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 wages thereof to be finall depriuation of all grace and glorie and eternall damnation of bodie and soule to hell-fire how can she but quake and tremble at the very cogitation and remembrance of her owne guiltinesse and of the greatnesse of his power and iustnesse of his anger And therefore the godlie presently fall vpon the consideration hereof to condemne and detest all their sinnes and with broken and contrite harts to lament their vnrighteousnesse and to afflict their spirits with earnest and inward sorrow till by faith and repentance they find comfort in the mercies of God through Christ Iesus For want of which the wicked often in this life and speciallie at the houre of death sincke vnder the burden of their sinnes and plunged into the depth of desperation are possessed with an horrible fright and terror of the torments prepared for them in another world they feeling here on earth in their soules the remorse of sinne and sting of conscience but not able to rise vnto true repentance and hope of saluation by reason of their continuall contempt of grace whiles it was offered them which then is taken from them After this life appeare the terrible iudgements of God against sinne which the wicked so much feare and the faithful so much shun the speciall maner and meanes whereof as farre as the Scriptures deliuer them I will deferre till I come to the particular handling of them though I haue often proposed them and in part proued them but whether the words of the Scripture expressing them be allegories that is figuratiue shadowes or plaine speeches that question is not yet debated which I reserue till I haue ended the immediate suffering of the soule as this Discourser calleth it Of these sixe meanes besides the immediate hand of God to inflict paine on the soule for the punishment of sinne it pleaseth you Sir Discourser to skip foure and the other two in effect to denie Affections you say are neither punishments nor corrections at all properly in themselues and suffering by sympathie from and with the bodie is common as you auouch to vs with beasts and is no proper humane suffering because in your iudgement your first kinde of suffering from the immediate hand of God alone is the proper humane suffering which for that cause your selfe call the soules proper and immediate suffering But what if in all this you speake not one true word what if the affections that be euill be properlie punishments of sinne what if the soules suffering from and with the bodie be the true and proper humane suffering what if God vse not his immediate hand in tormenting soules but hauing ordained and appointed meanes by his wisedome and power committeth sinfull soules to be punished by those instruments and meanes which he with his hand hath prepared and in his word expressed Do you not shew your selfe a deepe Diuine that prooue points of faith by open falsities and heape vp errours by the dozens binding them with your bare word and obtruding them to the world as oracles lately slipt from heauen but go to the parts and first to the affections which you affirme are no punishments whether they be good or euill The affections of the soule that be good as the loue of God the zeale of his glorie and hope of his mercie and trueth are the speciall gifts and graces of Gods spirit and so farre from paining the soule that they breed exceeding comfort and ioy in the Holieghost The affections that are eâ—…ill are not onely the rage and reward of sinne but inflict as great anguish as may be felt in this life Concupiscence which is the root and nurse of all euill affections in vs be they sensitiue or intellectiue what is it but the inordinate and intemperate desire and loue of our owne willes and pleasures despising and hating whatsoeuer resisteth or hindereth our deuices or delights yea though it be the will and hand of God himselfe this corruption of the soule by sinne which is now naturall in vs all whence came it but from and for the punishment of the first mans sinne what is it but the verie poison of sinne and whether tendeth it but to withstand and refuse all grace that men reiecting God and reiected of God may runne headlong to the finall and eternall vengeance of their sinne It is no small punishment of sinne for men to be left to the desires of their owne hearts and to be giuen ouer to vile affections which the Apostle calleth the reward of their error and euen the fulnesse of all vnrighteousnesse which make men the seruants of sinne whiles they wait on lusts and diuers pleasures which fight against the soule by leading it captiue vnto the law of sinne which is in the members And if you doubt whether they paine the soule or no looke but on their names or their effects and you shall soone be out of doubt Anger disdaine despaire dislike detestation feare sorrow ragâ—… furie for earthly things can these be so much as conceiued or named without euident impression or mention of paine yea the fairest of our affections and those which at first flarter vs most as loue desire and pleasure I speake still of euill and vnlawfull do they not quicklie faile sowerlie leaue and sharplie vexe with their remembrance and repentance the greatest seekers and owners of them In all these worldlie desires and delights S. Austens rule is generallie true Quod sine illiciente amore non habuit sine vrente dolore non perdet He that kept them not without alluring loue loseth them with afflicting griefe As for the intellectiue passions of the soule which are the trembling at Gods wrath the feare of his power and despaire of his fauour besides the shame of sinne griefe of heart and horror of hell what torments they breed in the condemned consciences of the wicked the godly may partly iudge by that which they sometimes taste notwithstanding their present recourse to the mercies and promises of God in Christ. So that euill affections aswell intellectiue as sensitiue be punishments of sinne and painfull to the soule howsoeuer your cogitations Sir Discourser be otherwise humored Concerning the soules suffering from and with the bodie which you say is common to vs with beasts if the soule do not consider for what cause at whose hand and to what end she suffereth as also how she may be freed and what thanks is due to her deliuerer she may be well likened to the Horse and Mule in whom is no vnderstanding but the brutish dulnesse of some earthly minded men doth not make this kind of suffering not to be properly humane which God from the beginning did and doth vse to all his seruants and saints his owne sonne not excepted and whereby God worketh in all his children correction probation perfection preparation to glorie which are things most proper to men and no way communicable vnto beasts God
and the basenesse and deiection of his soule One that is subiect to luxurie or gluttonie or amazed with feare who can endure to beholde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The disposition of the soule piercing to the very outsides of the bodie euen as the prints of the seemlinesse of the soule appeare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the composed behauiour and gesture of the godly The alterations of the bloud and motions of the spirits within the bodie which the soule raiseth in all her affections are not so open to the eye as the former yet are they the causes of all outward mutations and sensible enough to the parties themselues when they grow any thing vehement For this is Gods ordinance in all things which haue sense or reason that good any way perceiued should delight stirre and inflame the will and appetite of beasts men and angels with desire and loue thereof and euill contrariwise should not onely auert and quench the will and appetite with hatred but offend and oppresse the patient with feare and griefe When then the soule of man vnited to her bodie liketh any thing obiected or apprehended vnder the shew of good she kindleth and moueth her selfe to attaine her desire and therewithall incenseth the vitall and animall spirits which warme the bloud enlarge the heart and diffuse themselues to persue or embrace the good that is approching or present And when she seeth any euill which she can not decline but must endure she staggereth and sincketh for feare which quencheth the spirits cooleth the bloud and closeth the heart depressing all three with a slacke colde and heauie remisnesse If she may withstand or requite the euill that is towards she raiseth her selfe to anger which maketh the bloud to boile the heart to swell and the spirits to flie to the outmost parts as readie to resist or reuenge So that LOVE and HATRED of good and euill obiected to the sense or minde of man are the two chiefe springs of all his affections and actions and the branches thereof which are desire feare ioy griefe and anger moued either by the sense or vnderstanding haue their manifest or secret alterations of the bloud and motions of the heart by the intension or remission of the spirits kindled or quenched more or lesse according as the obiect of good and euill is greater or nearer By this meanes the soule affected and mooued with good or euill affecteth and moueth her bodie and sheweth her inward disposition and inclination to either and the heart of man which is the seat of will hath his naturall and different motions raised by the soule vpon het liking or disliking of good or euill perceiued by sense or by vnderstanding These alterations and motions naturally impressed by the soule on the bodie not onely Philosophers and Physitians haue obserued but the Diuines of all ages that haue waded therein haue fully confessed Aristotle by the rules of nature collected and inferred thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of motion is that which in our actions must be persued or declined and of necessitie heat and cold do follow vpon the cogitation or imagination of either That which is grieuing is declined that which is pleasing is persued Howbeit in small things this is scant sensible So that almost all things grieuing and pleasing vs bring with them a sensible kinde of colde and heat as it is euident by our affections the parts enlarging by heat and shrinking with colde This alteration either the sense or the imagination or the cogitation can make Wherefore some shake and feare onely vpon the cogitation of things The euill or good which grieueth or pleaseth vs bringeth naturally colde or heat to the bloud and so enlargeth or shrinketh the heart which alterations do come as well vpon cogitation and imagination as vpon sense Galene an exact and skilfull obseruer of mans bodie writeth that the first and principall cause of shaking is the recourse of the naturall heat to the inward and outward parts which is found in manie affections of the soule and with the same are as well the spirits as the bloud caried sometimes inward to the fountaine of the heart and there compressed sometimes extended to the outward parts and there diffused Those spirits and bloud together with the heat that is in either or both the soule vseth for her first instruments in all her operations or els dwelleth in them and those motions of the soule we may plainly beholde in manie other things but chiefly in the affections of the soule For feare presently driueth the spirits and the bloud to the inward parts and presseth them to a narrow roome by cooling the outsides of the bodie Anger doth hastily send forth diffuse and heat the bloud and spirits and therefore the beating of the arteries and the heart in them that feare are small and weake but very great and vehement in them that are angrie That feare doth straiten and contract the hart and ioy dilate it and make it leape and the signes of either preuaile and appeare in the body the auncient Father Saint Basile did long since obserue Teares the effect of griefe doe rise saith he when an impression against our wils doth strike the Soule and draw it together the spirit about the heart being compacted and straitned Ioy is as it were the leaping of the Soule exulting or aduancing it selfe for things answerable to our mind Wherefore the Soule sheweth signes in the Body accordingly For in those that sorrow the masse of flesh is pale wanne and cold In those that reioyce the habite of their body is floorishing and ruddy the Soule euen leaping and for pleasure offering to rush to the outmost parts Thomas Aquinas a man well learned though led with the errors of his age very truely noteth First Quod in omni passione animae additur aliquid vel diminuitur a naturali motu Cordis in quantum cor intensiùs vel remissiùs monetur That in all the passions of the Soule somewhat is added to or diminished from the naturall motion of the hart in as much as the hart mooueth either swifter or slacker Secondly that From the loue of temporall things all sinne proceedeth all our affections being caused by loue which melteth and mollifieth the hart that the thing loued may pearce it contrary to coldnesse and hardnesse of hart which is a disposition repugnant to loue whose perfection is to be zealous and feruent The cause of all sinne then which is the loue of our selues and of temporall things delighting vs so flameth in our harts that it seeketh all occasions and vndertaketh all actions to content our appetites and this heate and motion of loue being impressed in the hart by the soule it is manifest that the consent of sinne is communicated from the Soule to the Body Leonardus Fuchsius a learned Phisitian of our time and a professor of true Religion in his institutions of Phisicke
place which thinketh that Paul led with a feruent This exposition may not simply be receiued loue and zeale to haue the Iewes partakers of Christ did not remember or respect either the Counsell or Iustice of God to be immutable which yet are but brake forth into a vehement affection as desiring to exchange his eternall damnation for their Saluation These leaue out all manner of Conditions not because there were not many and must be many before the wish can be religious and pleasing to God but for that the Apostle wholy defixed on his care for the Iewes did not in that Passion consider the rest But by their leaues that are the leaders to this exposition well this may be conceaued of some short and suddaine motion rising from mans infirmitie but this can neuer be imagined of the Apostle aduisedly and iudicially writing to the Romans and weighing all his words with the wisedome of Gods spirit which if they take from the Apostle in that part of this Epistle where he calleth Christ and the holy Ghost to witnesse that he speaketh the truth I see not why they may not derogate all Authoritie from the rest of his writings when after so great deliberation and vehement protestation they make him forget the chiefest grounds of Christian Religion earnestly vrged by himselfe in the selfe same Epistle and euen in the next wordes before written in the later ende of the eight Chapter It is therefore a dangerous position to say the Apostle was amazed or astonished in his writings or so caried away with his affections that he knew not what he wrote in those Scriptures which are Canonicall For it openeth a gap to all impieties and heresies to thinke that Paul led with Christs spirit did not remember nor respect that Gods eternall election could not be changed nor the chosen vessels of Christ be euerlastingly condemned for the loue and zeale which they bare to Christ nor any man or Angell admitted to be the Redeemer and deliuerer of the Reprobate from the iust and deserued wrath of God prouided for them All which pestilent errors are consequent to this supposition that the Apostles speech was absolutely without condition and must be graunted to be possible before his desire or wish could simply take place It is therefore resolued euen by them who first deuised this exposition that Pauls wish in this place was wholy impossible as well in respect of God who would not change his eternall counsels and decrees as of the Apostle who being a chosen vessell could not perish and likewise of the Iewes whose deserued destruction so often denounced by our Sauiour as where he said h Matth. 21. The kingdome of God shall be taken from you and to Ierusalem i Luke 19. They shall not leaue in thee a stone vpon a stone because thou knewest not the day of thy visitation and many such threats could not be auerted Only this Defender to shew his discretion out of these darke places which admit many senses collecteth that to be possible which by the verdict of the holy Scriptures and of all Interpreters new and old is auouched to be simply impossible and thence he maketh his notable obseruations which indeede are nothing else but grosse and palpable errors k Defenc. pag. 96. li. 25. From thence I obserue foure notable points First That if God omnipotent and onely soueraigne Lord will he may inflict damnation and the paines of hell vpon meere men not for themselues but for others nor for their owne sinnes but for the imputed sinnes of other men much rather then might he doe this to Christ whom God sent indeede and ordained for that purpose Flatly contrarie to your Assertion To make your Obseruation Note the nearer to the patterne which you follow you must say that God if he will may inflict eternall damnation for temporall damnation to hell the Scripture knoweth none on his elect so were Moses and Paul for their loue to Christ and their Foure notable errors falsely grounded on the facts of Moses Paul whereof 〈◊〉 the first bretheren for that was the cause of their wish And then you haue made a worthy Corollarie that indeede contrarieth my Assertion and not mine onely but also the expresse words of the holy Ghost the maine grounds of the Christian Faith and the resolution of all writers first and last that haue spoken of these places To Moses Petition Gods answere was that he would not wipe an Innocent out of his booke but l Exod. 32. verse 33. Whosoeuer hath sinned against me said God I will put him out of my booke So that God himselfe did not onely refuse Moses Prayer in that part but declared it to be repugnant to his Iustice to condemne the guiltlesse with the guiltie The Apostle the next words before these by which you would make it possible that he might perish for others professed that m Rom. 8. v. 38. neither death nor life nor Angels nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor deapth nor any other creature was able to separate him from the loue of God in Christ. And therefore generally demandeth n Ibid. v. 35. Who shall separate vs from the loue of Christ No creature is able as he exactly auoucheth and as for the Creator o Verse 33. It is God that iustifieth and therefore cannot be contrarie to himselfe p Verse 34. who shall condemne where God in Christ doth acquite God you thinke may change his mind His eternall counsell decreed reuealed and assured in Christ God neither will correct because he is wise and before all worlds foresaw all that might mooue him to the contrarie neither can alter because he is truth and so can neither repent nor change as men doe The q Rom. 11. Gifts and calling of God are without repentance r 2. Tim. 2. The foundation of God standeth sure and hath this seale the Lord knoweth who are his s Iames. 1. With him is no varying nor turning And therefore our Sauiour excepteth it as a thing not possible that the elect should perish when he saith that false Prophets and great wonders in the later daies should deceaue t Matth. 24. If that were possible the very Elect. By his power you will say God may doe it though he will not Gods power was most absolute ouer all creatures to dispose them at his pleasure before he determined and setled his will in Christ Iesus what to doe with them since which the holy Ghost teacheth vs in plaine words it is impossible that God should lie hauing made his promise to all his elect in Christ and bound it with an Othe not because he is become weaker then he was but because he hath fastned his counsell and reuealed his truth in his Sonne which he neither will nor can change not for want of power but because of his truth which is constant and immutable u Heb. 6.
religious Prince aswell to examine the Scriptures with all diligence as to shew the confession and resolution of Christs Church long before our times that all the world may see I maintaine none other grounds of Faith nor sense of Scripture than haue beene anciently constantly and continually professed and beleeued in the Church of Christ for these fifteene hundred yeeres till this our present Age and the same allowed and ratified by the publike lawes of this Realme which your Maiestie in your most Princely wisdome and courage professe to vpholde and continue God for his holy Names sake blesse your most sacred Maiestie and prosper all your vertuous and Christian cares that as in learning and wisdome in clemencie and pietie he hath made you the Mirrour of this Age so in peace and prosperitie in concord and vnitie in all happinesse and felicitie he may exalt you aboue all your neighbour Princes and hauing vnited the two Realmes of England and Scotland in one subiection vnder your Princely right and regiment he will knit the hearts and hands of both to honour and serue you loue and obey you and your royall issue after you to the worlds end Your Maiesties most humble subiect and seruant THO. WINTON THE CHIEFE RESOLVTIONS OF THIS Suruey THe cleerenes and fulnes of the Scriptures in the worke of our Redemption is exactly to be reuerenced so as no man ought to teach or beleeue any thing touching our redemption by Christ which is not expresly witnessed in the sacred Scriptures much lesse may we distrust the manifest words of the holy Ghost to be impertinent or vnsufficient in declaring the true price and meane of our redemption The maine ground of the Gospell which the Apostles preached the faithfull receiued wherein they continued and whereby they were saued was this That Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and was buried and rose the third day according to the Scriptures Since then we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne we must acknowledge none other death of Christ then that which he suffered in the bodie of his flesh after which he was buried and from which he rose the third day which death the Scriptures most apparently describe to be the death of Christs bodie If we were redeemed by the bloud of Christ and God proposed him to be a Reconciliation through faith in his bloud which was shed for the remission of sinnes we may not presume to appoint a new price of our redemption or new meane of our reconciliation since by the bloud of his crosse Christ hath pacified both the things in earth and things in heauen and the bloud of Iesus Christ cleanseth vs from all sinne The Scriptures doe no where teach nor mention the death of Christs Joule or the death of the damned which is the second death to be needfull for our redemption We must not therefore intrude our selues into Gods seat to ordâ—…ne a new course for mans redemption If the Spirit doe quicken and the iust liue by faith and he that abideth in loue abideth in God who is life it was vtterlie impossible but the soule of Christ in that abundance of Spirit euidence of Faith assurance of Hope and perfection of Loue which he alwayes retained should alwayes liue to God Life and death being opposed as priuatiues and so not to be found in one and the same subiect at one and the same time the soule of Christ alwayes liuing could neuer be dead Neither could a dead soule be pleasing to God who is whole life and therefore hateth death as contrarie to his nature when yet he was alwayes well pleased with Christ. Where some imagine extreame paine in Christs soule may be called the death of his soule that position is repugnant to the Scriptures for the greater the paine which the soule feeleth and endureth with innocencie confidence obedience and patience such as were all Christes sufferings the more the soule liueth and cleaueth to God for whose glorie it suffereth so much smart as appeareth in Martyrs whose soules do most liue in their greatest torments The late deuice of hell-paines in Christes passion is not only false but also superfluous for the true paines of hell neither are nor can be suffered in this life where by Gods ordinance extreame paine driueth the soule from the bodie much lesse can man or Angell endure them with obedience and patience as Christ did all his paines And what need was there of hell-paines in the crosse of Christ since God can by euery meanes or without meanes raise more paines in bodie or soule than any creature can endure Christs soule could not be strooken with any horrour of Gods displeasure against him since in his greatest anguish he professed God to be his God and his Father and by prayer preuailed for his persecutors as appeared after by their conuersion and gaue eternall life to the soule of the Thiefe hanging by him and beleeuing on him Now to giue life is more than to haue life and restore others to fauour he can not that himselfe is in displeasure Hell-fire which the damned and diuels do and shall suffer is a true and eternall fire prepared by the mightie hand of God to punish aswell spirits as bodies and this errour That the fire of hell was only an internall or spirituall fire in the soules and consciences of men was long since condemned in Origen by the Church of Christ. Reiection therefore desperation confusion horrour of damnation externall and eternall fire which are the torments of the damned and true paines of hell can not without blasphemie be ascribed to Christ. Christ therefore suffered neither the death of the soule nor the paines nor horrors os the damned or of hell Euery sinne is common to the whole man who is defiled euen with thoughts that be euill not only because the bodie is the Seat wherein and the instrument whereby the soule worketh but also for that the first infection of sinne commeth to the soule by the bodie and the first information and prouocation to sinne riseth from the senses and affections which are mooued with corporall spirits and all the parts and powers of the bodie attend the will with most readie subiection to haue each sinne which the soule conceiueth impressed on them and executed by them And therefore the suffering for sinne in the person of the Mediatour must be common both to bodie and soule in such sort that as in transgressing our soules are the principall Agents so in the suffering for sinne his soule was the principall Patient Christ would vse no power to assuage the force and violence of his paines though he wanted none as appeareth by his ouerthrowing them with a word that came to apprehend him but submitted himselfe to his Fathers will with greater obedience and patience than any man liuing could We may therefore safely beleeue That the iustice of God condemning sinne in Christes flesh proportioned the paines of his bodie in
sense and case that I do Peruse the labours of that learned Father Bishop Iewel and see how often in his Replie to Harding and his Defence of the Apologie he calleth the testimonies of the ancient Fathers and Councels Authorities We rest sayth he vpon the Scriptures of God vpon the Authoritie of the ancient Doctours and Councels And againe to reckon vp the authorities of ANTIQVITIE it would be infinite The halfe communion by the authoritie of Gelasuis may well be called open sacriledge In the conclusion of the same booke I grant you haue alledged authorities sundrie and many such as I knew long before Verely I neuer denied but you were able to bring vs the names and shadowes of m◅ny Fathers You haue defended the open abomination of your stewes by the name and AVTHORITIE of S. Augustine You haue sought vp a companie of new petite Doctors Authors void of Authoritie full of vanities In the conclusion of his defence of the Apologie my Authorities of Doctors and Councels as you haue vsed them are few enough What meant you in fauour of open Stewes to shew vs the name and AVTHORITIE of S. Augustine Peter Martyr against Smithes bookes of the singlenesse of Priests sayeth In iudging of things obscure we must haue two waies or meanes to direct vs one i◅ward which is the Spirit the other outward which is the word of God Tum si ad haec patrum etiam authoritas accesserit valebit plurimum to these if the authoritie of Fathers be ioyned it is of great force So Chemnitius in his examination of the Tridentine Councell Quod de patrum authoritate sentimus etiam ab ipsis Patribus didicimus That which we hold touching the authoritie of the Fathers we learned of the Fathers themselues Where also he teacheth you this Rule worth the noting for your new found Redemption and the rest of your nouelties Sentimus etiam nullum dogma in ecclesia no◅m cum t◅ta antiquitate pugnans recipiendum We also confesse that no point of Doctrine which is new to the Church and repugnant to all antiquitie is to be receiued If the Fathers themselues will better please you I want not their example for the vse of that word which so much offendeth you Ierome in his Epistle to Damasus in very earnest manner maketh this petition Vt ◅ihi epistolis tuis siue tacendarum siue dicendarū hypostase◅n detur authoritas That AVTHORITIF may be giuen me saith he by your letters to vse or refuse the word hypostases Vincentius in his book against heresies mooueth this question Here some perchaunce will aske where as the Canon of the Scripture is perfect and abundantly sufficient in it selfe for all things quid opus est vt ei ecclesiasticae intelligentiae iungatur authoritas what neede is there that the authoritie of the ecclesiasticall interpretation should be ioyned with it The effect of his answere which is good for you to obserue that claime such libertie for your selfe to expound the Scriptures at your pleasure is this least euery man should wrest the Scriptures to his fansie and sucke thence not the truth but the patronage of his error Saint Augustine that is euery where carefull to yeeld the Scriptures their due reuerence yet giueth the word Authoritie to the decrees of Councels and writings of godly Fathers before his time Speaking of generall Councels he saith Quorum est in ecclesia saluberrima authoritas Whose authoritie is most wholsome in the Church And alleaging the testimonies of Irenaeus Cyprian Hilarius Ambrose Gregorie Chrysostome Basil and others against Iulian the Pelagian he concludeth Hoc probauimus Catholicorum authoritate sanctorum this haue we prooued by the authoritie of Godly Catholike men vt vestra fragilis quasi argutula nouitas sola authoritate conteratur illorum that your weake and sleigh noueltie might be ouerwhelmed with their onely authoritie For your contumacie is first to be repressed by their authoritie With these testimonies and so great authoritie of holy men thou must either by Gods mercy be healed or else thou must accuse the egregious and holy Doctors of the Catholike truth against which miserable madnes I must so answere that their faith may be defended against thee euen as the Gospell it selfe is defended against the wicked and professed enimies of Christ. If then this word seeme insolent to you which is so frequent with the best Diuines of former and latter times let your Reader iudge whether it be ignorance or insolence in you to stumble at so plaine a word as if the religious and auncient Fathers and lights of Christs Church were not worthy with you to be counted learned Authors nor their testimonies to be named Authorities fit to guide and lead others to the knowledge of the truth I trust no aduised Christian will challenge more authoritie to the Fathers then was giuen by those of Beraea to the Apostle nor deny indeede to any priuate man much lesse to a Minister to iudge and discerne in themselues not onely the words of men but euen of the sense and meaning of the Scripture by the Scripture it selfe which thing the Beraeans did and are commended by the holy Ghost for it I trust you claime no power to iudge of the Scriptures you may discerne the truth there written but with necessitie to beleeue not with libertie to iudge And if by your freedome you fasten on falsehood it is no excuse for you but a condemnation vnto you Saint Austen speaking of the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles saith quos omnino indicare non audeamus which we may not dare at all to iudge And where you say the Ber◅ans are commended by the holy Ghost for not beleeuing that Paul spake touching Religion till they had examined by the Scriptures and seene whether the truth were so as he vttered You speake not one◅y vnwisely and vntruely but if you would haue Christians to follow that course you shew intolerable pride against the word of God for the Beraeans were commended when as yet they neither beleeued in Christ nor acknowledged Pauls Apostleship for their readinesse to heare and care to search whether Paul spake trueth or no. This if you now assume to your selfe ouer Pauls words or writings you incurre the crime of flat impietie Pauls words to vs that beleeue without further search or other credit are of equall authoritie with the rest of the Scriptures and not to beleeue him till we examine and see the trueth of his doctrine is meere infidelitie Behold I paul say vnto you must suffice all Christians and if an Angel from heauen preach otherwise than he preached we must hold him accursed For our comfort that beleeue and to perswade them which as yet beleeue not we may search and see the consent betwixt the Prophets and Apostles yea the sonne of God sent men to the writings of Moses and the
deuice to the doctrine of our saluation than what is euidently reuealed and directly witnessed in the Scriptures Whether it be of Christ sayth Austen or of any other thing what soeuer touching the faith I say not if we who are no way comparable to him that so spake but that which followeth if an Angell from heauen teach you BESIDES that which you haue receiued in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospell holde him accursed It is a manifest fall from the faith sayth Basil either to abrogate any thing that is written or to bring in any thing that is not written For when once we beleeue the Gospel sayth Tertullian this we first beleeue that there is nothing besides which we ought to beleeue So that the meere bloud and single bodie of Christ are but sleights of yours with vnknowen phrases to draw your Reader from asking or eying your proofes for the death of Christes soule and the paines of the damned to be suffered by him before wee could be redeemed The Scriptures are maine and manifest for that which I beleeue and teach and which the whole Church of Christ before mee taught and beleeued these fifteene hundred yeeres afore your conceit of hell paines in the soule of Christ was either hatcht or heard of The sufferings of the soule and the wrath of God which things you now catch holde on to make some introduction to your secret and priuate fansies are too generall to inferre either the death of the soule or the paines of the damned except to the rest of your absurdities you will adde these that the soule neuer suffereth but it dieth the death of spirits and that Gods anger in this life hath none other effects but damnation Here you vrge a reason against vs if then our soules be not redeemed by the blood of Christ our bodies haue no benefite of Redemption from death You hunt so headily after aduantages of words by some ambiguitie in them that you neither remember what the Scriptures teach nor what your selfe defend nor when I vse a word in the same sense that the Apostle doth It is not my deuise but the Apostles doing to take REDEMPTION of the body for the incorruption of the same We sigh in our selues saith Paul wayting for the Redemption of our body And againe you are sealed by the holy spirit of God vnto the day of Redemption When that day shall be our Sauiour telleth vs in these words When the powers of heauen shall be shaken and you see the sonne of man come in a cloud with power and great glory then lift vp your heads for your Redemption draweth neere In all which places Redemption is taken for none of those mercies or graces which are bestowed on Gods children in this life but for that glorie and immortalitie which shall be reueiled on them when Christ shall come to iudge the world and namely the Redemption of the body for that incorruption wherewith our vile bodies shall bee changed and made like to his glorious body Take then the Redemption of the body for the incorruption of the same as the Apostle plainely doth and I did and see what absurditie or obscuritie there is in my reason which you so much wrangle with and wonder at as though it passed all vnderstanding The Redemption which we haue in this life by the bloud of Christ must needes bee either of body or of soule we haue no more parts to be redeemed by Christ. But the Redemption of our bodies we haue not in this world we must waite for it till this corruptible put on incorruption The Redemption therefore which we haue in this life or shal haue before the last day is the Redemption of our soules And so the words of Peter You were Redeemed with the precious bloud of Christ and of the Saints in heauen saying to the Lambe Thou hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud pertaine expresly to the Redemption of their soules because their bodies then did and yet do lie in corruption What so strange monsters or marueiles doeth your Logicall head finde in this reason that you should make such wonderizations at it and protestations against it Is it not open and easie to all that be meanely witted or soberly minded But you haue three things to note in my words which you alleage 1. The Proposition is vaine and Illogicall hauing no consequence in it at all It is a speciall point of Art memoratiue in you to note three things and vtterly to forget two of them For in this whole Section you doe not so much as mention any second or third thing to bee noted in those words which you cite The first and al which you note is that my proposition is vaine Illogicall and vncoherent Your idle and vntheologicall head hath ouer busied it selfe with many mad multiplications and what ifs vpon this proposition and yet you come nothing neere the sense or coherence of it The Proposition hath two parts whereof the second is either an illation out of the Apostles words vpon the first being a supposition of yours if we limit it to the time of this life or if wee speake without restraint of time as you doe it is a necessarie consequent to the former being the condition and cause of the latter That our soules are not redeemed by the bloud of Christ but by his soule is a resolution of yours wherewith you giue a fresh on-set in the next Section as the Reader shall there perceiue though here in shew you somwhat relent after your inconstant maner That being a position of yours I added by the Apostles warrant that our bodies haue not their Redemption in this life but must stay for it till the day of Redemption or generall resurrection And so the reason standeth If our soules be not here redeemed by the bloud of Christ which is your Assertion our bodies by the Apostles doctrine haue no Redemption in this life But this That wee should presently haue no Redemption in body or soule by the bloud of Christ is quite m contrarie to the words of Peter who sayth Yee are redeemed by the bloud of Christ not yee shall be and of the soules in heauen that say to Christ thou hast redeemed vs by thy bloud when their bodies were rotten in the earth Since therefore either body or soule must haue Redemption in this life and the body as Paul assureth vs hath not Redemption in this life Ergo the Redemption which we haue in this life by the bloud of Christ must bee referred to our soules and our bodies must expect the generall day of Redemption in the end of the world before they shall haue it If the sober and wise Reader vnderstand not this reason or can dislike the sequence of it I am content he shall condemne it as darke and obscure but if it be open to all mens eyes saue yours then is your
his minde as by his sense and you nothing the neerer to your purpose of his suffering hell paines in mind from the immediate hand of God but to let the Reader see how you catch at Fathers for an aduantage without any shew of their words and when they make against you you reiect with disdaine the whole aray of them Your diuiding of man into his parts and your resolutions thereupon are more absurd and haue neither trueth learning nor common vnderstanding in them Of man to shew your exactnesse you make these partes â—…e bodie the externall sensitiue part of the soule the whole spirit and vnderstanding also You name here the bodie the soule and the spirit but so vntowardly that neither your selfe nor any man els can tell how to make them agree Hath the soule if you will needes distinguish it from the spirit no moe parts or powers to suffer or to be saued but the externall sensitiue part will you take the soule to be all one with the spirit and so make the whole spirit as much as the whole soule But the Apostle reckoneth the whole spirit the soule and the bodie whose words you would seeme to follow and so seuereth the soule from the spirit But not by the externall sensitiue part as you doe Againe why adde you the vnderstanding also after the whole spirit As if it were no part thereof but a different thing from the spirit But this is your skill when you come to any matter of importance to wrap it in ambiguous and confused termes that it shall be more masterie to vnderstand you then to refute you And how commeth it about by your Philosophie that the sufferings of the soule by and from the body pierce no farder then into the externall senses of the soule Doe the sufferings of the body offend and afflict the powers onely or the substance also of the soule Is not the very substance of the Soule passible and punishable as well by the powers of sense as by the affections and vnderstanding The actions passions powers and faculties of the soule are they not all grounded on and seated in the substance of the soule so that from thence all the actions thereof must proceed therein all the passions thereof must be receiued and thereon all the faculties thereof depend Are you so learned in logick that you will bring vs passions without a subiect or powers and faculties without a substance Whether it be therefore by the vnderstanding will affections or sense that the soule suffereth the substance thereof suffereth by those powers and meanes and not any part thereof for so much as the substance of the soule is not diuisible into parts as being a spirit though the powers and faculties thereof may be distinguished and called parts Then is it a strange position of yours that the sensitiue part suffereth or that the vnderstanding suffereth and not the soule by either of them when indeed the substance of the soule suffereth by or from her power or faculties of sense vnderstanding and will which are the meanes that God hath made to impresse paine on the soule For the vnderstanding which you call the mind is no more a seuerall substance in the soule then the power of sense is and the soule not onely discerneth particular things by her facultie of sense as she doth consequent and generall things by hir facultie of reason but by the eares and eyes she heareth the word and beholdeth the works of God whence commeth information of faith and truth Of the vnderstanding Epiphanius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I thinke not our mind to be any substance of it selfe neither hath any of the children of the Church so thought but to be an effectuall power or operation giuen of God and abiding in vs. Of the sense Tertullian saith Anima perinde per corpus corporalia sentit quemadmodum per animam incorporalia intelligit The soule perceiueth corporall things by the sense euen as she doth vnderstand incorporall things by the mind And shewing how both those powers depend on the soule he addeth Sit nunc potior sensu intellectus dummodo ipse propria vis animae quod sensus Let the vnderstanding excell the sense so that it be a proper facultie of the Soule as the sense is Of the passions of Christs Soule Fulgentius writeth Nunc ostendendum nobis est passionem tristitiae maeroris taedij timoris ad animae substantiam propriè pertinere Now must we shew that the passion of sorrow heauinesse and loathing of hart and feare which our Sauiour felt pertaine properly to the substance of the soule And at the length concluding that the flesh of it selfe can neither haue life nor sense nor sorrow nor desire nor feare nor mourning he saith Haec ergo cuncta in anima quam susceperat pertulit Christus vt veram totamque in se cum suis infirmitatibus hominis demonstraret accepti substantiam All these passions Christ endured in his soule which he tooke that he might shew in himselfe THE TRVE AND VVHOLE SVBSTANCE of a man with his infirmities The purpose for which you pretend so many Fathers is as idle as all the rest for the Soule of Christ might suffer by her senses by her affections by her vnderstanding and will and yet not suffer the paines of hell nor the death of the soule which is your doctrine Though therefore the Fathers doe say that the soule of Christ suffered in his death and passion which is a thing I neuer doubted of much lesse called in question yet neither auouch they it suffered your hell paines neither from the immediate hand of God as your deuice leadeth which things are as strange to them as those they neuer heard of By the Fathers Christ suffered exactly all and whatsoeuer sorrowes and paines which we should haue suffered as well spirituall as corporall as well in all the powers of the soule subiect to suffering as in that which suffered alwaies with and from the body This if you would prooue by the Fathers themselues and not by your false translating and misapplying their words which otherwise haue no such thing you said somewhat You haue raked together some places alleaged formerly by me or formerly refuted by me and out of them you would make fresh shewes if you could tell how There is onely one place of Cyrill taken out of my Sermons by you as you doe the rest of your authorities which hath generall termes apt to be wrested by you and forced against the Authors minde which you forget not to straine to the vttermost the rest are miserably racked without cause or colour from the Fathers mindes and wordes Cyrill saith Omnia Christus perpessus est vt nos ab omnibus liberaret Christ suffered all things that he might free vs from all where the word ALL is found which you make the ground of all your descant
a new compasse of hell that shall containe all that the wicked doe suffer in this life or elsewhere be it neuer so little If you will fall to creating of new helles shew your commission otherwise you may create your selfe a woorse condition than you are ware of Thinke you that any wise or godlie Reader will rest himselfe vpon such inuentions or such conclusions as these be Who can say how little or how small the paine was which Christ suffered You onely can tell how great it was for you say Christ suffered a sense of Gods wrath equall to hell it selfe and to all the torâ—…ents thereof For this if you would spare vs as well proofes as words we might at length perhaps beleeue you meant some trueth Why presume you to determine a iust equalitie in Christes sufferings to the very paines of hell vpon your owne head What Scripture teacheth you so to say Nay who can say you declaâ—… or comprehend the infinite greatnesse of it You haue comprehended and declared the iust measure of it for you make it equall with hell And yet as constant in this as in all other things you presently adde that Christs anguish might very well be and was no doubt infinite euen in those bodily stripes and wounds whose paines otherwise were finite Where if you take infinite for great or aboue mens reach and knowledge as sometimes the word is vsed then speake you nothing to the purpose For Christes paines may be great and intolerable to vs though nothing neere the paines of hell But if you take infinite as contrarie to finite which you do in this place by opposing it to finite then infinite indeed is more than hell for the paines of hell are finite in degree though infinite in hauing no end Howbeit in the meane while you wrong the Godhead of Christ in whom nothing is infinite besides his Diuine Nature and the force thereof So that if Christ did suffer paines truely infinite his Godhead must suffer which is infinite blasphemie by reason his manhood being a creature could not nor might not suffer but that which was finite both in waight and end Such speculations you broach out of your owne brest without any likelihood of trueth or concurrence with the sacred Scriptures and then you aske Who can limit or measure the furie of Gods seuere iustice against sinne As if God who is truely infinite as well in power as in all other points did his vttermost against Christ and the creature in Christ were able to beare the brunt of the most that Gods iustice and power could inflict vpon him Such desperate vntrueths well become your sobrietie who will say any thing so you may haue some shift of words to shrowd your selfe vnder but the Scriptures will teach you that Christes sufferings were of infinite price in respect of the person who was God and man not of infinite paine which exceedeth the power and strength of all creatures I aske do you grant that Christ suffered Gods wrath in spirit as the Apostle 1. Thess. 5. distinguisheth the spirit and the soule I answere do you heare that you grosly mistake the Apostle if you make the soule and the spirit two seuerall substances in man otherwise if they be but one your question is very childish For the immortall substance of mans soule suffereth whether it be by her sense affections vnderstanding or will And this is no Sophistrie deceiuing you with the word soule but it is the recalling you to conceiue rightly of the soule of man which is an immortall and spirituall substance subiect to paine as well by her vnderstanding and sense as by her affections and will and by what other meanes soeuer it pleaseth God to punish her As for the wrath which you would haue suffered in Christs spirit when you tell vs what you meane by wrath whether the apprehension of Gods wrath against our sinne or the absolute impression of paine from the immediate hand of God or the due consideration of the case wherein Christ stood when he suffered for our sinnes which might iustly breed feare care and sorrow in his soule besides the affliction of bodily paines and anguish which his immortall and humane spirit must needs discerne and feele you shall receiue a fuller answere Till then holde vs excused if we spend not time to guesse grope after your blinde and hid fansies Howbeit whatsoeuer Christ suffered in his soule it was religious and meritorious in him I meane euen the feare sorow and smart which hee humbly obediently and patiently suffered as from the hand of God whosoeuer were the meanes and other wrath than that you shall neuer be able to proue was inflicted on Christs spirit or soule Who can say but that this was as hot and scorching as hell fire it selfe We see then your forwardnesse to haue it so but withall your foolishnesse that daunting all others as vnpriuie to Gods secrets and Christes sufferings you only take vpon you to tell vs out of your casting boxe how great and how hot the paine was which Christ suffered in soule euen as great and as hot as hell fire it selfe What dreames be these to mocke men withall and to fraight the Christian faith with As if you had of late receiued some Reuelation from heauen that Christes paine was full as hot as hell fire I will not diminish the paines which the Sonne of God suffered for our sakes but am well content to aggrauate them to the highest so farre as the Scriptures giue me any light or leading but you that extenuate his paines described in the Scriptures and deuise other paines for him as hot as hell fire no where testified by the Holy Ghost what defence can you bring for your doings Who can say no Nay who can say yea that doth not rush headlong into Gods secret counsels as you doe Be these the proofes whereon you pinne the paines of hell suffered in Christes soule Who can say they were not as hot and scorching as hell fire it selfe Frie in your follie I wish you no worse fire if I knew not your vaine I should thinke you sicker than you are I haue no doubt but Christes paine on the Crosse was proportioned to his patience which God meant to proue though not to ouerpresse otherwise the measure of his paine saue that it exceeded not the strength of his manhood as I do not know no more doeth any man liuing except hee will deceiue himselfe with his owne dreames as this Discourser doth For though we may by nature in some sort coniecture how grieuous it was for Christ to hang three houres by the woundes of his hands and feet all his bones being vnioynted yet know we not how farre the power and iustice of God made way to that paine who can by any meanes as well as without all meanes increase paine to what degree he will For my part therefore I will not meddle with
to trouble the people with that Question and therefore I rested on a knowne and confessed principle of Christian truth and faith that we inherite pollution and death from Adams flesh without resoluing whence the Soule commeth which I did refraine before the multitude to speake of And since by the Scriptures the first Adam was a figure of the second the flesh of Christ giuen for vs must be as able to clense and quicken vs as Adams flesh was to defile and kill vs. To this reason you here pike many quarrels but in the end you slide it of as else where answered Your first quarrell is that I force what I promised to forbeare euen the difficultie whence the Soule of man is deriued As though the grounds of our Faith might be doubted because that Question in former times was vndecided That we deriue flesh from Adam and haue men for the Fathers of our bodies did neuer man yet that was in his right wits call in Question were he Christian or Heretick Iewe Turke or Pagan That likewise wee deriue with our flesh pollution and death from Adam the faith of Christ rightly grounded on the Scriptures doth not suffer vs to stagger at though whence our Soules are giuen vs some haue stood perplexed You thinke it much I should deliuer the one which is the pollution of our flesh professing not to determine the other and make it in me a kind of inconstancie to vrge the propagation of the flesh with her sequels of which no Christian may doubt because I thought it not fit to trouble the people with the deriuation of the Soule But so hath the Church of Christ alwaies done it hath cleerely confessed the deriuation of sinne and death from Adam and made it necessarie for all Christian men so to beleeue though some would not hastily or could not easily resolue the doubt whence the Soule commeth If our Soules arise in Generation from Adam as well as our flesh how can your reason be good by any possibilitie The conceit that our Soules are ingendred together with the seede of our bodies is so grosse and pestilent an error and so repugnant to all authoritie Humane and Diuine and so dissident from dayly experience that I had no cause to make that a Question in Religion or therein to refraine the audience of the people Ex nullo homine generantur Animae Soules are not generated from any man saith Ambrose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The principall facultie of the soule sayth Clemens Alexandrinus by which we haue discourse of reason is not engendered by proiection of seed Anima vtique nunquam ab homine gignentium originibus prebetur The soule neuer commeth from man in the generation of men sayth Hilarie Ierom vpon those words of Salomon the spirit of man after death returneth to God that gaue it writeth thus Ex quo satis ridendi sunt qui putant animas cum corporibus seri non à Deo sed à corporum parentibus generari Whereby they are worthy to be thorowly derided which thinke soules to be sowen together with bodies and not to be from God but to be generated by the parents of our bodies For since the flesh returneth to the earth and the spirit to God that gaue it IT IS MANIFEST that God is the Father of our soules and not Man And when Ruffinus professed he could not tell how the soule came to be ioyned with the body whether by propagation from Man or infusion from God Ierom replieth If the soule come by propagation then the soules of men which we grant are eternall and the bruit beasts which die with the bodie haue one condition And doest thou maruell that the Christian brethren are scandalized at thee when thou swearest thou knowest not that which the Churches of Christ confesse they know Theodoret in many places giueth the like testimonie The Church beleeuing the diuine Scriptures sayth the soule was and is created as well as the bodie not hauing any cause of her creation from naturall seed but from the Creatours will after the bodie once perfectly made The most diuine Moses writeth that Adams bodie was first made and afterward his soule inspired into him Againe in his lawes the same Prophet plainly teacheth vs that the bodie is first made and then the soule created and infused And blessed Iob spake thus to God Diddest thou not powre me forth like milke and thicken me like curds of cheese thou diddest clothe me with skinne and flesh and compact me with bones and sinewes And when by this Iob had shewed the frame of his bodie to be first made he addeth a thankesgiuing for his soule saying Life and mercie thou laydst with me and thy watchfulnesse preserued my spirit This confession touching the soule and bodie of man the Church hath learned from the diuine Scriptures The same reasons and resolutions he repeateth elsewhere in his fift sermon touching the nature of man Leo the great The Catholike faith doth constantly and truely preach that the soules of men were not before they were inspired into their bodies nec ab also incorporentur nisi ab opifice Deo neither are put into the bodie by any other workeman than God And Austen himselfe who to decline that difficultie how the soule commeth to be infected with originall sinne was the first that made this doubt whether the soule were created and infused or els deriued from the soule though not by the seed of the parents refuseth Tertullians opinion That the soule riseth from the seed of the bodie as peruerse and strange to the Church of Christ They sayth he which affirme soules to be drawen from the parents if they follow Tertullians opinion tooke them to be in some sort bodies corpulentis seminibus exoriri and to rise from the seed of the bodie quo quid peruersius dici potest than the which what can be sayd more peruerse Now in Austens rehearsall of heresies Tertullians assertion That the soule was a kind of bodie is excused as no heresie but his conceit That the state of the soule is propagated by traduction of seed is expresly put amongst his errours From these auncient Fathers swarue not the best of our new writers Bullinger All those other opinions haue beene refuted with sound reasons by the writers Ecclesiasticall and that receiued and auouched for the truest which teacheth the soule to be created of nothing and to be infunded into the bodie from God when the childe hath his perfect shape in his mothers womb And that we are not at this day otherwise created of God than by infunding the soule into the bodie first fashioned Iob is a most plentifull witnesse where he saith Thine hands o God haue made me and fashioned me wholly Didst thou not stroke me like milke and curd me like cheese with skinne and flesh thou coueredst me with bones and sinewes thou
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 nâ—…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 agaâ—…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 pasâ—…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 conâ—…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 lâ—…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
the eares by which we must come to the knowledge of all heauenly and much more of all earthly things The loosing and decaying of mans knowledge in this life after he hath gotten it will proue the same no lesse then the lacking thereof before he doth by sense attaine it For when the sensitiue spirits in the braine be either grosse and heauie as in fooles or extreame hoate and whirling as in madde men or obstructed and choked as in Lethargies and Apoplexies men want the vse of reason because the obiects whereon the minde worketh are by these meanes hindered and hid from the vnderstanding This is the true resolution both of Philosophers and Diuines Ad facultatem intelligentem exercendam non eget mens organo tanquam medio per quod intelligat quanquam eget obiecto in quod intueatur ex quo intellectionem concipiat Hoc autem obiectum sunt phantasmata seu rerum a sensibus perceptarum simulachra ad phantasiam perlata To exercise the facultie of vnderstanding the mind of man saith Zanchius needeth no instrument as a meane by which she may vnderstand but she needeth an obiect whereon to looke and whence to conceaue the act of vnderstanding This obiect are the sensitiue apprehensions or the resemblances of things receaued from the senses and caried to the phantasme or imagination of man And to this obiection that vpon the hurt or wearinesse of the braine we find by experience our mind can not vnderstand and worke in those things as it did before he answereth Ideo non potest lesis aut defatigatis turbatisque organis mens nostra intelligendis contemplandisque rebus operam dare quia phantasmata ipsa quae sunt in organo corporali quae sunt ceu obiectum intellectus turbato ipsorum organo videri percipi non possunt Therefore our mind can not contemplate and conceaue when the instruments are hurt wearied or troubled because the resemblances of things which are in a corporall instrument and are as an obiect to the vnderstanding can not be seene and perceaued For the resemblances of things in mans Imagination are to his vnderstanding and mind as colours are to his sight Now the eye seeth nothing but the colour of euery thing though therewithall it distinguish number quantitie motion and figure and so taketh the knowledge of euery sensible thing In like manner without the similitudes and shapes of things caried from the sense to the phantasiue imagination or apprehension and there remaining the mind vnderstandeth nothing of those things that are without it and no knowledge is naturally within it but what God hath reuealed to it His conclusion is Haec partis sensitiâ—… facult as propinqua est intellectiâ—… huic suppeditat materiam cogitandi intelligendi denique omnia sua officia faciendi This facultie of the sensitiue part is placed neere vnto the intellectiue and ministreth thereunto matter of Cogitation vnderstanding and performing all her dueties In inward tentation to euill Saint Iames rule doeth generally take place Euery man is tempted being drawne away and entised by his owne concupiscence And lust conceiuing bringeth foorth sinne So that lust naturally dwelling in vs and conceiuing and bringing foorth sinne is the very mother and nurse of all sinne in vs. Austen maketh two chiefe rootes of sinne in man desire and feare Omnia peccata duâ—… res faciunt in homine cupidit as timor Cogitate discutite interrogate cordâ—… vestra perscrutamini conscientias videte vtrum possunt esse peccatanisi cupiendo aut timendo Two things cause ALL SINNES in men desire and feare Bethinke your selues discusse examine your hearts search your consciences and see whether there can possible bee any sinnes but by desiring or fearing Where least Austen making two fountaines of all sinnes desire and feare should iarre with Saint Iames that setteth downe lust for the first spring of euery tentation to sinne we must either take tentation of which Saint Iames speaketh for a delightfull prouocation to sinne resting within vs and terrour which Austen addeth for a violent and externall induction thereto proceeding from others or else wee must deriue desire and feare from the loue of our selues which originally dwelleth in vs and lusteth after euery thing that liketh vs or lastly wee may ioyne the one as a consequent to the other since the naturall desire wee haue of our owne ease and welfare breedeth in vs that dislike and feare of euill which so much vrgeth and forceth vs. If then desire and feare be the motiues and inducements to ALL SINNES that men commit as most resolutely Saint Austen auoucheth and these two desire and feare on which depend the rest of our affections be passions of the sensitiue part of the Soule permixed in this life with corporall spirits certainely all sinnes in men haue their prouocations and incitations from and by bodily senses spirits or motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By bodily spirits saith Clemens Alexandrinus man hath sense desire reioyceth and kindleth to anger yea and by the same spirits doe the thoughts and resolutions of the minde proceede to action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where is it iust sayth Athenagoras that DESIRES pleasures FEARES and sorrowes should haue their motion or rising from the body and the sinnes occasioned by them and the punishments for the same sinnes should lie on the Soule alone Damascene defining the passions or affections of the Soule saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A passion or affection of the Soule is a sensible motion of the desiring or appetitiue facultie vpon the imagination of good or euill In which description are three plaine proofes that the passions of the soule which by the confession of Damascene and all other Diuines are DESIRE FEARE ioy and sorrow doe not mooue in this life without the body First in that they are sensible motions they must be perceiued in the body next in that they rise from the sensitiue appetite they are conioyned with the body thirdly in that they come vpon the phantasiue imagination of good or euill they are kindled from the senses of the body What sensible motions these affections of the soule doe raise in the outward and inward parts of man we shall anon perceiue when we come to the impressions that the soule maketh on the body in the meane time it is not amisse to know how Satan who hath that name from his desire and power of tempting worketh and preuaileth in his temptations vpon men It is euident by the Scriptures that God alone searcheth and changeth the heart of man because he alone is the maker of it and therefore Satan though he be a spirit yet can hee not by himselfe either discerne the thoughts or alter the will of man but in the one he obserueth the secret impressions of the soule on the bodie and in the other he stirreth and vseth the spirits and affections of the
admitted by him there could be no want of grace no fainting of Faith no decrease of hope but he must conceaue and discerne both Gods counsels and deeds rightly without mistaâ—…ing either the purpose of the punisher or the measure of the paine in the purgation of our sinnes For he can not lie who gaue this Testimonie that y Iohn 18. Iesiâ—… knâ—… 〈◊〉 that â—…la come vnto him and that z Iohn 13. handsâ—…efore â—…efore his â—…assion which prooueth as well his voluntarie submission as his full power to moderatâ—… all his owne sufferings which he could stay but would tast for the preseruing of his Fathers Iustice. a Defenc. pag. 89. 〈◊〉 3â—… You graunt his body sufâ—…ered truely punishments for sinne Therefore his Soule might suffer alâ—…o euen those of the extreamâ—…st degree If you ment to deale plainly you would distinguish the nature of the punishment the measure of the paine and the purpose of The nâ—…e measâ—…re and purâ—…ose of Châ—…ists sufferingâ—… the Inflictour in all which Christ differed much from the damned For first you no way prooue that any kinde of paine mentioned in the Scriptures to be laid on the damned was found in Christs Soule or Body Secondly the paines of the damned passe the Patience of all Men and Angels and much more the weakenesse and frailtie of mortall flesh Lastly the purpose of God in laying the burden of oursinn es vpon his owne Sonne was not to dishonor him or to forsake him or to execute vengeance on him prepared for the wicked but to take recompence from him for all our sinnes in such sort as better pleased the holinesse and Iustice of God then if eternall damnation had beene inflicted on vs. So that I see no one point wherein the damned agree with Christ by the verdict of the holy Scriptures onely he felt sharpe and bittâ—…r painâ—…s for the Triall of his obedience and patience and so doe all the Sonnes of God before or when they depart this life though I willingly graunt that the sense of Christs paines in many respects were farre greeuouser then any the Godly can feele with submission and deuotion to God b Defenc. pag. 89. li 37. Your selfe also graunteth that Christ both might and did suffer the extreamest paines that migâ—…t be without his owne sinne Then the more to blame you that content not your selfe therewith but runne to the Reprobate and to the damned to drawe Christs Soule within the compasse of their confusion and destruction I neuer sought to diminish or elâ—…uate Christs sufferings so farre as the Scriptures gaue any witnesse thereoâ—… but to auouch as you doe that he suffered the true paines of the damned as I then saw no Scripture to warrant it so I yet heare no reason to vphold it besides your presumptuous will Howbeit I restrained the sufferings of Christ to the state of this life where he suffered and excepted not onely all stainâ—…s of sinne and wants of grace but added holinesse and righteousnesse to all his sufferings which must be voluntarie religious and meritorious that they might be the more pretious in Gods sight and this can agree to no sufferings of the Reprobate or of the damned You would faine torment and afflict the Soule of Christ with Gods immediare hand but your proofe thereof is so weake and idle and your inconstancie therein so plaine and sensible that you doe but play with both hands to see which will soonest deceaue the Reader For sometimes it shall be Gods owne and immediate hand and his most proper Act sometimes it shall be the displeasure of God against our sinnes conceaued and discerned by the Spirit of Christ that bred such torment and affliction of Soule and which of these two you will rather incline to you cannot yet resolue c Defenc. pag. 90. li. 1. It was possible for Christ to conceaue and feele in his mind farre greater sorrowes and paines for our sâ—…nne from Gods wrath then he could â—…eele meerely in his Body outwardly It euer hath been the last refuge of all heresie to flie from the truth testified in the Scriptures to the power of God or possibilitie Tertullian being so answered by Praxeas replieth in this sort d Tertullianuâ—… aduersus Praxeam Plainly nothing is hard to God but if we vse this sentence so abruptly in our owne presumptions we may fame any thing of God as if he had done it because he could doe it But though God can doe all things yet we must not beleeue that which he neuer did but we must examine whether he hath done it That God tormenteth Soules in hell with his immediate hand is a point stifly presumed by you but as strange to the Scriptures as the rest of your new found deuices and why you should doubt of the literall sense of Christs words Depart you cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the diuell and his Angels there is no cause but that you doe not thinke God is able to subiect sinnefull spirits to externall meanes of punishment And therefore you bring in Gods immediate hand as only meete to ouer-master Soules and diuels and giue him no power to punish them by any Creature ordained for that purpose Now whether it be Faith or Infidelitie to â—…lude all those places as â—…iguratiue speeches where euerlasting fire is threatned and mentioned in the Scriptures I haue formerly said what I thought sufficient thither I remit such as be desirous to read Likewise that God with his immediate hand tormented the Soule of Christ at the Time of his Passion with the same degree and kind of paine which the damned feele this is an other of your Positions for which you haue as much Scripture as you haue for the creating of another world What Christ discâ—…rned of Gods wrath to be laid on his person I would gladly here you expresse otherwise then in generall and doubtfull speeches which vnder a shew of some truth couer a number of your â—…rroneous conceits For first it is certaine that Christ conceaued truely as well of Gods Anger against our sinnes as of Gods fauour towards his owne Person which infinitely excâ—…eded the displeasure that Gods holinesse had against vs that were sinfull Creatures Himselfe saith e Iohn 8. I know my Father and if I should say I know him not I should be a liar like vnto you but I know him The same Euangelisâ—… saith of Christs sufferings Iâ—…sus f Iohn 18. knowing all things that should come vp in him And this knowledge if it swarued from the truth was not an ignorance but an error in Christ beleeuing a lie insteede of Truth which God forbid we should suppose of him that not onely said g Iohn 8. I tell you the Truth but h Iohn 14. I am the Truth Christ thâ—…n most certainly knew that God was highly offended with our sinnes but better pleased with his Person and that Gods loue towards him would accept his voluntariâ—…
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing What an agonie is in doubt or feare to missâ—… of that we vndertake we are agonized Galene the chiefe of Physicians and well skilled in the perturbations and commotions of the bodie that come from the bloud or spirits noteth of what affections an agonie is compounded ' Fâ—…are sayth he doth prâ—…sently driue the bloud and spirits inward towards their fountaine c Galenus dâ—…â—…ausis comatâ—…n li. 2. and contracteth them together by cooling the vttermost parts of the bodie and anger doth as suddenly heat them diffund and send them foorth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that which in Greeke is called an agonie is compounded of them both and hath inequall motions according to the predominant affection Aristotle a great Philosopher in the knowledge of naturall things not only sheweth that there may be an agonie without feare as when we attempt things honest and commendable though diâ—…cult d Arist Rhetoricorum li. 1. cap. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which men striue and are agpmozed without feare but also that sweating in an agonie commeth rather from indignation and zeale than from feare e Idem Problemat sect 2. quest 26. An agonie sayth he is not the passing of the naturall heat from the higher parts of the bodie vnto the lower as in feare but it is rather an increase of heat as in anger and indignation And he that is in an agonie is not troubled with feare or colde but with expectation of the euent Wherein Theophrastus not much behinde him agreeth with him f Theophrastus de Sudoribus 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An agonie is not the remouing of the naturall heat but the increasing thereof as in anger And heat doth drie the outmost parts of the bodie I speake not this to bind Christes sweate in the Garden wholy to naturall causes but to shew that neither Diuinitie Philosophy nor Physicke doe permit that feare or sorow which coole the blood and quench the spirits should be the cause of this bloudie sweate but that rather as the Euangelist expresseth it came from strength and contention of zeale whiles Christ most feruently prayed for that which he was very desirous and in present expectation to obtaine An Angell appeared from heauen g Luc. 22. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strengthning him saith the Scripture no question with a message from God For Angels otherwise were not in this case to entermeddle And then Christ h vers 44. entring into an Agonie that is into a vehement contention of mind to preuaile against that which resisted or hindred him he prayed more feruently From this feruencie of zeale and contention of minde came that bloudie sweate which the Euangelist mentioneth which whether we make to be according to Nature or aboue Nature it could not proceede from feare or sorrow as some men imagine For feare doth driue the bloud inward and coole it and so can not thinne it and expell it by the outmost parts and pores of the Body The Physitian that wrote the Booke de vtilitate Respirationis amongst Galens works saith i Li. de vtilitaâ—…e Respirationiâ—… Galen attribut â—…om 7. Contingit Poros ex multo aut feruido spiritu vsque adeo dilatari vt etiam exeat sanguis per eos â—…iatque sudor sanguineus It sometimes happeneth that abundant or feruent spirits doe so dilate the pores of the bodie that bloud passeth by them and so the sweate may be bloudie If we leane not to the course of Nature for the cause of Christs bloudie sweate then Hilaries Rule is very sound k Hilarius dâ—… Trinitate li 10. It is no Infirmitie which power did aboue the custoâ—…e of Nature No man then may dare impute Christs sweate to weakenesse because it is against Nature to sweat bloud Beda followeth him in the l Beda in Luc. cap. 22. same words Rupertus in larger m Rupertus de victoria verbi Dei li. 12. ca. 21. This is vnwonted this is aboue nature the flesh whole the skinne not cut for bloude to runne out of all the body and to fall on the earth as it were sweate Lyra receaueth the same According to the Iudgement of diuers n Lyra in Luc. ca. 22. this was supernaturally done that bloud should come foorth in steede of sweate that so Christ euen then might begin to shed his bloud for our saluation Then neither in Diuine nor humane learning is there any necessitie that the feare of your hell paines should be the cause of this sweate which Augustine Prosper and Bernard ascribe vnto Christs wil and power for a mysticall signification as I haue shewed in my * Serm. pag. 38. 39. Sermons Thus see we by the words of the holy Ghost that in the Garden Christs Soule was affected with feare and afflicted with sorrow his prayer prooueth his submission and intention of minde after comfort sent him from heauen by an Angell and his bloudie sweate if we attribute it to nature must come from zeale if we referre it to Christs power aboue Nature might haue many causes to vs vnknowne in particular though we can ghesse at the generall Of all these circumstances actions and affections there can no one direct cause be designed in speciall except in large termes we will say the worke of our Redemption was the cause of them all but neither pains nor suffrings can precisely be determined to be the proper ground of them all since after comfort from heauen he fell to most feruent prayer and therein to his bloudie sweat much lesse can you conclude that hell paines were the right and true cause thereof So that I haue more reason to reiect your maior proposition as apparently false than you haue right to pronounce it firme because you can denie mine assertion by flinging off all the Fathers as vnworthy to haue their iudgements regarded outfacing the Scriptures with phrases and figures to bring them to your bent But in the kinds of paines which Christ suffered in the Garden we doubt as much as in the causes of his agonie You must therefore declare what maner of paines you meane in your proposition before we shall fully vnderstand you p Defenc. pag. 91. li. 16. You meane it seemeth that Christ suffered paines in his soule by reason of the strength and zeale of his holy affections and that those were the proper and maine causes of that his most wofull and miraculous agonie and complaint Therefore not only extraordinarie paines inflicted vpon him by way of proper punishment as my proposition intendeth You seeke nothing but by confusion to couer and colour your absurd and false doctrines and that maketh you huddle and heape things together without all distinction or exposition Christes agonie in the Garden was before any paines inflicted on his bodie or soule other than feare or sorrow which were painfull affections rising from diuers occasions and causes as we shall afterward see His complaint
his bodie on the tree and whose 〈◊〉 was shed for many sor remission of sinnes Your infliction of hell paines on the soule of Christ is no such trifle that it may be lightly taken vp for your pleasure or humorously surmised vpon your vaine coniectures you must euidently and ineuitablely prooue it before any wise or sober Christian will or should beleeue it Châ—…istes feare and agonie you thinke could haue no other cause Of all others this can neuer be concluded to haue beene the cause since there is no witnesse nor word thereof in all the Scriptures That euerlasting damnation was due to our sinnes we haue no doubt but that any such iudgement could be decreed or executed against the Sonne of God or against any part of his person we lesse doubt Wherefore it is most manifest to all that list not to mixe their desperate deuices with Gods eternall trueth that no such iudgement could be giuen against the person of Christ as we should haue 〈◊〉 or as the damned feele but the i Esa. 53. chastisement of our peace was layd vpon him and k Heb. 5. though he were the Sonne yet by the things which he suffered he learned obedience It is no iudgement you will say where nothing is condemned In the finall iudgement of God against the wicked both their sinnes and their persons shall be condemned that is their persons shal be euerlastingly reiected and adiudged to perpetuall torments of bodie and soule in hell fire for their sinnes which God iustly hateth and punisheth In the l 1. Pet. 4. iudgement which beginneth at the house of God sinne is condemned in their flesh as it was in Christes but their persons are beloued in Christ and so cleansed from sinne by him that sanctifieth himselfe for their sakes and whose bloud clenseth them from all their sinnes The paterne of which iudgement was precedent in Christ their head to whose m Rom. 8. image the whole bodie must be conformed that n 2. Tim. 2. suffering with him they may raigne with him and being o 1. Pet. 4. condemned as touching men in the flesh they may liue as touching God in the spirit There must be the same minde in vs that was in Christ euen as there is the same condemnation in our flesh that was in his For in Christ and all his members sinne was condemned in the flesh that their spirits might liue to God and their bodies be raised againe to be partakers of the same blisse with their spirits The Scriptures therefore doe not appoint the iudgement of hell or of the damned vnto Christ and his members but only the destruction of their flesh ioyned with the saluation of their spirits What need had Christ you will aske to feare this iudgement As Christ had lesse need to feare the iudgement seat of God than all his members so had he more will care and power to giue God his due than all the rest of his brethren And therefore approching to God for sinners and with sinne as he vndertooke their persons and cause that is to present them to God and to profer satisfaction for their sinnes so he taught vs all our duties which is to approch the throne of Maiestie with all reuerence and feare when we beholde his passing glorie and our exceeding infirmitie and in faith of his goodnesse and feare of his greatnesse to tremble and shake before him This Christian submission which God requireth of all men Christ did most of all performe when he presented vs and our cause to God and therefore prostrate flat on the earth he humbled himselfe with greater feare and trembling but without distrust or doubt of Gods fauour than euer man before or since did This feare and trembling with all submission and deuotion yeelded by the humane nature of Christ to the diuine Maiestie of God you no way like but in a selfe conceit will haue it to be the feare of desperate and damned persons and Christes soule to be actually tormented with the same paines that are the sharpest in hell and all this you gather vpon none other ground but for that Christ exceedingly feared and sorrowed in the Garden But if no man guided by Gods spirit may heare the words doe the works or receiue the messengers of God but with feare and trembling as a seruice and duetie belonging to the Creatour from the weakenesse of the creature how much more might the humane nature of Christ now offering vs all that were sinfull to the presence of God with infinite desire and most ardent prayer to make recompence in his owne person for our offences and so through his loue and sauour with God to reconcile vs to God how much more I say might Christ in our cause and in our names shew all possible feare and trembling to so great Maiestie so mightily displeased with vs And therefore in either respect both of his owne religious humilitie and our sinfull infirmity he might performe this seruice and submission vnto the throne of Gods heauenly presence p Defenc. pag. 93. li. 32. Your testimonies touching men sinfull make nothing to the purpose at all for these could not by reason of their sinnes endure the verie presence of Gods Maiestie being in any measure reuealed vnto them but Christ in himselfe being free from all sinne could be in no such case Your exceptions are more friuolous and no way fit your fansies for what if conscience of sinne breed an amazed feare in men when the glorious presence of God is in any measure reuealed vnto them doth that exclude the religious affection submission of feare and trembling which mans weakenesse in this life oweth to the diuine Maiesty q Esa. 66. Him will I respect saith God that is poore in spirit and trembleth at my words Not only Gods glory reuealed but his word denounced requireth submission and reuerent trembling r Phil. 2. Worke your saluation sayth the Apostle with feare and trembling not meaning men should alwayes be amazed or that God still reuealed his glorious presence but that our infirmitie remembred and his Maiestie considered we should do all things commanded by him with feare and trembling Of the Corinthians Paul testifieth that they receiued Tite s 2. Cor. 7. with feare and trembling Such reuerence the faithfull yeeld to the words and works of God that they tremble at the presence of his messengers And lest you should thinke that only conscience of sinne and the brightnesse of Gods presence impresse this affection the Apostle requireth seruants to obey their t Ephes. 6. carnall masters with feare and trembling and witnesseth of himselfe when he preached the Gospell to the Corinthians he u 1. Cor. 2. was amongst them in feare and much trembling So that not onely guilt of sinne maketh men to feare and flie the sight of God as in Adam when he first transgressed and in Peter before he was called whose words you abuse to elude
he groned in spirite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and troubled or affected him selfe If this Rule be true which hath the grounds of faith and the words or the holie Ghost for a foundation then your assertion is false and against the faith that tkese were alwaies in Christ and alwaies caused an he 〈◊〉 in him For you imply a continuall necessitie of sorrow and griefe in the Soule of Christ where the Scriptures and Fathers teach vs that nothing could 〈◊〉 griefe or sorrow on him but when he himselfe would And that Iesus sometimes reicyced and l Luc. 10. v. 21. exulted in Spirit giuing thankes to his Father for hiding the mysteries of his kingdome from the wise and prudent and reuealing them to seelie ones the 〈◊〉 is euident You therefore as your manner is graunt that which is false and deny that which is true For what if Christ often though not alwaies sorrowed for these three aforesaid is that any proofe that 〈◊〉 Passion approching where he sawe 〈◊〉 lewes should call for the vengeance of his bloud to be on them and their children and was now by most earnest ardent prayer to obtaine remission of sinnes direction of his spirit and protection from Satan for his whole Church the Time and place now 〈◊〉 requiring it he should not with greater sorrow behold the one and with more 〈◊〉 zeale intreat the other But m Desenc pa. 94. li. 37. I strangely deceiue my selfe you say if I thinke that any or ali of these did so farre exceede in him as to procure his most dreadfull and bloudy Agony When I heare you speake some truth or see you vnderstand any thing right I will more regard your word then now I doe That these things might be the causes thereof shall plainly appeare to the sober and aduised Reader when we come to the discussing of them Howbeit I doe not say that euery one of these sixe was the whole cause of his Agonie as you childishly carpe or that these sixe were the sole causes of his Agonie but these respects were such as might most exceedingly grieue and most inwardly affect the Soule of Christ making now way by prayer to procure the course of mans Redemption to be actually and effectually decreed and pronounced at his instance which he would after perfect with patience Neither are there greater workes in mans redemption then these that were now in hand with which if you thinke it not likely nor possible the Soule of our Sauiour should be mightily affected your erroneous Imagination is farre stranger then my position of pietie and possibilitie for as if you aske me what the Angell that came from heauen said to Christ in the Garden I must openly professe I take vpon me no such knowledge but leaue Gods secrets to himselfe and his Sonne so what occasions besides these might at that instant affect the Soule of Christ I dare not determine though you be so desperate that you nothing doubt Christ then felt in Soule from the immediate hand of God the selfe same paines which the damned doe in hell Notwithstanding the Scriptures insinuate no such suspition much lesse auouch any such Doctrine for mans redemption n Defenc pag. 95 li. 1. For the Reiection of the Iewes what reason bring you Christ wept ouer their Cittie ergo now at his Passion he was driuen into his dreadfull Agonie for this cause You must make your owne match or else you will quickly marre all Where I professed it impossible certainly to conclude the true cause of Christs Agonie your wisedome taketh a part of my words and clappeth on a Conclusion to them of your owne stamping and then you say the Argument is nought and so nimble you be at nothing that where I repeate sixe causes that might be concurrent therein you will haue me inferre that euery one of them was the whole and sole cause thereof But your mastership is to warme to be wise and to selfe-willed to be sound you doe not so much as see or care why I tooke this in for one of the causes that might meete in this Agonie The reuerent o Sermo pag. 19. li. 4. regard I had to the Iudgements of Ambrose Ierom Augustine and Bede who obserued this before me as one of the causes that might be of Christs sorrow in the Garden made me number this amongst the rest howsoeuer you spurne them away like foote-bals and thinke with a wilde gallop to winne the Goale But soft Sir first their opinions lie in your way which wise men will respect before your emptie wordes and lasie likelihoods that haue no salt in them besides the sharpnesse of your humour Secondly my reasons to my purpose are auaileable enough though you mishape them with a senselesse error of your own as if euerie of these six were the single and sole cause of this agonie There can no one particular cause be assigned of Christes feare sorrow and zeale in the Garden but since himselfe is a witnesse that his Soule was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on euery side pressed with sorrow my proofes which you cannot auoide inferre that amongst others this might be one cause of his sorrow And so much those Fathers professe as I haue formerly shewed and you cannot decline them but with impudent flurting at them that p Defenc. pag. 95. li. 15. this verily cannot stand with any reason But of our Reasons let the Reader Iudge Christ wept at the sight of Ierusalem when he remembred her desolation by the hands of the Romanes What griefe then was it to him in all reason to foresee the reiection of that people from the sauour of God by their rash and wicked desire to haue his bloud on them and their children at the time of his arraignment before Pilate If Moses and Paul so vehemently 〈◊〉 at the fall of their bretheren according to the flesh that for their sakes the one wished to be wiped out of the Booke of God the other most sacredly protested the great heauinesse and continuall anguish that he felt in hart for them how much more then did it grieue the Sauiour of the world who farre exceeded both the other in compassion and mercie to see himselfe that came to blesse them and saue them to be the ruine and stone of offence that should stumble them and their children striking them with perpetuall blindnesse and bruizing them with euerlasting perdition through their vnbeliefe To this what answere you q Defenc. pag. 95. li. 28. It prooueth that Christ surely had very great pittie and commiseration of them but nothing else in the world I professed to prooue no more Why then should not this be one of the causes that mooued Christ to sorrow in the Garden where he confesâ—…ed his Soule was on euery side heauie r Ibid. li. 30. Christ might haue farre greater pittie of them then Moses or Paul had and yet he was able to carrie his affection farre more patiently
of his bloudie sweate or of that part of his piaier Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Is that a reason this was not respected by Christ at that time because he had The different affections in Christes agony had different causes diuers other assaults and seas of sorow touching himselfe and others as well as touching the Iewes what hobling is this to aske one entire cause for so many different affections and actions as Christ shewed in his agonie where the Scriptures note not only feare and sorow on euery side but extreame humilitie and ardent zeale with such feruencie of spirit in praier that the sweat brake from him like droppes of bloud who that sought trueth or reade but the words of the Euangelists would thus cauill with matters of such moment Christ was in these passions and praiers by the space of an houre for so himselfe said to Peter f Matth. 26. What could ye not watch with me one houre and he praied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more intentiuely or more feruently after he was strengthned by an Angell then before Shall we thinke he said nothing all that while in his praiers but only these words O my father if it be possible let this cupe passe from me This he repeated thrise as the Scripture obserueth but his praiers were longer and extended to other things except we thinke Christ was an houre repeating three lines Besides the Scriptures note a change in his praiers For after the Angel from heauen appeared to him and strengthened him f Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then entering into an agonie he praied more earnestly than before so that his sweat trickled downe to the ground like droppes of bloud You say there must be one entire cause of all these passions So you say but which way doe you or can you goe about to prooue it saue by the liquor of your owne lips which is weaker then water to glew these things together g Defenc. pag. 95 li. 21. The worke of Christ at this time wrought by him is by a proper and peculiar name iustly called his passion not his compassion Which I would haue you to note A man may soon note the worthinesse of your arguments that when neither by truth nor reason you can preuaile you fall to collude with the names of passion and compassion As if Christes passion did not sometimes import the whole historie of his death and sufferings wherein are confessions reprehensions predictions praiers and promises of Christ as well as paines endured And did it note noe more but paines are not the passions and affections of feare and sorow as painfull many times to the soule as the stripes and wounds of the bodie Such trifles you take for triple engins when your conceits must be concluded all other mens arguments haue no shape of any reason with you so deepely you are in loue with your selfe and your owne inuentions be they neuer so ill-fauoured or mishapen h Defenc. pag. 96. li. 2. Lastly those holymen it seemeth hauing their thoughts wholly defixed on their vehement pittie towards the Iewes earnestly and constantly wished that the cuppe of Gods eternall wrath might come vpon themselues that the Iewes who deserued it might scape But Christ in his passion contrariewise desired that cuppe which he tasted to be to bitter and to violent for him might passe away from himselfe If your suppositions of Moses and Paule were graunted you which yet are no way true they make the stronger against you though you dissemble the sight thereof For if pittie towards the Iewes so farre preuailed with those two being the seruants of Christ that they yeelded their soules to eternall torments as you imagine to saue their Brethren how great reason then hath it that the Messias himselfe in whom was the fullnesse of all mercie might be mooued with such inward compassion for that whole nation that he most earnestly and frequently praied in the Garden to haue this cuppe that is this maner of death whereby the Iewes should perish to passe from him as Origen Ierom Ambrose and Bede expound those wordes and though your hellish humour be so hoat and so haughtie that you pronounce of euerie thing there is no semblance of reason in this yet the considerate Reader will find in those mens iudgments whom I haue named and produced more sap and pith then in your hell paines For seeing the affection of mercy hath beene so mightie in men that they were more then perplexed with this griefe what bring you but babling to shew that Christ might not feruently pray if so it pleased God not to make his death the meane of their vtter ouerthrowe and when he saw their pertinacie and infidelitie to be such that his praier did not preuaile for them to be troubled and agonized in mind for their wofull and willfull destruction Christ praid for himselfe not for them But these learned Fathers tell you he praied not against his owne death simply but respecting them by whose hands it should come and whose eternall ruine it should be Your cup of hell paines which you dreame Christ then tasted to be too bitter and too violent for him is a false and fond conceit of yours hauing neither trueth sense nor likelihood in it and yet forsooth both Scriptures and fathers must giue place to your deuices and semblances This I speake if your assertion of Moses and Paul were admitted howbeit indeed you are not able to prooue one word of all that you affirme in this case You take certaine verie obscure and much questioned words of Moses and Paul for your ground-worke and at your pleasure without all proofe you build thereon a whole world of falshood and confusion Out of which and the like darke and doubtfull places because the most of your hellish doctrine is drawen I thinke it needfull to let the Reader see how far and what those wordes inferre which you so much striue to abuse When the children of Israel had made them a Calfe of golde and feasted and plaied Moses prayer for the people examined before it as the God that brought them out of Egypt the Lord was wroth and said to Moses i Deuter. 9. v. 13. I haue seene this people and beholde it is a stifnecked people k 14. let me alone that I may destroy them and put out their name from vnder heauen and I will make of thee a mightie nation and greater than they be For this sinne when Moses prayed that the whole nation might not be destroyed he sayd to God l Exod. 32. v. 31. This people hath sinned a great sinne m 32. And now if thou wilt take away their sinne and if not wipe me out of the Booke which thou hast written To whom God answered n Vers 33. Whosoeuer hath sinned against me I will put him out of my booke The first thing here to be considered is what God
and bloudshed on the Crosse shewed in him no paines nor infirmitie but onely that voluntarily he made himselfe there the true Priest and performed the prefigured bloudie and deadlie sacrifice for the sinnes of the world As good reason altogether you haue to say so as to affirme it of his agonie No by your leaue for Christ did not actually offer two sacrifices the one ghostly suffering the paines of hell in the garden as you imagine the other bodily and bloudy yeelding himselfe to the death of the crosse m Heb. 〈◊〉 14 With one oblation he hath made perfect for euer them which are sanctified n vers 〈◊〉 and we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once made This sacrifice was presented and submitted to Gods will in the garden but finished and consummated on the Crosse which could not be without paines and infirmitie belonging vnto death In the garden where no Scripture saith Christ died I admit not the second death nor the paines of the damned which are thereto consequent And where you say I refuse all paines and infirmitie in Christes agonie it is one of your wonted trueths which in another were an open lie I admit not the paines of the damned or of the second death til you shew where the scripture teacheth that Christ suffered two deaths the first on the Crosse and the second in the garden and that afore the first Otherwise painefull affections of feare and sorow which were humane infirmities though voluntarily and religiously receaued by Christ into his soule I euerie where acknowledge and with Cyprian make them entrances to his oblation for the sinnes of the world o 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vt fieret voluntas Patris sacrificium carnis a timore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suberant victime desolatoriâ—… carbones quos obedientiae liquefactus adeps extinxit 〈◊〉 tâ—…e will of the Father might be donne saith Cyprian and Christ begin the sacrifice of his flesh with feare and sorow consuming coales of feare and sorow in the gardeÌ„ were puâ—… vnder the sacrifice which the sweet fatnesse of his obedience mâ—…lting did quench So that Christ beganne the sacrifice of his body in the garden offering that to be disposed at his fathers will for the life of the world and his entring to it was with feare and sorow the painfulnesse whereof his obedience abolished and so without all feare went to the rest of his suffrings before and on the crosse where he perfected and ended his oblation despising all torments and punishments that the wicked could deuice for him * 〈◊〉 ibidem 〈◊〉 vt sanaret inâ—…irmos timuit vt faceret securos Christ sorowed to heale our weakenesse and feared to make vs secure I beheld 〈◊〉 workes o Lord saith he and admire thee fastened to the crosse betweene two condemned Theeues now to be neither fearefull nor sorrowfull but a conquerer of thy punishments p Defenc. pag. 105. li. 6. You meane voluntarie in such sense that Christmas not also vrged thereunto by any violence of paines and feare procuring it in him naturally I meane by voluntarie that Christ had power enough to resist and represse the vehemency and painefulnesse of these affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his affections as â—…e saw cause in him selfe and therefore against or without his will they could not trouble him For 〈◊〉 did not preuaile or exceed in him as they do in vs against our wils but he must be willing to submit himselfe to each affection of feare sorow before they could take hold of him or be grieuous to him Our nature though he tooke in substance yet the corruption and distemper of our sinfull nature he did not take and therfore as before our fall the innocency and rectitude that was in man could guide and gouerne as well the rising as the inflaming of his affections so much more Christ who besides sincerity from sinne and libertie from corruption had the grace and power of Gods spirite aboue measure in his humane nature could so restraine and represse in himselfe all affections of feare and sorow that till he was willing and thought it fitte they neither did mooue nor molest his humane flesh or spirit And when he suffered mans nature in him to feele the same affections that are in vs they were holy and righteous in him declaring his obedience to his Fathers will and not disordered as we find in the corruption of our flesh And where you adde that Christ was vrged to his bloudie sweat by violence of paines or feare procuring it in him naturally you speake not only against the trueth but euen against your selfe For within one leafe after you grant q 〈◊〉 107. li. 16 it was aboue the course of nature led thereunto by Hilaries wordes that it was r Hâ—…lar de Trinitate li. 10. non secundum naturae consuetudinem not according to the accustomed course of nature And indeed how could it be naturall since feare cannot by nature cause a bloudy sweate and of all the men that you imagine did euer suffer the paines of hell you neuer read in the Scriptures or else where that any of them did sweate bloud Now if it were naturall to paine yea to your supposed paines of hell in this life to sweate bloud as many as you vrge suffered the same yea all the members of Christ to whom in these sufferings you make him like must needs at one â—…ime or other sweate bloud as well as Christ. Wherefore it is certaine that either you fitten and faine thâ—…se sufferings in other men or else Christ was not vrged NATVRALLY to this sweate by any â—…eares or paines of hell that oppressed him in the Garden s Defenc. pag. 10. li. 2. Of this Exposition with all the rest you pronounce that they are sound and well agreeing with Christian pietie Yet is it contrarie to your Resolution also yea it is contrarie to the Scripture expressing his feare and vehement sorrowes and discomfort to haue caused his Agonie Your words are of so small waight that a man would skant spare you Oyster-shels vpon your credit You know not the difference betwixt the occasion of Christs sorrow and sweate in the Garden and the exposition of his complaint on the crosse What I say of the one You more then negligently apply to the other As for my Resolution Pag. 290. prooue it contrarie to this position for exposition it is none since it concerneth the cause of Christs sweate and not the sense of his words and you shall after many failes and follies prooue somewhat Otherwise if these things in the Garden concerned Christs priesthood which is mine Assertion in this place I hope his Priesthood prooueth both his submission to God to whom he yeelded himselfe obedient and suppliant and his compassion on man for whose sake he refused not to make a bloudie and deadly offering of his owne bodie which is my Resolution in the Page
his owne most free and fore-determined will would he then so mournefully grieue and complaine thereat It hath no reason nor likelihood in it You runne your selfe out of breath and quite besides the way You shall not need to perswade me that Christ was resolued and willing to die I perfectly beleeue it and easily confesse it but how as he himselfe declared the spirit was willing the flesh was weake The minde of Christ apprehended and persued all these things which you mention but that excludeth not the naturall dislike which Gods will is all men should haue of death This imperfection of mans nature since it pleased Christ to taste as well as the rest of our infirmities and affections you may by no respects nor rewards make the weakenesse of Christes flesh to which he submitted himselfe the Weaknesse appered in Christs flesh but willingnesse in his spirit same or equall with the willingnesse of his spirit which had and shewed the abundance of all grace Wherefore I maintaine both in Christ a voluntarie sense of the weaknesse of our flesh and an heauenly strength of the inward man which expressed but ouerballanced the naturall desire of the outward man in Christ. And still you harpe on that one string which is vtterly out of tune that he would not do it So extreamly and So mournefully This extremitie is only your fansie for I say Christ did it meekely obediently and faithfully assuring himselfe that his Father who all this while had tried his patience would at his prayer not onely end his paine but make heauen and earth to witnesse what account God made of him though for a season he left him in their hands to be made a sacrifice for our sinnes u Defenc. pag. 111. li. 15. Lazarus when he was returned from the ioyes of heauen to take againe his rotten carcase yet he grieued not at it nor ought he so to haue done When you sincke in reasons you ascend to reuelations Who tolde you that the soule of Lazarus was in the ioyes of heauen when Christ raised his bodie from the graue Christ placeth the soule of the other Lazarus that died at the rich mans doore in Abrahams bosome to be comforted and doe you take vpon you to place this Lazarus that was brother to Marie and Martha in the very ioyes of heauen Where was his soule those foure dayes you will aske It is not for you to aske nor for me to answere The things after this life and out of this world it is not lawfull for me or you farder to enquire then the Scripture reuealeth That such as are raised from the dead should be able by experience to report the ioies of heauen or the paines of hell or the secrets of Gods kingdome is a thing not permitted by God as we find by Abrahams answeare to the rich man praying that Lazarus might be sent to his fathers house God hath places and Angels enough to keepe the soules of such as he meaneth shal be returned to this life though it be neither in hell nor in heauen From hell no man is released and from heauen no man is dismissed that hath once seene God face to face When x 1. Cor. 13. that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be abolished sayth the Apostle And will you aduenture to abolish perfection after it is come and to bring men backe to this mortall life that haue seene God in the fulnesse of his glory whom no man liuing can see depriuing them of that vision perfection and brightnesse which the ioyes of heauen haue in them It is an enterprise meet for such an encounterer as you are Paul liuing was taken vp into y 2. Cor. 〈◊〉 the third heauen euen into Paradise where he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he might not vtter Was Paul then in the ioyes of heauen I trow not For he sayth Lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of reuelations there was giuen vnto me a sting in the flesh euen the messenger of Satan to â—…uffit me If the abundance of reuelation would so exalt Paul when he was but taken vp into Paradise that he needed the messenger of Satan to humble him how would the ioyes of heauen and cleercnesse of Gods face beheld in his glory exalt men that should afterward liue againe in this wretched world And therefore this is like the rest euen a bolde assertion of things vnknowen whereas God wanteth no meanes nor places extraordinarie to detaine the soules of such as shall in his counsell returne to this life without knowing the secrets or possessing the ioyes of heauen z Defenc. pag. 111. li. 22. If your Fathers proue any thing towards your meaning it is this because that he complained of his bodily dying Howbeit they say not that he thus complained only and meerely The Defender 〈◊〉 the Fathers proue my meaning for that Neither do I thinke will you plainly holde this NEITHER DO VVE DENIE THE OTHER If the Fathers meaning be which you now consesse that Christ on the crosse complained because of his bodily dying then proue they as much as I produced them sor and your admitting this exposition of theirs sheweth that all this while you idlely sought to subuert their assertion with your strong allegation as you supposed to no purpose since now you denie it not And where you pretend they say not ONLY and meerely for that you come too late with your exception For since Christ made no complaint on the crosse but this My God my God why hast thou forsaken me if in that he complained because of his bodily dying as you do not denie then all proofe for your hell paines out of those words is quite excluded aswell by their opinion as by your owne confession And your making Christs complaint on the crosse to be a Pa. 111. li. 22 improbable yea vnlawfull conuinceth you by your owne mouth that within the compasse of fiue lines you are contrary to your selfe and charge Christ with vnlawfull mourning which amounteth to as much as sinfull As for mine opinion what respects Christ might haue in that complaint of his I haue before deliuered so that your so grieuing and so mourning only and meerely for that is but a sillie refuge when you can not otherwise resist the trueth b Defenc. pag. 111. li. 32. 28. These Fathers had no purpose here to exclude the suffering of Christes soule but only to denie that his Godhead suffered They stroue here with heretikes whose controuersies were farre from our question Indeed the heretikes against whom they wrote tooke great holde of these places on which you build your hell paines and because they were Heretikes alwayes vrged the same places whiâ—…h the Desender doth somewhat darke and doubtfull they stumbled many weake Christians with them euen as you doe Their purpose I know was to proue Christ no God in nature because he feared and sorowed in
you mightily mistake mistranslate yet make they nothing for you but against you directly Writing against Praxeas that denied the Father and the Sonne to be two distinct persons and taught that the Father became sonne to himselfe l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ca. 2. and was made man and crucisied after many proofes to shew the person of the sonne to be different from the person of the father he citeth those words of Christ on the crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and saith m Ibid. ca. 30. hâ—…c vox carnis animae idest hominis non sermonis nec spiritus id est Dei propterea emissa est vt impassibilem Deum ostenderet qui sic filium dereliquit dum hominem eius trâ—…didit in mortem Caeterum non reliquit Pater Filium in cuius manibus Filius spiritum suum posuit Denique posuit statim obijt Spiritu enim manente in carne caro omnino mori non potest Ita relinqui a Patre fuit mori filio This voice of the flesh and soule that is of the man not of the word nor of the spirit that is not of God was therefore spoken to shew that God is impassible who so left his sonne whiles he deliuered his manhood to death Yet the Father did not altogether forsake the sonne into whose hands the sonne breathed out his spirit For he breathed it out and straighâ—…way died Whiles the spirit remained in the flesh the flesh could not die at all So that to be forsaken of the Father was in the sonne to die Here are the words of Tertullian in order as they stand Where it is euident that he affirmeth no death nor forsaking in Christ but only that when the spirit left the body His words are plaine The Father forsocke not the sonne into whose hands the sonne deposed his spirit For he laid it downe and died So to be forsaken of the Father was this for the sonne to die by laying downe his spirit or soule as before he prooueth Christ did Then suffered Christ no death of the soule since he died not till he breathed out his spirit into his fathers hands and other forsaking the sonne felt none then so to die by the separation of his soule from his body Now touching the voice of the soule and the flesh whereof Tertullian speaketh What forsaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of either he maketh three parts in man as the Apostle doth Thess 1 5. verse 23. the spirit the soule and the body and then the soule noteth the operations of life and sense which were to cease for the time by death or els he affirmeth this voice came from both soule and body because the soule was to be separated from her body by death as well as the body to be left dead both which are a kind of forsaking Other death he nameth none here then to die by breathing out the spirit And so long as the spirit abideth in the flesh the flesh he saith cannot die at all Christ therefore endured no death whiles his spirit did abide in his body and consequently no death of the soule and when he breathed out his spirit he straightway died which was the forsaking that he complained of in those words So that all your collections heere out of Tertullian are your additions to Tertullian and not so much as one of them to be found or fet from his text He speaketh not a word that Christ n Defenc. pag. suffered in both these parts from his father nor that this death or forsaking o li. 15. was ment of the flesh and of the 1 12. li. 20. soule as you falsly translate him And as for Tertullians confirming that p li. 26. heresie of Christes being no true naturall man except Christ suffered q li. 23. the stroke of Gods hand in his soule as the proper vengcance of sinne this is your blinde deuice absurdly foisted into Tertullian without any word or letter sounding that way r Defenc. pag. 112. li. 31. This dereliction of which he speaketh is more 〈◊〉 the separation of the soule and bodie euen the separation of the deitie from the whole manhood which is the death of the soule I speake nothing here but the Fathers words yea the Scriptures Your setting vnto Tertullian Tertullian nameth no death but of Christes bodie your owne sense is an impudent attempt and the weakest argument that can be when you tell vs he meaneth so though he speake not one word touching the death of the soule but as exactly as he can or should nameth the death of the bodie by this that he sayth Denique spiritum posuit statim obijt Spiritu enim manente in carne caro omnino mori non potest Christ layd downe his spirit and straightway died For whiles the spirit remained in the flesh the flesh could not die at all What was it to lay downe his spirit into his fathers hands as the Scripture speaketh of Christ on the crosse but to die the death of the body Those very words Tertullian here citeth and vseth and thereby prooueth the Father had not inwardly forsaken the sonne since the sonne by the manifest words of himselfe reported in the Euangelist commended and yeelded his spirit to his fathers hands So that against the death of the soule Tertullians words are pregnant for how did the soule die that was commended into Gods hands and other death Tertullian nameth nor meaneth none but only this Denique spiritum posuit statim obijt Christ laied downe his spirit into his fathers hands and straightway died As for your speaking nothing heere but the fathers and the Scriptures words beware you take not vp the Diuels trade to keepe their words and peruert their sense It is no great mastery to abuse mens words yea the word of God which all Hereticks haue euer drawen to their owne false and wicked purposes s Defenc. pag. 112. li. 34. Your owne place of Epiphanius saith that now his deity departed from his manhood So saith your owne Hilarie also Corporis vox contestata recedentis a se Dei dissidium So saith Ambrose clamauit homo diuinitat is separatione moriturus The man Christ did crie being about to die by the separation of his Godhead You alleage three places to this purpose and either corrupt or peruert all three most apparantly â—…piphanius saith that Christs deity TOGETHER WITH THE SOVLE departed from his sacred body which is as plaine a description of bodily death as may be vttered You leaue out the words TOGETHER WITH THE SOVLE as crossing your course and turne the body into the soule meaning by this corruption to load Epiphanius with a sense cleane contrarie to his owne Hilaries words spoken of Christes body you enlarge to the whole manhood of Christ and thence conclude directly against Hilaries meaning and words that the deity departed from both where as Hilarie professeth of Christ t Hilarius
When they are diuers the Reader may make his choise what he best liketh but there is no cause nor reason to reiect all that can not be reconciled Neither did I tell you they might all stand together but I sayd they stood well with the rules of Christian pietie And since they had in them no contradiction to the text nor to the faith I saw no ground to depriue the Reader of them much lesse to reiect or disdaine the authours of them as you do And yet truly it were no such hard matter as you imagine to make the substance of them stand together For why might not Christ on the crosse as the head and Sauiour of his bodie in his owne name make his complaint or inquire the cause why both he and his were so long and in this wise forsaken as namely the head to be left to the paine shame and death of the crosse and his members to the poison of sinne and rage of Satan and therefore pray that his members might be freed and restored to Gods fauour and himselfe be eased of his anguish with deposing his spirit into his Fathers hands and honoured with the signes of his Fathers loue and liking towards him when he should depart this life that all his enemies might know there was a great and good cause euen the glory of God and mans saluation why he was thus martyred and mocked on the crosse Here are the effects of those sixe or seuen causes layd together what so great repugnancie finde you betwixtthem that because they are manie therefore your hell-paines should be the likelier to be the true meaning of these words a Defenc. pag. 114. li. 27. A very badde opinion of the holy Scriptures you seeme to haue if you thinke they may be handled by Interpretations and Expositions thus that a man may take them in sixe or seuen diuers senses and all sustisiable I honour them more in not reiecting the manifolde expositions of considerate and godly Interpreters than you do in fastening them to the leauen of your sower humour and affixing such senses to them as shall contradict the maine grounds of faith and religion deliuered in them And who but you did euer hinder Expositors olde or new to labour in them and scant to reach to the depth of them since as you seeme to be affected no man may offer diuersly to interpret them for feare of hauing a badde opinion of them But such is your stiffe and proud presumption all things that like not you are vaine and friuolous and your fansies be they neuer so vnreasonable or irreligious must be weighty and holy b Defenc. pag. 114. li. 34. Now it resteth that I gather some reasons from the expresse Scripture to shew you that indeed very paines and the vehemencte of sorrowes namely which he now susteined by way of yeelding satisfaction and sacrifice for sinne were the principall and only proper cause of his most dreadfull agonies and complaint Which trucly though it need no reason for proofe of it the matter being so cleere in it selfe yet your vnreasonablenesse is such that it draweth somewhat from me about it Your Art of carping hath fayed but ill-fauouredly with you you will now proceed to your trade of prouing and that by expresse Scripture wherein you shew your selfe to be right your selfe that is take all your owne fansies for expresse Scripture and though your conceits be such that are more worthy to be derided than answered yet the matter you say is so cleere in it selfe that it needeth no reason for proofe of it The expresse Scriptures on which you so much stand are the name of the Agonie the Houre and the Cuppe with this one sentence My soule is on euery side heauy vnto death About these you brabble going neither backeward nor forward but heaping vp a few generall phrases of mightie sorowes and excessiue paines you iterate the very same that you often sayd before and adde not so much as a piece of a reason that should stumble a man of any vnderstanding And touching your hell paines or the second death you lay that on soaking till your proouing be ouerpast and then we shall heare of it at Lands end when you are lightned of your burden c Defenc. pag. 115. li 3. First no Christian doubteth I suppose much lesse denieth that Christs most wofull agonies and complaining belonged properly and directly to his Passion and sacrifice and that they expressed a part thereof yea as I thinke not the least part but his whole sacrifice consisted in afflictions The prince of our saluation was consecrated through afflictions Therefore afflictions sorrowes and paines were the cause of his agonies and complaint not his religious The Defenders maner of reasoning is as illogical as his matter is false feare not his piette or pitie Somewhat it was this gecre was Drawen from you it commeth not so vnwillingly but it commeth as vntowardly from you First to the forme and then to the matter of your argument Your conclusion is a strange kind of creature it hath to much and yet it hath too little For before you can exclude religious feare pittie and pietie from the cause of Christs agonie or complaint you must adde onely to your inference and say Afflictions sorrowes and paines were the onely cause of Christs agonies and complaint Otherwise with one part you exclude another as if a man would say that your head is not part of your bodie because your heele is which would put all your reasons in daunger to be drawen out of your heele and not out of your head And yet as defectiue as your conclusion is one way it is as excessiue another way For these words were the cause are stollen into this conclusion of which there was no mention in your premisses and so your precedent propositions are of one countrey and your conclusion of another they haue not so much as entercourse eche with other where by the rules of reason and Art there should be nothing in your conclusion which is not exactly specified in your premisses Your maior beginneth with belonged to your minor proceedeth to consisted in and your conclusion huddleth was the cause of which are rather like forkes to skatrer then rakes to gather the parts of your syllogisme together If to hale in your conclusion you will amend your assumption as you must and say that afflictions were the onely cause of Christs sacrifice we shall more wonder at this monster then at the former For besides the falsenesse of it in that it is vtterly repugnant to all truth since the causes of Christs sacrifice were sinne in vs needing it Loue in Christ proferring it and Iustice in God requiring it how come the parts of any thing to be the causes thereof Afflictions suffered were parts of Christs sacrifice and not the causes And therefore you must pray the Printer to stampe you a new conclusion before any part of this argument will haue
words of Christes sorow and feare or astonishment vsed by the Euangelists S. Ierom saith p Hieronym in Matth. ca. 26. Caepit contristari aliud est enim contristari aliud incipere contristari Christ began to be sorowfull for it is one thing to be sorowfull and another thing to begin to be sorowfull And so Origen q Origen in Matth. tract 35. Capit pauere vel tristari nihil amplius tristitiae vel pauoris patiens nisi principium tantum Christ began to be afrayd or to be sorrowfull suffering no more but onely the beginning of feare or sorrow And consider sayth he r Ibidem the Euangelist sayth not he was afrayd or he was loaden with sorow but he beganne to be afrayd and sorowfull There is great difference betwixt sorow and the beginning of sorow And so he expoundeth Christes words My soule is heauie vnto death that is Heauinesse is begunne in me so that I am not altogether without some taste thereof The continuance thereof the Scripture noteth not to be such that either bereaued him of memorie or hindred his prayers for both he persisted in earnest and humble Christ did not pray in astonishment prayer wherein he was heard and carefully warned his Apostles that were with him to watch and pray that they entred not into temptation Now prayer requireth not vnderstanding and memory alone but faith also Of euery man that would pray Saint Iames sayth s Iames 1. Let him aske in faith and wauer not for he that wauereth is like the waue of the sea tost with the winde Neither let that man thinke he shall receiue any thing of the Lord. And where by these tastes and touches of feare and sorow you would insinuate your hell paines partly felt and partly further to come S. Austen telleth you that t August 83. quâ—…st quâ—…st 33. cognitu facile est nullum metum esse nisi futuri imminentis mali it is easie to know there is no feare but of future and imminent euill As also u Ibidem Nihil erat inter omnia genera mortis illo genere execrabilius formidolosius Amongst all kindes of death there was none more execrable and formidable than that kinde of death on the crosse which Christ died So that what Christ feared was to come and not present as also he might haue a naturall mislike and feare of that kinde of death respecting as well the paine which would be intolerable as the exactnesse of patience required more in him than in all men liuing because he might admit no declining nor disliking the sharpnesse thereof in the weakenesse of his flesh were it neuer so grieuous This I speake of his bodilie paines besides the feare and sorow that his soule might apprehend for the weightie worke of mans redemption then in hand x Defenc. pag. 115. li. 31. You skip this kind of feare when you recken but foure kinds for this was neither a religious care nor doubtfull feare nor desperate nor damned feare but a right naturall feare in Christ. As though the ground of all these were not a naturall feare and dislike of hell paines For why doe the faithfull decline them the weake conflict with them the desperate sinke vnder them and the damned lie confounded in them but because nature abhorreth and shunneth all kind of paine and consequently the greatest which is hell with the greatest detestation that may be You after your surly sort presume that Christ really felt in the Garden the paines of the damned I admitting no such deuice did yet sufficiently comprise all kinds of feare concerning hell in that diuision of mine since if they were presently felt of Christ as they are of the damned his feare of them must then needs be a damned feare or rather paine because he had as you defend a present sense of them as the damned haue And therefore if you misse no more in your conclusions then I did in my partition your reasons would passe without any iust reproofe y Defenc. pag. 116. Dauid wanted sometime the present feeling of Gods comfortable spirit and mourned dolefully for the want of it albeit yet he was not destitute of his spirit indeâ—…de which also himselfe knew well enough And thus did Christ euen in his greatest plunge of woe for then he called God his God resolutely The example of Dauid maketh nothing for your hell paines to be suffered in the soule of Christ but very much against them and yet betweene Dauids case in that Psalme and Christs there is no comparison For Dauid then was not pressed with any outward affliction but stroken with an inward doubt of Gods fauour towards him whom he had so greatly offended with adultery and homicide and so long dallied with before repentance Christ contrariwise was neuer pressed with any doubt or distrust of Gods fauour towards himselfe but the weakenesse of his flesh was burdened with extreame and intolerable paynes What affinitie then had Dauids feare of reiection with Christs sense of affliction and yet were they like what gaine you by that Dauid was truely penitent when he made that psalme and true repentance I hope putteth not men into the paines of hell Againe Dauid you confesse was not then destitute of Gods spirit which also himselfe knew well enough But the spirit of God is life to the soule of man and quickeneth it Ergo Dauid though he wanted the full peace and ioy of conscience which he calleth saluation yet he liued in soule and was farre from the second death How much more then was Christs soule free from all these things in whom was the fulnesse of Gods spirit with all his gifts and graces any way needfull for the Sauiour of the world though glory were differred and ioy diminished for the time by excesse of paine To wish ease of paine or to grieue at the sharpenesse therof is naturall vnto man and therefore may well be graunted to haue bene in Christ as also to lacke the fulnesse of ioy and comfort till his sufferings were ouer past But he neuer wanted the ioy of saluation nor assurance thereof and therefore he doubled his inuocation on the crosse saying not onely My God my God but Father forgiue them and Father into thine hands I commend my spirit and in the Garden he resolutely pronounced as often if not oftner z Mat. 26. vers 39 42. O my Father Which words doe most apparantly prooue that Christ had neuer any other perswasion suspition or feare but that God was his God and his Father and therefore most certainly bare towards him a fatherly loue and affection though he knew it was his Fathers will he should inwardly and outwardly grieue a while for our sinnes and so receiue ease by death ioy by Paradise and glory by his speedy and heauenly resurrection a Defenc. pag. 116 li. 14. Thirdly adde hereunto Christs owne expresse wordes when in this season he prayeth that this
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 â—…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 â—…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 promisâ—…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 shâ—…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
these and such like actions and passions with the bodie For the force to doe and since to feele is from the soule and so in the death of the bodie the soule is partaker with the bodie not to lie dead and senselesse as the bodie doth but to feele the paine of death and suffer the separation from the bodie 〈◊〉 the effects of death appeare in the bodie But that the soule doth die when the whole compound of bodie and soule dieth is no consequent neither in Philosophie nor Diuinitie z Defenc. pag. 137. li. 20. The text heere speaketh as I iudge of the whole and intire sufferings of Christ. The text heere speaketh of death bereauing life which was after re-â—…stored when Christes bodie was againe quickned by the power of his spirit the rest of Christes sufferings during the whole time of his life are not comprised in the name of death otherwise Peter must haue sayd Christ was alwayes dead since his affections 〈◊〉 with circumcision if not before which is no part of Peters speach nor meaning yea rather it is repugnant to both since Peter saith Christ a 1. Peter 3. suffered once fâ—…r sinnes when he was put to death and not euer and alwayes whiles he liued on â—…arth b Defenc pag. 137. li. 35. Against this obseruation what pretended you some Scriptures palpably abused first Matthew where Christ speaketh of his Disciples that their spirit their inward regenerate man was ready to watch bâ—…t their flesh their corrupt Nature was weake and sluggish 〈◊〉 is this to Christs flesh and spirit If my authoritie were as good as yours and my learning as great I could say as you doe I iudge it so but if I shew not better reason for me to aâ—…firme those wordes Christ ment of himselfe then you doe or can that he ment them not of himselfe I am content your consistorian seeming shall goe before my laborious proouing my vse is not to relie too much on mine owne iudgement as you doe though I thanke God I can examine both your and other mens interpretations but when I finde a thing maturely and rightly considered and concoâ—…ded by the learned and auncient Fathers in matters of faith or exposition of the Scriptures I goe not easily from them Tertullian saith c Tertullianus de suga in persecutione Christ himselfe professed his soule was 〈◊〉 vnto death his flesh weake that he might shew to thee there were in himselfe both the substaâ—…ces of man by the propertie of heauinesse in the soule and weakenesse in the flesh Athanasius likewise d Athanasius de Passione Cruâ—…e 〈◊〉 A little afore his death Christ cried the spirit was willing but the flesâ—… weakâ—… that our aduersarie the diuell encountring him as a man might feele his diuine power Theophilus Alexandrinus e 〈◊〉 epistola Paschali prima contra Appollinaristas If Christ tooke onely the flesh of man and not the soule of man why in his Passion did he say the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake Ambrose f Ambros. ls 4. in 〈◊〉 ca. 4. If Christes body had beene spirituall he would not haue said the spirit is prompt but the flesh is weake Heare the voice of either in Christ as well of weake flesh as of a readie spirit The auncient writer among the works of Saint Austen g De Salutaribus documentis ca. 64. The trueth it selfe our Lord Iesus Christ saith of himselfe the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake Cyrill h Cyrill Thesauri li. 10. ca. 3. Though Christ abhorred death as a man yet as a man he refused not to doe the will of his Father and his owne as God and therefore he said the spirit is prompt but the flesh is weake Vigilius i Vigilius contra 〈◊〉 li. 5. ca. 4. What is that wherein he suffered and tried weakenesse but mans nature whereof he said at the time of his passion the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake tasting of which infirmitie he learned to helpe the weake Seuerianus k Seuerianus contra Nonatum citatur a 〈◊〉 contra 〈◊〉 hem My soule saith Christ is he auic vnto death And interpreting to what his Passions pertained the spirit saith he is ready but the flesh weake Remigius l 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 26. 〈◊〉 a Tho. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In these words Christ sheweth that he tooke true flesh of the Virgine and that he had a true soule Wherefore he now saith that his spirit is ready to suffer but that his weake flesh feareth the paine of his Passion Euthymius m 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 My God my God said Christ why hast thou for saken me that is why hast thou left me in this feare knowing my spirit is ready but my flesh weake What thinke you had I no more reason to say as I saide then you haue to denie it where also you may note that all these learned Fathers refuse your lame obseruation as well as I doe and so you had neede seeke some better authoritie then your owne or perhaps some one that 〈◊〉 you with this rule seruing to none other end but to helpe forward your hell fansie n 〈◊〉 pag. 139. li. 1. Thinke you that Christs soule was willing to suffer as God had appointed but that his flesh resisted veâ—…ily so you seeme heere to vnderstand and it is as likely as your applying of flesh and spirit to Christ in your pag. 104. Put on your visard before you take in hand to controle the iudgement of so many Fathers Your pride is greater then your wit in this and most things that passe your pen. Is it such newes to you for me or for them to say that Christes flesh was weake that is not so ready to suffer as was his soule seeth your mastership no difference betwixt weakenesse and resistance specially when in comparison of the readinesse of the spirit the flesh is said to be weaker that is lesse ready to suffer then the soule doth not the Apostle applie the same word vnto Christ when he saith Christ was o 2. Cor. 13. crucified through weakenesse and long before the Prophet said of Christ p Esa. 53. He is a man full of sorrowes and one that hath experience in infirmites So that your cholor was kindled without cause when you strooke such an heat with my saying that Christs flesh was weake the Prophet foretold he should be a man full of sorrowes and well acquainted with infirmities The vntrue conceit which you challenge in the 104. Page of my Sermons touching Christes flesh where I sayd it must haue force to cleanse and quicken when you impugâ—…e I will defend in the meane time it may serue I savd nothing but what our Saâ—…iour sayd before me q Iob. 6. vers 56. 54. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him he hath eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last
that you can discerne nothing besides your owne dreames In the wordes of Esaie are sundrie circumstances which plainely prooue Sheol there not to be taken for the graue onely The first is the situation of Sheol which the Prophet there saith is below Sheol from below is stirred to meete thee not meaning the dead should be then raised to life but the Ghostes below should be mooued and affected with the suddaine fall of that mightie tyrant It is also there opposed to heauen as the lowest place to the highest for where through pride the king of Babylon said in his heart I will ascend to heauen and exalt my throne aboue the starres of God the Prophet replieth thou shalt be thrust downe to Sheol to the sides of the lake Secondly there are in that place attributed to them in Sheol remembrance admirance irrision and speach which by no meanes can agree to dead carcasses in the graue but to spirits and soules in hell neither had the dead bodie of the king of Babylon any sense sorrow or shame for his foule fall which their insulting in hell against him purposed to impresse Thirdly the cruelty tyranny pride and rage of the king of Babylon against Gods people were greater then to bee requited onely with the graue as were all other men euen the Iewes themselues that were the Seruants of God their most religious Kings It was therefore no way fitting for the iustice of God against his enemies nor for his loue to his owne to menace the oppressors murderers of his people with no more but only with the graue For since God by the same prophet threatned the king of Asshur with Tophet for smiting his people saying Tophet is prepared of old it is euen prepared for the king he to wit God hath made it deepe and wide the burning thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a riuer of brimstone doth kindle it how should the graue onely be sufficient to reuenge the outrages of the king of Babylon against the Saints of God whose citie he vtterly destroyed and kept them groning in most miserable seruitude Lastly where you so confidently pronounce the graue onely is there ment a man may soone see how little care you take in setling your sentence since of all other things there specified the graue is namely excepted by the Prophet as no part of Gods threats against that proud tyrant These are his words Thou shalt not be ioyned with them in the graue because thou hast destroied thine owne land and slaine thy people thou art cast out of the graue like an abominable branch as a carcasse troden vnder feete So that heere you are taken tardie with a plain and presumptuous contradiction to the words of the Prophet that where he threatneth the king of Babel for his cruell oppression shall not be partaker of a graue after his death but be cast out as an hatefull care asse to be troden vnder foote you in your wisedome affirme the gâ—…ue is onely heere ment whatsoeuer others thinke yea though the Prophet himselfe expresly say no. With such principles you proppe vp your idle fansies in the Hebrew tongue whiles you would seeme learned in giuing the Prophet the lie to his face But heere you will say is mention of wormes that should spredde vnder him and coâ—…er him and of lying downe to sleepe This is all the shew that can be made out of sixteene verses in that Chapter describing the destruction of the king of Babylon and his issue and yet these wordes neither doe nor must inferre the graue which he should lacke but the putrifying of his body though vnburied and his lying down to death yet not in the graue Neither is it to be doubted but when his soule descended to Sheol below his bodie was dead the one doth not exclude but rather include the other except men descend aliue to hell as we read of some in the Scriptures otherwise the soule is first seuered from the body before she goe to her owne place which for the wicked is the lower Sheol Thus much you might haue learned out of old and new interpreters but that you scorne to be directed by any man farder then your owne fancie doth lead you Of this place of Esaie Ierom thus writeth He that through pride said I will ascend to heauen and be like the most high is thrust downe non solum ad infernum sed ad inferorum vltimum â—…ot onely to hell but to the lowest steppe of hell So the deepe of the lake doth signifie for which in the Gospell we read vtter darkenesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth And withall we learne that hell is vnder the earth the Scripture saying vnto the bottome of the lâ—…ke Haymo on the same words Hence we learne that hell is vnder the earth whose inhabitants in this place are designed by the name of hell Hell is troubled to meet thee because the angell who is President ouer infernall paines hath stirred vp to meete thee the Giants that is the mightie princes of the earth whom before thou didst heauâ—…ly oppresse Lyra very skilfull in the Hebrue tongue as appeareth by his often citing the Rabbins vpon the same place saith Heere is the insultation of the dead and first against the soule of the king of Babylon secondly as touching the buriall of his bodie Concerning the first we must know the Iewes Catholike writeâ—…s expound this place of Nabâ—…codonosors soule descending to the paines of the damned But it must be referred to Balthasar his Nephew and so it is said HELL That is the diuell the ruler of hell VNDâ—…R THEE because hell is said to be in the deepe of the earth IS TROVBLED because the diuels were busie about the receauing and leading of his soule Bullingere likewise The Prophet goeth on to describe the wretchednesse of Balthasar the wicked king of Babylon When therefore he was thrust through the body in many places by the souldiers that brake into his palace his soule went straight to hell Where two things are to be obserued first that the soule of man doth not die with his body next that hell is appointed as a certaine place for the wicked which heere is auouched to be beneath vs. Oecolampadius Thou art descended to hell and thy glory and mirth with thee And as the body is deuoured of wormes so the soule is tormented with the wormes of an euill conscience These are the treasures of rich and mightie men which oppresse others in this life they cary nothing hence but a wretched conscience into the Gehenna sire where their worme doth not die nor the fire quench Pellican The dead Princes in hell answer one another deriding ech the other vpbrayding violences exercising wrath and indignation raging with impatience and iniuries wormes meate and most wretched with the perpetuall gnawing of conscience euen as in the kingdome of the blessed
apostles speech as the wordes interposed in an other letter and with two lines inclosed but that the Printer did sometimes forget my markes and directions doe plainly witnesse And to what purpose I pray you Sir in common reason were it for me to repeat a place faire and full as I doe and within two lines after to cite the same againe with sixe wordes added which were not in the former except it were an exposition and no citation of the Apostles words Wherefore your wisedome might presently haue perceaued that the halfe circle which standeth after places did in my coppie stand after presence and that the Printer by haste or neglect brought it neerer then hee should And those very wordes places with his presence you finde twice in the same section in an ordinarie letter and cite them your selfe as an exposition and not an addition to the Apostles words But my speech you say is both inconuenient and farre from the Apostles meaning Of that you are no fitte iudge you must reade more and more indifferently then you doe before you will come neere the Apostles meaning Your exposition that Christ first descended into the lower parts of the earth and then ascended farre aboue all heauens onely to fill all his Church with the gifts of his spirit which by his ascending hee promised to doe is farre from the Apostles wordes and meaning For in these wordes to fill all the apostle compriseth as well the benefits of Christs descending as of his ascend ing And euen by his ascending we are assured of other and greater gifts then those which are powred on his church heere on earth for the support of his Saints in this life Christes comming to iudgement his raising our bodies from corruption and conforming them to be like his glorious body and bringing vs into the kingdome of his Father where perfect eternall and celestiall ioy blisse and glory shall be reuealed on vs these be waightier and excellenter gifts then the graces of this life and yet by Christes ascending into heauen we haue a manifest interest in all these So that though it be true that Christ departing from vs prouided sufficiently for vs whilcs heere we liue by the gifts and graces of his spirit yet the kingdome of Christ which cxtendeth to things places and persons celestiall terrestriall and infernall is farre larger then that part which you mention which commeth nothing neere to the fulnesse of the Apostles wordes or sense Since then by descending to the lowest and ascending to the highest the apostle noteth all the places in the world the earth not excepted from which Christ both descended and ascended after he had finished the worke of our redemption and by his presence in euerie place was acknowledged his power and dominion ouer all things in euery of these places hell it selfe being not able to make any resistance to his person or pleasure the sensc which I giuc to the apostlcs words that Christ descended ascended to fill all places with the maiestie of his presence and might of his word better declareth the greatnesse and largenesse of Christes kingdome now sitting in heauen then doth the guiding of his church in the miseries and infirmities of this life though I do not denie but that is a woorthy part of his excellent and supereminent power And for that application of the apostles wordes which perhaps you finde not in your Note bookc and so suspcct it to be the more inconuenient Athanasius a man of more iudgement then I or you or any that you follow for ought that I know first led me to it Christ performed the condemnation of siâ—…ne on the earth the abolition of the curse on the crosse the redemption of corruption in the graue and the dissolution of death in hell Omnia loca permeans going to euerie place that he might euery where worke mans saluation And againc As then Christ our Sauiour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filled all places on all sides with his presence so he filled all with the knowledge of himselfe Man compassed on euerie side and euery where that is in heauen in hell in man in earth may behold the Diuinitie of the Sonne of God vnfolded by his Manhood Third you make much of that which doth you not a pinnes worth of good where it is asked who shall descend into the deepe that is to bring Christ againe from the dead If the deepe here did signifie Hell which yet certainely it doth not but suppose it doth how will that follow which you presume that Christ dying descended into the deepe The text saith no such thing You be a deinty diuine that thinke the Apostle here wandreth in his question eâ—…eth in his answere abruptly impertinently clapping things vncoherent together If the Apostle did not referre the former questions to Christ how then in his answere doth head this is to bring Christ down from heauen to bring Christ backe from the dead Will your wisedome then learne that the question must fit the answere the one be pinned at least to the other But Christ you say is not named in either of those questions who shal or can ascend to heauen who shal or can descend to the deepe What thcn are there not besides the answers which name Christ so â—…ie the former question to the person of Christ two manifest reasonsto restrain these questionsvnto Christ First that the coâ—…snes of faith there mentioned by the Apostle which dependeth only wholy on Christ may moue no such questions nor doubt no such things For he that doubteth whether Christ dying descended to the deepe or rising ascended to heauen vtterly frustrateth the faith that is in Christ. The perswasion then of faith which must be farre from moouing any such questions of Christ prooueth those questions to pertaine to Christ. Secondly the questions themselues exactly comprise the person of Christ and consequently though he be not there named yet is he there â—…nely intended as appeareth by the answere For these interrogatiues who can ascend to heauen or who can descend to the deepe are equiualent to these generall Negatiues none can ascend to heauen and none can descend to the deepe as is plaine by the perpetuall vse of the Scripture What hast thou which thou hast not receaued who is like to thee O Lord his generation who shall declare which of you reproueth me of sinne Who shall accuse the elect of God Who shall separate vs from the loue of Christ And a thousand like examples doe exquisitely proue these interrogatiues to be resolute and absolute Negatiues And so Iob expoundeth them Who can make cleane of vncleane not one If NONE can ascend to heauen or descend to the deepe then NOT CHRIST and so much the Apostle expresseth when he saith that Christ is excluded from descending and ascending by those questions and in that respect all that will be faithful must forbeare them
thou know it Shall it suiâ—…ce in this place to say the cloudes are high the starres are higher all which we see with our eyes and can obserue their course or must we cast our thoughts on the highest heauen wherein we neither see nor know any thing but what God reuealeth by his word and which is the chiefest place of his perfection So Dauid Whither shall I flie from thy presence If I ascend into heauen thou art there if â—… get downe to Sheol below thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and dâ—…d in the furdâ—…ct parts of the Sea there thy right hand shall hold me Ascending to the highest descending to the lowest and going to the fardest we passe through all places If God be then in the highest in the lowest and in the midst whither can we flee from him who is euery where all places being here contained the highest heauens are not omitted The Prophet Amos hath the like both purpose and partition where God assureth Israel they cannot decline his hand whither soeuer they could or would goe whether to heauen on high to Sheol below to the bredth of the mountaines or to the depth of the Sea If out of his diuision you exclude hell or heauen as places whither Gods hand can not reach doe you not with your impertinent Sophistrie broch vs a manifest heresie wherefore Shammaijm here is any or euery part of heauen euen as the earth is diuided by bredth and depth into the hils the Seas and Sheol vnderneath which is here conuinced to be in the earth because God saith though they digge into Sheol teaching vs that the lowest Sheol is in the earth which onely can be digged and not either in water or aire which can not be digged As for the 14 of Esay from which Christ deriued his threatning to Capernaum as resembling the pride and deseruing the punishment of the king of Babel the words there are so direct for Shammaijm to be the highest heauen euen the place of Gods throne that you thought best to skippe it ouer with a false translation and not to trouble your selfe any farder The pride of the King of Babylon is there thus expressed Thou saidst in thine heart I will ascend to heauen and will exalt my Throne aboue the starres of God I will ascend aboue the higth of the clouds and wil be like the most highest But thou shall be drawen downe to Sheol euen to the sides or lowest parts of the pit Shammaijm comprising three regions at least the clouds the starres the place of Gods throne the king of Babylon in his proud ambition said he would ascend aboue the higth of the clouds aboue the starres of God and would exalt his throne like to the most highest I hope Shammaijm here to which the king of Babylon would ascend was neither the clouds nor the starres they both are by name excluded and consequently not the skies as you fasly translate the Prophets words but it was the resemblance of Gods throne and the place of his glory to which that proud tyrant aspired Neither ment he there to be one of Gods Saints as you would childishly chalenge your opponent but what place of glory others get at Gods hands by obedience and humility he would in his arrogant heart assume vnto himselfe with rebellion and emulation of Gods greatnesse euen as Adam and Eue neuer ment to be Saints when they accepted the Diuels offer ye shal be as Gods but desired no longer to be subiect to God and sought to get a similitude if not an equality with God So did the King of Babel affect to be like the most highest though he were fardest from it of all others For the Prophet doth not in these words expresse what the king of Babylon was indeed but what his arrogant spirit conceaued in thinking there was no God greater then himselfe This monstrous pride of his being the higth of all impiety and blasphemie what reward in your conscience was it worthy to haue a plaine no being any longer amongst the liuing which you say Daniel affirmeth of the Messias or a iudgement proportionable to his wickednesse that is to be cast downe to the bottom of hell for exalting himselfe to the top of heauen Your spinning of cobwebbes about an inglorious destruction is no way sufficient for this offence except you meane destruction of body and soule in hell with the sight and shame of his folly and so if you ioine the vtter and eternall destruction of his person and his pride you agnise Sheol to be hell as I doe and haue not the witte to see that when a man is taken hence to that terrible and intolerable vengeance all worldlie things first faile him and the remembrance of his forme plenty and glory augmenteth the griefe of his present penurie and misery Els how auoide you contradiction as well to the trueth as to your selfe in your two signification of Sheol Sheol opposed to Shammaijm you say signifieth not hell the place of torments but aâ—… vast and deepe guise onely or pit in the earth the bottome where of we know not If you deriue this vast and deepe gulfe in the earth from the warrant of holy Scripture I must aske you first how many of these gulses the scripture admitteth to be in the earth next what vse there is of them The Scripture mentioneth the lower Sheol indeed so called in respect of the higher which is the graue common to the bodies of good and bad Other Sheols in the earth the Scripture knoweth none Now for whom is this lower gulfe in the earth prouided for men or for oxen and sheepe which you were placing there euen now by warrant pretended from Moses and the Psalmist but that you fouly mistooke the words of both When God openeth the earth to swallow vp men and all that belongeth to them as he did to the rebels in the wildernesse he hath roome enough in the earth to couer and close that which doth not descend to Sheol without your vast and deepe gulfe If you confesse this vast and deepe gulfe in the earth to serue for wicked men after death then come you neerer to the Scriptures but as neere to hell For Dauid saying vnto God Thou hast deliuered my soule from the lower Sheol declareth the lower Sheol to be a receptacle for the soules of such as God doth not shew mercy vnto SalomoÌ„ saith of such as haunted harlots Her guests are in the depth of Sheól Moses telleth you The sire of Gods wrath burneth to the lower Sheól In the lower Sheol then are the soules of the wicked and fire there burning for them If your vast and deepe gulfe in the earth be all one with this we know the place to be hell and the vse thereof the punishment of the wicked If it differ from this you must tell vs by the word of God wherefore it
renounceth apparantly this sense of the Creed that Christ descended to the hell of the damned Now that is nothing so they thought not good in this Article of the Creed to expresse more then was aunciently set downe for the people to beleeue but they doe not reiect as false whatsoeuer they omit of the later words of King Edwards Synod For so they should reiect this also for false that Christs body lay in the graue till his resurrection which I trust no Christian man doubteth Three things I said there were which the later Synod might conceaue to be conteined in the former that could not be iustified by the Scriptures and in that respect they might leaue out those later words not cutting of putting out or casting away as you ruffle in your termes euery thing there mentioned for so they should cast away aswell the buriall of Christs body as the presence of his soule in hell but refraining to confirme those later words both because there was somewhat amisse in them and they would not impose more on the people to beleeue then was at first comprised in their Creed as also for that they would not establish this to be the right and vndoubted sense of Peters words that Christ in soule preached to the spirits in hell You â—…arge these words of King Edwards Synod with two points which are not in them First that it saith how the spirits of the iust were in hell and that Christ descending thither staied there till his resurrection In me you would make this a great matter so to misreport the words of a Synod which indeed saith nothing hereof Were there no more but this in the words of that Synod that the preaching of Christ to the spirits in hell is set down there as the sole cause of his descent thither or that this sense of S. Peters words is imposed on all men by their authority to be beleeued either of these was reason sufficient to omit those later words of King Edwards Synod But if we rightly looke into the manner and purpose of their speach we shall easily see that I wrong them not For by those words they ment to shew the places where Christs soule and body did abide after they were seuered vntill the resurrection His body say they euen vntill the resurrection lay in the graue his soule being breathed out was vntill the same time with the spirits in prison or hell and preached to them as the place of Peter doth witnesse To say that the soule of Christ dismissed from his body was not at all in the place where the spirits of the iust were had been repugnant to Peters words in the next Chapter if we grant as they did by these words of Peter that Christ preached to the dead For there it is said The Gospell that is the glad tidings of Redemption performed was preached to the dead Which could not be to the wicked since the Gospell was not preached vnto theÌ„ but the iustnesse of their condemnation rather published vnto them Since then as they tooke S. Peters words Christ preached to both the iust and vniust and by their Article declaring where Christ abode after death no more is expressed but that Christ was with the spirits in prison and hell and preached vnto them How can it in any reasonable mans iudgement be auoided but that their words implie the iust were in prison and in hell where Christ preached Neither was this so strange a thing in those daies since many hundred yeeres before it was receaued in most mens mouths and minds that the iust deceased before Christs death were in the same place called hell with the wicked though not in the same paines and many of the Fathers directly affirme no lesse Seing then themselues in their words make no difference betwixt the iust and vniust and generally auouch that Christs soule was with the spirits in hell and preached to them by warrant of Peters words who saith The Gospell was preached to the dead What reason had I to wrest their words to any other sense then that which I saw currant in many fathers before them whose steps by the generall purport of their words they seemed to follow And how iustly might the later Synod refuse those words of theirs which were either so dangerons or so doubtfull that they might not safely be retained It is well that you renounce that of Peter by Austens direction as making not at all for any locall being of Christ in hell But yet herein your selfe openly refuseth the mind of all your Predecessors yea of our later Synode if they beleeued as you vrge they did For if they liked Christs locall being in hel they misliked not the applying of that in Peter thereunto as by Master Nowels Catechisme may appeare It is true that I refrained to bring those places of Peter because Saint Austen though he strongly hold Christs descent to hell to be a part of the Christian faith yet he perceaued and confessed these places might haue an other sense and nothing touch Christs descent to hell Your illation that if the Synode liked Christs locall being in hell they misliked not the applying of that in Peter thereunto is like the rest of your collections As if Saint Austen did not like the one and yet mislike the other Notwithstanding there is difference betwixt liking a quotation as some way pertinent to the cause and proposing the same as a part of Christian Religion for all men of necessitie to imbrace The Synode might doe the one and yet not the other and so iustly leaue out that clause of the former Synode though Peters words in their opinions might haue some such intent Neither doe I preiudice any man to like or alleadge that place of Peter for this purpose since I bind no man to my priuate exposition of the Scriptures but rather stand on those places which haue the full consent of all antiquitie to pertaine directly to this matter Yet this is no barre but many auncient Fathers did vse that place of Peter to prooue Christs descent to hell as Athanasius Cyrill Hilarie and Ambrose did though Austen did not and the Synode in her Maiesties time that is now with God might like thereof to shew that Christ amongst other things did also confirme by his presence and preaching in hell the condemnation of the wicked there though I did not cite those places because Saint Austen had otherwise expounded them For take the word Spirite for the Soule of Christ as the same word is taken in the next verse following for the Soules of men where it is said In which he went and preached to the Spirits in prison and expound the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept â—…liue or continuing in life as the Syriacke translator doth in saying Christ died in body and liued in spirit in which sense the Scripture saith A man may quicken his soule that is keepe