onely draw the soule to sinne but causeth the soule to be called flesh in that she yeeldeth or giueth her selfe to the lusts and pleasures of the flesh Yââ¦t can it not be prooued you thinke that the soule vtterly ceaseth her operation So long as the bodie liueth the soule can not vtterly cease all her operations of reason sense and life for then of force she must depart her bodie but in extreame madnesse and forgetfulnesse of all things as Lethargies Apoplexies and euen in sound sleepe she vtterly ceaseth from actuall operation of sinne for want of vnderstanding and remembring what she doth The punishment of Nabuchodonosor described in Daniel is an euident proofe that all operations of reason and memory may vtterly cease in the soule of man heere in this life though the faculties or powers thereof can neuer faile The Scripture sayth of him Let his heart be changed from a mans and the heart of a beast giuen him Which was performed by the madnesse and furââ¦e that Nabuchodonosor fell into as all sorts of writers prophane and Christian do witnesse Eusebius citeth two maruellous ancient and prophane Historiographers Abidenus and Megasthenes that Nabuchodonosor was furââ¦re diuââ¦tus captus stroken from heauen with a madnâ⦠Ierome sayth Nabuchodonosor was so furious and madde that he remembred not the good which God promised him for his restitution Theodoret sayth of him he was cast from mââ¦n for his disease who being taken with furie and madnesse would haue done ãâã ãâã Beda Nabuchodonosor the King was turned to a bruââ¦shnesse of minde when by Gods iudgement his hââ¦bitation is written to haue beene with beasts seuen yeeres Lyra. Nabuchodonosor lost the ââ¦vse of reason by madnesse and so became as a beast and during the time of his madnesse abode in the sields with beasts Munster expounding the words of Daniel touching Nabuchodonosor sayth Let humane reason be taken from him and the sense of a bââ¦ast giuen him For growing mââ¦dde with the change of his ââ¦ginatiue power he caried himselfe as a beast Whether it were with madnesse or brââ¦shnesse that Nabuchodonosor was strooken I greatly force not it is certaine by the words of the Scripture that humane reason and sense was taken from him for seuen yeeres and consequently the soule of man may vtterly cease all operation of reason and vnderstanding euen in this life This will not be strange to him that rightly considereth the state of men possessed with diuels and reported euen in the Scriptures The madnesse of him whom the Gospââ¦ll describeth in the coast of the Gadarens that no chaines could holde him but he liued among the graues naked and cried night and day striking himselfe with stones and â⦠fiercely assaulting all ââ¦hat passed by the way sheweth that all humane reason and memorie were quite banished from him by Satan turning and tossing the corporall imaginations and affections of the possessed as pleased him and distracting the wiââ¦s and subuerting the remembraââ¦e so that the surious person in apprehension and operation differed nothing from a raging beast A learned and publike professor of Physicke writeth thus of raging frensie Madnesse is an hurt in the braine corrupting all morall vertues and first the imagination it selfe for they imagine those things that are notâ⦠ââ¦condly the verie cogitation and rââ¦son of man for with them there is no distinction betââ¦t honest and dââ¦shonest good and euill friend and foe thirdly it corrupteth memorie so that they preââ¦ly ââ¦get the thing euen then sââ¦ene or heard And what maruell to see this pââ¦ormed by diââ¦els and diseases when the defects of nature do often leaue to men neiââ¦er vse of reason nor remembrance S. Austen sayth of naturall fooles Quidââ¦m tantae sunt ââ¦tuitatis vt non multùm a pecoribus differant Some are so sottish that they differ not muâ⦠from brute beasts Which Galene confirmeth where he sayth that the euill affââ¦ction of the braine is much intended ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when together with the mââ¦morie reason is abolished as in sottishnesse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For both these reason and memorie are lost in lââ¦thargies and all sleepie affections If the soule haue no communion with her bodie in thinking and remembring how can the defects or disten pers of the braine with heat or colde take away the operation and vse of reason and memorie which both learning and experience doe manifest Yea go no farder then sound sleepe which is the proper affection and ligation of the sensitiue faculties and if the soule do freely thinke and will when the bodie sleepeth why should we not as vsually sinne in sleepe as when we wake but that is repugnant to the principles of trueth as Tertullian well obserueth Et bonafact a gratuita sunt in somnis delicta secura non magis enim ob stupri visionem damnabimur quà m ob Martyrij coronabimur Both good deeds are thankelesse in sleepe and offences blamelesse for we shall be no more condemned for dreaming of adultery committed then we shall be crowned for dreaming of martyrdome suffered It is euident therefore that in sinne the sense hath such a communion with the
can not sinne Peter Martyr vpon the same place The dead cease from their euill actions in which before they liued Caluine The Apostle reasoneth from the proprietie of death which abolisheth all the actions of this life Beza The Apostle speaketh of the effect of death which maketh vs when we are dead necessarily to cease from the actions of this life and consequently from sinne So that leroms conclusion is very true The dead are able to adde nothing to that which they brought with them out of this life For neither can they doe well nor sinne neither encrease vertues nor vices If then the Soule can not sinne except the body haue life and sense for neither in death nor sleepe men doe sinne without question the body must concurre to the committing of all sinne and the action is common to both And if not onely life and sense be required in the body but intelligence and remembrance to discerne good from euill must remaine vnperished before the Soule can sinne for otherwise Insants mad men and others stroken with Lethargies Epilepsies and Apoplexies should doe nothing but sinne by continuall omitting of good if not committing of euill and these naturall infirmities or violent distempers of the braines come from the body and ouerwhelme the actions of reason and memorie how can the body bee excluded from the communion of all sinne whose parts and spirits if they bee inflamed or obstructed doe excuse men from sinne by hindering the iudgement of good and euill And where no sinne is committed but that which is either embraced with loue and delight or else inforced with feare and dislike and all these haue their sensible impressions and motions in the heart how should the body bee free from any sinne which hath his manifest delectation and contentation in euery sinne bee it neuer so inward and spirituall Howsoeuer then your vnlearned and vnbridled humour pronounce this Doctrine to bee exceeding vntrue and hurtfull and more then strange and euen hereticall it is a faire plaine and Christian trueth that all sinne in man is common to body and Soule and that as both parts do ioyne in the committing of each sinne so shall both bee coupled in the punishment of each sinne though the Soule as shee first beginneth and most affecteth sinne whether by her sense or vnderstanding so shall shee first taste and most feele the iust iudgement of God against sinne Lastly you contradict your selfe For you graunt that the Soule hath some sufferings in this life and the next which come not by the body I graunt it indeede and therefore your impudencie is the more who by adding onely to my former words would make mee say the contrarie I suppose you denied before the Soules punishment without the body Where and what are my words that make the deniall You and your friends haue skanned them often and neere enough shew them or else your supposing will prooue by your leaue but a shamelesse inforcing The strongest words that I haue sounding that way are these The iustice of God both temporally and eternally punisheth the Soule by the body Which words are apparently sound and true and therefore you could not falsifie them but by putting onely of your owne vnto them which was no part of my speech nor intent Seeing now you graunt it therefore it followeth by your owne words that the wicked sinned meerely in and by their Soules It is a world to heare a man conclude so much and conceiue so little For first though the Soule bee punished without the body yet is that not the full punishment of sinne which is and must bee eternall for want of the body and therefore this reason is rightly returned on your owne head For if the body as you say doe not sinne at all then should the Soule euerlastingly bee punished without the body But that is expresse heresie gainesaying the resurrection and condemnation of the body to euerlasting fire Since then the punishment of the Soule is not full without the body it is a necessarie point of Christian truth that the body did sinne as well as the Soule otherwise it should vniustly be punished together with the Soule Againe what if the body before Iudgement bee not punished in the same place nor with the same paine that the Soule is is that a consequent the body is free from all punishment of sinne As though priuation of life corruption to dust subiection to the curse and obligation to eternall fire were no punishments which are allotted to the body for the time till the day of generall resurrection and iudgement Wherefore this reason also recuyleth vpon you For if the bodies of the wicked when they bee seuered from their Soules are not exempted from some punishment of sinne that rather inferreth the body was partner with the Soule in sinne then vtterly innocent as you would haue it How sound this is I wot not where you yeelde none other reall and positiue punishment now to the Damned but remorse and remembrance of sinne onely as it seemeth What talke you of soundnesse till you shew your selfe to haue more sense in matters of Religion To repeate all the paines which the damned doe suffer would trouble your wits and if I could doe it to what purpose were it I said the Soule seuered from her Body was punished in hell with the remembrance of sinne gnawing the conscience losse of Gods fauour afflicting the mind besides the paine of fire which torment is vnspeakable Your eyes did not serue you to see those words besides the paine of fire You vouch I yeeld no punishment to the damned now but remorse and remembrance of sinne ONLY Let your discrete Readeriudge what dealing this is and how well you deserue to be beleeued vpon your word The fire of hell you will say is no reall nor positiue punishment The triall of that will cost you deere you were best forbeare your dreames till you bring your proofes You would haue if I ghesse right at your meaning immediate paine from the hand of God tormenting Soules in hell but when you prooue that God is not able as well with meanes to punish the Soules of the wicked as without meanes and that the fire of hell so often threatned in the Scriptures is but a figure of speech to make vs afraid we wil harken after your new reall and positiue punishments which you so highly esteem because they are deuised by your selfe In saying that Christ was not free from some proper punishments to his Soule as sorow and feare in his Agonie If you meane as you speake then it followeth euidently from your owne words that Christ suffered proper punishment in his Soule from the very wrath of God which in a word is the granting of our whole Question He that will follow you in your fansies and follies shall haue some what to doe That sorrow and feare for what causes
you that an Emphaticall proposition is all one with a generall The words if you did rightly translate them are not he bare our sorowes themselues the affixe cleaueth to the Verbe and not to the Noune but our sorowes he bare them Where the Pronoune them is a superfluous addition as the best learned in the Hebrue tongue obserue in the like and not an emphasis as you would haue it Foster in his rules before his Hebrue Lexicon sayth the Hebrues often put the Noune before whose case they after repeat by a Pronoune affixed to the Verbe as in Iob. 3. verse 6. That night let darkenesse oppresse it and in the 90. Psalme The dayes of our life they are seuentie Pagnine likewise in his Hebrue Institutions teacheth that many things in the Scriptures are redundant or superfluous as touching the sense which yet grace the speech as in Genesis ca. 1. verse 30. Euery creeping thing in which is the breath of life in it and so Exodus ca. 25. verse 29. Thou shalt make basons with which to couer with them Petrus Martinius in his Hebrue Grammar noteth that Pleonasmus which is a superfluous addition is much vsed in Hebrue as in the first Psalme The wicked are as the chaffe WHICH the winde tosseth it And Iunius There is in the Hebrue tongue a pleonasmus or superfluitie of the Pronoune ioyned with the Verbe as Ierem. 5. verse 5. I will goe I to the great men Cornelius Bertrame in his table of things worthie to be obserued ioyned to Pagnines Hebrue Lexicon newly augmented by Mercer Ceuallere and himselfe sayth The Relatiue and euen the affixe are often redundant or superfluous in Hebrue Whereof the learned Reader may see many examples in the theme Bachar as the citie which I haue chosen it and Dauid whom I haue chosen him and elswhere which I omit for breuities sake S. Peter doth imitate that phrase in Greeke when he sayth By whose his stripes you are healed Our English tongue admitteth the same kinde of speech as if we should say our dayes we waste them in vanitie our bodies we weaken them with intemperance our foes we flatter them our friends we neglect them and such like where the Pronoune following the Verbs repeateth only the words and directeth the cases that went before as the Hebrue affixe doth but addeth no force vnto them Yet grant it were an emphasis doth not an emphasis stand as well to a singular or particucular proposition as to a generall My Redeemer sayth Iob I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall beholde and none other Here is a triple emphasis and yet the proposition singular Our soule it is exceedingly filled with the mockes of the wealthie Where there are three more emphaticall veheinencies and yet no proofe the proposition should be generall This we conclude the rather because the sense of paines and sorowes onely was the ransome ordained by God in Christ that by them our sinnes should be satisfied This supposall is not true and yet were it admitted it concludeth not that which you vndertooke to proue For there must be more in mans ransome than the sense of paine and sorow only otherwise euerie man might haue beene a Redeemer as well as Christ. You exclude by your adding of ONLY the chiefest waight and worth of our redemption which was the dignitie and innocencie of the person that suffered For as Gods holinesse was infinitely despighted and displeased with our disobedience in Adam and his Iustice thereby infinitely prouoked so in the satisfaction for sinne his Holinesse was to receiue an infinite recompense which was the obedience of his owne Sonne and his Iustice to finde a sufficient barre to breake off the extremitie and perpetuitie of vengeance due to our sinnes Both these the Scriptures expresse in mans ransome as well as the paines The Church of God which he purchased with his owne bloud sayth Paul Where the person of the Purchaser giueth full force to the price that was payd since the bloud of none but of him that was God and man could performe so much Againe in the very price it selfe the innocencie of the Sufferer is a part as well as the patience So Peter auoucheth You were redeemed with the precious bloud of Christ as oâ⦠a Lambe vnd filed and vnspotted It sufficeth not that he was a Lambe he must be vnspotted and vndefiled before he could be accepted for our sinnes Wherefore not the suffering alone but the offering himselfe without spot to God through the eternall spirit purged our consciences from dead workes This you are not willing to heare of who auouch Christ to be sinfull defiled hatefull and accursed by our sinnes but I trust there are few that will forget the doctrine of the Holy Ghost that Christ must be holie innocent vndefiled and separate from sinners before his sacrifice could be accepted for vs to giue eare to your vaine if not wicked illations But admit that suffering onely were the ransome of our sinnes what will follow Ergo Christ suffered all the verie same punishments that were due to vs or which the damned doe suffer Who reasoneth thus but he that is neither acquainted with trueth nor reason I speake not how blasphemous and impious your conclusion is but I aske how it any way hangeth to your antecedent What soeuer in this life might be painfull and was due to mankinde generally for sinne and in it owne nature was no sinne that Christ suffered wholly and altogether for vs euen the same which els we should This lacketh a faire deale of your generall and emphaticall collection which you would force out of Esay as if Christ had borne all our sorowes themselues that is all the same which we should haue borne You of your owne head make here three recantations of that vniuersall proposition which you goe about to proue And if your authoritie stretch so farre I hope I haue as good right to put in S. Peters limitation that Christ bare our sinnes himselfe in his bodie on the tree and S. Iohns that Christ was full of grace and trueth of whose fulnesse we all haue receiued and S. Pauls that Christ was deliuered for our sinnes into the hands of sinners to do whatsoeuer the hand and counsell of God had before determined to be done Put these exceptions to your generall assertion which haue as good interest as any of yours and better than some of yours and inferre what you can Your emphasis will not doe you a penie woorth of good nor me a farthing of hurt For as the death of Christes soule doth defile him with sinne and exclude him from God so the true paines of hell can neither be suffered in this mortall life nor at mens hands nor leaue in Christ any sparke of grace or trueth which are absurdities and impieties enough to breake the greatest beame that is in
which he so much denieth The death of the body which the godly doe suffer is to this day an euill of it selfe and the punishment of sinne but God of his mercie towards his hath giuen such grace not to death but to their faith that by suffering death patiently they shal be the more plentifully rewarded But as no wise man will say the Law is euill when the wicked abuse it to kindle their lusts so may no sober man say that the death of the faithfull is good in it selfe though by Gods goodnesse it bee made to them a triall of their patience and a passage to a better life You say the nature of death is changed and not to the faithfull any longer an euill or part of the punishment and curse which was laide oâ⦠sinne S. Austen saith the contrarie It is still an euill as it was and the nature thereof is not changed though the vse thereof be changed by faith and the consequents altered by Gods goodnesse Now things must bee esteemed by their nature and not by their vse as Austen teacheth For euill men vse good things euilly yet that maketh not good to bee euill because their vse is inuerted and euen so saith Austen good men haue a good vse of death which is euill yet that maketh not the death which they suffer to be good in it selfe or in nature to bee such as by Gods fauour it is to them When the death therefore of the faithfull is said by Saint Austen or any others to be good they meane the vse and not the nature thereof and when they say it is euill or a curse they meane the nature and not the vse For touching the nature thereof the Apostle who must be heard saith fully and resolutely Death is an enemie that must be destroyed euen in the godly And touching the vse thereof the same Apostle saith To mee Christ is life and to die is gaine Against this you neither doe nor can bring ought besides waste words and places either not vnderstood of you or wrested by you as spoken of the nature of death when they meane the vse of death which the faithfull haue by Gods abundant blessing Your selfe doe say The vengeance of the Law once executed on the suertie can no more in Gods iustice be executed on vs. In the vengeance of the law is comprised corporall spirituall and eternall death The whole Christ neither did nor could taste and bee a Sauiour A part he therefore tasted which was the death of his body and thereby freed vs from the rest which was due to our sinnes From the death of the body he hath not as yet wholly deliuered vs but hee will and in the meane time hee hath broken the linckes of death whereby those three were coupled together first in his owne person who suffered the first kinde of death and neither of the other and by vertue thereof hath done the like in all his Saints leauing their bodies for a season vnto death as his was that he may raise them after with greater power and glorie then if they had neuer died What doeth this hinder but death may truely bee called a Curse as in Christ so in his members and though execution of vengeance be restrained from vs yet imitation of Christ is not excluded neither is the generall sentence pronounced against the sinne of all mankinde To dust thou shalt returne reuoked but by the resurrection from the dead how then was it vengeance on Christ if it were due to mans nature Death was due to mans nature for sinne and consequently not due to Christ that had not sinned When therefore it was laide on him that deserued it not it must be taken as the wages of our sinne in his person and so was a wound to him though a medicine to vs because hee was wounded for our transgressions and wee were healed by his stripes Our publike doctrine in England set foorth by Master Nowel confirmeth as much To the faithfull death is now not a destruction but a changing of life and a very sure and short passage to heauen Euery thing that is licensed or liked as profitable to bee publikely read or taught is not by and by authorised in all things nor made the publike doctrine of this Realme You would faine oppose Master Nowel to Saint Austen who if hee were liuing would giue you no thanks therefore Saint Austens Faith hath beene allowed and receiued by all Synods and Councels since his time and by the whole Church of Christ as fit to guide and leade not onely learners but makers of Catechismes and therefore the match if they were repugnant is somewhat vnequall but indeede you haue neede to bee taught how to vnderstand your Catechisme That death is a destruction to the godly can you tell who saith so except it bee your selfe That it is a changing of life and short passage to heauen if you meane to the soules of the faithfull as the Caââ¦echisme doth no man doubteth thereof if you meane to their bodies that they by death change life and so haue a short passage to heauen it is a notable falsitie and heresie gainsaying the verie grounds of the Christian faith For priuation of sense and corruption to dust is no life much lesse an heauen except you will multiplie heauens as you do helles without reason or trueth It is most true which the Catechisine intendeth that death is this to the souls of the faithful but not to their bodies as yet till the generall day of resurrection and then the destruction of death in their bodies shall bring them to the full possession of heauenly glory prouided both for soule and bodie till that time their bodies lie vnder the dominion or power of death which is not yet destroied in euery part of vs because of sinne dwelling in our bodies though it throughly be conquered in the person of Christ and shall be likewise in vs at his appointed time As little to the purpose is that which you cite next out of the Catechisme that Death which before was a punishment is now become a vantage For he meaneth that death before had nothing in it nor after it but punishment and so was wholly and onely punishment which now by Christ is altered and made an aduantage to vs as well in respect of the manifold miseries and offences of this life from which we are deliuered as in regard of the felicitie and securitie which the soules of the Saints decââ¦ased enioy but this is nothing to their bodies which lie depriued of life and corrupted to dust till the finall restitution Neither is this a comparison with our condition before sinne in which we were created when soule and bodie should iointly haue beene translated to the kingdome of heauen without any sense or touch of death if we had stood fast in obedience but this noteth what death is after sinne committed without Christ and rightly saith that when
it For to the impenitent no sinnes are pardoned Except yee repent saith our Sauior ye shall all perish likewise As sinne is accursed so all punishment of sinne saith Austen is accursed meaning till it be released and no longer a punishment of sinne Which he auoucheth not of the wicked onely whose punishment is perpetuall and therefore truely and properly a curse but of all the godly when they suffer for their sinnes We saith Austen came to death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death is the sacrifice for sinne And that the death of our bodies is hatefull to God euen as our sinne is he resolueth in these words Nisi Deus odisset peccatum mortem nostram non ad eam suscipiendam atque delendam filium suum mitteret Except God had hated sinne and also death in vs he would neuer haue sent his Sonne tâ⦠vndertake and destroy our death For so much the more willingly God giueth vs immortalitie of our bodies which shal be reuealed with Christes comming how much the more mercifully he hateth our death which hung on the crosse when Christ died Here you may learne that the bodies of Martyrs are so acceptable to God that he hateth death which detaineth them in dust and that the loue which he beareth to the one is the cause why he will destroy the other as an enimie to them ââ¦hom he loueth and therefore iustly hated of him but in the meane time how false is this reason which you so much stand on God in his secret and euerlasting counsell loueth the soules and bodies of his Saints as being the members of Christ and temples of his holie spirite therefore he hateth neither sinne in their soules nor death in their bodies Nay rather the more he loueth the one the more he hateth the other and sent his Sonne to destroy both sinne and death in his elect as the Enimies that hinder and defer the true blisse promised to his seruants You say we must call things by those names which God first allotted them That I deny if God since euidently hath altered them My rule had more reason in it then you doe comprehend For if it be written of Adam in his innocencie that God brought all liuing creatures vnto man to see how hee could call them and how soeuer the man named the liuing creature so was the nââ¦me thereof how much more shall it be verified of Gods wisdome With whom is no change that he knew all his workes from the beginning of the world and therefore the word of the Lord abideth for euer that he may be iustified in whatsoeuer he saith but God you say hath made the alteration himselfe or else your conceite deceiueth you For God hath not reuoked the generall iudgement which he gaue vpon all men for sinne Dust thou art and to dust thou shalâ⦠returne but he hath performed his promise made before he inflicted this punishment that the Seed of the woman should bruize the Serpents head And therefore there is no change made by God as you imagine but he qualified his sentence at the first pronouncing of it on all his elect euen as it standeth to this day And were there that addition since made by God which you vntruely dreame of Yet Saint Austen telleth you that altereth not the name of punishment first imposed on all but sheweth Gods goodnesse towards his owne Whatsoeuer it is in those that die which with bitter paine taketh away sense by religious and faithfull enduring it it increaseth the merââ¦te of patience Non aufert vocabulum poenae it taketh not away the name of punishment His firme resolution is Wherefore as touching the death of the body that is the separation of the soule from the bodie when such as die suffer it Nulli bona est it is good to no man And noting the vse that God maketh thereof in crowning his Saints with as ample words as you haue any he resolutely concludeth Mors ergo non ideo bonum videri debet quia in tantam vtilitatem non vi sua sed diuina opitulatione conuersa est Death theâ⦠OVGHT NOT TO BE THOVGHT GOOD because by Gods mercie and not by any force of his own it is turned to so great vtilitie And this assertion you and your adherents must yeeld vnto least you rather conuince your selues then that woorthy pillour of Christes church to be in an errour For the ground that he standeth on is sure God turneth euill to a good vse and will you therefore denie euill to be euill because God vseth it well to how many good and blessed purposes doth God vse the diuell and shall the diuell by your doctrine now cease to be a diuell what excellent effectes doth God worke by the sinnes of the faithfull shall we therefore not call them nor account them sinnes you be cleane out of your byas good Sir when you come in with your changes made by God to alter the names or natures of things that be euill Afflictions and death which originally and Naturally were punishments for sinne and so are still in the wicked the same to the godly are since changed and now not punishments nor curses To wise men there is enough said to bablers who will still talke they know not what nothing is enough The Scriptures and Fathers may not be set aside to giue way to your follies Daniell confessing the sinnes of himselfe and of his people Israel plainly saith Therefore the Curse is powred vpon vs written in the Law of Moses the seruant of God because we haue sinned against him Baruc made the same confession during the Captiuitie Saint Iohn in his Reuelation of the Citie of God now brought to the presence of the Lambe saith There shall be no more Curse meaning amongst the faithfull as there was before For the wicked then shall be most deepely accursed Saint Austen learnedly and largely writing of the miseries of mans life saith Quot quantis poenis agitetur genus humanum quae non ad malitiam nequitiamque iniquorum sed ad conditionem pertinent miseriamque communem quis vllo sermone digerit quis vlla cogitatione comprehendit With how many and how great punishments mankinde is persued which pertaine not to the malice and leudnesse of the wicked but to the common condition and calamitie of man what tongue cââ¦n expresse what heart can comprehend And repeating many particulars which there may be seene he concludeth Satis apparet humanum genus ad luendas miseriarum poenas esse damnatum It appeareth sufficiently that mankââ¦de is condemned to endure the punishments of miseries And lest you should flie to your shift of improper speeches as your maner is S. Austen exquisitly discusseth and resolueth this question that these miseries and afflictions come from the iust iudgement of God
admit the ransom which his own Sonne most willingly offered for vs when we were his Enemies or will conclude that Christ must iustly desââ¦e death because he did willingly die for vs You see now what I say to Christes death he died most iustly to God because most willingly for vs and yet most vndeseruedly because most innocently If Christ died not by Gods iustice then woe and thrice woe to vs for it can not be but Gods iustice must be executed If Gods iustice against vs were not satisfied by his Sonne and so appeased wo were it with vs but if any man be so madde headed that either the Sonne of God or himselfe must be euerlastingly damned for the full execution of Gods iustice against sinne then woe indeed to that hellish infidelitie and blessed for euer be Gods loue and mercie towards vs that accepted the death of his Sonne for our sinnes which Christ willingly offââ¦red as the price of our redemption when he could by no sentence of the law be thereto bound Therefore my Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my life for my sheepe None taketh it from me but I lay it downe of mine owne selfe And so the Prophet foretold of him If he will or shall lay downe his soule or life for sinne he shall see his seed prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands What if hanging on a tree were no necessarie part of the gââ¦erall curse it was neuerthelesse iust from God vpon him as well as his death Neither ââ¦th nor hanging nor any part of Christes punishment was iust from God as deserued by Christ either in respect of his nature or of his office but all was most iust with God euen on Christ in respect of Christs owne free willingnesse to reconcile vs to God with his death rather then we should perish And if both these were iust in Gods secret Counsell by reason of Christs good liking so to ransome man what is that to the sentence of the Law which Iudgeth euery man according to his works and punisheth only the transgressour out of which number Christ is excepted by the continuall Caueats of the holy Scriptures Still I meane iustly in respect of God alone And still I say iustly in respect of Christs willingnesse only which is nothing to the sentence of the Law For the law respecteth the euill desert of the Transgressour and not the good will of the Redeemer or Suretie You mislike that Christ should suffer iustly because he suffered willingly for vs which hindreth not at all Since that was most iust with God in his secret counsell whereto his Sonne was most willing I vtterlie misliked as the whole Church of Christ before me did that the Sonne of God should be thought to be bound to death who must be most free or deseruing death by the sentence of the Law punishing sinners because he was willing to beare our burden And if you looke well about you you shall find the second person in Trinitie vndertooke to ransome vs from our sinnes long before his manhood was borne euen from the foundation of the world and to lay any band vpon the Sonne of God besides his owne good will and pleasure aduise you whether it tendeth And since God would not haue the death of Christes manhood but as a sacrifice most freely willingly offered vnto him for sinne least there should appeare any constraint or necessitie layd on the person of Christ let the Reader iudge with what trueth you not onely bind the second person in Trinitie to be subiect to the sentence of the Law but taint the soule of Christ with the vncleannesse of our sinne because he suffered the punishment thereof in our steedes The voluntarie suertie beareth his penaltie iustly when he sustaineth that which the Debtour by Law should sustaine It is a penaltie to patience to heare you talke so vnwisely and vniustly of Iustice. Shall mercie and charitie in Christians that ease other mens shoulders or pay other mens debts be taken now with you for the iust desert of a penaltie How much lesse then may the loue and fauour of God redeeming vs with his owne blood and ââ¦aling vs with his owne stripââ¦s be called a ââ¦ust and well deserued punishment Mans law may exact the debt where the Suertie standeth bound to the ââ¦aw to see it satisfied From one freely offering to pay another mans debts the Law may iustly receiue it because he is willing but the Law cannot exact it because he is at libertie which is the true difference betwixt a Suertie bound and a free Ransommer and yet neither is guiltie of the prisoners offences You say no Law you are sure not Gods law alloweth a murderer or like offender to be shared and another that is willing to be hanged in his steede You haue all this while dallied with Gods iustice you now begin to play with Gods Law that where trueth faââ¦th you you may yet at least make some shew with wordes as all wranglers doe when they be driuen to the wall whereof the discreet Reader may take a sensible obseruation in this place You haue bene spuddling here and spending more then two leaues to prooââ¦e that Christ bare the true curse of the Law which was due to vs for sinne and that the Apostle speaking thereof Galat. 3. could haue none other meaning and therefore you resolued that Christ was hanged by the iust sentence of the Law which otherwise must light on vs if it were not laid on him What Law ment you all this while or what Law doth Paul dispute of in that place Not of that Law which accurieth and punisheth sinne That Law I said admitted no Suerties but reuenged the malefactours themselues and therefore by the sentence of that Law Christ could not be iustly accursed or hanged in our steedes Against this when you can say nothing you get you to the Gospell of Christ which proposeth glad tydings of our Redemption from the burden of our sinnes and from the curse of the Law by the most willing and innocent death of the Sonne of God for our sakes and by that Lawe you say Christ might and did die for vs as our Suertie I aske the indifferent Reader whether this be not a plaine running from the question and a resigning of all that you haue said before touching tââ¦e ââ¦es accursing of Christ as our Suertiâ⦠For the Gospell I trust doth not pronounce Christ to be either accursed for our sinnes or defiled with our sinnes but shewed him to be the blessed Seede that bruized the Sââ¦pents head and the vndefiled and vnspotted Lambe that tooke away the sinne of the world with his most innocent and precious blood This shifting therefore which is so vsuall with you that as long as you can wrench a word you will not yeeld to the trueth will breake the necke of your cause in the end with all
increased by continuall transgressing which defileth the sinner and cleaueth to the soule till she be washed with the bloud and renewed by the spirit of Christ. The guiltinesse of sinne is double in regard either of the sinne committed or of the punishment prepared The witnesse of our conscience priuie to our doings when our cogitations accuse vs and our harts condemne vs this is the conuiction ââ¦hat God doth and will vse in Iudgement himselfe as greater then our harts not onely knowing but reuealing the things hid in Darkenesse and manifesting the Counsels of ech mans hart The guiltinesse of punishment noteth the iust deseruing thereof by vs or the fast binding of vs thereto by the rule of Iustice. If I bring not backe thy Sonne vnto thee said Iudah to Iacob his Father I will sinne vnto thee euery day not meaning he would euery day offer new offences to his Father but that he would be guiltie of that sinne for euer Whosoeuer shall eate this Bread saith Paul or drinke this Cup of the Lord vnworthily shall be guiltie of the Body and bloud of the Lord that is guiltie of sinning against the Body and bloud of the Lord. Now the workeman is worthie of his reward whether it be in good or euill and therefore punishment is the wages of sinne worthily deserued or certainly reserued for sinners by the Iudgement of God When the high Priest asked the Councel touching Christ behold ye heard his blasphemy what thinke ye They answered he is guiltie of death that is worthie to die and so they condemned him as WORTHIE to die Sometimes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is obliged and assured of punishment as he that blasphemeth against the holy Ghost shall neuer be pardoned but guiltie that is assured of euerlasting condemnation So likewise the true malediction of sinne is triple For as the true blessings of God haue three degrees First his loue which is the roote of all our happinesse then his grace which is the meane of hauing that which is fit for this life and of hoping for the rest and lastly his glorie which is the full fruition of the reward for his in the heauens so the true Curse of sinne which is the depriuation of all true blessing hath the same degrees I meane the losse of Gods loue which is his hatred and detestation of sinne the lacke of his grace to know like or imitate his goodnes in this life and lastly the repulse from his kingdome with the terrible iudgement and eternall miserie prouided for the wicked Come now to your Termes of sinfull defiled and accursed and see how well they agree to Christ. First if the holinesse of God were so great in his Person as to purge our vncleannesse much more was it able to resist our Corruption and to keepe him from being defiled with our sinnes from which he clensed vs. Againe if he were any way defiled with our sinnes he must needs offer Sacrifice first for himselfe and then for vs. But this is quite repugnant to the Apostles Doctrine who saith Christ needed not to offer vp any such Sacrifice for himselfe Thirdly if he were defiled by our sinnes his office must defile him his nature nor Actions could not That which was borne of the Virgine was HOLY his life was innocent and iust he did no sinne nor knew no sinne his office was more holy then either of these For these resisted sinne but his office clensed sinne Now to clense others from sinne required more holinesse then to keepe himselfe from sinne The one is the holinesse of the Creature the other of the Creator And how should the Priesthood defile him when the Sacrifice was holy and vndefiled Christ offered himselfe without spot to God saith the Apostle directly speaking of his Sacrifice And Peter calleth him the Lamb vnspotted and vndefiled which must be in respect of his Sacrifice For he was the Lamb of God which tooke away the sinnes of the world Else how could he be a Sacrifice of a sweete smelling sauour vnto God whose eyes are pure and can not behold wickednes if he were any way vncleane with his owne or with our sinnes and if our sinnes could then defile him or make him vnclean he is at this day sitting in the heauens defiled vncleane For we haue the very same coniunction with him now that we had then being members of his Body as then we were and he our head and he still presenteth vs to God as then he did and euen by the vertue of those sufferings which he sustained here on earth for vs. So that his mediation is now by the power of that Passion which he then endured and if his assuming Sinners into his Body or being the propitiation for our sinnes could then touch him with any vncleannesse he can not be free from it at this present But his Priesthood was holy then and vndefiled and so remaineth still both pure and perpetuall And if in the figuratiue Sacrifices of the Law neither the Pââ¦st nor the Sacrifice were defiled with the sinnes of the People but were sanctified and accepted when the one did offer the other was offered for sinne what ground of truth can it haue that the true most holy and acceptable Sacrifice for sinne which indeede purged the sinnes of the world should defile either the Person of Christ or his office or his action in that oblation Lastly since all pollution of Soule is inherent which you graunt was not in Christ how should he be defiled that had nothing in him but holinesse and righteousnesse which I trust are not defiled If Christ were not defiled with our sinnes then was he not sinfull One sinn defileth how much more then doth the fulnesse of sinne make Christ vncleane which is your deuotion to the Sonne of God I meane not inherently but by imputation You meane he was defiled and sinnefull not truely but falsely Did you speake of men who erre in their iudgements it might be borne but when you speake of God there is no imputation with him but in trueth vnlesse you will change the Apostles doctrine Let God be true and euery man a liar and say God must be a lyar afore you can speake trueth in this behalfe God doth impute righteousnesse to vs that be sinners by pardoning our offences and accepting vs for Christes sake when of our selues we are most vnwoorthie but vncleannesse he doth not impute where none is found because he giueth freely by mercy and condemneth iustly by desert The punishment of our sinnes Christ did willingly beare in his bodie the guilt of our sinnes he did not and that made his sufferings the more righteous as being without desert or guilt Did God then wrong his Sonne in afflicting him he laide the burden of our iniquities on the bodie of Christ who was willing to redeeme our danger with his owne death and
by the infinite dignitie of his person able to support the one and abolish the other and that the rather because euerie part of Christes manhood was holie and vndefiled and so by the rule of Gods iustice no part of him could be pressed with spirituall and eternall death Which is a plaine proofe that the guilt of our sinnes tooke not hold on him For then as well spirituall as eternall death which both are due to sinne must haue fastned on Christ which we see to be false yea the death of the bodie could not wrest his soule from him but he must lay it downe of himselfe And if the desert of a corporall death did not binde him how should the guilt of eternall death be due to him which was the ââ¦ust wages of our sinne but no way due to his person since he did assume our sinnes to cleere vs from them and not to subiect himselfe to the guilt or filth of our sinne though he were content to make full satisfaction for them but not to defile himselfe with any pollution of them How could he be by God properly and truly punished and cursed for sinne but that he was sinfull hatefull Nay how could he either clense vs or reconcile vs to God if he were sinfull hatefull to God as well as we As we had Christ for our Redeemer because we weââ¦e hated of God for sin so if you bring Christ within the same danger displeasure with God he must haue another to mediate to God for him God respecteth not those whom he hateth nor heareth any that is sinful without some other to propiââ¦e for him And where you quote Scriptures to vphold your wicked follies and phrases they prooue the cleane contrarie The soule that sinneth the same shall dic saith God by Ezechiel But Christes soule did not die either by want of grace or losse of glorie which are the deaths proper to sinners Christes soule therefore by the verie place which you cite was not sinnefull Shail nââ¦t the Iudge of all the world doe right saide Abraham to God What right is there ment but that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked as Abrahams words before import Since then Christ was not destroââ¦ed either in soule or bodie but by death made conquerer of death and a Sauiour to all his what a venemous mouth haue you to match him with the wicked or to make thââ¦s destruction And heere the Reader may obserue how religiously you wrest the Scriptures to reproch the Sonne of God and where you can by no sufficient testimonie prooue Christ to haue beene sinnefull or hatefull to God as you dââ¦fend when he died for our sinnes you sort him with the reprobate and damned and then ââ¦ge the Scriptures against him that directly speake of them I wish you to leaue this lewd deuotion and not to thinke to shift off all this with a pretended imputation Our sinnes God did impute that is impose on Christ for ââ¦e bââ¦re them in his bodie on the ââ¦ee but this was right with God because Christ was both willing and able to beare them and an honour to the humane nature of Christ to be made l ord ouer all his enimies for the short affliction which he suffered at their hands and Sauiour of all beleeuers for the submission and obedience which he performed on the crosse in which Gods exceeding mercy towards vs and loue towards him did most manifestly appeare Did not God then hate our sinnes when he punished his owne Sonne for them If that ground of Christian religion could haue contented you that God throughly hated our sinnes which Christ assumed and yet so loued the person assuming them that the fauour he bare to the one ouer-rulââ¦d his anger due to the other and therefore after sharpe chastisement on the person least wee should thinke our transgressions to be lightly regarded with God and yet such as the sufferer willingly reââ¦ued to maintaine the iustice of his Father exalted him with infinite honour and gaue him all power in earth and heauen and made him onely Lord ouer all both men and Angels If this confession of true Religion had pleased you you neuer needed to haue defiled your pen with these sinfull hatefull and accursââ¦d termes But haââ¦ing itching eares and humorous heads you measure the greatest mysteries of our saluation by the similitude and proportion of humane reason and actions and thence deââ¦iue according to your fantasies that which Scriptures and Fathers doe vtterly disclaime It is written God sent his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flââ¦sh for sinne and condemned sinne in his flesh in which likenesse he stoode before God The Scripture teacheth that Christ was made like to his brethren in all things and did partake with them in flesh and bloud but the same Scripture addeth without sinne So that the likenesse of sinfull flesh excludeth all touch or taint of our sinne though it admit the likenesse of our flesh in Christ. And indeede betweene his and ours there was no difference saue the corruption of sinne which dwelleth in ours and did not in his You doe therefore learnedly collect out of the Apostles words that where he saith Christ was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh for that he had true flesh and no sinne you make Christ to be defiled and accursed with sinne for hauing the likenesse of our flesh But the Syriacke translation saith God condemned sinne in Christes flesh The condemning of sinne in the flesh of Christ was the cleansing and abolishing of sinne by the body of Christ which the Apostle calleth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the destroying and taking away of sinne by the sacrifice of himââ¦elfe The text doth notsay that God condemned Christ for sinne but contrarie that God condemned sin that is pardoned the guilt weakned the power remooued the sting and abandoned the memoriall of all our sinnes for the obedience and patience which Christ shewed in his flesh So that it is you and not the Apostle nor the Syriacke translator which would faine bring Christ within the compasse of condemnation for sinne where they say quite otherwise that not hee but sinne was condemned that is destroyed in or by his flesh Chrysostome saith rightly Thou seest sinne euery where condemned not the flesh which was crouned and obtained iudgement against sinne And Austen taketh libertie to expound the Text against your Syriacke translation By the similitude of sinfull flesh saith he which was Christes God condemned sinne in the flesh of sinne which was ours God made him sinne for vs that we might be made the rightcousnesse of God in him Other men read the Scriptures to learne thence all thanks submission and seruice to the Sonne of God for his vnspeakeable loue and mercie towards vs in taking the burden of our sinnes and laying it on his owne shoulders You thresh and winnow the Scriptures to catch vp chaffe
purged that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him by the remitting of all our sinnes and the restoring vs to the fauour of God and graunt these words that our sinnes were imputed to him that his righteousnesse might be imputed to vs which yet are not the Apostles words where is the proportion you so confidently speake of that as we are made his righteousnesse so he was made our sinne This comparison vnlimited it notorââ¦ously false and were it true it euerteth all your frame The full and euerlasting reward of his righteousnesse is allotted to vs. Was the wages of our sinnes so imposed on hiâ⦠His righteousnesse is now imputed to vs because it shall be perfectly inherent in vs and is presently sealed vnto vs by the spirit of adoption whereby our harts are inherently sanctified Were our sinnes so imputed to him that they should afterward perfectly possesse him To vs God imputeth Christs righteousnesse without our consents and often without our knowledge as in children baptized Were out sinnes imputed to Christ without his vnderstanding or will In vs God hateth out sinnes and ioueth our persons for Christes sake To keepe this comparison will you say that God hated the righteousnesse of Christ and loued the sinne imputed to him for our sakes And were there not so many differences in the maner of Christes hauing our sinnes and our hauing his righteousnesse as there are yet are you no whit the nearer For as we no way deserue to be his righteousnesse so he no way deserued to be our sinne And though God forget all our sinnes and putteth them vtterly out of his sight when he washeth vs from them yet God did not wholly cast Christs righteousnesse out of his remembrance when he did punish him for our sinnes Christ therefore tooke our sinnes from vs and layed them on himselfe but he doth not take his righteousnesse from himselfe to giue it to vs but doth impart it to vs as hauing enough for himselfe and for vs because he is God as well as man So that all our sinnes were imputed to him to make vs iust yet all his righteousnesse is not imputed to vs to make him a finner as you would haue him but he bare the punishment of our sinnes which the Apostle calleth sinne that we might receiue the reward of his righteousnesse not in cogitation or computation only but in deed and execution For euen in this life where we aââ¦e continuall sinners we haue no righteousnesse but what is ioyned with the reall remission of our sinnes pardoned for Christes sake and with the grace of Gods spirit purifying our hearts by faith and inflaming them with the loue of Gods goodnesse and mercie towards vs. Our righteousnesse then in Christ hath more then imputation though imputation be also needfull it hath the seale of Gods spirit possessing our hearts and the inherent graces of faith and loue which God accepteth at our hands and thereby maketh vs partakers of Christes righteousnesse for that we beleeue in the name of his only Sonne Whereas you say the Fathers haue two good senses of the Apostles words Christ was made sinne for vs the one That God made Christ a sacrifice for sinne the other That God vsed him As he doth sinners what is there in both these which we acknowledge not Yea what is this later but the very same point which we vrge You admit both and yet vnderstand neither as you ought to doe If you acknowledge the death and bloud of Christ to be the true and onely sacrifice for sinne then must you acknowledge these three things in it that it was pleasing to God vndefiling the Priest and elensing the sinner If as well the oblation as the offerer were holie and acceptable to God why doe you defend that Christ was sinnefull and hatefull in his sufferings for sinne which was the sacrifice that he offered for sinne If it clensed the offender how could it deââ¦ile the sacrificer who was the Mediatour to God for abolishing sin you will haue one and the same sacrifice to be holie acceptable and auaileable for sinne and yet to be defiled hatefull and accursed with sinne you may call lighâ⦠darknesse and good euill and thinke the prophet denouneeth no woe to you because your inuentions are priuiledged But to mine vnderstanding and I thinke to your Readers these plaine contrarieties of holy and defiled acceptable and hatefull righteous and sinnefull in one and the same sacrifice and sufferer at one and the same time will not stand together but you must be colted or cursed in your warbling conââ¦its It is nothing else in all this Question that we held but that God vsed Christ our Redeemer and Suertie As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth You neuer want an As to helpe you at need You heare the Fathers say for of their sense you speake that God permitted the wicked to reproch his Sonne and to put him to a shamefull and cruell death as if he had beene the vilest malefactor amongst the multitude thence you collect that God punished Christ As he doth sinners that is with the greatest and sorest torments of death and damnation that are in this life or in hell But this As doth rather plunge you into the mire then plucke you out of it and therefore you adde so farre as possibilitie admitteth Now how farre that is by whom shall we be tried by the Scriptures and Fathers or by your shallow conceits and fancies you haue beene told often enough that where the Scriptures make three kinds of death due to sinners and for sinne the death of the bodie the death of the soule and the second death which is the euerlasting torment of bodie and soule in hell fire and all the learned and Catholike Fathers hold the same confession the two last deaths spirituall and eternall are not onely impossibilities but horrible blasphemies to be ascribed to the person of Christ and to either of these you would not yet speake one word but by stealth Now you haue gotten hold of a double As saying that God vsed Christ As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth you thinke your selfe safe and out of this As you will frame vs new deaths of the soule a new Hell and all the same which the damned doe suffer in substance not in circumstance But we haue long looked for your proofes and till they come tie vp your As to serue you for another turne For this the Fathers are not silent if I were so ambitious as you in producing multitudes of men Only Cyprian and Athanasius and Austen shall content me in this Whether my care to teach nothing touching matters of Faith but what I see confirmed by the Scriptures and confessed by the writings of the Auncient Fathers may be called Ambition I leaue it to the Reader my paines haue beene the more therein which if any condemne I referre the Cause to him
which God gaue against Adam for eating of the forbidden fruit Soluit you interpret he satisfied where the word is he loosed or dissolued it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã you translate vnder the appearance Athanasius meaning the substance of mans soule and bodie which he calleth the fourme of man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã you render of a Damned man applying it to Christ for some countenance to your cause in laying the paines of the damned on the soule of Christ where Athanasius speaketh that word of Adam that was condemned for sinne in whose substance or forme Christ appeared that is a true man to dissolue the sentence giuen against Adam when he was first condemned And that which is most intolerable where Athanasius in the same sentence the verie next words expresly addeth that Christ was altogether vntouched either with condemnation or with sinne to shew that he ment Adam in the former word of condemnation you purposely skippe and neglect that which should lead you to the trueth of his speech and directly against his plaine and manifest words you referre Damnation to Christ as if in spite of Athanasius though he earnestly and openly professe the contrary you would wrest his words to dishonour and belie Christ and make the Reader beleeue that some before you had ascribed damnation vnto Christ. But be ashamed of these monstrous falsifications if you haue any shame in you or if not your Reader will soone perceaue what cause it is you haue in hand that must be vpheld with such hatefull forgeries Athanasius doctrine is very sound and good though you will not acknowledge it that Christ in his owne person taking our humane nature vnto him dissolued the sentence that he gaue against Adam when he condemned him for transgressing and by his bodie dead and laid in the graue he freed our bodies from the power of corruption and with his soule descending into hell he quited our soules from all the right and power that hell had ouer vs by sinne This whiles Athanasius mindeth to expresse he saith He that examined Adams disobedience and gaue iudgement comprised a double punishment in his sentence saying to the earthly part earth thou art and to earth thoushalt returne and to the soule thou shalt die the death and thereupon man is deuided in twaine and condemned to goe vnto two places to wit his bodie to the graue and his soule to hell It was therefore needfull that the pronouncer of that sentence should himselfe by himselfe dissolue his owne sentence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã appearing in the forme or substance of him that was condemned but yet without either condemnation or sinne that the freedome of the whole man might be wrought by man in the newnesse of the image of the Sonne of God I shall not need to prooue that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is the substantiall forme as well of God as of man the Apostle applieth it to both and Athanasius in this verie place saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The fourme of his owne soule vnsubiected to the bands of death Christ sent present before them and so againe Christ deliuering vs ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in his owne perfect and true formâ⦠or substance answerable to ours This could you not chuse but see if either you perused Athanasius himselfe or the verie page 181. of my conclusion which you cite and whence you tooke this authoritie where it is euident by the full wordes of Athanasius in the same sentence that Christ was cleere from sinne and vncondemned and that man was the person condemned for sinne which you could not misse without infinite negligence or inexcusable blindnesse Austen we saw a little before We saw his name as now we doe but we sawe no words of his that any way made to your purpose He saith Accursed is all sinne whether it be the deed deseruing or the punishment deserued which is called sinne because it commeth by or from sinne And likewise that Christ receaued our punishment without sinne that thereby he might dissolue our sinne and end our punishment Truely accursed is sinne and the punishment inflicted on the ofââ¦ender for sinne abiding without remission or repentance otherwise punishment after sinne remitted as in the godly or without desert of sinne as in Christ is not a true curse separating from God not from the true blessings of God which make vs certainly and euerlastingly happie but it is a curse depriuing vs of externall and corporall blessings which God of his bountie first bestowed on the life of man and often recalleth for triall of obedience and chastising of disobedience as also for preuenting occasions of sinne and auoiding of greater vengeance if we should be suffered to walke secure and carelesse in the waies of our hearts Christ then receaued a curse for vs which in him was the chastisement or punishment of our sinne yet as he no way deserued it so was it not destruction which lighteth on the wicked for their wilfull persisting in sinne but a proofe of his obedience and a full satisfaction for our offences respecting his person that suffered it who was God and Man and is by Saint Austen called our Punishment as well for the cause which was wholy ours as for the likenesse it had with the punishments prouided for vs in this life where Christ suffered and not in hel where Christ could not suffer It is no euill in it selfe to be punished but to deserue punishment And so Basil. The true euill is sinne whose end is destruction that which seemeth euill with afflicting or greeuing the sense hath the force of good in it Your former sense that Christ was a sacrifice for sinne how differeth it from your second that he was punished for our sinnes With you it may be a question with me it is none For though they were both ioined in Christes sufferings yet that is no reason to take away their difference In the sacrifice which Christ ofââ¦ered vnto God for the sinnes of the world himselfe was the Priest and the Offerer and by his willing obedience submitting himselfe to his Fathers will made a recompence for our sinne which we could not doe In his Martyrdome he was a patient sufferer of that which the Iewes with cruell and wicked rage wrongfully laid on him when he was deliuered by Gods determinate counsell into their hands Now betweene his patient suffering from men and willing offering to God there is some difference if you could see it though they were both coupled in his death they both prooue directly and necessarily that he must be indeed sinnefull by imputation The one prooueth that he bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree but by no meanes that he was guiltie of them the other sheweth that he clensed our sinnes and so was no way defiled with them How could he be truely punished for sinne by God but that he was sinnefull by imputation Because he
was most willing and able to make recompence to God for our sinnes by the dignity and innocencie of his person which we could not And who but you concludeth a Mediatour and Redeemer to be guiltie of their sinnes for whom he maketh mediation and Redemption If a man intreat pardon for a theefe or a traytor vpon repentance and satisfaction for the wrong shall he by your Diuinitie be a theefe and a traitour as well as the prisoner If it were not lawfull for Princes to pardon then were it vnlawfull for others to aske it but in afââ¦oording mercie where repentance is promised and none wronged Princes shew the power and right of their swordes in Gods steed as well to accept the penitent where they please as to reuenge the obstinate Shall it not then be much more iust with God in whose only will and hand is the supreame power of all things to release his wrath and pardon his prisoner vpon repentance and recompence offered to his iustice How can any suffer at Gods hand except he be reputed sinnefull For such as were his owne Christ might suffer and be no way touched with any guilt of their sinne but rather accepted with God and honored with men for the greatnesse of his mercy and charitie And if he be no good shepheard that flieth to saue his owne life and leaueth his flocke to the woolfe but the goodnesse of a shepheard is tried as our Sauiour saith by ventring his life for his sheepe how commeth it into your braines to make Christ a sinnefull and hatefull shepheard for giuing his life for his sheepe We ought saith Saint Iohn to lay downe our liues for our brethren Shall that wrappe vs vs within the guilt of other mens sinnes or rather commend our obedience to God when we venter our liues our dueties so requiring to preuent other mens harmes But God himselfe you will say doth not punish in this case and therefore he holdeth vs not guiltie As though an haire of our heads could fall without Gods appointment and decree or he would accept it as his seruice if it made vs sinfull What rude and lewd ignorance is it to make that sinfull in Christ which is commended to vs by his example and commanded vs for his loue and the good of others The Iewes sacrifices the expresse figures of Christ do most liuely set out this thing When they were brought vnto God the people must lay on their hands vpon the heads of the beasts shewing thereby that their sinnes were put vpon the sacrifice and that God so accounted them indeed to be As your doctrine is most vnsauerie so your proofs be most vnsound your fansies are so fraighted with falshood that you can not almost speake a trueth To what end the bringers of Sacrifices did lay their hands on the heads thereof is not expressed in the Scripture though you boldly auouched it by the example of the Scape-goat on which the high Priest alone imposed his hands In peace-offerings of thanksgiuing where was no mention of sinne as well as in burnt offerings and sinne offerings the people layed their hands on the heads of their sacrifices and in sinne-offerings the laying on of their hands might be a confession of the fault which they were guilty of or of their desert that they were worthie to die or of their faith in looking to be saued from their sinnes by the bloud of the true Sacrifice which should purge them from all their vncleannesse The Scape-goat which you make a president for all other Sacrifices but very falsely was not slaine at all and had no hands layd on him saue the high Priests alone and liuing caried away the sinnes of the people into a land not inhabited What resemblance hath this with the bloudie sacrifice of Christ for sinne or what comparison can you make betweene them but by contrarieties The other bloudie Sacrifices which vndoubtedly were figures of Christ teach no such thing as you imagine but rather plainly confute it For as in nature they were not capable of the guilt but onely of the paine of sinne which is death so in vse they were holy and in their reference to the true sacrifice accepted for the sinnes of men And because you now admit them to be expresse and liuely figures of Christ which in the beginning you denied resolue your Reader whether they were defiled and hatefull to God or no. The Scripture sayth of them they were most holy and accepted as offerings of a sweet sauour vnto God And if the figuratiue Sacrifices when they did beare the sinnes of transgressors were not defiled therewith but most holy and accepted to God what true Christian will endure your vncleane thoughts and words that the Sonne of God was defiled with our sinnes and hatefull to God for them when he assumed them to abolish them by the shedding of his bloud and to purge vs from all pollution of flesh and spirit Neither trust to your termes of imputation to saue you from impietie of heart and mouth our sinnes were imputed to Christ to beare the burden of them in his bodie that is to be chastiââ¦ed for them but not to be defiled with them or guiltie of them much lesse to be hatefull to God and truely accursed for them The comparison of Christ with a Suretie is neither a simple similitude as you simplie call it neither is it vncleane but a ââ¦olie and sit representation of Christes paying our debt for vs. Christes vndertaking our cause and paying our debts in farre more ample and pleasing maner to God then we were able I no way reiect or reproue it is the ankââ¦r and holde of our saluation but that you bound him thereto by a single similitude of a Suretie who could not be bound farther then his owne loue and liking did leade him I did and do mislike and say if you take not heed thereto it breedeth a peââ¦tilent and perniââ¦ious heresie For it is most certaine that long before the manhood of Christ was conceiued the second person in Trinity vndertooke our redemption and in that respect the true and eternall God euen from the beginning professed himselfe to be our Redeemer I am sure sayth Iob that my Redeemer liueth Thou hast redeemed me ô Lord God of trueth sayth Dauid Of the Israelites he likewise sayth When he slew them they sought him and remembred that God was their strength and the most high God their Redeemer He that made thee sayth Esay thine husband whose name is the Lord of hosts and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel shall be called the God of the whole world And againe Thou ô Lord art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is for euer and euer And lest any should diuert this to the deliuerance out of Egypt which was a figure of their true redemption from sinne and Satan Dauid saith The Lord redeemeth the Soules
flat falsity and impiety only the generall words that Christ suffered Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes may be tolerated because the Scriptures vse to call the bitternesse of affliction in whom soeuer the wrath of God by reason it riseth not simply out of Gods fauour and bountie but is permixed with his Iustice that the transitorie and tolerable smart of our sinnes may euen in this life when we feele it and faint vnder it commend vnto vs the wonderfull grace of God that hath for Christs sake released vs of those euerlasting and vnspeakable Torments which our sinnes iustly deserued the Reprobate fully feare and the damned by experience most dreadfully doe feele p Defenc. pag. 90. li. 8. You bring a Reason against this that God spiritually punisheth no man but for his owne vncleannesse which is a thing meerely vntrue Out of two Pages in my Sermons against the death of Christs Soule you piked two words where I call the death of the Soule spirituall punishment and because to auoyde tediousnesse I repeat not in euery line the same words you neglect that purposely in that Section I entreate of the death of the Soule that eighteene times in those two Pages I name the life and death of the Soule that ouer right those very words which you bring I set this Note in the Margine the Death of Christs Soule could neither proceede from God nor be acceptable vnto God as the summe of that which I intended to prooue in that place that my Conclusion immediatly vrged vpon these words is this q Serm. pag. 103. li. 1. Christ then might not suffer the inward or euerlasting death of the Soule All this I say you neglect and ouer-skip many sound and sure reasons in those two sides against the death of Christs Soule and carpe at two poore words where I vse spirituall punishment for the death of the Soule But take the words in their right sense for the death of the Soule whereof I reason in that place and then see what you and all your Adherents can say against them Eternall or spirituall death which seuereth the Soule from all grace and glory God layeth on none for an others fault because God neuer reiecteth or condemneth any Man but vpon his owne desert Punish one for another by affliction of Bodie or Mind he may because he can restore and recompence when he seeth his Time though no Man Christ Iesus excepted can want sinne whiles here he liueth which God may iustly punish when and in what respect he will r Defenc. pag. 90. li. 13. But I pray you shew me this mysterie how it is that God cannot punish spiritually where there is no sinne inherent but can and may corporally where there is none Though there lie no Children of Adam in whom there was not sinne either naturally cleauing to tââ¦em or voluntarily committed by them yet Infants after Baptisme by which Originall sinne and corruption in them is pardoned are said by better Diuines then you or I to haue no sinne and to be often punished corporally for other mens faultes Saint Austen asserteth both s August Epist 28. Quis nonit quid paruulis de quorum cruciatibus dââ¦ritia maiorum contunditur aut exercetur fides aut misericordia probatur Quis inquam nouit quid ipsis paruulis in secreto indicââ¦orum suorum bonae compensationis reseruat Deus quoniam quanquam nihil rectè fecerint tamen nec peccantes aliquid ista perpessi sunt Who can tell what good Recompence God reserueth in the secrecie of his Iudgements for those Infants by whose paines or Torments the hardnesse of their Parents or friends is repressed or their Faith exercised or their pittie prooued because though the Children did no good Acts yet neither suffered they those things for any sinne of theirs Neither doth the Church in vaine recommend those Infants to be honored as Martyrs which were slaine by Herode when he sought to kill the Lord Iesus Christ. Zanchius sayth the like Of t Zanchius iâ⦠tractitionibus Theologicis de 2. praecepto pa. 340. the punishments pertayning to this present life by which we are visited of the Lord either in our outward goods or in our bodies it is a cleere case that God verie often doth visite the sinnes of the Fathers vpon the children But in the death of the soule which is the spirituall punishment that I ment God himselfe sayth u Ezech. 18. The soule that sinneth euen that shall die the sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father but the wickednesse of the wicked shall be vpon himselfe Saint Austen maketh the difference that I spake of x August ââ¦pist 75. Neque enim haec corporalis est poena qualegimus quosdam contemptores Dei cum suis omnibus qui eiusdem impietatis participes non fuerant pariter infectos Tunc quidem ad terrorem viuentium mortalia corpora perimebantur quando que vtique moritura spirââ¦tualis autem pââ¦na animas obligat de quibus dictum est anima quae peccauerit ipsa morietur This is no corpor all punishment in which we reade some despisers of God haue beene wrapped with all theirs that were not partakers of the same iniquitie for then to the terror of the liuing mortall bodies were slaine which at one time or an other must haue died But a spiritual punishment bindââ¦th soules of whom it is said the soule that sinneth that soule shall die Neither shall you euer be able to shew that one soule was slaine for an others fault as mens bodies often haue beene except they both did communicate in sinne which was the cause of their common destruction y Defenc pag. 90. li. 16. All the rest of your assertions Pag. 101. 102. 103. 105. 266. 94. are of this suite I like your wit that you can make short worke and when you can not answer to saie the things be of like sute But refell the reasons brought in these pages against the death of the soule and you will finde a warmer suite then you are ware of I need not repeate them if it please the Reader to peruse them let him iudge in Gods name whether it were weakenesse in you or in them that made you ouerslip them z Defene pag. 90. li. 17. By this one reason I weakened all yours but you could passâ⦠that ouer aââ¦swearing vnto it not a word By what authoritie must euerie trifle of yours be tediously discusââ¦ed when you leape ouer sixe leaues at a iumpe least you should entangle your selfe with more then you could well discharge It was belike some worthie reason that I durst not so much as offer a word about it let vs heare it in Gods name a Ibid. li. 18. If Christs body hanging on the crosse and held by death in the graue was punished by God where yet hee found no sinne and which he still intirely loued and was neuer separated from then so he
of this iudgment Christ before expressed when he said and I if I were exalted to the Crosse will draw all men vnto me And after when rising from his feruent praier he said z Marke 14. Behold the sonne of man is deliuered into the hands of sinners As also to the Iewes that came to apprehend him a Luke 22. This is your verie hower and the power of darkenes as likewise to Peter when he b Iohn 18. drew his sword and smote the high Priests seruant and cutt of his right eare put vp thy sword into thy sneath b Iohn 18. shall I not drinke of the cup saith Christ which the Father hath giuen me The fruit of this Iudgment is euerie where specified in the Scriptures c 1. Pet. 2. Christ bare our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree by whose stripes ye were healed that being deliuered from sinne wee should liue to righteousnes What need you then so curiously question Against whom or in what cause sate God in iudgment now when Christ was thus astonished and agonized God sate in iudgment to receaue satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect at the hands of his owne Sonne by his humilitie and obedience vnto death d Defenc. pag. 93. li. 3. Of necessitte it must be one of these three wayes First Gods maiestie and great iustice now at this time might sit in iudgment against vs and so consequently yea chiefly against Christ himselfe as our Ransomepaier Suertie in our steed e li. 16. Secondly God might be considered now as iudging Satan the Prince of this world f Pa. 94. li. 40. Thirdly Gods matestie iustice may be considered sitting in iudgment meerely against sinfullmen You be copious where you neede not and carelesse where most cause is you should be circumspect to make an idle shew of small skill you bring here a TRIPLE iudgment of God First against vs and Christ our suertie Secondly against Satan Thirdly against sinnefull men which were either elect or reprobate as though one and the same iudgment of God for mans Redemption did not concerne all three to witt Christ as the Redeemer Gods iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Satan Satan as the accuser the Elect as the ransomed leauing the reprobate in their sinnes through their vnbeliefe vnto the dreadfull day of vengeance In that the Redeemer was by this iudgment receaued and allowed to make satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect Satan was excluded from all place and power to accuse them for sinne or to raigne ouer them by sinne and the purgation of their sinnes which should beleeue in Christ being made by the Person of the Sauiour they were reconciled to God by the death of Christ and discharged from the wrath to come the anger of god remaining on such as by faith obeied not the sonne of God Saue therfore your fruitlesse paines in the rest and shew why the beholding of Gods power and iustice now sitting in iudgment to redeeme the world and to receaue recompence from the person of Christ for the sinnes of men might not breed a religious feare and trembling in the humane nature of Christ. g Defenc. pag. 93. li. If you meane that thus Christ with submission beholding his Father in iudgement at this time was cast into this agonie it is the verie trewth and the same which we maintaine You take this for a shew to build your fansies on but as your maner is you abuse trewthes to serue your turnes Let it stand for good that Christ now beheld his Father Christ might beholde the power of his Fathers wrath against sinne and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked sitting in iudgment to require recompence for the sinnes of the faithfull what followeth that God awarded the selfe same vengeance against the person of Christ that we had deserued and should haue suffered if we had not beene redeemed This is a false hereticall and blasphemous conclusion no way coherent to the premisses and no way consonant to the Scriptures For then finall destruction desperation confusion and euerlasting damnation of soule and bodie to hell fire which without question were the wages of our sinnes as we may see by their example that are not clensed from sinne by the bloud of Christ must without reseruation or remedie haue lighted on the person of Christ. If that vengeance of sinne which was due to vs could by no iustice be inflicted on the person of the sonne of God no not if he had borne the sinnes of the whole world how then could the doubt or feare of his punishment on himselfe cast him into this agony you will release him of the circumstance but tie him to the substance of the selfe same pains which the damned endure When you sitt in iudgement on Christ shew your wicked and witles conceits as much as you list but the father to whom of right it appertained sitting in iudgment to receaue ãâã from the person of his sonne who was most willing thereto ne did ne could by iustice determine any thing against his owne sonne that should either derogate from the person of Christ or abrogate the loue which God professed and pronounced so often from heauen towards him God might haue condemned vs that most iustly deserued it but to adiudge the same condemnation to his owne Sonne was simply impossible to the Iustice holines trueth and loue of God For so the vnion of Christes person must either be dissolued which god hath faithfully sworne and mightily wrought or els the second person in Trinitie must haue tasted of the same vengeance with the damned and with the Diuells which is a blasphemie that the Diuell neuer drempt nor durst to broche h Defenc pag. 93. li. 8. This ãâã not but that Christ had recall paines inflicted from the Father as from the ãâã ãâã ãâã against vs in him who were thus acquited by him Not denying is a slender proofe of that which you should with most infallible certaintie conclude ãâã you did a ãâã If Christes manhood might and did righteously and iustly seare and tremble at the glorie power and maiestie of God sitting now in iudgement to proportion the price that should be payed for mans ransome how doth that ãâã the reall paines of the damned were inflicted on the soule of Christ at that instant except in madde mens conceits which respect more their pangs than their proofs and preferre their willes before the wisdome of Gods spirit or witnesse of mans reason All iudgement against sinne you will say tendeth vnto condemnation No iudgement against the Sonne of God could proceed vnto damnation for what or whose sinnes soeuer And therefore to me and to all that obserue the words of the Holy Ghost it is a cleerer case than the Sunne-shining at noone day that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in
of his sufferings You would seeme skilfull after your vnlearned maner in the soules-suffering Is there any suffring more proper to the soule then feare sorow from her owne cogitations apprehensions affections from the immediate hand of God you thinke is more proper That in some cases may be possible though in Christes you can prooue no such thing but that is most proper which the soule neuer wanteth and hath of her owne nature And therefore so farre is it from being exempted from the sacrifice of sinne that in vs there is none other sacrifice for sinne but repentance which is all one with godly sorow bringing with it c 2. Cor. 7. ver 11. cââ¦re fââ¦are desire zeale and such like effects of true detestation of sinne as the Apostle describeth Repentance for himselfe Christ could haue none because Inward and ãâã sorow for ââ¦ur ãâã must be ââ¦ound in Christes sacrifice for them he neuer sinned but as our transgressions displeased the holinesse and prouoked the wrath of God against vs so when our Lord and Sauiour came to make full satisfaction for our sinnes he did not onely appease the iustice of God by enduring his hand but contented the holinesse of God by inward and infinite sorow for our sakes and sinnes which we were not able to yeeld vnto God To haue accepted the punishment which Gods iustice awarded and to haue neglected the offence and displeasure which gods holinesse conceaued against sinne had beene not to pacifie but to prouoke God in not regarding the cause which mooued him to take vengeance on sinne It is therefore most agreeable to the rules of pietie that the inward sorow for our sinnes which the sonne of God impressed on his humane soule when he prepared himselfe to make purgation of them did no lesse affect and afflict him then the outward paines receaued in his body and why you should exclude this from his agonie there is no reason but that you are most in loue with that which hath least proofe or likeliehood to be the cause of this agonie This being exactly noted by Hilarie Ambrose Cyrill and other auncient and learned Fathers I did rightly to obserue it how lightly soeuer your insolent conceit esteemeth it d ãâã de ãâã li. 10. Igitur cum tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est non possunt non omnia propter nos gesta esse intelligi cum omnia pro nobis quibus timebatur orata sunt Since then both Christes sorow was concerning vs and his praier for vs all the rest must needes be vnderstood for our sakes for so much as all his praiers were powred forth for vs for whom he feared So Ambrose e Ambros. de fide ad Gratianum li. 2. c. 3. mihi compatitur mihi tristis est mihi dolet Ergo pro me et in ãâã doluit qui prose nihilhabuit quod doleret Doles igitur Domine Iesu non tua sed mea vulnera non tuam mortem sed meam infirmitatem Christ is affected for me he is heauie for me he soroweth for me He sorroweth then in me and for me who had nothing in himselfe to sorrow for Thou sorrowedst Lord Iesu not for thine owne woundes but for mine not for thine owne death but for my weakenesse And Cyrill f Cyril de recta fide ad Reginas li. 2. ca de Sanctââ¦fication ãâã Christi That Christ might make our praiers acceptable to God himselfe beginneth the matter euen opening his fathers eares to the nature of man and making them most readie to the praiers of such as were in any perââ¦ll for his cause Therefore in him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as in a second root or first fruits of mankinde we were praying with strong cries and not without teares that the power of death might be abolished and the life restored or strengthened which was at first bestowed on our nature And Bede g Bedâ⦠in Lucâ⦠câ⦠22. If Christ were sorowfull to vs that is for our sakes it must needs be that he was comforted by the Angell for vs and to our vse For what should he aske with that agonie for himselfe who here on earth gaue heauenly things with power Then neither Christes sorow in the Garden nor his prayer with that agonie after he was comforted by the Angell were for himselfe or his owne sufferings much lesse for hell paines deuised and inflicted by you on the soule of Christ but his extreame sorrow and affectionate prayer might well be for our sinnes whose cause he vndertooke and for our sakes whose persons he then presented vnto God with most vehement contention of spirit and of all the powers of soule and body h Defenc. pag. 98. li. 12. Neither in respect of these your supposed causes could Christ say Saue me from this houre nor Let this cuppe passe from me as in respect of his infinite paines he might The houre and cuppe which Christ speaketh of are by himselfe referred not to any paines What cup Christ dranke of suffered in the Garden as you pretend much lesse to the paines of hell inflicted by Gods immediate hand on Christes soule as you would haue it but to the time and maner of his sufferings from the hands of the Iewes Of the houre after all his prayers ended in the Garden and his last returne to his Disciples he sayth i Mar. 14. v. 41 Sleepe hence forth and take your rest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the houre is come beholde the Sonne of man is giuen into the hands of sinners Here is that houre that Christ so much spake of euen the time that he should be deliuered into the handes of sinners to suffer a cruell and shamefull death at their hands And so he told them that came to take him k Luc. 22. v. 53 This is your verie houre and the power of darkenesse And this he called the Cuppe which his father gaue him to drinke For when Peter drew his sword to defend his Master from the hands of the Iewes Iesus said vnto him l Ioh. 18. v. 11. put vp thy sword into thy sheath shall I not drinke of the cuppe which my Father hath giuen me Peter neither did nor coulde hinder the cuppe which you imagine Christ dranke in the garden from the immediate hand of God he ment plainly to resist the Iewes that they should not apprehend Christ. That enterprise of Peter when Christ would represse and submit himselfe to his fathers will and counsell for his death he said as we saw before shall I not drinke of the cup which my Father hath giuen me So that the Scriptures mention the houre cup of Christs suffering on the Crosse from the rage of the people malice of the rulers of your inuisible cuppe containing the death of the damned they say nothing m Defenc. pag. 98. li. 16. His holy and righteous affections were at all houres and seasons in him
euery man his owne conscience in which of these twaine he is like vnto Christ. For they must be conformed to his sufferings before they shall be partakers of his glorie If then none shall raigne with Christ but such as haue suffered with Christ which must be hell paines as you defend I leaue it to each mans secret cogitation that shall light on this question how many thousands of good and godly men must giue ouer all hope of saluation since with sighs and sorrowes vnspeakable stirred in them by the holy Ghost for their offending and displeasing the goodnesse of God they are and ought dayly to be acquainted but with the true paines of hell death of the damned in this liââ¦e few Christians haue any communion And if any through distrust of Gods mercies and assault of their owne sinnes be terrified with desperation or dubitation let them assure themselues in either of those they be most vnlike vnto Christ whose faith stood euer fast and fully resolued of Gods fauour both towards his person and function which was the purgation of our sinnes and the reconciliation of God with man r Defenc. pag. 98. li. 28. The fift cause you say might be the Cup of Gods wrath tempered and made readie for the ãâã of men ââ¦hich you interpret to be eternall malediction You are no good Thâ⦠fift cause conââ¦urring to Christs agonie reporter of my words in auouching that I interpret the Cup of Gods wrath tempered for the sinnes of men to be eternall malediction My words are s Sermo pa. 21. li 22. In this Cup are all maner of plagues punishments for sinne as well spirituall as corpor all eternall as temporall And before I came to declare what Christ might behold and by prayer decline in the mixture of this Cup I expresly forewarned that t Sermo pa. 21. li. 27. diucrse men haue diuersly expounded those words of Christ let this Cup passe from me u li. 36. and in this varietie of iudgements I meant to refuse none that any way agreed with the rules of truth So that I here repeate the opinions of others and onely shew in what sort and sense they must be restrained and referred before they can be concorded with the truth of the Scriptures But let vs heare what you impugne and how x Defenc. pag. 98. li. 30. You say Christ knowing what our sinnes deserued might intentiuely pray to haue that Cup passe from him which was prepared for vs. For vs whom meane you the elect or the reprobate what malediction the whole and absolute paines thereof onely or the eternitie of the continuance thereof also Wrangling is your best refuge when you know not otherwise how to right your selfe Is this so hard a question with you what was the desert and wages of our sinnes by Gods iustice had we not beene redeemed and saued from the wrath to come by Christ Iesus Is it so strange Diuinitie to separate nature from grace and iustice from mercie in the elect that they may discerne what they were and should haue been in them selues without the fauour of God in Christ who freed vs when we were seruants to sinne quickned vs when we were dead in sinne and saued vs when we were iustly wrapped in the same condemnation with others for sinne Doe not all these words Redemption Remission Reconciliation and Saluation in Christ prooue that of our selues and in our selues we were prisoners subiected to sinne and condemned as enemies to God without Christ in whom we are freed pardoned reconciled and saued Your eares are very curious that can not abide to heare what was deserued by our sinnes and prepared for our sins had God dealt with vs in iustice not in mercie for his Sonnes sake It is healthfull and needfull for vs to remember acknowledge what our naturall desert and condition was without Gods heauenly commiseration on vs and election of vs in Christ his Sonne y Defenc. pag. 9â⦠li. 35. If you meane the Elect Christ knew that he must not onely see and contemplate but feele and suffer all the whole paines of that punishment which our sinnes deserued and this was prepared for himselfe our ransome payer and not for vs. Christ was not onely to suffer that which in his person should be sufficient in the righteous iudgement of God to appease his anger and purge our sinnes but he was farder to see and behold from what he deliuered vs euen from the wrath to come How should the price and ââ¦orce of his death be knowen vnto him if he were ignorant what dreadfull and terrible vengeance was reserued and prepared for sinne if he did not redeeme vs Wherefore he was not onely to feele that which should free vs but exactly to view know the rest that was due to our sinnes if he did not auert it And where you proclaime with open mouth that Christ must feele and suffer all the whole paines which our sinnes deserued it is a pestilent and euident impietie For either you must defend that our sinnes deserued not the losse of Gods kingdome and the perpetuall paines of hell fire in bodie and soule or else you must confesse that Christ suffered the same You spake euen now of strange maruailes in Diuinitie These monsters be past maruailes which you prooue onely by your selfe and by your owne surly conceite this was prepared for him and not for vs Was hell fire prepared for Christ he was ordained to be our Sauiour by the sacrifice of himselfe on the Crosse that by his death full of shame and paine he might redeeme the transgressions that were in the former Testament but that hell fire or euerlasting death which is the desert of our sinnes was prepared for him is a Doctrine fit for no man but for him that hath made a shipwracke of his faith to land his fansies on shore Damnation you will say was not prepared for vs but rather Saluation meane you without Christ or in Christ in Christ I haue no doubt but we were before all worlds appointed to be heires of Saluation when in our selues we should deserue farre otherwise But here shewing the meanes of mans redemption I speake of man not yet redeemed and therefore lââ¦ing as yet in the desert and danger of damnation iâ⦠Christ did not deliuer him In which sense the Apostle not onely saith z Ephes. 2. We were by nature the children of wrath as well as others but a Rom. 5. by the offence of one death came on all men vnto condemnation Which speech the auncient Fathers doe euery where follow b August Epistoââ¦a 89. Qui per generationem illi condââ¦mnation obligati sunt per regenerationem ab eadem condemnatione soluuntur They which by birth are obliged or fast tied to that condemnation are by regeneration deliuered from that condemnation And so c Idem Epistola 105. merito namque peccati vniuersa massa damnata est By the
in him It workââ¦th both in vs and why should either want in him who was farre better able to pââ¦rforme both then we are the like I say of the feare of Gods wrath when we haue prouoked it We ought not only to reuerence that most excellent maiesty but when we haue sinned to feare and tremble before that power which can doe with vs what he will And though we hope in his mercy yet that doth not breed any neglect of his power which if we doe not feare when we haue prouoked we doe despice And therefore Moses giueth this for a rule of true deuotion and submission vnder the mighty hand of God Who knoweth the power of thy wrath for according to thy feare that is as thou art feared so is thine anger The lighter account we make of his anger the heauier shall his hand be to vs. The more we feare it without distrust the lesse we shall feele it For submission and sorow doe mitigate the wrath of God which carelessenesse and contempt do aggrauate Since then no man knew the power of Gods wrath against sinne so perfectly as Christ did and yet the infinitenesse of Gods power did passe the reach of Christs humane soule to comprehend why might not the manhoode of Christ yeld greater feare and trembling to the power of Gods wrath against our sinne for which he was to satisfie then all men liuing were able to do and yet together with the fearefull impression thereof retaine a religious submission thereto In compassion when we feare for other mens dangers or grieue for other mens harmes is not this affection painfull to vs because it proceedeth from mercy and ãâã is affââ¦iction thogh it be a vertââ¦e pity in vs are you so hard harted as well as hie minded sir defendour that you were neuer touched nor troubled with the sense of other mens miseries l Iob. 30. Did I not weepe saith Iob with him that was in trouble Was not my soule in heauinesse for the poore When the Apostle willeth vs to m Rom. 12. mourne with them that mourne Doth he meane we should make a pastime of it because it is an affection of mercy and charity Doth not daily experience teach vs how much the miseries of those whom we dearly loue do bite pinch vs Can we forget Dauids n 2. Sam. 19. ver 1. 4. affection aud affliction for Absolon Doth not the Scripture describe all naturall mothers in those words o Matt. 2. v. 18. In Rama was a voice heard mourning and weeping and great Lamentation Rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted because they were not In godly zeale and care we shall find the like p 2. Cor. 11. Who is weake saith the Apostle and I am not as weake who is offended and I burne not yea the q Psal. 69. zeale of thine house hath consumed me saith Dauid Then are feare and sorow proceeding either from piety or charity no whit the lesse grieuous because The highest degrees of religious feare and sorow were in Christ. they are religious but rather the more inwardly we are touched with either the more acceptable is that affection to God specially when it concerneth his owne power or honor And consequently as the highest degrees of religious feare and sorow were in Christ at the time of his propitiating the holinesse and iustice of God for our sinns so were they in him as sharpe and painfull as any his afflictions which otherwise he felt in his body r Defenc. pag. 115. li. 15. That these should or could afflict Christ so much aboue his strength and patience is more then strange Easily they might aboue his strength since he would vse no strength but weakened himselfe of purpose to feele the smart and burden of our sinnes but not aboue his patience since he did not repine at any of these but requested by praier to haue the punishment of our sinne proportioned to the weaknesse of his humane flesh considering the infinite power of Gods wrath most iustly prouoked by our sinnes s Defenc. pag. 115. li. 17. It were no vertue but sinne in any to giue way to our affections though about good things immoderately beyond our patience and strength of nature It is no sinne but vertue to presse both our strength and patience to the vttermost for Gods glory in things commanded by him As in louing God t Bernardus de diligendo Deo modus est sine modo diligere the measure is to loue him without measure so in all the dueties which God requireth the most that we can doe is not too much Feare and sorrow then which are as the Apostle speaketh u 2. Corin. 7. vers 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according to God or for God that is obedient to Gods will are neuer immoderate neither bring they danger of life or defect of grace as worldly feare and sorow do But how commeth your discââ¦etion to charge Christes affections with immoderation For your hell-paines you are content to plunge his bodie and chiefly his soule into astonished and all comfortlesse confusion and for submission to God and confession and apprehension of the iustnesse and greatnesse of his anger against our sinnes you will not giue him leaue being our Agent and Intercessour in his owne person to present that to God which is due from vs and for vs euen inward sorrow for Gods iust displeasure and an humble feare of his mightie power thereby to honour the one and preuent the other when he now addressed himselfe to make full satisfaction for our sinnes x Defenc. pag. 115. li. 19. Though they somewhat molest the minde yet in trueth they are most pleasing and delightfull to good men not tedious much lesse painfull vnto death The Apostle himselfe answereth this obiection and telleth you that y Heb. 11. no chastisement FOR THE PRESENT seemeth to be ioyous but grieuous yet AFTERVVARD it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to them that are thereby exercised Our Sauiour by this example teacheth the same Verily z Iohn 16. Verily I say vnto you ye shall weepe and lament but your sorow shall be turned into ioy A woman when she trauelleth hath sorrow because her houre is come but as soone as she is deliuered of the childe she remembreth no more the anguish for ioy that a man is borne into the world To say that paine is pleasure and sorrow is delightfull fighteth against Nature Scripture and euen against common sense but God doth diuersly comfort the affliction of his Saints with ending easing or otherwise recompensing them whereby the faithfull a 2. Cor. 4. faint not though their outward man perish because our light affliction which is for a moment worketh to vs a farre exceeding and euerlasting weight of glorie Though then our Sauiour was on euery side pressed with sundry sorowes which would not end but in his death yet that doth
vsed by misapplying them to your fansie Otherwise feares and sorrowes to satisfie and pacifie the wrath of God against our sinnes Christ might haue and yet be farre from the paines of the damned and the second death yea from the terrors and confusion of the wicked since he knowing the iustnesse and greatnesse of Gods anger against sinne and how impossible it was for him with patience to support the power thereof either in soule or in body might giue God his due by inward and euident sorrow for sinne and feare of Gods power by which the fiercenesse of Gods indignation against sinne was rebated and calmed and so much paine proportioned to the weakenesse of Christs flesh as should not exceede the patience of his humane nature But this doth no way further your hell paines suffered in the soule of Christ since these religious feares and sorowes which mitigate the wrath of God though they be painefull in themselues yet haue they no communion with the feares and sorrowes of the reprobate much lesse of the damned o Defenc pag. 119. li. 5. What reason haue you against our assertion Verily only this you oppose because all the sorowes of the reprobate are but sinfull guiltinesse of conscience or feares of iudgement foreseene which is executed onely in the next life you meane onely in the definite and locall hell Which is no refutation of my assertion that Christ was as sharpely touched with paine as the very reprobate When men affirme strange and new positions in Christian religion they must not aske what reason can be brought against them but they must shew where that they teach is written in the word of God or ineuitably concluded from that which is written for p Rom. 10. faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God So that if you take vpon you to be a Coiner of new Creeds we must not beleeue you till by reason we can refute you but you ought q Prou. 30. not to adde to the word of God lest you be found a liar Shew then where these comparisons and positions are written if not feare the plagues appointed for such as adde their lies to the Trueth of God And yet to exclude all comparison betweene Christ and the reprobate in this case what better reason can be brought than that Christes feares and sorowes had no sociââ¦tie nor affinitie with the feares and terrours of the reprobate for no rule of reason alloweth you to compare things together that haue no likenesse betwixt themselues You make Christ and the reprobate yea and the damned equall in paine and Christes paines superiour to the sharpest of theirs and yet when all is sayd there is no kinde of likenesse betwixt their paines r Defenc pag. 119. li. 11. Though the wicked in this world did neuer suffer any reall effect of Gods burning wrath working actuall vengeance on their soules for sinne but only some guiltie remorse or feare and nothing els yet this letteth not but that Christ whom God ordained extraordinarily and alone to be in this life a whole and absolute burnt sacrifice for all sinne did feele and suffer the same truely properly and perfectly You were of opinion in your Treatise and set it downe resolutely for one of your new-made Maximes That the s Trea. pa. 77. li. 5. paines and sufferings of Gods wrath did ALVVAYES ACCOMPANIE THEM that are separated from the grace and loue of God And euen there you also affirmed t li. 9. Christ suffered the horror of Gods seuere iustice LIKE THEM who be separated indeed from the grace and loue of God If you stand to these words you must confesse that Christ suffered the horror of reiection confusion and desperation LIKE to the reprobate which is euen as the reprobate doe suffer it and then ineuitably you fasten on the soule of Christ a plaine persuasion and inward feeling that he was for the time reiected confounded and seuered from God as the reprobate be which whether it will amount to open impietie I leaue to the Christian Reader to iudge Your cunning in two leaues after with as touching the vehemencie of paine is a giddie deuice when you haue made their horrors like then to restraine it to the sharpnesse of paine for thereby you doe not intend to make their horrours vnlike which before you pronounced to be like but that their horrours being LIKE their paines can not be vnlike Since then paine and griefe of minde is a necessarie consequent to horror as it is to feare and sorow you doe not recall but confirme your former impââ¦etic That Christ hauing the same horrour of Gods iustice and wrath which the reprobate haue must needs haue the same paine forsomuch as that horrour is not without paine answerable to it in the soule of man despairing the goodnesse of God and beholding nothing in God but his terrible and fierie indignation against sinne That the wicked haue ALVVAYFS these horrors accompanying them in this life is a great and grosse vntrueth the 73 Psalme doth auouch the cleane contrarie u Psal. 73. ver Loe these are the wicked yet prosper they alway So that they for the most part liue here in pleasure and abundance neither are they plagued with other men but x Luke 16. receiue their good things in this life saue when the wisdome and iustice of God is pleased to make some of them examples vnto others for then these inward terrours of minde raised with remorse of sinne and feare of iudgement to come doe desperately finally and vtterly ouerwhelme them This now you begin to see which before was not within your thoughts and therefore you now affirme that though the wicked did suffer no such thing as you before sayd they ALVVAYES suffered yet this doth not hinder but Christ did feele and suffer the same What doth not hinder is not the question but what doth helpe you to proue that Christ did suffer your new-made hell from the immediat hand of God in the garden or on the crosse I hope you bring it not for an argument that the wicked do not suffer it in this life ergo Christ did suffer it That were very strange both Logicke and Diuinitie y Defenc. pag. 119. li. 18. Second how I haue alwayes expresly excluded from Christ all sinfull adherents and consequents in paines and feares which are in the wicked and doe resemble his to theirs onely in sharpnesse and vehemencie of paine I haue often declared before In generall words you would seeme to exclude them but by your positions and comparisons you conclude the contrary for if you exempt from Christ all feare and doubt of his Fathers loue towards him and confesse he had perfect and full assurance of all Gods promises in the midst of his paines tell vs then how the horrours of the reprobate could inuade his soule Shew vs how the fulnesse of trueth and grace alwayes dwelling in him he could be so confounded
Chrysostomus in ââ¦adem ââ¦ratione apud Theodââ¦retum Dialogo 3. If this were spoken saith he of Christs diuinity then were it a contradiction indeed and many absurdities would thence follow but if it were spoken of his flesh then was there a good reason for those wordes and nothing in them that might iusââ¦ly be blamed For that the flesh would not willingly die this is not to be condemned it is proper to mans nature And Christ shewed in himselfe all the properties of mans nature without sinne and that very abundantly to stop the mouthes of Heretickes When then he saith if it be possible let this cup passe from me and not as I will but as thou wilt he declareth nothing els but that he was compassed with true flesh which feared death For to feare and shunne death and to be astonished or perplexed therewith is proper to flesh Now therefore that is at this time when he spake these wordes he permitted his flââ¦sh alone and naked to her proper action that shewing the infirmity thereof he might confirme the trueth of his humane nature and sometimes he couereth it because he was not a bare man Graunt you by these words that Christ declared nothing els but that he was a true man and naturally feared and shunned death which is the dissolution of nature as we do and you shall haue leaue to call this affection different or repugnant in power and strength but not in purpose or petition to the will of his diuine nature q Defenc pag. 124. li. 33. I grant M. Beza vseth some termes differing from ours yet his sense is the selfe same with ours He sayd Christ corrected not his speech as if he had before spoken amisse I say he did correct his speech making it being good to be better You can not by your leaue thus winde out from your lewd assertion that Christs prayer could not haue wanted sinne had he beene in perfect remembrance without astonishment If Christes prayer were good without the latter addition which you call a correction ergo it was not repugnant to the knowen will of God much lesse sinne in it selfe but that Christ now wanted remembrance by reason of his infinite and incomprehensible paines You would faine daube vp these dangerous conceits and conclusions but your morter is vntempered If Christes desire were good as now you grant before this correction and how could any thing be but good which proceeded from him then which way inferred you your hell paines out of that prayer where is the ground of your conclusion that Christ sinned in that prayer if he were not astonished because it was in plaine words contrarie to Gods knowen will Is any thing good that is contrarie to Gods knowen will Faine you would and yet you know not how to keepe this geere vpright r Defenc. pag. 125. li. 7. Neither is this particular contrariety to Gods will any sinne namely when by Gods owne ordinance we know not what Gods speciall will is so that we alwayes remaine apt and readie there unto when we know it Is this all the GOODNESSE you grant in the former part of Christes prayer that it was no sinne because Christ wanted remembrance doth Chrysostome teach you any such doctrine It may be pardoned by your rule for want of memorie but that is no commendation of any goodnesse in it And yet if we venture to pray without faith it is sinne so to tempt God Neither can we be excused by want of iudgement or memorie we may omit somewhat for want of vnderstanding but if we commit ought vpon opinion or credulitie that it is good and lawfull for vs when indeed it is not so that doth not excuse our ignorance or forgetfulnesse It is the lesse sinne but sinne it is and farre from goodnesse If therefore this be all the goodnesse you ascribe to Christes prayer you expresly contradict Chrysostome who maketh it proper and lawfull for mans nature in the best remembrance to dislike and shun death so we still submit our selues to Gods will as Christ did not to like that which is against nature but patiently to suffer that which is according to Gods will and counsell towards vs. s Defenc. pag. 125. li. So did Dauid desire the life of his childe it was contrarie to Gods will one way as the euent shewed for the childe died yet he prayed well and rightly according to Gods will in natures affection seeing he knew not Gods secret will to the contrarie Dauid had pââ¦etie and charitie to leade him to pray for his childes life though the Prophet denounced vnto him that the childe should die Gods threats doe differ from his iudgements in this that his iudgements are irreuocable when they are once executed and his wrath is placable when he threatneth since he neuer particularly threatneth but when we are impenitent God willed Ionas to preach that after t Ionah 3. fortie dayes Nineueh should be ouerthrowen and yet was God neither inconstant in his will nor the Prophet false in his message when vpon repentance God spared them The Kings Proclamation was good diuinitie * Ibidem Let euery man turne from his euill way and who can tell whether God will turne from his fierce wrath that we perish not So sayd Dauid u 2. Sam. 12. Who can tell whether God will haue mercie on me that the childe may liue Gods secret will as we cannot know so doe we not resist so long as we seeke by repentance to preuent or auert his plagues but what is this to Christs case was he ignorant of Gods will which he so often foretold his Disciples what where and of whom he should suffer as also the cause why x Matth. 20. to giue his life a redemption for manie y Defenc. pag. 125. li. 16. Christs sudden not remembring Gods particular will by reason of his fearefull astonishment was all one as if he had not knowââ¦n it at all It is apparently false that Christ did not remember Gods particular will touching his death for he added if it were possible Christes prayer not repugââ¦ant to the will of God before his praier and stââ¦ll submitted his will to the will of God which if he had not remembred hee could not haue done The fearefull astonishment of which you dreame as if it still continued euen in his praiers is a needlesse inââ¦ention of such as seeke to make some pretence for their hell paines Christs praiers were earnest and often repeated and as the Apostle noteth he was heard in them and therefore they were not repugnant to the will of God howsoeuer he desired the cup that is the sharpnesse thereof to be mitigated and proportioned to his strength and patience which accordingly God his Father performed z Defenc. pag. 125. li. 25. You say I am captious against Christ in not supplying one Euangelist with another For so Christs desire will appeare to be but conditionall therefore not contrarie
to Gods will yes neuerthelesse as touching the desire it selfe and his particular present inclination compared to Gods particular determination herein If Christes prayer in the garden were heard as the Apostle saith it was then is it euident it was no way repugnant to the will of God for God doth not vse to grant petitions made contrarie to his will And then we must so interprete the sense of Christs praier that it might take effect in his sufferings as I thinke it did And though we should suppose it tooke not effect yet since he himselfe did so condition his desire of nature that he subiected it to the will of God which way can you proue it contrary to Gods knowen will Christs particular present inclination compared to Gods particular determination herein you say was contrary to it I denie that vtterly For Christs particular and present inclination of mans nature to dislike paine and death was Gods generall ordinance in all men and Gods speciall will in the manhood of Christ at that instant and Christes determination was the same with Gods since he submitted the one to the other and resolued as we find in his praier with obedience willingly to vndergoe that shamefull and painfull death which Gods iustice purposed for the sinnes of men Yea God hath not only ordained that the Crosse should be greeuous vnto vs as it was to the manhood of Christ but he misliketh when it is otherwise that is if we despise his correction because it is made tolerable by his fatherly goodnesse respecting our weakenesse a Ierem. 5. Thou hast striken them but they haue not sorowed saith the Prophet meaning they despised the hand of God because it was tempered with mercy and plagued them not vnto destruction Then is it Gods will that affliction should grieue vs and he hath not only so created vs but it is his purpose when he smiteth to haue vs feele it and to haue vs mourne vnder the Crosse but yet without distrust of his goodnesse or dislike of his counsell though it pinch vs neuer so neere in the sense of our nature What contrariety then to Gods will had Christs inclination of nature shunning death and the sharpenesse thereof so farre as was possible and did stand with Gods pleasure since his resolution was the same with Gods will most obediently to suffer it though it seemed neuer so sharp to his flesh which was Gods will it should as for Balaams bad desire I leaue it to you to comment thereon at your leasure his wicked auarice secretly seeking after gaine though pretending Gods name ought not in Christes case to be so much as mentioned b Defenc. pag. 125. li. 2. When we perfectly know and remember Gods certaine will euery light affection and sodaine wishing to the contrary howsoeuer conditionally is no lesse then manifest sin ââ¦inst God Is it sinne in Martyrs that their flesh by sense of nature endureth not quietly the rage of fire without feare and griefe or is it rather a godly conflict betwixt the ââ¦eadinesse of the spirit and the weakenesse of the flesh to feele the one and to follow the other in regard of duty to God and his blessed will which hath prouided not pleasure but paine to make triall of patience In desires and delights the sense of the flesh is to be declined least it bait the minde and wax vnruly but in feare and paine Gods sacred will is that the flesh should be flesh and not senselesse nor carelesse that the spirit may be prooued and the c 1. Pet. 1. triall of our faith in affliction being much more pretioâ⦠then gold may be found to the praise of God It is therefore no sinne c 1. Pet. 1. for a season if need require to be in heauinesse through manifold tentations Neither did Christ tell his Disciples that they should not weepe lament nor sorow in their miseries since nothing could befall them without the direct and expresse will of God with whom the d Matth. 10. haires of their heads are numbred But he promisââ¦th their e Iohn 16. sorow shal be turned to ioy Wherefore Christs present and particular inclination in nature to dislike the bitternesse of paine and death was not contrary to Gods disposition but answeareable to it so long as in obedience he alwaies referred himselfe to the will of God and his petition being conditionall so farre as might stand with Gods good will was no way touched with any shew of sinne much lesse in plaine wordes repugnant to Gods knowen will though our Sauiour were in perfect remembrance as the Scripture declareth he was and aduisedly considered and regarded the will of God in euery part of his praier f Defenc. pag. 126. li. 11. The very nature of all conditionall desires is such that it includeth euermore a possibility at least of being contrary to his will whom we desire This generall obseruation of yours is not true and though it were it maketh nothing to this purpose The Saints haue often prayed in full persuasion of faith yet with a condition not as doubting but as humbling themselues in his presence before whom or of whom they spake When God had sayd to Iacob g Genes 28. Loe I am with thee and will keepe thee whither soeuer thou goest and will bring thee againe into this land Iacob vowed saying if God will be with me and will keepe me in the iourney which I goe so that I come againe into my fathers house in safetie then shall the Lord be my God Shall we say because God addeth a conditionall to his vow that either he doubted of Gods promise made vnto him that verie night or that it was possible to be contrarie to Gods will I trust not So Moses confessed to God h Exod. 33. See thou hast said vnto me I know thee by name and thou hast also found fauour in my sight Now therefore I pray thee if I haue found fauour in thy sight shew me now thy way that I may know thee Was Moses vnfaithfull to the mouth of God because he maketh that a condition which God vttered as an affirmatiue or was there any possibilitie of the contrarie to that which God had once pronounced Likewise the Apostles vnder conditions expresse most certaine assertions as Paul i 2. Thesâ⦠1. If it be a iust thing with God to recompense trouble to them which trouble you and to you which are troubled rest with vs when the Lord Iesus shââ¦ll shew himselfe from heauen Meaning there can be no doubt but it is iust though he made it conditionall But we need not this rule for the praiers of Christ in the garden Christ knew it was possible for Gods power to saue him from death and yet to make him the Sauiour of the world but as Gods counsell decreed and reuealed now stood he knew it was not possible the whole cup should passe from him but that he must drinke thereof
Christ this agonie and from his feare he was deliuered To say as you do that it was eternall death and euââ¦rlasting malediction which Christ here thus wofully and distressefully feared is the strangest speech in Diutnity that euer I heard You cunningly dissemble as your maner is that Pag. 22. which you quote I professed to refuse no mans opinion that s Seââ¦m pag. 22. li. 2. agreed any way with the rules of trueth and thereupon layed downe three things which Christ might ãâã in the Cup of Gods wrath and by his prayer accordingly decline them to wit ãâã ãâã corporall ãâã aboue his strength and the separation of his soule from hiâ⦠bodââ¦e by deââ¦th The feare of eternall death which is vrged by some of good learning and euen by the Catechisme on which you would seeme to stand so much if we admiââ¦ted in Christ himselfe I sayd must be taken for a Religious dislike and shunning of hell t Sermo pag. 23. li. 4. not for any distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe which we could not imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith and these we might not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant Where then I alleage so many reasons Pa. 23. u li. 32. guarding Christs person most sufficiently froâ⦠all danger and doââ¦bt of eternall death thence you collect that I auouch Christ thus ââ¦ofully and distressefully feared euerlasting damnation which is a strange and ãâã falsehood though familiar with you as if without such grosse stuffe you could not ãâã out your pamphlet The Catechisme we heard before saying that Christ was Aeternae mortis horrore persusus wholly touched with the horror of ãâã death M. Caluin sayth as much x Caluin in li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Vnde eum oportuit cum Infââ¦rorum copiââ¦s ãâã mortis horrore quââ¦si consertis manibus luctari Wherefore Christ was to wrestle hââ¦nd in ãâã with all the power of hââ¦ll and with the horrour of ETERNALL death Others might be brought in like sort but these suffice to discharge me that I did not imagine these things of mine owne head but found them in men of good learning and iudgement which yet I did not receiue except we did expound their words to import in Christ a religious feare declining euerlasting death in himââ¦elfe or affectionately sorowing when he consideââ¦ed what was due to vs for ouâ⦠sinnes Wherefore if you make so strangâ⦠of these words stirre against your authorized Catechisme and Master Caluin who first vsed them y Defenc. pââ¦g 130. li. 20. You cannot helpe your selfe in making Christes ââ¦eare of this death to be onely a religious feare and a feare for others these imaginations I haue remoued before Then you perceiue well enough in what sense I admit their words but to aduantage your selfe you dispence with a slaunderous lie Your remoouing is like the roling of paper to make pipes withall you play still on one string and that so much out of tune that euery man is wearie with hearing it besides your selfe z li. 29. These affections you say were not likelie in him at all much lesse to be the causes of such effects As though Christ had none other causes of sorow but onely this And what vnlikelihood that these should be in Christ at this season sauing that your fansie leadeth you to what you list These are not feare properly they ought rather to be called a religious care and pittââ¦e which differ greatly from the nature of feare properly taken Did I professe that Christ feared euerlasting death properly did I not rather excuse or qualifie the vehemencie of their wordes who put in Christ an horror of eternall death you reason now against the Catechisme which you make shew to maintaine and not against me For other feare of euerlasting death in Christ then improper I acknowledge none You thinke the nature of enlabeia will not admit any proper feare Then doe you conuince your selfe to be a notable deluder and abuser of the trueth For you are not ignorant what I say but you peruert it of purpose to miscarie your Reader and countenance your cause a li. 38. What say you did Christ doubt eternall damnation and therefore feared it you lacke a woodden dagger to become your part better haue I any such wordes or sense I shew the generall signification of ââ¦labeia to be b Conclus pa. 305. li. 25. a carefull and diligent regard to beware or decline that which we mislike or doubt and that as well in priuate and publike affaires as in Religion and you applie this as if I had sayd Christ feared and doubted eternall damnation Whereas I neither mention eternall damnation in all that section nor so much as name Christ within fourtie lines of those wordes which shew how largely enlabeia is taken You speake so darkly that I know not how to take you You double so continually that I cannot tell what to make of you I haue in the same page 305. whence you tooke these wordes distinctly shewed what parts of Gods wrath Christ might be said to feare or suffer and in what sense and yet you complaine of darknesse when you shun the light and watch for a word applied to another purpose pretending you must needes stumble at that straw And therefore neuer come in with any after close what my meaning may be if my wordes be not plaine reprooue them if they be refute them except you receiue them This you say commeth neerest to the signification of the Greeke word I graunt it doth touching eulabeia but in Maââ¦ke the word doth import properly feare and that in extremitie It is happie yet that when you cannot chuse you will graunt that which is fully prooued to your face In your vnlearned Treatise you would needs make as vnlearned an obseruation that c Treatis pag. 74. li. 22. this very word not onely in other Authors but in the Scripture is vsed for a perplexed feare And when your ignorance is conuinced for enlabââ¦ia is not onely lesse then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is feare in the Greeke tongue but contrarie to it because it is the d De placitis Philoso li. 7. in zenone declining of euill with reason and circumspection as Diogenes Laertius writeth you graunt that which you cannot gainesay With as much skill you auouch that ekthambeiââ¦thai doth import properly feare and that in extremitie whereas properly it noteth admiration at any strange or suddaine sight Whether feare be ioyned with it or no which sometime is according to the cause and circumstance of the place e Defenc. pag. 131. li. 8. My reason that Eulabeia heere signifieth feare properly yea a perplexed feare and not onely a religious deuotion as you say is grounded not so much on the nature of the word as on the circumstances of the place and the other wordes of the text Christ did as
for That the death of the soule or body should haue dominion ouer him was simply impossible and Christ ãâã knew so much as your owne words yeeld Then neither did he nor could he pray by your positions for any such thing and consequently God did not heare him in those things for which he praied not And so your two waies of hearing and deliuering Christ your selfe by your owne doctrine ouerthrow rather as iests then iust deliuerances And then doth my sequell persue you more strongly then before that Christ must be freed from suffering that he feared not by suffering it since he neuer doubted and so neuer praied by your diuinity to be sustained in it nor after suffering to be freed from it p Defenc. pag. 132. li. 15. In another place you seeme to obserue a point both strange and very contrary to your selfe in saying feare is more intolerable in Christ then doubting when you haue so often and so earnestly affirmed that Christ feared for feare became astonished To him that neuer read leafe nor line of holy Scripture this may make some iolly shew but to him that can distinguish white from blacke it will appeare to be rather an ignorant conceit in you then a repugnant speach in me A naturall feare of euill is incident to all mens natures by Gods ordinance in his first creating vs and so common to Christs manhood with all men be they good or bad For therefore did God threaten death to Adam if he disobeyed that both the loue of God enioied and feare of euill if he transgressed might restraine him from sinne A religious feare of Gods greatnesse and in cause of committing or suffering for sinne the trembling at the power of his wrath is proper to the godly wherein Christ might and did communicate with them as being to beare the punishment of our sinne though he were free from all sinne A distrustfull feare which quencheth faith and excludeth hope is common to all the wicked and therein Christ might not concurre with them least he conioined with them in siââ¦ne The first was tolerable the second was commendable in Christ the third was neither Of this third kind of feare I speake when I say feare is more ãâã in Christ then doubting But perhaps you could not discerne so much because my speach was darââ¦e I am content to be tried by the Reader whether any man might mistake my words euen there where you stumble at them but he that would wilfully peruert them My words stand thus In that perfect persuasion knowledge and assurance of Gods euerlasting q Sermo pa. 118. li. 22. purpose fauour and loue towards him that he should be the Sauiour of the world if doubting be not tolerable how enexcusable is feare and terror as if he were for saken of God Doâ⦠I heere speake of all kinds of feares or of that only whereby Christ should feare least Gods purpose promise and loue towards him might faile my illation in that very page is this The soule of Christ must therefore be farre from fearing or doubting least r Ibid. li. 32. God would change his mind recall his word frustrate his promise and violate his oââ¦th for these are blasphemies against God in the highest degree He must be more then blind which doth not see what kind of feare I exclude from Christ but you did cunningly to peruert my words when you could not resist my reasons For all your apprehensions of Gods proper wrath and fierie indignation which you so much proclaime if you direct them to the person of Christ as if he conceaued feared or doubted any change or decrease of Gods fauour and loue towards him or his sacrifice then are they these verie feares which heere I banish from Christ as vtterly blasphemous It was therefore some skill to shift of these words with a slanderous and false crimination least they should make you breath before you were disburdened of them if you toke them rightly s Defenc. pag. 132. li. 19. You seeke a weake aduantage in that I said eisaekonstheis may seeme to shew that Christ was heard being in that which he was saued from You see I chalenge no certaine but a seeming reason from that word In the maine ground of our saluation and redemption which are most certaine in the Scriptures to impugne the doctrine there deliuered with seeming reasons is the guise of him that would seeme a good Christian but is none Indeed you haue beset your selfe in your defence with store of seemings as I could specifie the places and points if it were to this purpose and I thinke your whole defence hath nothing in it but your seemings you vse therein so few either authorities or reasons other then your owne conceits and assertions But vpon these seemings you set pestilent positions slanderous imputations and false conclusions as euen here you both resolue that Christ was in your hell paines and you presume so to translate the word eisakonstheis he was heard being in it as if that were the true force of the Apostles words But your selfe maketh a stranger conclusion ergo the actiue ãâã Treat pag. 63. li. 26. referred to God importeth that God being in the same pains did heare him Yet such a conclusion as your collection cannot auoid For where Christ was heard God did heare the passiue in Christ noteth the actiue to be truely affirmed of God that he did heare Christ. If then that word as you boldly with your seeming reason and false translation affirme import being in the paines of hell it must so signifie as well in the actiue referred to God as in the passiue applied to Christ. If you be now ashamed to heare of these vnseeming and vnsauery reasons blot them out of your owne booke and bestow your time better hereafter u Defenc. pag. 132. li. 24. Lastly you say but in the garden Christ neuer praied with strong cries and teares to be saued from death that we read in the Scriptures I hope you doâ⦠not read in the Scriptures expressely at all that thus he praied in the garden You may soundly gather it from the Scriptures I grant My words are not that the Scriptures expressely name Christs teares in the garden but that none other place nor time of Christs praier mentioned in the Euangelists doe admit teares but the garden For there the place being priuate and his praiers so vehement that his sweat was like bloud both olde and new writers haue collected that the Apostles words were verified in the garden yea the sweat of Christ Bernard calleth teares where he saith x Bernardus in Ramis Palmarum Serm. 3. Christ falling into an agony prayed the third time where he seemed to weepe not only with his eyes but with all the parts of his bodie that the whole bodie of his Church might be purged with the teares of his whole body Zinglius confesseth as much y Zinglius in Historiam Passio Non
in Scripture for this point yet our question is fully proued and confirmed by those other sufficient and pregnant proofs alleaged and iustified before Your palpable and pregnant follies are sufficiently seene before your proofs were none but bald and false presumptions conceiued by your selfe though otherwise voide of all reason and authoritie with such props you haue hitherto supported your Defence and now you be come to the maine issue whether the Scriptures or Fathers doe teach that Christ for our redemption died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which is the second death you would passe it ouer as a matter of no moment and here tell vs if you had no such proofe as indeed you haue none yet you haue played your part before which was to set a good face on an euill cause and to proue iust nothing d Defenc. pag 136. li. 13. For it is to be noted that no man setteth the question in these tearmes that Christ died in his soule neither doe we at all vse them very much in speaking of this matter The Scriptures themselues set that for the question First of all I e 1. Cor. 15. deliuered vnto you sayeth Paul that which I receiued how that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Since then f Rom. 5. we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and Christ is the g Hebr 9. Mediatour of the New Testament through death for the redemption of the transgressions in the former Testament and where a Testament is there must be the death of him that made the Testament The question riseth of it selfe what death the Sonne of God died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scripture And hitherto for these fifteene hundred yeeres and vpward the Christian world both of learned and vnlearned hath beleeued that the Sonne of God by the death of his bodie on the tree ransomed our sinnes reconciled vs to God and vtterly destroyed the kingdome of Satan and that he neither did nor could suffer any other kinde of death as the death of the soule or the So that the reference of the Apostles words standeth thus he offered vp praiers and supplications with strong cries and teares to him that was able to saue him from all touch of death and was heard in that he prayed for and though he were the sonne and god was able to keepe him vntouched of death that is to make him the Sauiour of the world without tasting any kind of death yet such was Gods counsell and his owne liking that he learned or perfourmed the obedience of a sonne by the things which he suffered Whereby the Apostle teacheth vs it was neither want of power in God that Christ died for God was able to haue saued the world by him without his death neither was it lacke of fauour towards his sonne for God HEARD him in that he asked but to manifest in his person the perfect submission of a sonne to his father God would haue him obedient to death euen vnto the death of the crosse and so make him the author of eternall saluation to all that obey him As he obeied God his Father Those words then Christ offered praiers to him that was able to keep him from death prooue not death to be the cause of Christs feare nor the scaping therefrom to be the scope of Christes strong cries and teares but the Apostle thereby noteth that Christ neither doubted of his Fathers power nor loue when he praied so earnestly vnto him but was assured of both and enioyed both in such sort as might best stand with the honor and wisedome of God the father and of Christ his sonne And therefore all your collections and illations built on that false ground doâ⦠fall of themselues as hauing nothing to support them but your idle and vaine supposals a Defenc. pag. 137. li. 6. Your owne selfe doe fully grant and affirme it with me yea you affirme farder then we doe or then the trueth is or possibly can be you say Christ heââ¦re thus feared eternall death and euerlasting damnation I must take no ââ¦corne to haue you wrest and wring my words to a contrary sense when you offer that course to the Apostles words The place which you quote for proofe of my meaning will conuince you to be a malitious falsifier My words a man would thinke are plaine enough and my exposition of that speach vsed by some men is such that no man of any intelligence or conscience would so grosly peruert it Thus I say pag 23. b Serm. pag. 23. li. 4. Distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe we cannot so much as imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith which we may not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant And againe c Ibid. li. 17. I refraine to speake what wrong it is to put either doubtfulnââ¦sse or forgetfulnesse of these things in part of Christs humane nature And to the question thereon demanded d li. 20. Why then did he pray that the cup might passe from him I answere he had no need to pray for himselfe but only for vs who then suffered with him and in him What learning I cannot say but what lewdnesse is this to father that on me which I fully forsake and still to presse me with that which I so often preuent and repell I did not intend in my Sermons to note any by name nor sharply to censure their sayings but repeating as much as I saw I gaue the best construction or mittigation to their words that any trueth would endure Where then some men whom by your importunity you haue vrged me to name as the Catechisme of master Nowel which you would seeme so much to reuerence in plaine words auoucheth that Christ was e Pag. 280. ãâã mortis horrore perfusus perfused or plunged with the horror of etââ¦rnall death And master Caluin saith f Institutione li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Oportuit ãâã cum inferorum copijs ãâã mortis horrore quasi consertis manibus luctari Christ was to wrââ¦si ââ¦ith the powers of hell and with the horror of eternall death as it were hand to hand Their words suppressing their names I there taught might be tolerated if we tooke horror for a religious feare only trembling at the terror of hell and praying against it or did attribute that trembling and feare of eternall death to Christ in respect and compassion of vs that were his members and whom he ioined and reckened in his sufferings for vs as one person or body with him Which moderation of mine you euery where conceale and make your Reader beleeue that I fully grant and affirme that which I expressely denie And not content therewith you enterlace my words with your lewd additions as if I said Christ thus feared eternall death You meane with strong cries and teares and
prepared which were requisite to offer the sacrifice for our sinnes behold the Priest with his sacrifice Christ with his body the body I say of him that was God who through voluntary obedience to his Father and most ardent loue to vs offered himselfe to God for a most sweet smell And where did he offer himselfe on the altar of the Crosse he suffered and died and that on the crosse k Ibidem Patitur in anima summam tristitiam timorem ignominiam in corpore summos dolores in singulis membris atrocissima flagella l Ibidem In ligno moritur vt mors per lignum ingressa in mundum per lignum tolleretur è mundo He suffered in soule most exceeding heauinesse feare and shame In his bodie most bitter paines in euerie member most grieuous scourges On the tree he died that as death came into the world by a tree so it might be taken out of the world by a tree m Idem in ca. 1. ad Ephes. v. 7. To that point how we are redeemed the Apostle saith by his bloud that is by ãâã sacrifice which consisted of the offering of his body deliuered to death and his bloud shed ãâã ãâã ãâã fuit proprius modus this was the proper manner or onely way how we must be redeemed from the captiuitie of sinne and death This n Ibidem sacrifice which is often signified by the name of Christeâ⦠bloud alone is that price of which the Prophets before and after the Apostles say we were redeemed by it For o Ibidem we are redeemed and haue remission of sinnes in Christ by his onely bloud p Idem de tribus ãâã 1. cap. 5. test 9. This is euen he who by the onely sacrifice of his bodie should effectually clense the sinnes of the world And so againe The Apostle q Idem in ca. 1. ep ad Coloss. vers 22. expresseth the materiall cause of our reconciliation or the thing wherewith the Father reconciled vs to himselfe to ãâã by the oblation of the true and humane body of Christ deliuered to death for our sinnes This he meaneth when he saith in the body of his flesh through death For this body which was truely flesh and an humane body not simply but as it died is the matter of our reconciliation by that was reconciliation made He r Ibidem ioineth the body with bloud because both are the price of our reconciliation and by both were our sinnes clensed The Apostle then s Ibidem signifieth reconciliation was by the oblation of the body of Christ as by the true sacrifice sor sinne Zanchius speaketh not precisely you will say against the death of Christes soule In plainely and fully deliuering the matter and meane of our redemption to be the ONELY SACRIFICE of the body and bloud of Christ offered on the crosse to death he excludeth all other ransomes for our sins so maketh the death of Christs soule not onely to be superfluous to mans saluation but no meane of our redemption For in his iudgement t Zanchius de tribus Elohim part 1. li. 5. ca. 1 ãâã 10. Christ is the propitiatorie sacrifice for sinne not simply but as he died for vs with the shedding of his bloud and u Ibidem this ONELY SACRIFICE the shedding of Christes bloud vnto death God chose from euerlasting for the expiation of our sinnes and promised the same from the creation of the world and shadowed it with resemblances And touching the death of the soule if you teach as Zanchius doth you will presently finde it is open blasphemie to ascribe to Christ any death of the soule x Zanchâ⦠tractat theologicâ⦠de peccato originali ca. 4. thes 3 A triple death saith he God threatned to Adam for disobedience a spirituall death which was the separation of grace of the holy Ghost and of originall righteousnesse from the soule and body of Adam of which death in the Scriptures there is often mention made This death Adam died as soone as he did eate The second was a corporall death whereby the soule is seuered from the bodie To this Adam was presently vpon his eating made subiect though he did not straightwayes actually die The third is euerlasting death which is knowen to all of this death Adam was forthwith made guiltie This triple death was the punishment of his disobedience And vpon like occasion comparing the death of the soule and of the bodie he saith y Ibidem in ca. 2. epist. ad ephes vers 5. There is a triple death spirituall of the spirit or soule corporall knowen to all men and the third is that eternall death pertaining to bodie and soule wherewith all the wicked shall be punished in hell These all God threatned to Adam when he said what hower soeuer thou shalt eate c. thou shalt die the death For he straightway died in spirit or soule he incurred also the death of the bodie because he became mortall and was made guiltie of eternall death z Ibid. We haue rightly said death to bee the priuation of life and so of all the actions of life consisting in the separation of bodie and soule The like we must say of the spirituall life and death The spirituall life is a certaine spirituall and diuine force whereby we are mooued to spirituall and diuine actions by the presence of the holy Ghost dwelling in vs. The holy Ghost regenerating vs in this spirituall life is as it were the soule thereof And holy and spirituall thoughts holy desires holy actions both inward and outward are the operations of this spirituall life What then is the death of the spirit euen the priuation of the spirituall life and consequently of all spirituall and good actions in a man destitute of the presence of the holy Ghost which should quicken him comming from sinne and for sinne a Ibidem What strength hath a man dead in bodie to the actions of this life so neither can he that is dead in spirit or soule do any workes of the spirituall life Heere is a full and true description of the death of the spirit or soule of man which if you and your friends dare attribute to Christ then doth Zanchius fauour the death of Christs soule but if euery peece hereof applied to Christ be euident heresie and infidelitie then did Zanchius no way defend the death of Christes soule to be any part of our redemption and as for the second death he acknowledgeth none but that which is eternall and inflicted in hell on all the wicked Much more might be brought to like effect shewing the true and onely meane and matter of our redemption and reconciliation to be the only body and bloud of Christ yeelded vnto death for the ransome of our sinnes but I should make a new volume if I should stand thereon It may suffice in the iudgement of any reasonable man to refute the slaunderous
hell And further that being in heauen yet staied not there as you say but immediately came out againe to goe to hell Againe that an humane soule being in the depth of hell yet should feele no paines and that being locally in hell it should come out thence also What can be more against the generall rules of the Scriptures then these things You haue laboured heard and caught a herring With much a doe you haue found at length that Christ was a good man he is more beholding to you now then afore when you told vs he was all defiled accursed and hatefull to God for and with our sinnes Your leasure did not serue you to thinke that he was also the true and eternall Sonne of God and therefore no force of death or hell could preuaile on his body or soule farder then he was willing for the declaration of his humilitie and manifestation of his power and glorie Is it against your faith and charitie that all knees of those in heauen and earth and hell should stoupe and bow to the humane nature of the sonne of God Is your Creed so crazed that you can not beleeue that Christ rising spoiled Principalities and powers and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in his owne person Is grace so farre gone from you that you may not endure to heare that Christ descended first into the lower parts of the earth and then ascended againe on hie and ledde captiuitie captiue and gaue gifts to men whereof deliuerance and freedome from all power and danger of hell and Satan were not the last nor least But he was a man you say though a good man and therefore you thinke he must be subiected to the same straights that other mortall and sinnefull men are to feele paines in hell and not to come out from thence This which you call faith is infidelitie against the Sonne of God whiles you seeke to tie him with the same chaines of darknesse and weakenesse wherewith wicked and sinnefull men are tied that are adiudged to euerlasting damnation To be condemned to hell is for misbeleeuers and misliuers to destroy the power and strength of hell was meete only for the manhood of the Sonne of God That he felt no paines there and returned thence were the smallest parts of his glorious triumph ouer hell and Satan It was impossible as Peter teacheth that the paines of death or hell should take hold on him and his soule could not be left there As for comming out of heauen to goe to hell to subdue and destroy the same what more inconuenience is in that then in comming from heauen to the graue there to take vp his body when he restored it to life that wicked men condemned to hell cannot come thence nor find ease there I find it testified in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that the Sonne of God in his humane soule could not goe thither without abiding there for euer and suffering the paines of hell as well as others I find no such grounds in all the Scriptures He saith of himselfe I haue the keies of hell and of death that is all power and command ouer them He had power then not onely to free himselfe from your faithlesse doubts and dangers in hell but to free all his elect from thence and to subiect all things and enemies and so the strength and rage of hell and Satan vnder his feet If the trueth of God bind you to beleene that an Angell comming downe from heauen cast the Dwell into the bottomlesse pit and there bound him and loosed him as he was prescribed doth not your faith serue you to confesse that all power in heauen and in earth and much more in hell was giuen vnto Christ and that as well ouer rebellious Diuels as obedient Angels who adored him when he was brought into the world and serued him the time that he was in the world and are not stronger then his humane nature but receaue power from him as being personally God and Man these be the grounds not of faith but of ignorance which faile vnder your feete and shew that you build on Sand which hath no force when it commeth to be sifted From the grounds of faith which are none you come to the circumstances of the place it selfe and say they are all against me but I that hitherto haue tried you so false conceited in euery thing will not trust you to be true-tonged in this whatsoeuer you pretend These wordes of Dauid thou wilt not leaue my soule in hades nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption I said conteined a speciall prerogatiue verified in none but in the true Messias and Sauiour of the world To this you replie I denie it heere is no such prerogatiue mentioned It is all one skill in you to denic trueths and affirme falsehoodes you cannot doe the one without the other And heere your fansies thrung so fast one on another that they thrust ech other out of doores The maine scope of Saint Peters purpose in this place you doe not or will not vnderstand and on that error you build the rest of your reasons which are all erroneous like the roote whence they come Saint Peter you say intending onely in all this speach to shew the Iewes that this Iesus whom they had slame was not now dead but risen againe plainely graunteth all this matter of Dauid as well as of Christ. Heere are two monstrous falseshoods on which all the rest of your running reasons are setled It had been to small purpose for Peter to prooue to the Iewes that Christ by them slaine was raised from the graue and restored to life if there he had rested or intended that onely as you stifly auouch what could he by this haue inferred more touching Christ then any man might likewise of Lazarus whom Christ raised from the graue This therefore was not Peters scope he had an higher and farder reach in that long Sermon of his which he throughly expresseth afterward and that was Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a suertie that God hath made him both LORD AND CHRIST this Iesus I say whom ye haue crucified To conclude this Peter doth not reason so weakely as you imagine Christs soule is ioined againe to his body though they crucified him ergo Christ is the true Messias and Sauiour of the world This were like one of your reasons which haue nor head nor taile But Peter endued with the holy Ghost reasoned verie truely and sufficiently and in effect thus The prophesie of Dauid which neuer was nor could be fulfilled in any no not in Dauid himselfe but onely in the Messias that his soule should not be left in hades nor his flesh see corruption is fulfilled in Christ whom you crucified he is risen Lord of all his enemies in his owne person the sorrowes of death being losed before him he is ascended vp
priuatiââ¦e condition of death they wââ¦l ââ¦ile at your presumptuous folly If it be a matter of faith it â⦠no phrase if we must beleeue as they teach that Christ after his death and buââ¦all deââ¦cended to hell you must shew vs some other hell to which Christ descended after death or els I conclude that the Lawes of this Land bind all men to beleeue and professe that Christ descended to that hell which the Scriptures acknowledge and not ââ¦hich your roling concââ¦its and totterââ¦ng tonguâ⦠would establish against the warrant and word of God whose only will should be the line whose only trueth should be the guide whose only praise should be the end of all our professions and actions THE TABLE SERVING for their vse that are desirous with more ease to finde out the speciall contents of this booke as they are handled in their seuerall places A A Brahams bosom pag. 552 the place therof vnknowen 656 Aââ¦yssus in the Newe Testamenâ⦠is hell 6ââ¦9 Aââ¦sed iââ¦nocents and penitââ¦nts ââ¦re not though hanged on a tree 238 Chââ¦t was noâ⦠Aââ¦sed how great soeuer his paines weâ⦠164. 165 S. Auââ¦s iââ¦dgement how Chââ¦ist was accursed 241 Men cââ¦n not be truly blââ¦ssed and accursââ¦d 253 Thââ¦t is ââ¦ccââ¦ed whââ¦ch God hateth 257 A sacââ¦ifice for sinne is not acââ¦ursed but accepted of God 258 Adam sinned aswell by bodie as by soule 183. 184 Was punished for his sinne after Christ was promised 147 What God threatened to Adam if he sinned 177. 178 Aeternall death fââ¦r whom Christ might feare 484 Against aeââ¦rnall death as due to him Christ could not pââ¦ay 378. 379 Aeternally God doth not punish one for anothers ââ¦ault 336 Affections are pââ¦infull to the soule 4ââ¦9 make sensible alterations in the heart 193. 194 Good affections of loue and zeale are not painfull 26 Euill affections are punishments of sinne 31 Inward affections make outward impressions in the heart 193 The heart is the seat of mans affections and actions  Christ couââ¦d represse and encrease his affections as he saw cause 400 The Aââ¦xe cleaueth to the Verbe and not to the Noune 216 Afflââ¦ctions of the godly are moderated punishmeÌts 9. 10. 11. 17. manifest Gods displeasure against sinne 14â⦠Agony what it is 339 Tââ¦e paines of hell were not the cause of Christs agony 58. 59 The causes that might be of Christs agony in the ââ¦ardeÌ 9â⦠they crossâ⦠not one another 97 I diâ⦠not resolue what was the cause of Christs agony  The precise cause of Christs agony is not reuealed in the Scriptures 338. 346. though the general occasions may be coniectured 346 The parts of Christs agony 339 An agony proueth rather zeale then feare 339 Feare and sorrow the Scriptures witnesse in Christs agony 342 Submission to God and compassion on men the generall causes of Christs agony 347 The first cause coÌcurring to Christs agony 347 The second 354 The third 370 The fourth 371 The fiââ¦th 375 The sixt 399 The Fathers determââ¦ne not the exact cause of Chrââ¦sts agony 371 How some vse the word agony 403 The different affââ¦ctions in Christs agony had different causes 558 Amazââ¦d neither Moses nor Paul were in their praââ¦ers 368 Christ was not amazed in his praier 369. 479 Christs praier prooueth hee was not then amazed 469 Christs ââ¦raier was no amaze 467 The Defender yeeldââ¦th perfect knowledge to Christ in his amazednes 481 Angry God was with our sinnes but not with Christs person 463 God is truely angry with his childrens sinnes 14 Angels sinned in their whole nature as men doe 197 Angels and good men receaued the bowing of the body 662 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifieth For as well as From. 501 The Apostle 1. Cor. 15. speaketh onely of the resurrection to glory 640. What his wordes Hââ¦b 5. inferre 498. 499. 500 Beleeuers may not iudge of the apostles words 89 More Apostles then twelue 651 The diuers reading and translating of the apostles words 1. Cor. 15. 55. 639 Astonishment what it is 441 What astonishment with feare is 468 Christ did not pray in astonishment 441 Why Christ might be somewhat astonished 468 Athanasius lewdly falsified by the Defender 275 taketh Hades for hell 569. 600. 601 What Athanasius speaketh of Adam the Defender referreth to Christ. 275 Augustine not ignorant of the Greeke tongue 608 his iudgement how Christ was accursed 241 keepeth the sense of Peters word Act. 2. 626 is grossely mistaken by the Defender 627  Christ tooke our naturall but not sinfull affections 330 Christ might beholde the power of Gods wrath and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked 348 Christ prayed for vs and against Satan 352 Christ knew the burden of our sinnes must lie on his shoulders 353 Christ and his members must drinke of one and the same cup. 353 Christ wept for the desolation of Ierusalem and sorowed for the reiection of the Iewes 354 Christ wept and sorrowed when he would 355 Christ grieued at the wilfulnesse of the Iewes 357 Christ sorowed that his death should be the ruine of the Iewes ibid. Christ chose the time and place to shew his vehement affections 358 Christ could not be content to be separated from God for vs. 367 Christ suffered the likenesse of our punishment not of our sinne 273 Christ was not ordained to be damned for vs. 364 Christ feared not death but his Fathers power 370 Christ might pray to haue the deepnes of his sorrowes comforted paines asswaged 374. 375 Christ might pray against the sting of death which he was to feele before he died 381 Christ could not pray against eternall death as due to him but vnto vs. 378. 379 Christ was most earnestly to aske what God had faithfully promised to graunt 384 Christ felt all our affections not of necessitie but according to his owne power and will 386 Christ shewed in the garden how mans soule strugleth with the panges of death 388 Christ was weake to comfort the weak but stronger then the strongest on the crosse 388. 390 Christ saw the whole danger from which hee should redeeme vs. 392. 393 Christ teacheth all his to feare Gods power as himselfe did in the garden 393. 394 Christ presented and dedicated his body in the garden which he sufââ¦ered on the crosse to be done to death 399 Christ died not in the garden 400 Christ could represse and increase his affections as he saw cause 400 Christ found no ioy in his paines but comfort in his hope 411 Christ emptied himselfe of glory not of grace 412 Christ citing the 1. vers of the 21. Psalme noteth the whole to appertaine to his passion 434 Christ was mortified in flesh but not in soule 507 Christ might passe from hell to heauen 550 Christ needed no long time to deââ¦cend to hel 551 Christ presented himselfe in euery place 564 Christ was to rise full conquerer of hell and death 668 How Christs death was like the godlies 7 How Christ laid downe his soule for
no death of the Soule 519 The Fathers professe true fire to be in hell 46 The Fathers plainly remoue the death of Christs Soule from the worke of our redemption 330. 331 All Christs Feares were holy 215 Feare and sorrow in Christ were sufferings for sinne 345 Christs Feare in the Garden was religious 371 Christs ââ¦eare and sorrow were painfull but religious sufferings 372 What Feare and sorrow Christ was to yeelde vnto God when he offered the ransome of our sinnes 374 What things Christ might iustly and greatly feare in the Garden 380 ââ¦eare may be intellectââ¦ue or sensitiue 383 Christ might feare many thinges besides hell paines 385 Why Christ feared more then Mattyrs doe 395 Christ might iustly feare the pââ¦wer of Gods wrath 380 Figuratiuely the Soule may be said to be crucified 80 Fire in hell is not allegoââ¦icall 40. 41. 42. 43 The Fathers professe tââ¦ue fire to be in hell 46 It is possible that brimstone may bee mingled with fire in hell 47 The same fire punishââ¦th the wiââ¦ked both bââ¦fore and after iudgeââ¦ent 55 What fire did signifie in sacrifices 112. 113 What fire might note in the holocaust 116 How Christ was Forsaken on the crosse 409 How farre and wherein Christ was Forsaken are the things questioned 414 What forsaking could not be found in Christ 414 We were forsaken of God till Christ ãâã vs by his death 417 Christ neuer forsaken of hope and comfoââ¦t ââ¦7 God shewed by the present euent that he had not forsaken hââ¦s sââ¦nne 419 We stââ¦iue not for the word but for the sense and maner of forsaââ¦ing 431 G GEhenna was not vsed in speaking to the Gentiles 618 God can doc more then he will 23 Gods loue to Christ appeared euen in his death 20. 21 Gods purpose in the death and crosse of Christ. 154. 155. 156 God vseth meanes and instruments in punishing 33 God tempereth loue and iustice in punishing his elect 147. 255 God worketh good by euill 254 God is iust as well in forgiuing as in punishing sin 262 God was able to saue vs otherwise then by Christs death 287 God was the author of all Christes afflictions but not with his immediate hand 298. 299 God vieth his creatures to performe his iudgements 302 God is the principal agent in all our sufferings but not with his immediate hand 302 Gods hand worketh whatsoeuer meanes he vseth 300. 301 Gods loue to his sonne ouerswaied his hatred to our sinnes 268 Gods iustice in subiecting Satans kingdome to Christs manhood 230 The Gospell differeth much from the Law 264 How the Graue is aâ⦠habitation for the godly 575 God would not haue our flesh as yet freed from the Graue 670 Christ was not Guilââ¦y of our sinne though he took our punishment on him 162. 163 The whole man is guilty of all sinne 185. 186 187. 208 Guilty stretcheth as well to the punishment as to the fact .266 A mediator not guilty of the sinne for which he doth mediate 276 H HAdes what it signifiââ¦th with the Greeke Fathers 589. 590. 591. 592. 593 Hades what it is with Chrylostom 589 Athââ¦nasius taketh Hades for hell 599. 6ââ¦0 Hades in Athanasius Creed is not the graue 659 Hades with Ignatius is not the graue 657 The soules of the godly are not in Hadââ¦s 602 Hades is a place of darkenesse 609 How Hades is vsed in the new Testament 629 Hades with new writers is the graue or hell 609. 610 611 Hades is a place vnder the earth 613 Hades an vnseene and darke place 618 Hades in the Creed must signifie hell 649 Hades is not the ignominie of the graue 651 Hades was first the name of the diuell 615 Hades is hell or the diuell in the new Testament 619 Hades is hell in the new Testament without any figure 621 Why Hades signifieth hell in the new Tââ¦stament 647 Hades with the Pagans was the place not the state of the dead 616 The whole created world is Hades with the Defââ¦nder 615 Hades in effect is nothing but death with the Defender 624 How ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Inferi concurre in signification 579 How the Defender wauereth about Hades 619 How Hades is vsed in the Reuelation 642 How Hades shall be cast into hell fire 644 S. Luke maketh Hades a place of torment 621 What Hades Matth. 11. 23. is threatned to Capernaum 630 Many Greeke copies haue Act. 2. 24. the sorrowes of Hades 625 Hades in the Scriptures opposed to the highest heauens 635 Christ loosed the sorrowes of Hades 625. 626 The wall of Hades not broken but by Christ. 657 Hades hath not all the dead 646 Hades followeth after death 643 Hades taken for the rulers or persons in hell 647 The soules of the godly are not in Hades 602 Hanging on a tree was not the whole curse of the law 236 Hanging on the crosse a cursed kind of death 237 Innocents and penitents not truely accursed though Hanged on a tree 238 Hard speeches should rather bee qualified then strained to the highest 271 All affections make sensible alterations in the Heart 1ââ¦3 194 The heart is the seat of mans affections and actions 2ââ¦3 The Hââ¦art suggesting euill sinneth 311 The ioyes of Heauen are proper to the place 455 456 The sight of God in this life ââ¦uch differeth from the sight of his face in Heauen 456 The Saints of God had some sight of God in earth but not comparable to that in Heauen 460 The soules ââ¦re not yet in the same height of Heauen where Christ is 5ââ¦0 541 How many Heauens the Scriptures make 541. 542 The graces of God in earth are not the ioyes of Heauen 461 Why the Heauens are compared with hell in the Scriptures 634 God is not the immediate and principall inââ¦cter of Hell paines 2â⦠29 The sentence of the iudge containeth the essence of Hell paines 35 Christ suffered not the substance of hell paines 36 Reiection from Gods kingdome essentiall to Hell paines 37. 38 Malediction essentiall to Hell paines 38 Hell fire is not allegoricall 40. 41 42. 43. 49. 53 54 I neuer said Hell fire was materiall 44 The Fathers professe tââ¦ue fire to be in Hell 46 51. 52 So doe later Diuines 49. 50 It is possible that brimstone may be mingled with fire in Hell 47 Chaines there are in Hell though not of iron ââ¦7 Whether there be true fire in hel before the iudgment is not the question 54 Christ suffered not the essentiall part of hell paines 56 Hell paines not the cause of Christs agonie 58. 59 The sharpnesse of Hell paines 60 The foretast of iudgement in Hell is neither full finall perpetuall nor genââ¦rall 210 Positiue punishment now in Hell 214 The suffering of Hell paines no way necessarie to our saluation 220 Men may feare but not feele the truâ⦠paines of hel in this life 320 The paines of hell are no naturall affections 383 Christ might feele somewhat extraordinarie yet not the paines of hell 391 The vehemencie of hell
The plagues and curses of sinne extending as farre as sinners haue any parts of which they consist as bodie and soule or places in which they may be as here so in hell or pertinents which they may haue or need for the ease and vse of this life I called in my conclusion externall corporall spirituall and eternall plagues or punishments of sinne Contrarie to cursing is blessing which is good purposed promised oâ⦠performed to obedience as Cursing is euill intended threatned or prepared for disobedience and so by the one Contrarie we may rightly measure the other yea the names of benediction and malediction which is blessing and cursing are deriued from bonum and malum good and euill And therefore as we conceaue good and euill to proceede from the bountie or Iustice of God so must we recken his blessings and curses to be None is good but onely God that is all true goodnesse is naturally supreamely infinitely and vnchangeably in God as likewise all true blessednesse is Neither can any thing haue any degree of true goodnesse or blessednesse but onely by deriuation from God and by participation with God Capable of God that is of the holinesse and happinesse that is in God and commeth from God are no Creatures but men and Angels since only they haue cognition and fruition of his true goodnesse and blessednesse To omit the Elect Angels that haue their measure of heauenly light and power grace and loue righteousnesse and holinesse ioy and securitie in the continuall presence and seruice of God when God decreed to reueale him selfe to Man he gaue him a reasonable Soule endued with vnderstanding and will to discerne and desire the goodnesse that is in God and by louing and obeying Gods righteousnesse to haue Communion with his blessednesse The better to declare him selfe to man God gaue him a Bodie to be quickned by his Soule with Life sense and motion as a Tabernacle for the Soule to dwell and worke therein and made heauen and earth and all the furniture thereof for the vse delight and safegard of his Body thereby to assure Man of his exceeding care for man and bountie towards Man which were not onely wonderfull causes of thanks but euident proofes of greater fauour and honor reserued for him in the heauens if he loued and serued the Author and giuer of these earthly things The integritie then and safetie the sanitie Actiuitie and perpetuitie of mans Body free from all dangers distempers decases diseases and death The excellent beautie plentie vtilitie and varietie of the Creatures seruing mans vse obeying mans Rule and increasing mans delight were all the maruelous blessings of God on man not onely testifying to him the wisedome power and glorie of the Creator by their natures properties and forces but leading him by the eyes eares and all other senses to the admiring embracing and honoring of that great and mightie Lord that by these pledges proposed himselfe with all his spirituall and vnspeakable riches to be the spouse of mans Soule and reward of his loue He therefore that denieth or doubteth these to haue beene the blessings of God on man when he first made man and so to remaine at this present is an vnthankfull and wicked abuser and despiser of Gods goodnesse and bountie towards him selfe and all mankind The gifts of God on the Soule of Man were farre worthier then those corporall and externall blessings For God gaue vnto Man reason and vnderstanding to behold the greatnesse and withall the goodnesse of God and free will to cleaue fast vnto him without preferring any Creature before him or matching any thing with him as likewise affections to inflame the hart with burning and vnceasing loue Man feeling no defect nor finding any impediment in that innocencie tranquillitie facilitie and consonancie of all the powers and parts of the Soule and body to the knowledge loue and seruice of God But none of the gifts and graces of God either outwardly prouided for man or naturally ingraffed in mans Body or Soule did make Man truely blessed For had he beene truely blessed by these he could not so wretchedly haue fallen from these into the Seas of miseries and heapes of curses with which he was after for sinne ouerwhelmed Wherefore we must resolue that as God is onely truth because he is by Nature immutable and onely blessednesse because no euill can approch him so no blessing can rightly be called true but that which is perpetuall nor full but that which is free from all miserie Saint Austen saith wisely Nullo modo poterit esse vita veraciter beata nisi fuerit sempiterna By no meanes may any life be TRVELY blessed except it be EVERLASTING And againe Veritas immortalis est veritas incommutabilis est Truth is eternall truth is vnchangeable And so Ambrose Creaturae non potest esse veritas sed species quae facile soluitur atque mutatur There can be no truth but a shew in the Creature which is easily lost and changed And therefore Austen expoundeth beatam vitam stabilem id est veram a stedfast that is a true blessed life For how can that be thought a true blessing which may end in euerlasting wretchednesse True blessings then there are none but such as ioyne vs to God who is the true fountaine of all true blessing that without any separation or defection from him we may be partakers of him By true blessing we shall best vnderstand what true cursing is for as EVILL is no contrarie nature to GOOD but onely the defect or priuation of good so there is no true curse to vs but that which bereaueth vs of our true blessing Malum non secundum essentiam sed secundum priuationem rectissime dicitur Euill is most rightly sayd to be no essence but the priuation of good To cleaue fast to God who is only and wholly our good is the true blessing of men and angels and consequently to be seuered from God and to loose all communion with him is the true curse of men and angels The true blessings of God bestowed on his children though they be indeed infinit yet may they be reduced to these three summes according to the times wherein they were are and shall be performed that is TO THE LOVE of God freely affourded vs before the world whereby we were elected and adopted in Christ Iesus our Sauiour TO THE LIKENESSE of God which we haue in this world where we are conformed to the image of his Sonne by the working of his Spirit our sinnes being remitted that diuided vs from God and our hearts sanctified with the faith and loue of his trueth and to THE IIFE of God which after this world shall be reuealed and imparted vnto vs in the heauens where shal be perfect blessednesse without want of any good or feare of any euill The priuation of these three blessings bringeth three euils which are maine and true curses to the wicked
Fââ¦st the dislike of God refusing them the sting of sinne defiling them the sting of death excluding them from all ioy and peace rââ¦st and ease of soule and bodie for euer Applie this to Christ and his members and we shall presently finde by the rules of our Christian faith how farre they agree to either No true curse can be ascribed to Christ which shall seuer him from God without apparent impietie for neither the fauour of Gods fauour towards his manhood nor the fulnesse of grace and trueth in his soule nor the stedfast and most assured expectation of euerlasting ioy and glorie set before him euen in his greatest afflictions and temptations may be doubted of by any that will retaine the name of a Christian besides the perpetuall and personall vnion of his manhood with his Godhead to which was consequent such a communion with God and fruition of God as no elect man or angell euer had or can haue Wherefore you must either defend that the true curse of God did not seuer him from God but that one and the same nature in him might be truely blessed and yet truly accursed of God at one and the same time which are monsters meet for your doctrine or els you must wholly forbeare to affââ¦rme any true curse of Christ that shal separaââ¦e him from God and what other true curses you will attribute to him I would gladly heare The like though in farre lesse measure I yeeld to the membeââ¦s of Christ for since they were before all worlds beloued elected and blessed with all spirituall blessings in Christ and the foundation of God standeth sure hauing this Seale the Lord knoweth who are his yea the gifts and calling of God are without repââ¦ntance And the Apostle is fully perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels ââ¦r principalities nor things present nor things future nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus but that whom God did predestinate those he called and whom he called those he iustified and whom he iustified those he glorified I see no true curse no not sinne it selfe that can fasten on Christes members to their destruction but howsoeuer by nature tââ¦ey were the children of Gods wrath as well as others yet by grace they are saued and all things shall woâ⦠for the best to them that loue God and are loued of him They may want theââ¦e gââ¦ft and graces for a time and so not feele the fruits of Gods election and vocââ¦tion but with God they are truely blessed because they are surely setled in hiâ⦠fauour and fore-appointed to be heires of Saluation though they lie censââ¦ed ãâã ãâã for a while in the masse of Adams condemnation The loue and ãâã then of God is the originall of all true blessing and since that is vnmoueaââ¦le towards the ââ¦lect how much soeuer they be sometimes plunged by sinne and Satan into feares and doubts of their saluation all that is to humble them and not to destroy them and with God who is trueth it selfe they are truely blessed as being adopted in Christ though in mans iudgement and euen to themselues they seeme neuer so much accursed What curses you aske then may be on the godlie Gods loue which is the ground of all true blessing can not varie towards them it is euerlasting and immutable like himselfe All other blessings saue this they may want for a season in this world as before they are lightned and called to the knowledge of God they haue no blessing in them more then the very Reprobate haue After they are engrassed in Christ they may be tosââ¦ed and turmoyled with the very same eââ¦ernall and corporall plagues and punishments that the wicked are and often times with greater and thaââ¦-per but then they are supported with inward grace and comfort which others are not and when by ignorance feare or infirmitie they fall they shall not perish Where then in the Curses of God inflicted on the wicked in this world and the next three things must be marked their Dââ¦PRIVANCE of his blesââ¦ings of all sorts their COHERENCE together and CONTINVANCE for euer the godly communicate with the wicked in some part of the first that is they may be sequestred from such externall and corporall blessings as this life requireth but of spirituall they can not vtterly be depââ¦ued because they must be regenerated and renued in the inward man to the Image of God and sealed by the holy spirit of promise that they may be partakers of Christ here in this world in whom they haue Redemption euen the Remission of sinnes according to the riches of his grace In the rest they may not communicate with the wicked For where the Curses of God doe FOLLOVV one another vpon the Reprobate and abide for euer in the highest degree from this the godly are wholy free as DELIVERED by the mercies of God in Christ from this present euill world and from the wrath to come If then we be saued from these things by Christ how much more must Christ him selfe be saued from them before he could saue others So that Christ as I said at first by submitting him selfe to a part of the curse of the Law which depriueth vs of all earthly and bodily blessings and of life it selfe quenched the whole Curse of the Law and by his shamefull wrongfull and painefull death quited vs from euerlasting death which was the iust reward of our sinnes You say if by the Resurrection of Christ the Nature of death were changed then till Christ was risen death was a punishment to the faithfull themselues I wonder what meaning there is in this Argument As well you may say that none were saued till Christ was risen Wonder then at your owne conceits reasons and Authorities For if the nature of Death were changed as you suppose it was since it was first inflicted on Adam I asked you how and when before the change you doe not doubt but it was a punishment you must graunt to the godly for Christ neuer changed the Nature of Death to the wicked Then if the change were made by Christs dying and rising from the dead how thinke you doth it not follow vpon this confession that death BEFORE it was changed in the godly by Christs Resurrection was a punishment euen to the godly And to this end you bring the Catechisme in this very Section Death which BEFORE was a punishment is now by Christ become a vantage If death were neuer but a vantage to the godly euen when it was first inflicted then the change that you dreame to be made of death in the Godly is but a fansie If NOVV it be so which BEFORE it was not then BEFORE what else could it be to the godly but a punishment of sinne My Resolution was and is that Christ was first promised by Gods