bend against all rules of learning Logicke Grammar and Diuinitie For I pray you in Grammar what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here vsed by the Apostle Are the parts heere noted that were crucified and raised to life or the cause from which first death was suffered and after life was recouered by our Sauiour A man would thinke that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were by or through weaknesse euen as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by or through the power of God Christ then was crucified not by the immediate hand of God but by the Iewes who could not crucifie his soule as they did his bodie If you know not who crucified Christ reade the Gospell afresh or hearken to S. Peter who sayd to the Iewes g Act. 2. Iesus of Nazaret haue ye taken by the hands of the wicked and crucified and slaine and proclaimed openly to the Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel h Act. 4. Be it knowen to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazaret whom ye haue crucified whom God raised againe from the dead by him this Creeple standeth whole before you The Iewes then i 1. Cor. 2. crucified the Lord of glorie who could not kill the soule but onely the bodie Therefore they crucified onely his bodie and other crucifiers of Christ the Scripture nameth none How come you then against all learning and trueth to collect that Christs soule was crucified k Defenc. pag. 139. li. 25. His infirmitie the text heere nameth metonimically vnderstanding in Christ that in which his infirmities were When the plaine text will not serue your turne you fasten what you list with figures to it and then by as good Logicke you change a part into the whole and conclude like a Doter in Diuinitie for you skorne all degrees as you doe all rules of Schoole that Christs soule was nailed to the crosse for that is crucifying and died as well as his body These be woonderous leapes in my small vnderstanding and such as few men but you could light on so readily In stâ—…d of the Apostles speech that Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through infirmitie or by reason of infirmitie voluntarily imbraced whiles he submitted himselfe to his Fathers will to clap in this conclusion that Christ was crucified and died as well in soule as in body Had you liued in former ages what heresies could not you haue deduced from the text it selfe if not by Grammaticall or Logicall inference yet by metonymicall and metaphoricall excurrence Sampsons riddle was out of the strong came sweetnesse and we may say out of the weake commeth bitternesse l Defenc. pag. 139. li. 37. Other reasons also I noted seruing well heereunto but I omit to rehearse them againe For it seemeth your selfe agreeth with vs in them holding expresly that the spirit heere in Peter is the Deitie of Christ according to Austins iudgement Now this being granted and acknowledged how can it be likely but that the other opposite part of the flesh must needes import his whole and entire Manhood m Pag. 140. li. 11. Now this being so then it followeth by the text that Christ in his Passion was done to death both in soule and body Your other reasons tended after your maner to shew that spirit in Peters words did not signifie the soule of Christ to which I said nothing because I therein agreed with you Where then you conclude ouer-hastily that therefore it signifieth the Deitie of the second person in Trinitie the text enforceth no such thing as that the second person in Trinitie did in the daies of Noe preach by his owne Godhead and not by his spirit n Gene. 6. The Lorde said my spirit shall not alway strine with man his daies shall be 120. yeeres Which whether we take to be the wordes of the Father or the Sonne by the spirit there is ment the holy Ghost which proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne and is called the spirit of them both and did by the tongue of Noe the Preacher of righteousnesse witnesse the iudgement of God to come by the floud vpon the wicked and disobedient world By this power of his which is his spirit God quickned the humane flesh of Christ when it was crucified and dead in the graue and by the same spirit shall he restore and quicken all the bodies of the faithfull after they be turned to dust And although I haue no doubt but the workes of the Trinitie towards all creatures are vndeuided and the power of the Father is the power of the Sonne yet when the Scriptures doe testifie that Christes humane flesh was quickned by the spirit we must vnderstand the holy Ghost God the Father raising his Sonne and the Sonne raising himselfe by the spirit of sanctification which is the power of the Father and of the Sonne So speaketh the Apostle to the Romanes o Rom. 1. Christ made of the seede of Dauid as touching the flesh and declared to be the Sonne of God with power through the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection from the dead Where his flesh made of the seede of Dauid prooueth him to be a true man and the mightie declaration of him to be the Sonne of God sheweth his Diuine nature and glorie which most appeared by the woonderfull works and gifts of the spirit of sanctification powred out on all his after he was once riâ—…en from the dead Least you thinke this my deuice to defeate your obseruation heare what the learned and auncient Fathers say thereof Chrysostome vpon those wordes of Paule Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God with power through the spirit of sanctification p Chrysoâ—…t in epistolam ad Romanos ho-â—…l 1. The fourth argument of Christs Diuinitie is drawen saith he from the spirit which he gaue to those that beleeued in him and by which he sanctified them all Wherefore Paule saith through the spirit of sanctification For onely God was able to giue those kindes of giftes Ierom. Through the spirit of sanctification Paul q Hieron in ca. 1. epistola ad Romanos noteth heere the holie Ghost the Creator Ambrose Paul r Ambros inca primum 〈◊〉 ad Romanos calling Christ the Sonne of God sheweth God to be his father and adding the spirit of sanctification noteth the mistery of the Trinity Augustine that Paul saith s August in expositio inchoata epistolae ad Rom. Through the spirit of sanctification he meaneth because they receaued the gift of the spirit after Christs resurrection Theodoret the Apostle heere teacheth t Theodoretus in ca. 1. epist. ad Rom. that he who was called the Sonne of Dauid according to the flesh was declared to be the sonne of God by the power which was shewed from the holy Ghost after our Lord Iesus was risen from the dead Oecumenius u Oecumenius in
ca. 1. epist. ad Rom. through the spirit of sanctification He meaneth by the holy Ghost which Christ gaue to the beleeuers in him Theodulus x Theodulus in cap. 1. 〈◊〉 ad Romanos through the spirit of sanctification that is by the holy spirit which Christ gaue to those that beleeued in him Theophylactus y Theophylact. in ca. 1. epist. ad Romanos by the spirit of sanctification that is by the spirit with which he maketh the beleeuers holy Haymo z Haymo in ca. 1. epistolae ad Romanos the spirit of sanctification is heere taken for the holy Ghost who giueth sanctity to men and Angels who also fashioned quickened and sanctified Christs manhood in the Virgins womb of the seed of the Virgin without the seed of man The new writers with one consent as Erasmus Zuinglius Peter Martyr Bullinger Musculus Gualter Hemmingius Aretius and Caluine himselfe follow the same interpretation so that your obseruation against and after all their iudgements is misbegotte and borne out of time and brought in of purpose to paue the way for your new found fansies which haue no ground but in your new made notes as much crossing probabilitie as authoritie Yea the obseruation wrongeth the distinction of the persons in the most blessed Trinitie and dishonoreth rather the Deitie of the Sonne of God then aduanceth it whiles the Sonne of God and the spirit of holinesse being both expresly named you take them both for one person and make the Sonne of God in his diuine nature to be lesse then the possessor or giuer of life and righteousnesse eueu a receauer of both For in all these places where you say the name of spirit is vsed to signifie Christs Godhead the power and worke of the holy Ghost is there intended and expressed as that Christ was a Rom. 1. declared to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification and was b 1. Tim. 3. God manifested in the flesh iustified by the spirit as also c 1. Pet. 3. mortified in the flesh but quickned by the spirit The spirit of sanctification is the title of the holy Ghost sanctifying as well the Manhood of Christ as his members and the giuing thereof declareth the Sonne to be true God whose spirit this is as well as the Fathers and by whom the Sonne worketh as well as the Father And where it is written that Christ was Iustified and quickned by the spirit if there you reade in the spirit meaning in the Deitie of Christ then Christes Godhead receaued life and righteousnesse which by your leaue is a speech ne allowed ne frequented in the Scriptures For though the second person in Trinitie by his internall and eternall generation receaued all that he hath from the Father who begat him yet of this generation which is secret substantiall and eternall the Apostles speake not when they say Christ was quickned and iustified but the one sheweth that Christes body which was put to death was raised againe to life by the power of his spirit the other noteth that he was God manifested in the flesh and iustified that is prooued and confirmed so to be by the mightie workes and graces of Gods spirit shewed as well in his owne person as in all his members For that is the intent of the Apostles wordes not that his diuine glorie was onely praised or acknowledged of men but that the world beleeued the Angels admired the spirit iustified that is most mightily and cleerely witnessed him to be God manifested in the flesh Then hath your obseruation his full discharge since there is no one place where these wordes the spirit and flesh are applied to Christ to note his two natures though his Godhead be testified and plainely prooued in most of the same places by more pregnant wordes then spirit which is common to Angels soules and windes and onely sheweth that it is no palpable or sensible body where the name of spirit alone in the Scriptures standing for the third person in Trinity noteth the power and grace of the holy Ghost by which these things were wrought for Christs manhood And in that place of Peter on which you most depend if you follow the Syriac translation to which your owne adherents so often appeale the Apostles words are Christ was dead in body but liuâ—…d in spirit which conuinceth first that flesh is there taken for the body of Christ contrary to your obseruation and that Christ still liued in spirit which euerteth your maine conclusion intended from this place for the death of Christs soule But were it as you suppose that flesh and spirit were ascribed to Christ to declare his two natures the one to be corporall and humane the other to be spirituall and diuine how doth it follow that euery thing affirmed of his manhood must properly agree both to body and soule by what Logicke conclude you that you may as well auouch that Christs soule is truely corporall or carnall because it is comprised vnder the name of flesh as that other attributes of the body are verified in the soule Which if you thinke absurd though the name of flesh by a figure of speach import the whole man because the Scripture speaketh not of a dead but of a liuing man then is there lesse cause that ech action or passion affirmed of the flesh should exactly or properly be referred to the soule since the common vse of speach intending the whole by a part is figuratiue and in figuratiue speaches as where the soule or the flesh are taken for the whole man the attributes cannot be properly restrained to ech part no more then the names are And euen out of those places by which you would collect death to be common to the body and soule of Christ the auncient fathers conclude death to be proper to the body of Christ and not common to the soule as Austin out of Saint Peter d August 〈◊〉 99. Quid est enim quòd viuificatus est spiritu nisi quâ—…d eadem caro qua sola fuer at mortificat us viuificante spiritu resurrexit What other meaning hath this that Christ was quickned by the spirit but that the same flesh in which onely he was put to death rose againe by the quickning of the spirit And Cyrill e Cyrill de recta fide ad 〈◊〉 li. 2. Was it not a worke of infirmitie to endure the crosse I confesse saith Paul hee was weake in the flesh but he reuiued againe by the power of God And how was he weake by suffering his owne bodie to taste death for vs and restoring to life againe that very temple of his bodie not doing this by the weakenessc of his flesh but by the power of God Christ f Ibidâ—…m died for vs not as a man like one of vs but as a God in flesh giuing his owne bodie a ransome for the life of all Wherefore his Disciple Peter saith wisely and warily that
prepared which were requisite to offer the sacrifice for our sinnes behold the Priest with his sacrifice Christ with his body the body I say of him that was God who through voluntary obedience to his Father and most ardent loue to vs offered himselfe to God for a most sweet smell And where did he offer himselfe on the altar of the Crosse he suffered and died and that on the crosse k Ibidem Patitur in anima summam tristitiam timorem ignominiam in corpore summos dolores in singulis membris atrocissima flagella l Ibidem In ligno moritur vt mors per lignum ingressa in mundum per lignum tolleretur è mundo He suffered in soule most exceeding heauinesse feare and shame In his bodie most bitter paines in euerie member most grieuous scourges On the tree he died that as death came into the world by a tree so it might be taken out of the world by a tree m Idem in ca. 1. ad Ephes. v. 7. To that point how we are redeemed the Apostle saith by his bloud that is by 〈◊〉 sacrifice which consisted of the offering of his body deliuered to death and his bloud shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuit proprius modus this was the proper manner or onely way how we must be redeemed from the captiuitie of sinne and death This n Ibidem sacrifice which is often signified by the name of Christeâ—… bloud alone is that price of which the Prophets before and after the Apostles say we were redeemed by it For o Ibidem we are redeemed and haue remission of sinnes in Christ by his onely bloud p Idem de tribus 〈◊〉 1. cap. 5. test 9. This is euen he who by the onely sacrifice of his bodie should effectually clense the sinnes of the world And so againe The Apostle q Idem in ca. 1. ep ad Coloss. vers 22. expresseth the materiall cause of our reconciliation or the thing wherewith the Father reconciled vs to himselfe to 〈◊〉 by the oblation of the true and humane body of Christ deliuered to death for our sinnes This he meaneth when he saith in the body of his flesh through death For this body which was truely flesh and an humane body not simply but as it died is the matter of our reconciliation by that was reconciliation made He r Ibidem ioineth the body with bloud because both are the price of our reconciliation and by both were our sinnes clensed The Apostle then s Ibidem signifieth reconciliation was by the oblation of the body of Christ as by the true sacrifice sor sinne Zanchius speaketh not precisely you will say against the death of Christes soule In plainely and fully deliuering the matter and meane of our redemption to be the ONELY SACRIFICE of the body and bloud of Christ offered on the crosse to death he excludeth all other ransomes for our sins so maketh the death of Christs soule not onely to be superfluous to mans saluation but no meane of our redemption For in his iudgement t Zanchius de tribus Elohim part 1. li. 5. ca. 1 〈◊〉 10. Christ is the propitiatorie sacrifice for sinne not simply but as he died for vs with the shedding of his bloud and u Ibidem this ONELY SACRIFICE the shedding of Christes bloud vnto death God chose from euerlasting for the expiation of our sinnes and promised the same from the creation of the world and shadowed it with resemblances And touching the death of the soule if you teach as Zanchius doth you will presently finde it is open blasphemie to ascribe to Christ any death of the soule x Zanchâ—… tractat theologicâ—… de peccato originali ca. 4. thes 3 A triple death saith he God threatned to Adam for disobedience a spirituall death which was the separation of grace of the holy Ghost and of originall righteousnesse from the soule and body of Adam of which death in the Scriptures there is often mention made This death Adam died as soone as he did eate The second was a corporall death whereby the soule is seuered from the bodie To this Adam was presently vpon his eating made subiect though he did not straightwayes actually die The third is euerlasting death which is knowen to all of this death Adam was forthwith made guiltie This triple death was the punishment of his disobedience And vpon like occasion comparing the death of the soule and of the bodie he saith y Ibidem in ca. 2. epist. ad ephes vers 5. There is a triple death spirituall of the spirit or soule corporall knowen to all men and the third is that eternall death pertaining to bodie and soule wherewith all the wicked shall be punished in hell These all God threatned to Adam when he said what hower soeuer thou shalt eate c. thou shalt die the death For he straightway died in spirit or soule he incurred also the death of the bodie because he became mortall and was made guiltie of eternall death z Ibid. We haue rightly said death to bee the priuation of life and so of all the actions of life consisting in the separation of bodie and soule The like we must say of the spirituall life and death The spirituall life is a certaine spirituall and diuine force whereby we are mooued to spirituall and diuine actions by the presence of the holy Ghost dwelling in vs. The holy Ghost regenerating vs in this spirituall life is as it were the soule thereof And holy and spirituall thoughts holy desires holy actions both inward and outward are the operations of this spirituall life What then is the death of the spirit euen the priuation of the spirituall life and consequently of all spirituall and good actions in a man destitute of the presence of the holy Ghost which should quicken him comming from sinne and for sinne a Ibidem What strength hath a man dead in bodie to the actions of this life so neither can he that is dead in spirit or soule do any workes of the spirituall life Heere is a full and true description of the death of the spirit or soule of man which if you and your friends dare attribute to Christ then doth Zanchius fauour the death of Christs soule but if euery peece hereof applied to Christ be euident heresie and infidelitie then did Zanchius no way defend the death of Christes soule to be any part of our redemption and as for the second death he acknowledgeth none but that which is eternall and inflicted in hell on all the wicked Much more might be brought to like effect shewing the true and onely meane and matter of our redemption and reconciliation to be the only body and bloud of Christ yeelded vnto death for the ransome of our sinnes but I should make a new volume if I should stand thereon It may suffice in the iudgement of any reasonable man to refute the slaunderous
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
it is which the Scripture so calleth were not coherent with that incorruption which they shall haue there The one is not the other but the one is so consequent to the other that without holines in earth no man shall euer enioy happinesse in heauen And to both doth the imitation of Christ and signification of fire in the holocaust direct vs. Comming to the next reason you reprooued me for saying Sacraments are earthly Elements they can not set out the spirituall and â—…uisible effects in Christ. There was iust cause I should tell you that this your asseâ—…tion did mainly crosse the very nature and definition of a Sacrament For Sacraments are visible signes of inuisible graces that is of the spirituall effects of Christs power and grace abiding in him and yet working in vs. Wherein did I wrong you you ment they vsually represent not spirituall and inâ—…sible effects or acts in Christ him selfe but onely the externall and visible parts of his passion The two Sacraments of the new Testament Baptisme and the Lords Supper doe they represent onely the externall and visible parts of Christs passion Doth Baptisme shew no more in Christ but that actuall and substantiall water ranne out of his side after he was dead Is this the whole signification and repâ—…esentation that baptisme offereth vnto vs Surely you must leaue Catechising and learne to be catechised if this be all your skill in Sacraments The bread and wine on the Lords table besides the reference which they haue to the body of Christ broken and his blood shed doe they not plainly shew the flesh of Christ is meate and his blood drinke nourishing our soules to euerlasting life as the elements support and maintaine the life of the body Water in Baptisme doth it not declare the power of Christs death washing our soules and of his spirit renuing our minds These you say are spirituall effects wrought in vs not in Christ. Power to clense quicken nourish and strengthen to eternall life is that Christs or ours We indeede are the persons that are clensed quickened nourished and strengthened but the force and grace working these things in vs is Christs and not ours We receiue it as flowing from the fountaine but it naturally springeth in him and from thence is deriued to vs. The Sacraments then teach vs that the fulnesse of power and grace dwelleth in Christ really and truely which he is content shall worke in vs but neuer leaue him The water washing the bread nourishing the wine comforting note no power in vs to do any of these things it is euident impietie so to thinke or say onely they assure vs that as Christ the true owner of all these things by his obedience vnto death was made the onely disposer of them so he will performe the couenant with vs which the Sacraments doe seale vnto vs and that is the couenant of mercie and grace in this life and of glorie in the next which the Sacraments could not seale except they did signifie those gifts and effects to be actiuely and originally in the giuer as they are passiuely in the Receiuers VSVALLY Sacraments doe not represent spirituall effects or actes in Christ. When text and trueth faile you your fashion is to flie to phrases and so still to say somewhat though it want both learning and vnderstanding For example Sacraments you say doe not VSVALLY represent spirituall effects or acts in Christ. Did you speake of nature which often faileth or of men who change their minds vsuall and vnusuall might serue for some purpose but what is this to Sacraments they constantly and continually keepe the same order in their significations and representations so that vsuall and vnusuall in them are all one The nature of the Element is still the same the action prescribed may not be varied the promise annexed neuer faileth on Gods part So that what any Sacrament once resembleth or signifieth it alwayes expresseth and obserueth the same Will you diuert your wordes to diuers Sacraments and make that vsuall to one which is vnusuall to another This which you vsually exclude from Sacraments is common to both the Sacraments of the New Testament of which we reason and being common to them both as I haue shewed to signifie spirituall effects or acts in Christ himselfe with what trueth say you now THEY do it not vsually speaking of both whereas both do it apparently and perpetually It is your selfe indeede that denieth the very definition of a Sacrament for your maine assertion is that neither the Iewish sacrifices nor Christian Sacraments doe signifie any more then the bodily and bloâ—…dy death of Christ which I hope was a visible and no â—…uisible thing Your Reader will shortly take you so often tardie with foule-lies that hee will skant beleeue you when you speake a trueth Is it any position of mine that the Iewish sacrifices and Christian Sacraments doe not signifie any more then the bodily and bloudie death of Christ Indeede I afâ—…irmed they signified none other death of Christ but only that which was bodily and bloudie which I gâ—…ant was visible but as for other effects of Christs power grace by which we are grafted into Christ and quickâ—…ed and nourished vnto life euerlasting Ireferred them to the Sacraments of the new Testament as vnto Seales confirming the couenant of mercie grace and glorie made to vs by the death of Christ in the same words that I now speake it And so conclude of them as I doe now These propose vnto vs no inuisible paines of hell but the body of Christ wounded and his bloud shed for the remitting of our sinnes and vniting vs vnto Christ. Therefore your turning no inuisible paines of hell which are my words into no more then a bodily death which are yours and vnder pretence of those words excluding from the Sacraments all other significations and representations of Christs inuisible power and grace proposed by them sheweth your accustomed vain of misconstering and altering my words when you cannot otherwise impugne them You make me to crosse the institution of the Lords table because I said the Ceremonie of breaking the bread cannot properly belong to Christs body But euen here doe I not expressely say that it sheweth forth how Christs body was broken for vs Where by Christs institution the bread was BROKEN to note vnto vs the breaking of his body for our sinnes and Paul expresseth that similitude of the bread broken to Christes body in saying The bread which wee breake is it not the communion of the body of Christ and to verifie that resemblance reporteth the words of Christs institution in effect to be these This is my body which is broken for you you to make a siely shew that the Sacraments declare Christs suffering of Hell paines auouch that the. breaking of the bread cannot properly belong to the body but to the soule and to the body by Sympathie
We inherite pollution by Adams flesh before our Soules come to our bodies and that sufficeth for my reason though the pollution which we inherite be deriued as well from the Soules as from the Bodies of our Parents because their bodies when they begat vs were ioyned with their Soules whose naturall and animall faculties were still in them wholy corrupted and their sinnes communicated vnto their bodies though their spirits were renued and sanctified The very Seed of which we were begotten and conceaued was an vncleane thing as Iob calleth it when he saith Who can make a cleane thing of an vncleane and corruptible that is full of Corruption as Peter nameth it when he saith borne againe not of corruptible Seed of which we were borne by our Parents The corruption of sinne then is first deriued by our Bodies though our Soules be likewise wrapped in the same pollution and condemnation that our bodies are and sinne still abideth and rebelleth in our flesh so long as we liue though our Soules be washed and clensed from sinne And therefore the Apostle calleth our flesh the flesh of sinne in the similitude of which Christ was sent and confessed that in his flesh dwelt no good thing assuring vs that though Christ be in vs the body is dead because of sinne when the Spirit is life or liueth because of righteousnesse Neither is this newes to Zanchius whom you cite in your Treatise as if he fauoured your error Quod attinet ad contagium illud certe citra controuersiam in corpore primum inest deinde per corpus in animam deriuatur Iob docet aperte cap. 14. Quis potest facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine Quid autem proprie de immundo concipitur semine Caro. As for the contagion of originall sinne that is surely without Question first in the body and after by the body is deriued into the Soule Iob teacheth vs plainly in his fourteenth Chapter Who can make one cleane conceaued of vncleane Seede Now what is properly conceaued of vncleane Seede Flesh. If any man list to read more I remit him to that place of Zanchius least I should be ouerlong or else to Peter Martyr where he largely treateth thereof against Pigghius The common receaued Opinion is saith he that the Soule draweth originall sinne by her coniunction with the body which is infected and vitiated from our Parents Wherefore if any aske what is the seate or subiect thereof as they vse to speake We answere that originall sinne hath place in the flesh as in the roote and beginning thereof afterward from that fountaine it occupieth the Soule and so is extended through the whole man Idcirco semen est instrumentum quo hoc peccatum ex parentibus traducitur in filios Therefore the Seede of man is the instrument whereby this sinne is traduced from the Parents to the children And least he should seeme to rest himselfe on the receaued opinion onely not long after he addeth Now reasons are to be brought which may firmely and soundly prooue that originall sinne is propagated in men by Seede and generation And that we will therefore shew out of the Scriptures because many reclaime and thinke this whole matter to be a fiction With one breath you ouerthrow your selfe For you say we haue pollution before the soule commeth whence soeuer it commeth Yea whence soeuer What if the soule doe come in and by generation you see how you crosse your selfe To that peruerse and false supposition of yours that the soule of man commeth in and by generation which now you cleaue so fast vnto for an aduantage I neuer gaue any allowance or forbearance Looke to my words as narrowly as you can I say the minor proposition of my reason is cleere without intermedling with the question whence not when the soule commeth I there resolue that the soule is the life of the bodie not of seede nor of blood as you grossely would wrest my speech and therfore before life come the soule which bringeth life commeth not to the bodie Then if pollution cleaue to the flesh before life come as Ambrose teacheth and consequently before the soule come which commeth not before the bodie is made as I auouch whence soeuer it commeth it is euident that Adams flesh defileth and so condemneth vs before the soule come You in the abundance of your wit take whence soeuer to be as much as when soeuer and so by your misconceiuing you would fasten a contradiction to my words But coaxe not your selfe with such contrarieties grounded vpon your owne most ignorant mistaking I made no question of the time when but of the roote whence the soule commeth I learned by Leo that the Catholike faith did truely and constantly teach that the soules of men were not before they were inspired into their bodies and consequently the bodie must first be framed before the soule can be inspired And the contrarie conceite which you now take holde on is a manifest repugnancie to the Church and faith of Christ. I saw that inconuenience which you see not when you pronounce sinne is not in our flesh without a soule that is neither before nor after the soule For if the soule of man arise in and BY GENERATION and that can be no man which neuer had mans bodie what kind of creatures I pray you call you those abortions and scapes that passe from their mothers when they are yet but seede or blood before the body be framed Soules they haue in and by generation as you now suppose bodies they haue none that be humane Men therefore they be not for want of bodies other kinds they are not seeing they haue soules what name then will you giue to these vnfashioned births hauing reasonable and immortall spirits as you imagine or what place will you assigne them after this life We all must appeare before the Tribunall of Christ euery one to receiue things done in or by his bodie They haue nothing to receiue for any thing done in or by their bodies which they neuer had neither can they expect the resurrection of the bodie which pertaineth not to them It is sowen saith the Apostle a naturall body it is raised a spirituall bodie These haue no naturall bodies of men and so shall neuer rise with spirituall and glorified bodies yea they haue no part in Christs resurrection which was corporall since they do not communicate with him in their bodies which may be conformed to his glorious bodie You must then deuise some new name and some new place for those new creatures of yours which hauing no bodies of men can not by the Scriptures looke either for the resurrection or for the saluation promised to men You doe not auouch it you will say you did but obiect it Your most euident truth as you call it that sinne cannot be found being in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting
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
the greatest of his passion then was he freest from all confusion and so your hell paines by your leaue were not the cause of Christes astonishment if any such thing were in him m Defenc. pag. 133. li. 16. I confesse his extreame astonishment did euer quickly passe from him yet the sense aud tast of that cup might continue longer in such a manner and measure as he was better able by his deitie to sustaine it Now what ill is there in these conceits I pray you what follie is there in them As much as may be For when you haue sought heauen and earth sea and land to bring Christs soule within the compasse of your hell-paines and therewith to astonish and confound all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie suddainely with the speaking of yet you free him from it and still returne and remooue it as often as you list And when you are vrged that hell paines continuing and increasiing on the crosse by your doctrine there was no manner of astonishment or confusion in Christs reason or remembrance you say the tast of the cup might continue So that when the paines were lesse then Christ did drinke the cup and when they were greatest then he did but tast the cup. Thus play you the Tapster with Christs torments and set vp the rest of your cause on this absurd conceit of Drinking and tasting the cup which is not only dissonant from all trueth but repugnant to all sense For if your hell paines were the true cause of Christs astonishment then the cause continuing the effect could not cease and the cause increasing the effect could not diminish Where you fly for help to Christs deity the better to enable him to sustaine the paines of the damned without astonishment you forget that if Christ would haue vsed any diuine power to resist or represse his paine he might easily haue suffered none And weake you make Christs godhead if vsing it to that end he could not saue himselfe from confusion and forgetfullnesse as also you put a conflict betwixt the Father and the Sonne if he could not enable his manhood against astonishment as well at one time as at another Therefore this abusing Gods immediate hand to take memory from Christ when you list and thus pretending Christs deity to keep him in the paines of hell and yet to free him from forgetfulnesse shew right on what foundation you bâ—…ild the whole plat of your doctrine euen on your owne fansies without all direction or instruction from the sacred Scriptures which haue not one word more or lesse touching these deuices of yours in so waighty causes of our redemption n Defenc. pag. 134. li. 1. How you seeme to auouch that Christ was by God for saken in body but not in soule leâ—… them declare that can I am sure no man can in trueth maintaine it It is more easily maintained then refuted To be forsaken is to be depriued of all sense and fruition of the power and life that is in God and commeth from God Thus Christs body was forsaken for the time left to death which is contrary to life wherewith God quickned man heere on earth But the soule of Christ was neuer forsaken of hiâ—… life which was the grace and spirit of God whereby the soule is quickened As for wresting Ambroâ—…e as I did Hilarie shew first wherein and then spare not to speake it Otherwise your censure hath so much partiality and so little probability that your Reader after so many failes will not now depend on your single say o Defenc. pag. 134. li. 5. After this you are bold and aske if any dare doubt of your doctrine yea surely I darâ—… not but doubt of it What dare you not doe who dare deuice a new faith without all precedence of the holy Scriptures and take vpon you to guide and rule Gods immediat hand as seemeth best to your liking In our conformity to Christs sufferings I obserued two things out of the word of God one that we haue fellowship with Christs afflictions and follow his steps the other that we must reioice in communicating with his sufferings Neither of which can generally and iustly be verified of your hellish confusion and torments For must we be all confounded in all the powers of our soules and senses of our bodies and must we forget Gods knowen will through astonishment and pray against it before we can follow Christs steps this must be your doctrine as also that we must reioice in this shrincking from the will of God and praying against it because the holy Ghost willeth vs to reioice when we communicate with Christs sufferings p 〈◊〉 li. 15. Some are conformable in some measure with Christ euen in these his sufferings Not only some may but all must be conformed to Christ their head to suffer with him before they shall raigne with him So that as Christ said to Iames and Iohn q Matth. 20. Ye shall drinke indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with So he performeth to all true beleeuers Whosoeuer saith he r Luke 14. beareth not his crosse and commeth after me cannot be my Disciple And where to my allegation that we must reioice in the fellowship of Christs afflictions you answeare s Defenc. pag. 134. li. 17. We ought to turne them to ioy and gladnesse though not properly to be glad in them This is but an euasion I commend not affliction because it is greeuous to nature but for the vse and reward thereof and partaking therein with Christ. And if we are therein to reioyce as you now confesse t li. 22. euen when we are most bruized pierced in our soules with the terrors of God Then I hope our Sauiour Christ in the midst of all his sufferings had the same ioy which we must haue and consequently I had reason and trueth on my side when I said u Pag. 132. li. 36. Christ on the Crosse had alwaies persistance in ioy which you then impugned and now doe grant against your will And if your credit were ought worth I say not in this so much as you doe For you ascribe to Christ on the crosse x Pag. 110. li. 28. 34. constant and continuall ioy in God yea exceeding and generall ioy and yet you thinke it much that I should affirme that the Scriptures attribute to Christ persistance of ioy on the crosse how bitter or greeuous soeuer the shame and paine thereof were vnto his flesh y Defenc. pag. 134. li. 24. You frame an obiection to your selfe which you neither doe nor can answere Christs soule might feele the torments of hell for the time without any distrust or doubting of his saluation or our redemption I answered you which you shall neuer auoid first that the true paines of hell by the sacred Scriptures are not temporall but eternall You tell vs you haue shewed
world the death of the bodie that hence both body and soule might be haled to hell though first the soule and after the bodie when at the last day it shall rise from the corruption of the graue to euerlasting destruction To thinke that Christ submitted himselfe to all these sorts of death corporall spirituall and eternall is most hellish blasphemie for so he should not haue redeemed vs but destroyed himselfe bodie and soule foreuer To say that Christ deliuered vs not from all these lincks of death from spirituall death whiles here we liue from eternall death after this life and at the generall resurrection from the power of the graue where our bodies rot in the meane time is heathenish impietie and heresie denying the whole force and fruit of our redemption by Christ. Since then he cleered vs from all and yet suffered not all sorts of death it is manifest which is the Apostles meaning in the wordes by you cited that by one kind of death which in Christ was corporall he freed vs from all power of death heere and heereafter in bodie and soule not preseruing our bodies that they should not turne to dust but restoring them after death which is the farre more marueilous and mightie worke of God And this is euery where so plainly witnessed in the Scriptures and plentifully confessed by the learned and auncient fathers that none but he that is blinder then a bat would professe he seeth no such thing Christ g Matth 20. gaue his life a ransome for many and h Coloss. 2. by the bloud of his crosse pacified things in heauen and in earth i Hebr. 9. By the sacrifice of his bodie once made we are sanctified and k 1. Peter 1. healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree If then the bloud of Christ clense vs from all sinne by which the diuell and death had power ouer vs It is most certaine that Christ abolished sinne and Satan by suffering his bloud to be shed vnto death for the remission of sinnes raising himself that is the Temple of his bodie from death into a glorious and blessed life by which the power and kingdome of Satan were vtterly ouerthrowen l Defenc. pag. 137. li. 15. Against this you haue no reason at all but wordes and wrestings and vaine oftentation of Fathers none of them all denying our sense The reason of all reasons is against it which is that no man nor Angell may adde or alter any thing in the Christian faith without the sure warrant of the sacred Scriptures m Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is reason enough for me and for all â—…he faithfull that there is no such thing deliuered in the word of God You talke of words and wrestings as knowing them best and vsing them most and herein I am content to stand to the iudgement of the wise and indifferent Reader whether you haue brought ought yet for the death of Christes soule or his suffering the second death but your owne speaches and surmises abusing the wordes of the holy Ghost to your owne fansies without either cause or colour And touching the vaine ostentation of Fathers who as you vaunt deny not your sense I brought ancient learned writers not ignorant of the Christian faith as being the pillars of their times that with great perspicuitie and vehemence denied as I doe the death of Christs soule and affirmed with me the death which Christ suffered in the body of his flesh to be a most sufficient ransome for the sinnes of the whole world Augustins words were n August epist. 99. The same flesh in which only Christ died rose againe by the quickning of the spirit For that Christ was dead in soule that is in his humane spirit who dare 〈◊〉 since the death of the soule in this life is none else but sinne from which he was altogether free This you say denieth not your sense and why because you auouch the death of Christs soule which Austen asketh who dare auouch to say that Christ suffered the death of the soule is with Austen an impudent and wicked presumption and no part of the Christian faith or of mans redemption Austen by the death of the soule ment sinne you will say which you meane not You say by your leaue that Christ o Trea. pa. 42. li. 20. became defiled and hatefull to God by our sinnes And so if pollution of sinne be the death of the soule that kind of death you ascribe to Christ though not for his owne sinnes yet for ours then made his no lesse by guilt then by punishment as you teach directly against the assertion of Saint Austen who saith p August contra Faâ—…stum li. 14. ca. 4. Christ tooke our punishment without our guilt that thereby he might release our guilt and end our punishment But you vnderstand not Austen when he saith there is no death of the soule here but sinne he doth not thence exclude the consequents and adherents to sinne in this life but noteth that onely sinne doth kill the soule because it doth separate vs from God who is the life of the soule and the light and grace of God departing from the soule by sinne the soule dieth that is looseth all her sense of God and motion to God by which she liueth vnto God This with Austen and this indeede by the word of God is the death of the soule which if you attribute to Christ you incurre open and exquisite infidelitie For your meaning therefore it maketh no great matter if you will offer to correct our Creede you must speake as the Scriptures speake and not deliuer â—…s your priuate dreames for the publike doctrine of Christs Church With like neglect you skip the rest auouched by Saint Austen that Christ died onely in his flesh which rose againe by the quickning of the spirit Wherein least you should vse your accustomed euasion that the flesh of Christ compriseth as well his soule as his bodie Saint Austen hath wisely preuented you in saying the same flesh onely died Which rose againe Where if your learning serue you to say that Christes soule rose againe the third day you shall make vs a new resurrection of soules after this life as the Scripture doth of bodies which were a meete deuice for such a diuine as you are How beit Saint Austen naming Christs soule a part from his flesh and affirming of Christs soule that no man in his right wits dare auouch Christs soule died but onely that flesh which rose againe it is as cleere as mans speech may be that he vtterly refuseth the death of Christs soule as an irreligious and vnchristian position and directly teacheth this as a ground confessed in Christian religion that Christ died in his bodie alone which rose againe the third day and not in his soule which no Christian man durst auouch was euer dead Of
you l Treâ—… pa. 78. li. 〈◊〉 butted both these as absurd and most false that Christ was made aliue either in his humane soule or by the same I replied that you refuted your owne position Foâ—… if in the former words of Peter his meaning were to say that Christes soule and bodie as you conceaue him were done to death then of necessitie Christ must be quickned and restored to life as well in his humane Soule as in his Bodie And this is so farre from being absurd and false as you proclaimed it that it is openly blasphemous otherwise to saie or thinke that Christ was neuer made aliue in his humane soule if once it were dead as you collected out of Peters words What course now take you to colour these incongruities You ment it was absurd to say that Christes soule was quickned as was his bodie Of the maner of death you speake there not a word but onely seeke to prooue that spirit in that place can not be taken for Christes soule because it is most absurd and false as you say that Christ was made aliue in his humane soule How you will iangle or iuggle touching your intent is not to this purpose you must answere for the sense which you would patch to Peters words The death which Christ suffered in his flesh by Peters assertion was it the death of the body alone or of both body and soule if of the body only then is your commentane which corrupteth Peters words absurd false and wicked Did Peter intend to teach that Christ died in both parts of his manhood that is in soule as well as in bodie then is it a necessarie trueth and point of piety to confesse and affirme that Chist was made aliue in his humane soule which you say is absurd and false Which way will your wisedome winde out of this grinne you ment it is absurd for the soule to be quickened as the body is You ment as best serued your turne but what ment Peter if he affirmed the soule of Christ died as you interprete him must not his words auouch that Christes soule was made aliue except you resolue that Christs soule once dead was neuer quickned againe and though you set a bold face on these contradictions and say you are farre from them yet ech meane Reader may soone perceaue how farre you were ouershot in them though heere you would outface them And where you now say that in such a sense you doe not denie but Christ may be said to be quickned in the spirit what is this but to grant that now which before you called absurd and most false m Dâ—…c pag. 140. li. 37. I hope it is cleere to reasonable men that Christes soule according to the Scriptures phrase may be said in some sort to haue tasted suffered death that is the extreamest feelings of Gods wrath for sinne and the most vehement paines of the damned but in a singuler maner and extraordinarie vvay And to the same reasonable men I referre it whether you haue brought one word or syllable out of holy Scripture concluding that Christ died the death of the soule or the second death The Scripture phrase you haue peruerted and distorted to your meaning but the words are farre from inferring any such thing euen in the iudgement of the meanest Your mittigations In some sort in a singular manner and extraordinarie way What argue they but your wresting of the Scriptures from their right sense since no such thing is there affirmed yea the death of the soule and the second death in the Scriptures are such as you dare not auouch of Christ but with these limitations which are no where mentioned in the Scriptures but are houels to shroud your absurd and false doctrine from the tempest of the word of God conuincing you of impiety and heresie if you did not thus delude the force of them But in vaine doe you seeke for these vnsound refuges when you be once driuen from your footing in the word of God For you must not only prooue by the Scriptures which you neither haue done nor can doe that Christ suffered the death of the soule and the second death as you say he did but you must shew also where these exceptions are written of Christ otherwise they are but shifts declining the maine and generall trueth of the Scriptures touching the death of the soule and the second death which can no more agree to Christ then sinne and damnation which you may as well defend IN A SORT in a singular manner and extraordinary way to be found in Christ as the other And therefore dally not with the word of God and faith of Christ your singular manner will not saue you from abusing the one and defacing the other except you can shew where your assertion as well as your exceptions be written in the booke of God As for the most vehement paines of the damned when you take the paines to prooue any thing otherwise then by the meale of your owne mouth you shal be answered The paines of the damned expressed in the Scriptures are reiection confusion worme of conscience and torment of hell fire which if by your cunning conueyance you cast vppon the soule of Christ you shall cough me a singular and extraordinary miscreant n Defenc. pag. 141. li. 6. Now besides the matter you gird at me in diuers places as where I say the death of the soule is such paines and sufferings of Gods wrath as alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God This geere deserued more then girding other men vse to blush at such falsehoods but shamefastnesse and you are parted When you had thus grossely thwarted the trueth as to say that the paines of Gods wrath which here you make the most o Treatis pag. 77. li. 5. vehement paines of the damned doe alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God your Printer or Corrector ashamed of that more then childish ouersight would not take vpon him to altar your text and so to amend your error but with a marginall note bridled your wordes making an addition cleane contrarie to your text For where you said alwayes he said ordinarily which is not alwayes and so he giueth you the lie and yet himselfe is as farre from the trueth as you are For neither alwayes nor ordinarily much lesse alwayes ordinarily which is as much as alwayes sometimes doe the most vehement paines of the damned accompanie them that are strangers to the grace and loue of God and therefore this Laborinth is like your other riddles in religion neither Writer Reader nor Corrector can tell what to make of them nor how to temper them with any trueth But now you will make amends for all p Defenc. pag. 141. li. 10. Forsooth it is true they are alwayes wicked whom these paines do accompanie ordinarily It is the first time I heard you speake
of the Christian faith would any man in his right wits haue asked as Austen doth Who dare auouch it He discusseth the place of S. Peter and when he commeth to those words Christ was quickened in the spirit or by the spirit he resolueth this cannot be spoken of Christs humane soule because that which was afterwards quickened was first mortified and therefore we could not say that Christs humane spirit or soule was restored to life except we first yeelded that it was before subiected to death Now that Christs soule was euer dead who durst auouch it The reason why Christs soule could neuer die he rendreth thus for that the Scriptures acknowledge no death of the soule in any but sin and damnation to neither of which the soule of Christ could be subiect x August epist. 99. Certè anima Christi nullo mortificata peccato vel damnatione punita est quibus duabus causis mors animae intelligi potest Surely the soule of Christ was neither dead with any sin nor punished with damnation which are the two waies how the death of the soule may be possibly vnderstood This collection of S. Austins out of the Scriptures touching the death of the soule is most sound and cannot be shaken with all your shewes and shifts talke of ordinarie and extraordinarie as long as you will That standing good which yet we see immooueable for all your battery it followeth ineuitably that Christ ne did ne could die the death of the soule ne may any man defend it without apparent falsity and impiety What proofes you haue profered against S. Austins conclusion let the Reader iudge I must confesse my selfe very blind if he see any for I see none and therefore not only S. Austins words but his reasons out of holy Scripture stand firme and hold you fast to the grinding stone being no way as yet counteruailed or controled but with your vaine speaches and most vnlearned euasions y Defenc pag. 142. li. 2. Nay according to Austins owne definition of the soules dying it will easily appeare that Christes soule may be said to haue suffered some kind of death Mors est spiritus deseri a Deo The death of the soule saith he is Gods for saking of it but the Scripture saith God did forsake him for a season yea the Fathers also agree fully therevnto Therefore by Anstins definition largely and rightly taken Christ may be said in some sense to haue died in soule From your shifts you returne againe to your proofes and neither barrell is better herring The maior you thinke is Austins the minor is Christs owne words and what trow you should hinder the cōclusion This reason hath but three of your wonted flowers I must not say faults the maior is larger then Austen euer ment and the minor no way matcheth it except you quite alter the words of Christ and the conclusion commeth nothing neere to your purpose Examine them in order Not euery forsaking of the soule is death for the godly often in the Scriptures complaine as I haue shewed that they are forsaken of God when yet their soules liue but as life is repugnant to death and God is the life of the soule so till God haue vtterly forsaken the soule she is not dead Whiles she retaineth any fellowship of grace with God who is her life she is not dead because she partaketh with life As then death is the vtter priuation of life so God must vtterly forsake the soule before she can be pronounced to be dead and that kind of forsaking is indeed the death of the soule in this life So that your maior if euer you will come neere S. Austins meaning must be the death of the soule is Gods vtter for saking of the same And that thus you must conster S. Austins words appeareth euery where by his z In Psal. 70. in Iohan. tract 47. de verbis Apost Serm. 30. comparison with the death of the bodie which is not dead till the soule be vtterly departed from it For as the body which hath in it any power or presence of the soule is not dead but liuing so the soule that hath any communion with God who is her life can not be truely sayd to be dead but as yet to haue life Were you no Diuine but a plaine Sophister reason teacheth you so to vnderstand S. Austins words for where life and death be priuatiues as well in the soule as in the bodie the one hath no place till the other be vtterly quenched He is not blinde that hath any sight nor deafe that hath any hearing the priuation vtterly excludeth the habite neither is the soule dead that hath any force or effect of life in her and consequently not euerie forsaking but onely an vtter forsaking of God is the death of the soule heere in this life Your minor then should be that Christes Soule was vtterly forsaken of God which are not the words of Christ on the crosse nor any way consonant to them yea the verie entrance to that speech when Christ saide My God my God doth prooue the quite contrarie a Matth. 22. God is not the God of the dead but of the liuiug Then directly by the plaine wordes of Scripture when Christ said My God my God his soule confessing God to be his God was liuing and consequently the wordes following why hast thou forsaken me doe net prooue the death of the soule vnlesse you make the Sonne of God so vnwise as not to vnderstand what he said or so amazed that he marked not his owne speech which with you perchance is no absurditie but with me it is a wicked and vnchristian impietie Christes wordes therefore import that he found a kinde of forsaking but not that his soule was forsaken of the trueth grace or spirit of God these be blasphemies to auouch and no points of pietic nor that he was vtterly or altogither forsaken which onely is the death of the soule And against this wresting of Christes wordes from their right sense how many testimonies of scriptures and Fathers haue I sormerly brought all which you trippe ouer with a light foote and make as though you felt them not You haue beene told b Galat 3. the iust shall liue by saith So that if Christ wanted not faith he could not choose but liue in soule Againe c 1. Iohn 4. God is 〈◊〉 and he that dwelleth in loue dwelieth in God Christ then must either haue life or want loue for the loue of God is the life of the soule Farder the Spirit of God is the d Rom. 8. spirit of life that quickneth the soule yea then 〈◊〉 thereof is life and peace Then must you take from Christ the spirit of God with all the gifts and graces thereof before you can depriue the soule of Christ from life What an hellish heape of blasphemies are here before you can affirm that Christs soule was dead according to the Scriptures
God Esay saith p Esa. 53. v. 4. We did iudge him as plagued and smitten of God but he was wounded for our transgressions And S. Marke when the Iewes had crucified Christ amidst two theeues saith q Mark 15. vers 28. Thus the Scripture was fulsilled which saith he was counted among the wicked Thereby noting their errour not Christs desert Besides it is somewhat saucily said that Christ was accounted wicked in the righteous iudgement of God not by the malitious error of the Iewes Such pleasure you take against both Scriptures and Fathers to auouch what you list yea though it draw with it an iniurious slander to the sonne of God The words of the Prophet he t vers 9. made his graue with the wicked compared with those that solow though he did no wickednesse clearely conuince that Christ was an innocent though he were counted and vsed with malefactours and that the Prophet neuer ment to correct Gods iudgement as corrupt but to shew the wisedome and goodnesse of God deliuering his Sonne to be esteemed and vsed as wicked by the wicked and not by himselfe Howbeit there is no necessity to referre these words to the person of God the Father but they more fittely expresse the humility of Christ himselfe who made his graue that is was content to die in the midst of two Theeues and to be buried as they were considering the coherence with the words precedent which out of all question must be vnderstood of Christ himselfe For thus they stand s vers 8. He was cut out of the land of the liuing he was plagued for the transgression of my people t vers 9. He made his graue with the wicked Where no reason forceth any change of persons and so the same person of Christ who was cut from the land of the liuing made his graue with the wicked u Defenc. pag. 143. li. 11. But chiefly considering withall that also before he made his soule a sinne offering Therefore you must needs graunt that Gods word maketh Christs soule to be sacrificed for our sinne And we desire no other death of the soule It is maruaile you doe not out of this place inferre that Christs soule was made sinne for the words are when he shall make his soule sinne But an offering for sinne is the vsuall signification of that word in the Scriptures and therefore you did well in confessing so much to saue me that labour Christ then made his soule an offering for sinne what deduce you out of those words we desire no other death of the soule In faith you be a sillie sacrificer that know not a dead soule A dead soule is no sacrifice for sinne to be no sacrifice for sinne A dead soule is void of all things which should please God and so can be no sacrifice accepted for sinne x Psal. 51. A troubled spirit sorrowing for sinne is a sacrifice to God saith Dauid But doth repentance kill or quicken the soule God y Acts 11. giueth repentance vnto life that is he raiseth the soule first dead in sinne by repentance vnto life z 2. Cor 7. Worldly sorrow causeth death but Godly sorrow causeth repentance vnto saluation Now saluation is not the death but life of the soule a Hebr. 11. Without faith it is impossible to please God And the sacrifice that shall abolish sinne must needs please God It must then not want faith by which the righteous liue Wherefore by your leaue I make the cleane contrarie conclusion out of those wordes The soule of Christ was a sacrifice for sinne but a dead soule is no sacrfice for sinne the soule of Christ therefore was not dead Without death you will say there is no redemption for sinne Without bloud which noteth the death of the bodie there is no redemption for sinne but the soule I trust hath no bloud to be shed And so much the bodies of beasts offered did prefigure I meane the death of the bodie but not of the soule Willing obedience constant patience and assured confidence in the soule of Christ submitting it selfe to the counsell and will of his Father was the spirituall and inward sacrifice which Christ ioyned with the externall and bloudie sacrifice of his bodie For hauing two parts as all men haâ—…e a soule and a bodie neither part might be withdrawen from this sacrifice but his bodie must be yeelded vnto death and his soule must yeeld her selfe pure vndefiled and void of all spot yet feeling and enduring withall meekenesse and humblenesse of heart the paine of death separating her from her bodie And graunt the soule were heere taken for life what so great improper or vnused speach is that since the soule is truely and properly the life of the body b Defenc. pag. 143. li. 16. We denie not but this phrase Animam ponere is to lay downe the life and in diuers placâ—…s signifieth no more then simply to die both concerning Christ and other men yet this is no necessarie reason that heere in I say the soule should be taken figuratiuely for the life onely the rather seeing heere the text precisely setteth downe the great worke of our redemption and to take it as we doe literally impugneth no ground at all of faith or charitie The words to lay downe or power forth the soule import as you confesse not the death of the soule but the death of the bodie And since in the words of Esai Christ powred forth his soule vnto death there can by no learning bee more concluded out of that place but that Christ willingly layd downe his soule to depart from that bodie which is no way the death of the soule as you fansie but a plaine description of the death of Christs body And where for your pleasure you will take it litterally that is no proofe for the death of Christs soule because the word soule may bee properly taken when it is powred forth of the bodie by death but it noteth a willing submission to death where otherwise our soules are taken from vs or we loose them whether we will or no when we are left or put to death against our wils c Defenc. pag. 143. li. 27. Austen hath not a word against vs in that great place which you cite his whole argument being to an other purpose Austins wordes in that place be pregnant against you for all your dissembling d August in Iohannem tractat 47. Quid fecit passio quid fecit mors nisi corpus ab anima separauit What did Christs passion what did death but separate his bodie from his soule If the death and passion of Christ did nothing but separate Christs soule from his body then neither Christs death nor passion preuailed to the death of his soule And if his soule were not touched by death then was it neuer dead and so much Saint Austen witnesseth in the very same tractate e Ibidem Verbum non
vnto hell that we should not abide in hell Ruffinus Eousque ille miserando descendit vsquequo tu peccando deiectâ—…s es Christ descended of mercie to the very place whither thou wast deiected by sinne Fulgentius It remained to the full effect of our redemption that the man which God tooke vnto him without sin should descend euen thither whither man separated from God fell by desert of sin that is to hell where the soule of a sinner vseth to be tormented and to the graue where the flesh of a sinner vseth to be corrupted yet so that neither Christs flesh might rot in the graue nor his soule be â—…ormented with the sorrowes of hâ—…ll Cyrill The powers Principalities and rulers of the world which the Apostle numbreth none other could conquere and carie into the desart of hell but only he who said be of good hope I haue ouercome the world Therefore it was necessary that our Lord Sauiour should not only be borne a man amongst men but also descend to hell that he might carie into the wildernesse of hell the goate that was to be led away and returning thence this worke perfourmed might ascend to his father Caesarius Arelatensis Aeterna nox inferorum Christo descendente resplenduit attonitae mentis obstupuere Tortores The euerlasting darkenesse of hell was made bright with Christs descending thither the tormentors inwardly stroken were amazed Prudentius Tartarum benignus intrat fracta cedit Ianua fertur horruisse mundus noctis aeternae chaos Christ mildely entred hell breaking open the gates the world shooke at the opening of Chaos of euerlasting darkenesse Arator Infernum Dominus cum destructurus adiret Sol ruit in Tenebras arua tremunt concussa locis saxa crepant tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cunta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quo vitae portitor ibat When the Lord went to hell to destroy it the Sunne was darkned the earth shooke the rockes claue in sunder Hell mourned to see her bands loosed But what could death doe there whither the bringer of life came Petrus Chrysologus Mortem suscepisse vicisse intrasse inferos redijsse venisse in iura Tartari Tartari iura soluisse non est fragilit as sed potestas To suffer death and to conquere it to goe to hell and to returne to come within the lawes of the dungeon of hell â—…nd to dissolue the lawes therof is not weakenesse but power And thus he maketh Christ to speake after his resurrection to his Disciples Ego ex mortuis sum vinus ex infernis sum supernâ—…s Ego sum quem mors fugit inferna tremuerunt Tartarus Deum confessus est I am aliue from the dead and come vp from those below I am he whom death fled from hell trembled at and the dungeon of hell confessed to be God Maximus This day of Christes resurrection which the Lord hath made penetrat omnia vniuersa continet coelum terram Tartarumque complectitur pearceth all places conteineth all compriseth heauen earth and the dungeon of hell For that Christ the true day lightned heauen earth and the deepe of hell the Scripture witnesseth There should be no end of alleaging if I should cite all that speake to this purpose These be auncient and sufficient to prooue this refuter a fabler in affirming that the Fathers with one voice auouch Christ went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were whom the Fathers did not thinke to be in the torments of hell nor in the place of the damned and to shew that I teach none other sense of the Creed then all these Fathers and infinit others did before me Neither can they be shifted off as this Trifler vseth to decline them who name Hades that they ment the world of soules which might be as well in heauen or paradise as in hell since they speake of Christes descent after death to that place where there was euerlasting darknesse and amazednesse of diuels bondage and punishment of sinners deliuerance from destruction an happie and mightie conquest ouer enemies with such like circumstances which by no meanes can agree either to Paradise or heauen or to any other place but onely to hell where these things are found and no where else And if new writers may be regarded I could bring as many or moe of them of great learning and good iudgement confessing and allowing this exposition of the Creede which I follow that Christ descended into Hell to destroy Satans power and force ouer his and to free them all from comming thither as concurrent and consonant with the sacred Scriptures and namely refelling your fansie that Christ went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were The very Catechisme which you would seeme so much to respect as if it were the publicke and authorised doctrine of this Realme maketh it needfull to beleeue that as Christs body was laid in the bowels of the earth so his soule separated from his body descended ad inferos to the places or spirits below that is to hell and with all the force and efficacie of his death so pearced vnto the dead atque inferos adeo ipsos and euen to the spirits in hell that the soules of the vnfaithfull perceaued the condemnation of their infidelity to be most sharp and iust ipseque inferorum princeps Satan and Satan himselfe the Prince of hell saw all the power of his tyrannie and of darcknesse to be weakned broken and destroied and contrariwise the dead who whiles they liued beleeued in Christ vnderstood the worke of their redemption to be performed and felt the fruite and force thereof with a most sweet and certaine comfort The Catechisme treating of Christs descent to hell mentioned in the Creed deliuereth this to be the sense thereof that Christes soule separated from his body descendit ad inferos descended vnto hell And least we should doubt what he meaneth by inferi he putteth inferos as a degree lower farder then the dead in saying Penetrauit ad mortuos atque inferos adeo ipsos Christ pearced vnto the dead and which more is euen to hell it selfe and maketh Satan to be Princeps inferorum the Prince of hell Who is no chiefe ruler either in heauen or Paradise but onlie in hell Againe he resolueth that together with the soule of Christ came the power force of Christs death as well to the faithfull which were saued by him as to the rest iustly condemned for their vnbeliefe and that the Diuell himselfe saw all the power of darckenesse afflicted and oppressed by Christ. More then this I do not teach so much the catechisme auoucheth to be part of the Christian faith and the meaning of that article in the Creed Christ descended into hell Peter Martyr likewise in the confession of his faith and exposâ—…tion of the Creed sayth As touching Christes soule as soone as 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
punishment and payment and vengeance for sinne such as the godly doe in no wise suffer Christ onely hauing wholy suffered that for vs all Therefore indeede his sufferings proceded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods meere Iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences Thou hast in these words Christian Reader the bulwarke of this mans cause concluding that Christ suffered the MEERE IVSTICE PROPER VVRATH and very CVRSE of God for sinne The frame of his reason if I vnderstand it as who vnderstandeth his mysteries but himselfe is this All paine in man is from God either as correction of sinne or as punishment for sinne In Christ there was no ‖ cause and so no neede of ‖ correction his sufferings therefore were the punishments of sinne They were punishments for sinne Ergo they were the true punishment proper payment wages and vengeance of sinne which proceeded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods mâ—…ere iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences His termes of TRVE PROPER and MEERE ioyned to the PVNISHMENT VVRATH and IVSTICE of God are not warranted by any Scripture much lesse referred to the sufferings of Christ nor so much as prooued by any testimony defined with any certaintie directed by any part or expounded by any meanes but onely proiected as Ridles and laberinthes to weary the wise to angle the simple and to refuge himselfe when he shall be pressed with the falsitie and impietie of his assertions Least therefore we wrangle about words in vaine which is his desire and deuise that he may seeme to say somewhat and carry the Reader into a forest of strange and vnknowen phrases where he shall hardly discerne what either side saith I thâ—…nke it needefull first to declare what the Scriptures meane by the wages of sinne and wrath of God and so to trie in what sense and with what truth his termes may be added to them and applyed to the sufferings of Christ. The wages of sinne is death saith S. Paul God himselfe foretold Adam it should be so Whensoeuer thou catest of the forbidden tree thou shalt die the death Then how many kinds of death are by God threatned and inflicted on sinners so many parts must the wages of sinne containe Now those are three the death of the Soule in this life which I call spirituall the death of the body leauing this life which I call corporall and the death of both in the next world which I call eternall For as man had two parts by which he did liue Soule and body and two places wherein he might liue if he obeyed God earth for a time and heauen for euer so disobedience depriued either part of man in either place of the life which he should haue enioyed and subiected him to the feares griefes and paines of death both here and in hell for euer The life of the body is the vnion of the Soule with the body the effects whereof are sense and motion to discerne obtaine and performe that which is needfull or healthfull for the body And as the presence of the Soule bringeth life to the body so the departing of the Soule taketh life from the body and leaueth it dead that is voide of all action motion and sense as to euery mans eyes is apparent in dead bodies The Soule therefore in the Scriptures is vsually taken for the life of the body which proceedeth from the Soule and is maintained by the Soule And these phrases to seeke a mans Soule tolay downe his owne Soule or to giue it for another to powre out his Soule vnto death with such like doe properly expresse the death of the body quickned by the Soule because men loose or leaue this life when they loose or leaue their Soules And where God threatned death to Adam euen the very same day in which he should transgresse we must not thinke that God either delayed the punishment longer or extended it farder then his words at first imported When therefore the very same day that they sinned God said to the woman increasing I will increase thy sorrow and to the man In sorrow shalt thou eate all the daies of thy life we must acknowledge that from that time forward death began to take hold and worke on both their bodies though not by present separation of the Soule from the body for Adam liued after that 930. yeeres yet by mortalitie mutabilitie miserie and namely by sorrow and paine as the instruments and agents of death Worldly sorrow causeth death as Paul witnesseth and a broken hart saith Salomon drieth the bones yea sorrow hath slaine maxy And were it not so written yet experience and nature teacheth vs that griefe of mind and paine of body where they continue or increase consume the flesh and hasten death so that when God the same day that they sinned subiected them to sorrow and paine which before they felt not He made way for death that it might continually worke in them and â—…ken them till they returned to dust The tiâ—…e of this life saith Austâ—…n is nothing elsâ—… but a race to death and truely after a mâ—…n begiâ—…th to be in this bâ—…dy he is in death The life of the soule is not her vnderstanding and will which she can neuer lose no not in hell but onely the trueth and graâ—…e of God by whose spirit she receiueth the light of faith to direct her and the strength of loue to stirre and iâ—…cite her in tâ—…is life to beholde desire and embrace the holinesse and goodnesse of Gods blessed will and promise for her euerlasting happinesse which with patience and comfort of the Holy ghost she expecteth till Gods appointed time do come The lacke or losse of this inward sense and motion of Gods spirit which only can quicken the soule is the death of the soule depriued of her life which is God and left to herselfe in blindnesse and hardnesse of heart and giuen ouer vnto a reprobaâ—…e minde and vile affections to worke wickednesse euen with greedinesse till contempt of Gods will and desperation of his mercy doe fearefully end her miserable time in this life and violently draw her from hence to see and suffer the terrible iudgements of God prouided for sinne in another world Life euerlasting is the perfect and perpetuall vision and fruition of Gods glorious presence in the heauens where vnspeakable light and honour ioy and bliâ—…e shall compasse and replenish bodie and soule in the fellowship of Christ and his elect angels for euer The exclusion and reiection of the wicked from this heauenly fâ—…licity together with the shame and confusion of sinne wounding and stinging the conscience without ease or rest and the dreadfull horror of hell the place of darknesse and diuels hauing in it continuall flames of intolerable and vnquenchable fire eternallie tormenting the soules and bodies of the damned the Scriptures call the sâ—…cond death
submission and patience of his Sonne on the Crosse. More then this if you will vrge on the person of Christ as needefull for our Redemption first proue it and then professe it at your pleasure otherwise if you boldly and vainely presume it your addle and idle wordes can not preiudice the setled and vndoubted principles of the Christian faith warranted by the word of God and fully receaued by the Church of Christ euen from the beginning To your maimed and ruinous foundation that Christ must suffer all and the very same punishment wages and vengeance of sinne which the damned doe suffer and we should haue suffered had we not beene excused by his suffering it for vs I haue plainly and sadly answered I know not how often it is a false and lewd imagination and so impious that your selfe dare not in your late Defence offer it to vew without many bridles to holde it from horrible blasphemie But Sir discourser why coyne you conclusions in christian Religion that must haue three or foure exceptions to saue them from open impietie and why see you not that your speciall reseruations ouerthrow the truth of your owne assertion for where the true and proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne in all the wicked is spirituall corporall and eternall death in your limitations at last which you forgate at first you except Christ from spirituall death which is sinne and from eternall death which is damnation of body and soule to hell fier yet you still affirme that Christ suffered the full proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne as though these two spirituall and eternall death were no parts of the punishment vengeance due to sin or these being excepted as vnfit for Christ to suffer you could truely say Christ suffered the full and proper punishment and vengeance of sinne which consisteth of these three kinds of death And who but you would send vs such headlesse and senselesse resolutions in Diuinitie as these are I affirme that Christ suffered all gods proper wrath and vengeance for sinne I say all that the very damned do suffer namely so described and limited as is aboue said And againe He suffered from Gods hand euen as the damned doe namely in these points which are both possible and reasonable Were you some new Euangelist or vpstart Apostle it were euen enough for you to referre Christs sufferings to your description and your limitation without any farther authority but when you take vpon you with your bare word to broch so many nouelties in Christian religion without one line or letter of holy writ to vpholde your dreames and deuices who can chuse but deride your follie You pinne mens faiths for the ground of their saluation to your descriptions and your limitations to possibilitie and reason measured by your rule without any text or title of Scripture to warrant your words and then you thinke the maine question is profoundly and fully handled but your sober and wise Reader will presently finde the lamenesse or leudnesse of your grand conclusion For if Christs person not only by your possibilitie and reason but by the soundnesse of trueth and sincerenesse of faith must be exempted from sinne which is the death of the soule and from damnation which is euerlasting death why write you so boldly that Christ must suffer all Gods proper wrath euen all that the damned do suffer whereas apparently those two being excepted Christ could suffer no kinde of death but only a corporall And if by your so describing and so limiting the matter you draw Christ within the staine or guilt of sinne or within the compasse or danger of damnation hope you to finde any Christian eares so patient that will endure that monstrous and sacrilegious indignitie But you will inuent a new hell for Christ which shall haue the substance but not the circumstance of damnation and shal be inflicted by Gods immediate hand properly ye a only in the verie soule of Christ which Gods owne infinite wrathfull power and iustice can inflict for satisfaction where and how it pleaseth him The question good Sir is not of Gods power what he can do but of his will reuealed in his Word and of his promise performed in the person of his sonne for our saluation and testified by the mouthes and pennes of the Prophets and Apostles that were guided by his holy spirit to speake and write the trueth I make no doubt but God can create another heauen another earth and another hell as quickly and as easily as he did these that now are yet if any man affirme that God will so do or hath so done I must holde him for an Infidell because he gainsayth Gods trueth and belieth Gods will by pretending Gods power Talke not therefore what God can doe shew rather by the word and witnesse of trueth what God hath done to that must we trust to that are you bound and from that are you slipt You haue not so much as any colour of Scripture for these desperate nouelties and vanities I will giue them no woorse words lest you complaine of my bitternesse and if any man be but so wise as to let your proue these things before he beleeue them he is safe enough for euer admitting them I may spare my paines in refuting them yet because destitute of all other helpe you appeale to possibilitie and reason to fourbish your new inuention of another hell let vs see how handsomely you hale it onward By the law of our creation as we are men hauing a soule besides our bodie so our soule hath in it a threefolde facultie of suffering paines First that which is proper and immediate iustly so called proper because it is proper only to reasonable and immortall spirits Immediate two wayes First because it can and doth receiue an impression of sorrow and paines made from God only by and in it selfe without any outward bodily meanes thereunto Secondly it is also an immediate punishment or els correction of sinne it commeth not for any other cause at all So that thus we meane when we speake of the soules proper and immediate suffering The soules second facultie of suffering paines is not proper but common to vs with beasts namely that which is by sympathie and communion with and from the body A third kinde of painfull suffering the soule hath namely her vehement and strong affections are painfull whether they be good or euill as zeale loue compassion pitie care c. neither are these immediatly for sinne whether punishments or corrections neither are they punishments or corrections at all properly in themselues accidentally they may be when they grow so strong that they paine and grieue the soule If the walles and roofe of your new hell rise no fairer nor stand no faster then your foundation doth a weake puffe of winde will blow all away If a man should shortly answer you That the soule of man hath but one
facultie of suffering though the meanes be diuers from which and by which she suffereth paines and that the meanes be farre moe than you number as namely she may suffer paine from her owne vnderstanding and will yea from diuels and from the fire of hell besides the meanes which you recken to wit her sympathie with the bodie her vehement affections and the immediate hand of God when and where pleaseth him your building is at an end you can go no farder you haue neither Diuinitie nor Philosophie possibilitie nor reason to support that which you would so faine inferre But let vs view your specialties The soule you say by the law of our creation hath in it a threefold facultie of suffering paine The soule indeed by her creation hath a triple reference to good and euill to wit her apprehension and distinction of either her inclination and motion to either and her impression and passion from both and for the performance of these she hath sundrie and seuerall parts and faculties For as man was made to know God and loue God and after a time of obedience perfectly to enioy God who is onely and wholly good so had he three speciall powers and faculties in his soule answerable to these three purposes of the Creator and yet capable of the contrarie which was the want of all good if he fell â—…rom God And therefore by the power of his vnderstanding man might discerne good and euill by the libertie of his will â—…e might elect and embrace either and by the passibilitie of his soule he might feele and suffer the impression and sequele of both by ioy or paine which God in his iustice alotted to be the end and wages of liking and doing good or euill And because for the seruice and safetie of his bodie and for the dueties and actions of this life man was to vse earthly things and also to need outward meanes for hearing the word and viewing the works of God there were giuen him senses to perceiue and sensitiue motions to desire things needfull and delightfull for him as also to dislike the euill of penurie paine and sorrow that should be occurrent to his senses In which the wisdome of God ordained that what seemed good to mans imagination should prouoke his desire with loue and delight and what seemed euill should offend him with some touch of griese the superiour and spirituall powers of the soule being giuen as Iudges to censure restraine and oueâ—…rule the sensitiue delights and motions where they swarued from the true rule of good and euill which was only Gods will reuealed or written in the heart of man The respects and diuersities of good and euill offered in generall to the sense and vnderstanding of man were sanctitie sufficiencie and felicitie with their contraries and likewise the generall passions and impressions of good and euill receiued in the soule were hope and ioy for good approching or posfessed and feare and paine for the imminence or presence of euill as also for the departure or losse of good in whose place euill which is the priuation of good necessarily succeeded The passions then of euill for true ioy and hope thereof are rather perfections than passions of the soule are feare and griefe and the meanes by which they are wrought in the soule and brought to the soule are naturally the senses and affections vnderstanding and will and supernaturally the hand of God or such externall meanes as God hath prouided to punish the soule So that first your making a threefolde facultie in the soule of suffering paines is an ignorant conceit in you as if the facultie of suffering paines were multiplied because the meanes inflicting paines are many If I should say The soule hath in it a threâ—…fold facultie of vnderstanding for that it perceiueth many things by the senses of her bodie many things by her owne light and remembrance and many things by the immediate reuelation of Gods spirit might not wise men instly deride me knowing the power and facultie of vnderstanding to be but one and the selfe-same in man though the means be diuers by which that facultie is informed Likewise the will of man is caried sometimes by the eie sometimes by the eare at the persuasion of others sometimes by her owne affections sometimes by feare sometimes by reason sometimes by grace shall we therefore say the soule hath in it a sixfold facultie of liking and electing that which is offered her or rather it is one and the same power of will which is moued and often times ruled by these sixe meanes partly from the bodie partly from her selfe partly from others and partly from God Euen so the passibility of the soule or the faculty of suffering paine is but simple and single in the soule how many soeuer the meanes be by which she receiueth the impression of paine otherwise you might as well say The soule hath contrary faculties of suffering because she feeleth contrary impressions of ioy and paine sometimes striuing together sometimes succeeding ech the other but the soule as she is furnished with her faculties to discerne and elect good and euill so is she framed to receiue the impressions of either which are contrary and in that respect capable of ioy and paine in this life howsoeuer in the next life the soule shall be perpetually fastned to the one or to the other without alteration or change As you confound the facultie of suffering paine with the causes offering and the meanes bringing the impression of paine to the soule so doe you neither fully number the agents from which nor the meanes by which paine is inflicted on the soule on which you ground your three kinds of the soules suffering of paines If the soule were not passible that is capable of ioy and paine she could neither be rewarded for well doing nor punished for euill But God hath created her receiuable of both that as she should doe good or euill in his sight so she might suffer and feele that which should be good or euill to wit ioyous or grieuous euen in her owne sense and iudgement Of both I meane ioy and paine as they are rewards of well and euill doing God alone is in this life and the next the supreame ordainer appointer effecter worker and distributer all other agents and meanes whatsoeuer seruing only his will expressing his power and obeying his commandement yet that doth not hinder but in the punishing of his owne heere or of his enemies in this world and the next God may and doth vse instruments and meanes whom and what pleaseth him to performe his will For example in this life besides Gods agents to punish which are Angels men diuels and all other creatures the meanes which he hath ordained to impresse paine in the soule are as many as there be intellectiue or sensitiue powers and abilities in the soule to foresee discerne or remember whatsoeuer euill past present or to come on vs or on
others whom we loue or to perceiue or desire any good which is lost lacking or likely to be taken from vs or from others whom we regard So that not only sympathie with and from the bodie and vehement and strong affections of zeale loue compassion pitie and care which you recken do paine the soule but the eyes and eares vpon a thousand occasions when the bodie is not touched bring feare and griefe to the heart yea the vnderstanding remembrance conscience and will which you vtterly forget doe oftener offend and afflict the soule euen of the gody than either the bodie or the affections do And in the world to come which you purposely skip to make way for your new hell besides the losse of glory sting of conscience and shame of sinne the Scriptures assure vs that vtter darkenesse ruthfullwailing horror of diuels torment of fire despaire of case shalâ—… afflict the bodies and soules of the damned with intolerable and eternall anguish as when we come to speake thereof we shall more largely proue A third errour in you is that you make your second kinde of the soules suffering paine which is by sympathie and communion with and from the bodie not to be proper to man but common to vs with beasts wherein you bewray either your vnderstanding not to be great or your intent to be vilde For though beasts haue bodies and senses as men haue and the paine of their bodies pierceth and affecteth the sensitiue parts powers of life in them yet haue they no soules I trust which can be affected the paine of their bodies as men haue I hope you be not so deepe in your distillation of hell that you will bestow soules on beasts to make them liable to your new-found paines of hell but in men their immortall spirits are and shall be afflicted by their bodies and senses both heere and in hell when the full punishment of their sinnes commeth to be layed vpon them How long will you vexe my soule saith Iob. The â—…on entred into his soule sayth the Psalmist of Iosephs fetters All is vanitie and affliction of the spirit sayth the Preacher A sword shall pierce thy soule sayth Simeon to Marie Then for the soule or spirit of man to be vexed afflicted pierced and pained by and from the bodie is proper to man and no way common to vs with beasts which haue no soules and that kinde of suffering paine which is without the bodie is not proper to the soule by reason it is common to men with diuels who haue no bodies and yet suffer paine aswell by their vnderstanding and will as by externall meanes appointed of God to punish the damned both soules and diuels Wherefore your termes of the soules proper and immediate suffering which before I called vnsalted and vnsetled and you say are easie to be vnderstood and necessarily to be vsed in this question as you now haue declared and deliuered them are false and absurd For no kinde of suffering paine is proper to the soule of man but onely that which is with the bodie or by the bodie the other kinde of suffering paine by vnderstanding and will and by hell-fire being common to men with diuels which haue no bodies and are no soules no more than soules in heauen are Angels S. Austen truely sayth Angelos habere animas nusquam me legisse in diuinis eloquijs canonicisque recolo That Angels haue soules I do not remember I haue any where read in the diuine and canonicall Scriptures Since then diuels haue neither bodies nor soules though they be spirits and beasts though they haue bodies yet haue they no soules to be pained by their bodies it is euident that the piercing and afflicting of the spirit and soule of man by the bodie and from the bodie is the onely kinde of suffering which is proper to the soule of man the spirituall affliction of the soule by her vnderstanding and will and by the torment of perpetuall and eternall fire being common to men with the reprobate Angels To the immediate suffering of the soule in hell which is another of your new-found fancies I will immediatly come if first I touch an errour or two in your former words to let the Reader see that you are vnlike to lay sure grounds in faith when you know not the plaine rules of Nature A third kinde of painfull suffering you say the soule hath namely her veheâ—…ent and strong affections are painfull whether they be good or euill as zeale loue c. I pray you Sir how come zeale and specially loue when they be good to be painfull affections in your Calender S. Iohn sayth There is no feare in loue and giueth this reason for feare hath painfulnesse presupposing it for a prinple that loue hath no paine which is most true because we delight in that which we loue and so loue hauing no paine in it but delight it hath consequently no feare by reason feare hath paine which loue hath not But if it be strong you will say it paineth the soule If loue bring delight the stronger the loue that is good the greater the delight and so the strength of loue doth not increase but exclude all paine Which is also S. Iohns rule Perfect loue casteth out feare which is the least impression of paine that may be And where loue that is good is strongest and most feruent as namely in heauen there is no place for paine and in earth when we are commanded to loue the Lord ‖ our ‖ God with all ‖ our ‖ heart with all ‖ our ‖ soule with all ‖ our ‖ strength and ‖ our ‖ neighbour as ‖ our ‖ selues must we be whollie delighted or partlie grieued with God and our neighbour The like is to be sayd for zeale which is nothing but the heat or feruencie of loue Accidentally they may turne vs to paine when our godly zeale and loue are hindred or crossed by the wicked But the thing that grieueth vs in those cases is not our loue but the leaudnesse of the wicked despising or wronging that which we zealously loue And so may all vertues paine vs. What iust man is not displeased with iniustice What liberall minde is not moued at auarice What valiant heart is not grieued with cowardice The like we shall finde in all other vertues euen an inward offence at their contraries and yet no wise man will say that vertues are paines and punishments of the soule Of compassion and pitie among the rest you say accidentally they may be punishments when they grow so strong that they grieue the soule As though there could be any compassion or pitie which doth not grieue the soule What is pity but sorow at the sight of another mans miserie and what is compassion but a vehement passion or griefe of the heart for his miserie whom we deerely loue so that there can be neither compassion nor pitie
whatsoeuer is within hell is nothing but fire God perfourmeth that hell shall flame with perpetuall fire euen as in many places and hilles of the earth an unwasted store of brimstone is found that euen thence we may gather there may be Riuers and lakes of brimstone in hell All these things the Almightie knoweth how to prepare that these torments may â—…itte both Soules and bodies so that we haue no neede to dispute whether this fire and brimstone be corporall and if it be corporall how it worketh vpon spirituall substances The Lord as I now said can fit all these to either part of man that in truth they may be inflicted as well on the bodies as on the spirits of the damned which here the Prophet foretelleth If thou hadst rather dispute against them and wilt not now beleeue these things doubtles thou shalt one day trie them by experience Gualter vpon the same place Esaie teacheth what heil is The inside thereof is fire that is how deepe and wide soeuer hell is it is all fire and burneth euerlastingly For so he describeth the sharpnes of the punishment which the wicked shall there suffer And lest any should aske what matter can suffice to maintaine such a fire the Prophet saith there is great store of wood He that made hell hath plentifully prouided that the fire there shall neuer goe out For filthie lustes and lewd actes not purged by â—…aith and guiltie mindes yeeld perpetuall matter and maintenance to those flames Yea and the bodies also of the wicked shall be incorruptible that they may suffer continuall fire and flame and dure therein He mentioneth also a streame of brimstone whereof the Apocalypse speaketh that we should remember and consider those things which are in nature For so many ages hath the fire of Aetna continued and still doth casting vp flames of brimstone He then that kindleth these things in nature without the helpe or assistance of men he also can kindle and maintaine the fire of hell that it shall neuer faile Musculus commenting vpon the 25. of Mathew sayth Those who measure all things by the rule of reason and thinke nothing firme that cannot be comprehended by mans witte dispute how it is possible that the body should alwaies burne in hell and not consume which is repugnant to the nature of the body They likewise dispute how fire can burne not onely bodies but also wicked spirits which haue no bodies These curious men thinke that to be against nature which is done by Gods will neither doe they consider the nature of all creatures to haue and be that which they haue and are by Gods commandement Others quarrell with the qualitie of the fire and thinke it no corporall but a metaphoricall fire which they take â—…or an exceeding paine and sorrow of minde This they gather out of the 9. of Marke where Christ saith their worme dieth not and the sire quencheth not Here as by the name of worme no corporall worme is to be vnderstood but a great and continuall remorse of mind so they thinke by the word fire no corporall fire but a metaphoricall must be conceaued I take it to be rashnes and not the part of a christian man thus to dispute of the qualitie of this fire but rather leauing the certaine knowledge thereof to the Iudge to prouide that we trie it not one day what manner of sire it is Zanchius very soberly and learnedly examining this question resolueth in this sort It is certaine the diuels together with all the wicked shall be in euerlasting fire and therein tormented Christ plainely professeth he will say to the wicked depart into euerlasting fire prepared for the diuell and his Angels What manner of fire it shall be I dispute not because the Scripture doth not expresse it but this is without question that not onely the soules of the wicked but also their bodies shall suffer torment FROM THIS FIRE and therefore the fire such as may worke vpon their bodies and inflict on them a farre greater paine then our materiall fire doth impresse on vs. What qualitie soeuer it shall be of it seemeth it shall be altogether a corporall creature which may worke vpon bodies and torment them Which being so IT IS MANIFEST the diuell shall suffer paine and torment from a corporall thing I meane from this sire and that euerlastingly therefore it is called eternall and vnquenchable fire And asking your question How is it possible that spirituall substances should suffer from corporall he answereth We haue an example in our selues in whom the soule suffereth many things from the body by her coniunction with it Againe what can resist the power and will of God Let this doubt therefore depart from the minds of the faithfull I produce these later writers of great learning and good religion as I might many moe to let thee vnderstand gentle Reader that I neither presse the Scriptures nor cite the Fathers to any other purpose but to that which by all their iudgements is Christian and catholike and howsoeuer some men otherwise learned but carried with this new conceite of Christs suffering the essentiall paines of the damned to colour their deuise call these things in question yet the most aduised and sufficient Diuines of our age haue clearely confessed that which I teach to accord with the holy Scriptures and to be held of the godly without contradiction The ancient Fathers of Christs Church vphold the same doctrine and teach the fire of hell to be an externall visible and true fire and not a spirituall and internall paine onely as this Discourser intendeth With no speech sayth Chrysostome can any man expresse it here but els where we shal see it most plainely Set now before thine eyes that horrible way which shal carrie thee headlong to the fire and the deuils readie with torments and the persons deliuered to such cruel tormentors These things shal be in that day Let vs alwayes thinke on these things sayth Austen lest it repent vs too late when we come to the sight of eternal fire For the burning pit of hell shal be laid open there shal be a descent but no ascent Call to minde saith Basil that terrible tribunal of Christ which no creature may indure there must euery one of vs be presented to render an account of his life About those that haue liued wickedly shal stand fearefull and grisly angels beholding the sire and kindling it Then shall they see a deepe gulfe and darkenes that no eyes can pierce through and an obscure fire that with blackenesse hath lost his shining but kept his burning Alas saith Cyril what a place is that where is weeping and gnashing of teeth which is called hell which the deuil himselfe abhorreth Alas what a Gehenne of vnquenched sire is that which burneth and shineth not how venemous is that worme which neuer resteth how terrible is that deepe and euerduring darkenesse how cruel in
ourselues vnrâ—…ghteous and odious vnto him And yet in mercy towaâ—…ds â—…s and honor â—…wards his Sonne God would make him the Redeemer and Sauiour of the world not neglecting his Iustice nor forgetting his loue but so mixing them both together that his dislike of our sinnes might appeare in the punishment of them and his relenting from the rigor of his Iustice in fauour of his onely Sonne might magnifiâ—… his mercy satisfie his wrath and enlarge his glory and declare in most ample manner the submission compassion and peâ—…fection of his Sonne as only worthy to performe that worke which procured and receaue that honor which followed mans Redemption Christ then suffered from the hand of God but mediate that is GOD DELIVERED him into the hands of sinners who were Satans instruments with all eproach and wrâ—…nge to put him to a contumelious and grieuous death God by his â—…ecret wisdome and iustice decâ—…eeing appointing and ordering what he should suffer at theiâ—… hands Our sinnes â—…e bare in his body on the tree not that his soule was free from feare sorrow 〈◊〉 derision and temptation but that the wicked and malitious â—…ewes practised all kind of shamefull violence and cruell tortuâ—…es on him by Whipping Racking pricâ—…ing and wounding the tenderest parts of his body whereby his soule â—…elt extreame and intoleâ—…able paines In all which he saw the determinate counsell of God and receaued in the garden from his father this Iudgement for our sinnes that he should be 〈◊〉 dâ—…liuered into the hands of sinners For had he not humbly submitted himselfe to obey his fatheâ—…s will no power in earth could haue preuailed against him but as he had often fortold his Disciples what the Priestes Scribes and Gentils should doe vnto him so when the hower was come which was foreappointed of God to obey his fathers will he yeelded himselfe into their hands they persuing him to death of enuie and malice but God thus perfourming euen by their wicked hands what he had â—…oreshewed by his Prophets that Christ should suffer For they not knowing him â—…or the wordâ—… of the Prophets fulfilled them in condemning him yea they fulfilled all things which were written of him So that no man shall need to runne to the immediate hand of God nor to the paines of hell for the punishment of our sinnes in the person of Christ the Iewes FVLFILLED ALL THINGS that were written of him touching his sufferings and therewith Gods anger against our sinnes was appeased and God himselfe reconciled vnto vs. Esay speaking of the violence done by the Iewes to Christ sayeth he was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Thus the Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of all vs and he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree by those sufferings before and on the Crosse which the Scriptures expresly declare and describe And as for the immediate hand of God tormenting the soule of Christ with the selfe same paines which the damned now suffer in hell which is this deuisers maine drift when he maketh or offereth any proofe thereof out of the word of God I shall be ready to receiue it if I can not refute it till then I see no cause why euery wandring witte should imagine what monsters please him in mans redemption and obtrude them to the faithfull without any sentence or syllable of holy Scripture I haue no doubt but all the godly will be so wise as to suffer no man to raigne so much ouer their faith with fancies and figures vnwarranted by the Scriptures vnknowen to all the learned and ancient councels and Fathers vnheard of in the Church of Christ till our age wherein some men applaude more their owne inuentions then all humane or diuine instructions The feare of bodily sufferings you thinke could not be the cause that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood You straine the text of the Euangelist to draw it to your bent Saint Luke hath no such words that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood he sayth Christes sweat was like drops of blood trickling downe to the ground Theophylact a Greeke borne and no way ignorant of his mother tongue expresseth Christes sweat in the garden by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christes body or face DISTILLED with plentifull drops of sweat And albeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifie the congealed parts of that which is otherwise liquid and compacted pieces of that which els is poudered yet often it noteth that which is thickâ—… in comparison with thinner or eminent in respect of plainer Now Christes sweat might be thicke by reason it issued from the inmost parts of his bodie and was permixed with blood or els it might breake out with great and eminent drops as comming from him violently and abundantly and being coloured with blood and congealed with colde might trickle downe like DROPS or strings of blood vpon the ground Howsoeuer the Scripture saith not his sweate was clotted blood but like to congealed or cooled blood neither that such clots were strained out from him but that his sweate being thicked and cooled on his face fell from him like strings of blood But grant there could be no reason giuen of Christs bloodie sweat in the garden no more then there can be of the issuing first of blood and then of water out of his side when he was dead which S. Iohn doth exactly note as strange but yet true will you conclude what please you because many things in Christ both liuing and dying weâ—…e miraculous I bind no mans conscience to any probabilities for the cause of this sweate but onely to the expresse wordes and necessarie consequents of holy Scripture and yet I wish all men either to be sober and leaue that to God which he hath concealed from vs or if they will needes be gessing at the reason thereof for certaine knowledge they can haue none by no meanes to relinquish the plaine words or knowen groundes of holy Scripture to embrace a fansie of their owne begetting The learned and ancient Fathers haue deliuered diuers opinions of this sweate which thou mayest see Christian Reader in my Sermons and which we shall haue occasion anon to reexamine euery one of them being as I thinke more probable and more agreeable to Christian pietie then this Discoursers dreame of hell paines or Gods immediate hand at that present tormenting of the soule of Christ. And if we looke to the order and sequence of the Gospell we shall finde that feruent zeale extreamely heating the whole bodie melting the spirits thinning the blood opening the pores and so colouring and thicking the sweate of Christ might in most likelihood be the cause of that bloodie sweate Which S. Luke seemeth to insinuate when he saith that after Christ was comforted by an Angell from heauen and so recouered from his
redâ—…mption Fuller or more sufficient than eternall redemption we neither expect nor euer shall haue any since that which is eternall admitteth no change nor increase Then that redemption which Christ hath purchased by his blood is most full and sufficient by the Apostles testimony and sooner shal you proue your selfe to be no sound Teacher than that to be no sound dóctrine which hath so manifest witnesse in holy Scripture I teach that the ioynt sufferings of Christ the soule feeling what the body suffered are most auailable for our saluation and that besides the sacrifice of Christes body there is no other sacrifice of his soule which can be neither bodily nor bloody If I alone did teach thus and not the whole Church of Christ with me or if the sacred Scriptures which must guide vs all what to affirme and beleeue in the worke of our saluation did not teach the same I wâ—…re worthy to be challenged but if I say no more than the Scriptures do warrant me to speake looke you Sir Discourser to your late created Creed that can not admit nor endure the words of the Holy Ghost That the true sacrifice for sinne was but ONE and ONCE made and that it required the BODIE BLOOD and DEATH of the Offerer is not my addition but the Apostles assertion Christ appeared sayth Paul in the end of the world once to put away sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe and by reason he was an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech and a Minister of the true Tabernacle and Sanctuarie it was of necessitie he should haue somewhat also to offer Wherefore when he commeth into the world he saith to God Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a bodie hast thou ordained me It is written of me that I should doe thy will O God by the which will we are sanctified sayth the Apostle euen by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Who after he had offered this one sacrifice for sinne sitteth for euer at the right hand of God For with this one offering hath he consecrated or made perfect for euer them that are sanctified That likewise without effusion of blood there is no remission and therefore Christ with his owne blood entred in once vnto the holy place and obtained eternall redemption as also that the death of the testator must be where a testament is in either of these the Apostle is euident and vehement Now if you Sir Discourser can conuey these things to the soules proper and immediate suffering the paines of hell from the hand of God and shew how these resolutions of the Apostle perteine properly yea only to the soule of Christ we shal greatly woonder at your wisdome For thereby shall you prooue that the soule hath not only a body but blood also that may be shed which are miracles I will not say monsters both in Scripture and nature A spirit sayth Christ hath no flesh and bones as ye see me haue If you can teach Christ that he neuer knew before by my consent you shal be allowed for more than a Creed-maker Howbeit you will marre your owne market in so doing For if the soule consist of bodie and of blood what shall become of her proper and immediate facultie of suffering without and besides the bodie which you so highly aduanced in the beginning as to make it the proper and principall humane suffering If you shrinke from these follies or rather frensies as I hope you will then must you grant the ioynt sufferings of Christ I meane the wounding of his body and shedding of his blood euen vnto death as the Scriptures describe it to be the true sacrifice for sinne and consequently most auaileable for our saluation If you thinke I exclude the soule of Christ from her part in this bodily and bloody sacrifice of Christ I haue so often said and shewed the contrarie in my former reply that I am weary of iterating one and the same thing though you be neuer weary of mistaking it My former words I repeat againe that the Reader may see I haue no cause to recant or controle them The true sacrifice for sinne which Christ offered must haue the body the blood and the death of the offerer none of which agree to the soule of Christ though the body without a soule could be no reasonable sacrifice and therefore I exclude not the soule whose obedience innocence and patience concurred to sanctifie this sacrifice but I note the parts of the sacrifice for sinne by the Apostles doctrine were those which I named the blood and death of the Sacrificer both which must needs be found in his bodie and not in his soule These words you quote in the margent but you take not the paines to refute them much lesse to establish your vnbloody and vnbodily sacrifice of Christs soule suffering hell paines from the immediate hand of God Which kind of offering for sinne is as strange to the Scriptures and to all the learned and auncient fathers as the rest of your vnknowne doctrine And therefore you doe well to straine still on the same string by censuring what you mislike and neuer proouing what you affirme least you should marre your musicke if you should proceede to the parts or proofes of your new found Redemption by the paines of hell Yet somewhere I seeme to yeeld wholy as much as you affirme as where I say the same part indeede might suffer in Christ which sinned in man I meane the soule Somewhat it is you find so many writers new and old on your side you here no sooner the suffering of the soule or the anger of God against sinne in any man but you presently count him vnder your coulours Euen as I make for you when I write against you so doe the Auncient fathers and later Diuines whose names you abuse But if I meane as I ought then at least I follow your meaning It is a peece of your skill when I speake directly against your fancies to make men beleeue I meane as you doe or at least I ought so to meane Indeed if you may be vmpeere what I ought to meane I shall be sure to iump with your meaning but looke to my words good Sir and measure my meaning by that which I speake and not by that which you would haue me speake I said Christs soule might suffer for sinne what collect you thence I did not adde without or with the body so that all the sufferings of Christ inflicted on his body might be and were impressed in his soule and you nothing the nearer to your purpose of hell paines suffered in the Soule of Christ. But graunt the soule of Christ did suffer for sinne without concurrence of the body must it needs follow he therefore suffered the paines of hell how many griefes and paines of the soule are there not proceeding from the body
right sense as you be readie for a shewe to admit them this matter were ended S. Austen speaketh indeede of Christs voluntarie and powerfull dying but he doth not meane as you doe that Christ was onely willing to die as religious and godly men are which desire to depart this life but that he died quia voluit quando voluit quomodo voluit because he would when he would as hee would And giuing the reason of his speech out of the Scripture though you proudly and falsely say he hath no strength of reason by the Scripture he learnedly and truely pursueth it in this sort Where the spirit is farre better then the bodie and it is the death of the spirit to be forsaken of God as it is the death of the bodie to be forsaken of the spirit and this is the punishment in the death of the bodie that the spirit because it willingly forsooke God shall vnwillingly leaue the bodie neither can the spirit leaue the bodie when it will vnlesse it offer some violent death to the bodie the Soule or Spirit of Christ the mediatour did plainely prooue that he came to the death of his flesh by no punishment of sinne in that he forsooke not his flesh by any meanes against his wil but BECAVSE HE VVOVLD VVHEN Hâ—… VVOVLD AND AS HE VVOVLD Therefore he said I haue power to lay downe my soule and haue power to take it againe None taketh it from me but I lay it downe of my selfe And this those that were present GREATLY MARVAILED AT as the Gospell obserueth when after that loud voyce he presently gaue vp the ghost For they that were fastned to the tree were tormented with a long death Wherefore the two theeues had their legs broken that they might die But Christ was WONDRED AT because he was found dead which thing we read Pilate marueiled at when Christs bodie was asked of him to be buried There is more sound Diuinitie in this one Chapter of S. Austens then in both your Pamphlets though you pretend S. Austens wordes conclude nothing nor against you nor for me Where you may learne for it is fitter for you to be a scholler then a writer till you haue learned to leaue your wilfull humours and to giue â—…are vnto the sage and wise Fathers that were pillars of Christes Church many hundred yeeres before you first that for the punishment of sinne the death of the body was inflicted on all mankinde in which the soule should depart from her bodie against her will and not when she would nor as she would Secondly that the manner of Christs death was cleane contrary to ours he gaue vp his spirit of his owne accord and power when he would and as he would Thirdly his giuing vp the ghost so presently vpon his loude prayer was wondered at by the standers by and by Pilate himselfe when he heard of it Whether this conclude my purpose I leaue to the iudgement of the discreete Reader your no as it lightly commeth without cause so with me it goeth as lightly without regard But Austens words which I first quoted prooue not so much You take vpon you to refute first and last why skip you then that which is cited in the midst Grant Austens words to be true as indeede they are most true which are alleaged in the first place and my purpose is fully concluded Theâ—… prooue that no man can SO SLEEPE when he will as Christ died when he would that no man can so put off his vesture when he will as Christ put off his flesh when he would that no man can so leaue the place where he standeth at his will as Christ left his life when he would And if so great power appeared in him dying with what power shall we thinke he will come to iudge Where voluntary dying in Christ doth not onely import that he was content and willing to die as Paul was when he desired to be dissolued but that he left this life by separating his soule from his bodie when he would hauing at that present when he parted his soule from his bodie perfect memoriâ—… sense and speech and breathing out his soule of his owne accord with more facilitie and celeritie then we can lay off our garments or change the place in which we stand And from this admirable power by which he layd downe his soule and tooke it againe at his plâ—…asure Austen draweth a comparison to the exceeding greatneâ—… of that power with which he shall come to iudge the world With Austen ioyne all the Fathers of Christs Church that eaer spake of this matter and the best Diuines of latter ages confesse the same Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To haue power to lay downe his soule when he would and to take it againe this is not the propertie of men but it is the power of the Sonne of God For man dieth not by his owne power but by necessitiâ—… of nature and that against his will but Christ being God â—…ad it in his own power to separate himselfe from his bodie and to resume the same againe when he would Origen An non Dominus singulare quiddam prae omnibus qui in corpus aduenerint de seipso dicit doth not the Lord affirme a thing that was peculiar or singular to him aboue all that euer were in the flesh when he saith None taketh my soule from me but I lay it downe of my selfe and haue power to lay it downe and power to take it againe Let vs consider what he meaneth who left his bodie and departed from it without any way leading to death This neither Moses nor any of the Patriarkes Prophets or Apostles did say besides Iesus For if Christ had died as the theeues did that were crucified with him we could not haue said that he layd downe his soule of himselfe but after the maner of such as die But now Iesus crying with a strong voyce gaue vp the ghost and as a King left his bodie His power greatly appeared in this that at his owne free power and will leauing his bodie he died Gregorie Nyssene Memento Dominici dicti quid de seipso pronunciet is a quo pendet rerum omnium vis potentia quomodo ex plena summáque potestate ac non ex naturae necessitate animam à corpore seiungit Remember the Lords words what he pronounceth of himselfe of whom dependeth all power how with full and soueraigne power and not by necessitie of nature he seuered his soule from his bodie as he sayd None taketh my soule from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I haue power to lay it downe and power to take it againe Gregorie Nazianzene maketh the mother of Christ thus to speake vnto him after his death Comming I heard thy voice vnto thy father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thou suddenly departedst this life as leauing it willingly Ierome With a faint voice or rather
any reason or learning ergo Christs dead bodie depriued of soule and sense was the whole Ransom for our sinnes for that he meaneth by Christs death or ergo no action nor passion of Christs soule before or on his crosse was meritorious If I say these conclusions doe necessarily follow out of those words or out of the meaning of them then I must confesâ—…e I am fowly ouershot in my speach But if these be most ignorant and absurd collections from my words and from theirs that vsed that speâ—…ch before me then mayest thou see Christian Reader what meaning this man hath throughout this booke purposely to peruert and misconster all that I say to make thee beleeue I broch some strange and wonderous Doctrine But shifts lâ—… hid but a while the shame in the end will be his How then can that which I sundrie times teach of Christs sufferings in his soule be true if our whole ranâ—…om and propitiation be bodily bloudy and deadly only which is the point â—…here stand on What contradiction finde you in my words that Christ might haue and had sufferings in his soule as feare sorrow and affliction of minde and yet died no death but only a bodilie Only a bodily death doth not exclude all paines which are not bodily but all deaths saue the death of the bodie Wherefore my conclusion is whâ—…re it was That the death which the Mediator must suffer for sinne by the Apostles doctrine must onely be bodily and bloodie and therefore by no meanes the death of the soule or of the damned Yet this â—…as not our whole râ—…some you say nor the whole sacrifice for sinne the sufferings of his soule must be added vnto it When I speake of Christes death I vnderstand that maner and order of his death which the Euangelists describe for so the Scriptures meane when they speake of Christes death and from that death I doe not seuer those sufferings of his soule which the Scripturâ—…s mention because the sharpnesse of that death which his body was to suffer draue him to the deepe consideration of the cause why of the Iudge from whom and the captiue for whom he suffered Christ otherwise had not suffered death as a Redeemer if he had been ignorant of any of these or compelled by force to endure the furie of the Iewes he had power enough to stay their rage decline their bloudie hands yea to auert or decrease the paines as he thought good but because he was to offer himselfe as a willing sacrifice to suffer death to saue vs from the wrath of his Father he layed aside his owne power and submitted himselfe wholly to be disposed at his Fathers will which the Scriptures call his obedience vnto death When therefore he foresaw and felt how sharpe and painfull that death would be and was which he must and did suffer for our sinnes was it possible he should not fully cast the eyes of his â—…inde vpon the horror of our sinnes which did so sting him vpon the fiercenesse of Gods wrath which did so pursue him though he were his innocent and only sonne and vpon the terrible vengeance that rested for vs if he should mislike or refâ—…se to beare the burden of our offences If any man learned thinke it possible for Christ to suffer the one and not in spirit most cleerely to see the other I am content he shall seâ—…er the sufferings of Christs soule from the griefe and anguish of his bodily death but if it be more than absurd so to conceiue then finde we that the sight and sense of Christes extreame torments in bodie caused and vrged his soule thorowly to beholde these things with feare and sorrow which in themselues were most fearefull and could not châ—… but affect Christes soule deeply and diuersly As for the whole ransome of our sinne we shall haue occasion in the next reason more largely to treate of But you haue reasons you say to confirme your maine matter among manie these two the first the Iewish sacrifices shadowing and foreshewing the second the sacraments of Christians testifying and confirming that the true sacrifice for sinne was bodily and bloudy Still what trifling is this doth any in the world denie that the true sacrifice for sinne was the bodie bloud and death of the Redeemer Wherefore the proposition must be as I did set it in your behalfe the Iewish sacrifices were shadowes or figures and our sacraments were signes of our whole and absolute redemption by Christ I say of the whole and entire propitiatorie sacrifice or els you shrinke and leaue the question When I lacke one to set propositions in my behalfe I will send to you for helpe till then spare your paines except you might reape more thanks But you must learne to get you plainer termes or at least more plainly to expound them if you will needs be a setter of propositions for what is the WHOLE sacriâ—…ice propitiatorie and what is our WHOLE redemption By the whole sacrifice meane you the whole person of Christ that gaue himselfe for vs or intend you the whole action whereby he sanctified submitted and presented himselfe as a sacrifice of a sweet smell vnto God or by the whole vnderstand you all that in Christ was deuoted and deliuered vnto death for the satisfaction of Gods iustice And so our whole redemption doe you referre it only to remission of sinnes as the Apostle doth when he sayth We haue redemption through Christes bloud euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes or also to deliuerance from the dominion and infection of sinne and to the abolishing of all corruption in soule and bodie which is our whole and absolute redemption When the powers of heauen shall be shaken and the Sonne of man come in a cloud with power and great glorie then lift vp your heads sayth Christ for your redemption draweth neere You are sealed by the holy Spirit vnto the day of redemption sayeth Paul And Dauid God shall redeeme their soules from deceit and violence that is he shall deliuer their soulâ—…s The Saints as the Apoâ—…e speaketh were racked and would admit no redemption to obtaine a better resurrection where by redemption he meaneth deliuerance As Zacharias sayd God hath visited and sent redemption to his people that is saluation or deliuerance from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate vs to serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life So that our whole and absolute redemption compriseth all the degrees and steps of our saluation as iustification sanctification and glorification and these though they were merited and obtained for vs by Christes obedience vnto dâ—…ath yet are they performed and accomplished by diuers other meanes therewith concurring and thereon depending as by the grace of his spirit the working of his power and glory of his comming And therefore the words which you haue set in my behalfe are like their authour that is they are
ambiguous and quarrellous The whole propitiatorie sacrifice are words as doubtfull as the other for since Christ was the Priest who by his eternall spirit offered himselfe vnspotted to God and gaue himselfe for vs to be an offering and sacrifice of a sweet smel vnto God his innocence and obedience chiefly rested in his soule thence sanctified his bodie which suffered death for the ransome of our sinnes Though then all things in Christ were holie and acceptable vnto God and so sacrifices most meritorious yet nothing did fully satisfie the iustice of God for sinne nor make a perfect reconciliation for vs with God but his obedience vnto death For that which must satisfie for sinne must be death other ransome for sinne God neither in his wisdome and counsell would nor in his trueth and iustice could accept after his will once determined and declared It was the first wages appointed and denounced by God to sinne In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death or certainly thou shalt die the doubling of the word noting the inflexibilitâ—…e of Gods counsell and iustice The Apostle witnesseth the same when he sayth The wages of sinne is death Then as sinne was irreuocabâ—…e rewarded with death so must it necessarily be redeemed by death Which rule stood so sure that when the Sonne of God would giue himselfe for vs to redeeme vs he could not do it by reason of Gods immutable counsell and decree but by death Wherefore the Apostle calleth him the Mediator of the New testament through death for the redemption of transgressions And where a testament is there MVST BE sayth he the death of the testator He contenteth not himselfe to say there was but there must be the death of the testator before we could be redeemed A necessitie not simplie binding Gods power but plainly declaring his counsell to be fixed and his will reuealed Since then Christ was to taste death for all men that through death he might destroy him which had power of death euen the diuell and deliuer vs who were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne the point which indeed wee both must stand on is what death Christ suffered to redeeme vs from sinne and to reconcile vs vnto God whether it were the death of the damned which is the second death or the death of the soule or as I auouch the death of the bodie only Other parts of Christes person and beames of his vertues and kinds of his sufferings are not to this quâ—…stion â—…arther than they commended and presented to God Christes death which must ransome our sinnes but the scope to which all the rest was referred and the â—…lose which consummated all the rest was death and therefore no sufferings of Christ were parts of the propitiatorie sacrifice which ransomed sinne but such as ended in death or tended to that sorrowfull shamefull and painfull death of Christ which by order of Gods iustice was appointed to satisfie for sinne The fulnesse of which satisfaction consisted in death and therefore the death and bloud of Christ though they were not the whole sacrifice yet were they the full and perfect ransome and price for sinne because without them the rest could not preuaile and to them all the rest was directed If then you will deale plainly as you pretend or not forget your duetie to God and his trueth you must leaue cauilling with the words of the Holy Ghost and go soberly to consider not whether any other sufferings but whether any other death of Christes be mentioned in the Scriptures to ransome our sinnes besides the death of his bodie If you finde any other there professe â—…t in Gods name if you finde none but only that described or mentioned in the Scriptures leaue snarling at the depth and bredth of those words which the Spirit of God hath authorized and learne rather to vnderstand them truely than vainly to oppose against them In sense and substance there is no difference betwixt these words the death bloud and crosse of Christ the crosse noting the tree whereon Christ died a reprochfull and cruell death for vs and his bloud expressing the maner of his death by sundrie sorts of shedding the same as by whipping piercing his head with thornes boaring his hands and feet to fasten him to the crosse and hanging him thereon three houres by the sorenesse of his wounds till his soule departed from his bodie To make these iarre one with the other which the holy Ghost had knit together is the signe of a busie but not of godly wit and howsoeuer you and your adherents can flourish with figures of Grammar you were best take heede that you turne not your eares from the trueth of God The bodily death which Christ died to ransome our sinnes the holy Ghost doth note sometimes by his Flesh sometimes by his Body sometimes by his Blood and sometimes by his Crosse and these either ioyned or seuered and sometimes also by his soule or life laide downe or powred out vnto death for vs. We finde them ioyned when Paul saith It pleased God by Christ to reconcile all things to himselfe and to pacifie by the BLOOD of his Crosse through him both things in earth and things in heauen And you which in times past were strangers and enemies hath he now reconciled in the BODY OF HIS FLESH through death Seuered are they when Peter saith You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a Lambe vndefiled Who by his owne blood saith the Apostle entered in once into the holyplace and obtained eternall Redemption And so when Iohn saith The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne As likewife Paul We haue Redemption through his blood euen the Remission of sinnes Of his body himselfe saith This is my body which is giuen for you and my flesh will I giue for the life of the world so are we sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Likewise of his soule by which the Scripture meaneth his life for that life wholy dependeth vpon the presence of the soule in the body My Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my soule or life The sonne of man came to giue his soule or life as a ransome for many And Esay foreshewed that Christ should diuide the spoyle of or with the mightie Because he powred out his soule vnto death which seuereth the soule from the body and so made it an offering for sinne by laying it downe of himselfe that death might seaze on his body This then being the maine foundation of the Gospel which the Apostle receiued that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures the Question still standeth as I first set it What death Christ died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scriptures and not what sufferings went before or what other things ioyned with his death which is
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
sheepeheard and lay downe my soule for my sheepe that is by my death men are deliuered from eternall death I aske now the Christian Reader whether he thinke it a shift of mine when Christ gaue his soule for vs or our soules for me to say that he gaue it by the losse of his life in such sort as the Euangelists describe or whether the Scriptures and Fathers together with the later writers doe not consent with me in the same exposition of Christs words This conclusion then that Christ gaue his soule for our soules doth not inferre that he had distinct times places or manners of suffering or dying for our soules and then for our bodies that is erroneous iniurious to the death of Christ and openly disclaimed euen by the Discourser himselfe but that in suffering death on the crosse by which his soule was separated from his body after long and sharpe torments first endured in his body his soule was the chiefe or rather the onely patient that discerned and sustained the bitternesse of the paines and perceiued the cause for which and the counsell of God from whence all that affliction was ordained and decreed For as we sinned in body and soule but chiefly in soule so Christs death for our Redemption must grieue both body and soule but chiefly the soule which was ioyned with the body in suffering death that both soule and body might be redeemed and the paine thereof proportioned to the soule as the pleasure of sinne chiefly delighted the soule More then this no Father euer ment and this is no way denied by me You would faine wring in a conceite of your owne into their words which is mainly directly against their words and resolutions in all other places and therefore which of vs two deserueth best the name of a shifter let the Reader iudge The Fathers striue to expresse an exact proportion so farre as was possible betweene Christ and vs first in the parts that suffered in Christ and are saued in vs Next in that which Christ suffered for vs and which we are saued from thereby They iustly conclude that no parts of our nature are saued in vs but such as Christ assumed into the vnitie of his person and therefore in Christs sufferings there must be body and soule before they could be humane sufferings or auailable for vs. As by man came death so by man came the resurrection of the dead But that they doe or would affirme that we are saued from no more then Christ suffered for vs or that we are wholy freed from all those kinds of paines which he suffered for our sakes this is a false and fantasticall proportion of your owne inuenting it is no part of their meaning Sundry things should we haue suffered for sinne as the death of the soule and the death of the damned besides reiection from all grace and blisse confusion malediction and many other terrors and torments of conscience which by no meanes these Fathers apply to Christ but in euident and vehement words auouch the contrarie Christ likewise suffered wrong reproch shame paine and death of the body from which we are not freed yea rather we must haue fellowship with his afflictions and be conformed vnto his death before we shall be partakers of the comforts that are in him or of his resurrection So that your running to proportions of your owne compounding when you should bring sound probations for that you defend is mad Musicke though best becomming the discords of your doctrine As we are saued not in our bodies onely nor onely in the externall sensitiue part of our soules wherein standeth that suffering with and by our bodies but we are saued redeemed and sanctified in our whole spirit and vnderstanding also euen so by their verdict Christ suffered for vs not the bodily and outward sufferings by Sympathie onely but he suffered for vs euen in his minde also Now this is directly against your present assertion A man can not readily tell whether your assertion in this place be more false absurd or idle The Scripture teacheth vs that a man hath but two substances of which he consisteth a mortall and visible which is his bodie an immortall and inuisible which is his soule Our Sauiour who best knew what man had saith as much Feare not them which kill the bodie but can not kill the soule feare him rather that can destroy soule and bodie in hell The names of these parts are sometimes varied and sometimes diuided into sundrie powers and faculties but the partes themselues cannot be increased Salomon speaking of mans death sayth Dust goeth to the earth as it was meaning the bodie and the Spirit returneth to God that gaue it meaning the Soule Of a Virgin Paul sayth she careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in bodie and spirit that is in bodie and soule And writing to the Thessalonians the same Apostle saith that their whole Spirit and Soule and Bodie may be kept blamelesse vnto the comming of the Lord Iesus Christ. Of this place diuerse haue diuersly thought Chrysostome Theodoret Ambrose Ierome Oecumenius and Theophylact commenting on these words take the spirit for the grace of Gods spirit wherewith our mindes are lightned and renewed and indeede sometimes Paul vseth the word spirit for the gifts of the spirit as where he saith Quench not the spirit and calleth them our spirits as the Spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets Howbeit Athanasius Tertullian Epiphanius Gregorie Nyssene Augustine Bede and others take here the spirit for the vnderstanding and minde of man as also Caluine Zanchius and Beza doe who referre the soule here spoken of to the will and affections of man not that any of them maketh two soules in man which were most absurd but that by those names they note two different faculties or functions in one and the same substance of mans soule Come now to your words and see how handsomely you proportion them either to your Authors or to the trueth or to your purpose Not one of the Fathers which you cite nameth the minde of Christ but onely his soule and his bodie saue Nazianzene who speaketh not of Christs suffering in the minde but of his sanctifying the same by assuming it in his incarnation Let himselfe explane his owne wordes in the very same place Our mind some say is condemned And what our flesh is not that also condemned then either cast away mans flesh from Christ for sinne or admit mans mind that it may be saued For if Christ take the worse part of man to sanctific it by his incarnation shall he not take the better part that it may be sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his assuming of mans nature I speake not this as if it might not safely be granted that Christs soule suffered as well by
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
bodilie death which God had irreuocably pronounced and executed on Adam and his ofspring by returning him and them to the earth for manie thousand yeeres before Christ came but rather in that to partake with vs that he might saue vs from the rest which in all the wicked did accompany this death and in the end to raise vs againe to a better life lest we should faint vnder the hand of God who fastneth vs to the afflictions of this life by the example and fellowship of Christs sufferings For if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him and we must first die in Adam before we can be quickned againe in Christ. They are now profitable for vs you will say and so rather helpe vs than hurt vs in this corruption of sinne with which we are compassed I doubt not thereof and so were they from the first instant that they were imposed on Adam but how came this corruption of our nature if not as a punishment of sinne in Adam and consequently the remedies thereof do also witnesse Gods displeasure against sinne though they be farre more holesome for vs than to rot in the sores of our inward corruption Can any man doubt but God was and is able to cleere vs though neuer so corrupt from the infection and dominion of sinne by the working of his Spirit more mightilie and casilie than by troubles and griefs if it had so seemed good to his wisdome and iustice And had he determined to shew vs onlie loue without all regard to his iustice how readie was it for him in Christ to haue released as well all corporall and temporall affliction to his elect as he did spirituall and eternall But he resolued otherwise in his most wise counsell for the conseruation of his iustice and so now healeth our corruption with the salue of affliction to let vs haue continually presented before our eyes and impressed in our bodies what our sinne at first did and still doth deserue though he neuer withdrew his mercie from vs which in the end shall most abundantly recompense all Wherefore it is no reason that because troubles are profitable or necessarie for our corrupt state therefore they are not effects of Gods displeasure against sinne yea rather because God could haue otherwise cured sinne in vs and would not but by perpetuall affliction it is an argument that God so hated sinne in our first parents that he would haue the verie remembring curing thereof to be alwayes in this life painfull and grieuous to our outward man though he would also comfort vs in Christ whiles heere we liue and heereafter crowne vs with glorie for Christes sake Neither is this a question of words whether they be proper or improper in the Scriptures but a point of doctrine necessarie to be receiued of all men that the corruption and dissolution of our nature and life in this world doth manifest the exceeding hatred that naturallie God hath of sinne who rewarded it in all mankinde so seuerely that he spared neither the bodies soules states nor liues of his elect from sensible signes of his detesting sinne in them though for his sonnes sake in whom they were beloued and adopted he would by his wonderfull power rather further than indanger their saluation euen by those maladies and corrosiues of sinne This sheweth the greatnesse of Gods power and goodnesse of his mercie towards vs but this altereth not the iudgement which God pronounced and punishment which he inflicted on Adam and all his ofspring for sinne The corruption and infection of sinne which naturally and continually dwelleth in all the godly called by Diuines concupiscence is it no punishment of sinne because the guilt thereof is remitted in Baptisme and now it is left in vs to humble vs and awake vs to call for grace and to resist sinne that striuing with it we see not only the danger of sinne assaulting vs but the Spirit of God assisting vs and bountie of God rewarding vs The actuall sinnes of the faithfull shall we thinke them no sinnes but fauors from God because by them God worketh repentance submission conuersion yea faith zeale ioy and thanksgiuing in his elect God worketh sayth Austen all things for the good of those that loue him and so farre forth vtterly all things that if any of them stray and for sake the right way euen that God turneth to their good because they returne more humble and better taught The like I say of death and other miseries of mans life pronounced first by Gods mouth and still inflicted by Gods hand They are as they were degrees or effects of Gods anger against sinne in Adam pursuing him and all his posteritie for the confirmation of his iustice though by Gods mercie towards his they now serue as they did euen at the first in Gods children to represse sinne to worke repentance to raise confidence in God and contempt of all earthly things and to exercise the graces of Gods Spirit giuen them as patience obedience and such like and to giue them assurance of a better life The Church of Christ euer was and is of the same minde with me that the death of the bodie with her seeds and fruits in this life first entred and still remaineth as a PVNISHMENT of sin Men shunned saith Austen the death of the flesh rather than the death of the spirit that is the punishment rather than the cause of the punishment We came vnto death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death was the sacrifice for sinne Theodoret speaking of the separation of bodie and soule wherby that which is mort all sustaineth death the soule remaining free from death as being immortall asketh his aduersarie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doest thou not thinke death to be a punishment Who answering The Diuine Scripture teacheth so much Theodoret inferreth Is death then the punishment of sinners The other yeelding that this is granted of all men Theodoret concludeth Why then since both the soule and bodie sinned doth the bodie alone sustaine the punishment of death Fulgentius Nisi praecessisset in peccato mors animae nunquam corporis mors in supplicio sequeretur Except the death of the soule had gone before by sinne the death of the bodie had neuer followed after as a punishment And therefore of our flesh he sayth Nascitur cum poena mortis pollutione peccati It is borne with the punishment of death and pollution of sinne And of yoong children By what iustice is an infant subiected to the wages of sinne if there be no vncleannesse of sinne in him or how do we see him strooken with death if he felt not the sting thereof which is sinne Maxentius in the confession of his faith We beleeue sayth he that not only the death of
the exceeding loue and admirable honor wherewith God accepted and aduanced the death of his Sonne for mans saluation seeme to any sober man verie wrath true vengeance or the proper punishment of sinne prouided and reserued for reprobate men and angels It was not for correction you say What then ergo for vengeance Who being in his right wits would so reason God afflicteth his Saints often times for probation for perfection for coronation as the Scriptures auouch and not for correction May a man thence conclude by your Logick that these afflictions of the Godly are true punishment and proper vengeance Your selfe most withstand it Why then since Christes afflictions had in them a cleere illustration of Gods wisdome power and loue towards man somewhat blemished and obscured in mans fall by Satans craft and a full recompence to his holinesse and iustice neglected and irritated by mans vnrighteousnesse besides the obedience sufficience and preualence of his Sonne thereby declared why should I say those afflictions of Christ great and small during his life and at his death seeme to any man that is well aduised the true wrath proper vengeance and right punishment that was prepared for sinners Yea since the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne must be common to sinfull men with the sinfull Angels in as much as they both sinned and shall both receaue the due wages of sinne how can the corporall afflictions of this life wherein the diuels can not partake with men be called the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne And who but you hearing our Sauiour pronounce that euerlasting fire is the full payment and proper punishment of wicked and accursed men and Angels would labour with such loose and lewd collections to bring Christ Iesus within the compasse of the full punishment and proper vengeance due to sinne Wherefore take backe your riotous and irreligious termes As they are not prooued by any Scripture so are they not to be suffered in Christian Religion because they are but cloudes to cloke the fantasticall frame of your new hell In the sharpnesse of the punishment exacted by God on the manhood of his owne Sonne for our sinnes though farre different from that which the wicked doe and shall feele and which the Scriptures call the wrath to come wherein the diuels shall haue their portion euen in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone God would haue vs learne how much he detesteth our sinnes how easie all the plagues which we suffer in this life are in respect of that we deserue how infinite the loue and mercy of God was towards vs to lay the burden which we could not haue borne on the shoulders of his onely Sonne who for his dignitie innocencie and euery way sufficiencie was able to quench that wrath that euerlastingly and intolerably would haue burnt against vs to our finall and perpetuall destruction of body and soule For if Gods owne Sonne though he did recompence our sinnes with his infinite humilitie obedience and sanctitie was yet pursued vnto death in most painefull and reprochfull manner for our sakes before we could be quited from the guilt and load of our sinnes had we appeared in the iust iudgement of God to receaue the reward of our manifold iniquities what could haue beene the end thereof but a most dreadfull damnation of body and soule to hell fire for euer with the desperate and damned spirits This God would haue vs obserue in the death of his Sonne though there be many other points of Gods wisedome power and loue towards Christ himselfe which the Scriptures inclose in the Crosse of Christ. That then Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes appeared in the Crosse of Christ I doe not deny speaking of wrath after the manner of the Sacred Scriptures But that any wrath or vengeance proper to the wicked was therein offered or executed on Christ or that he suffered the iust and full punishment allotted to others for sinne Saue that his sufferings were in his person the full price of our Redemption I meane a most sufficient satisfaction and recompence for all the sinnes of the world I find no mention made thereof in all the Scriptures nor see any iust cause or proofe thereof alleaged by you in all your writings For since you will not endure that any thing executed on the godly shall be truely called wrath it is euident that the wrath which you imagine Christ suffered must be proper to the wicked before it can be rightly called wrath because the godly feele no part of Gods wrath litle nor great as you suppose Now that Christ suffered the wrath of God prouided for the sinnes of the wicked only and no way common to the godly this is both a false and a wicked proposition of yours though you euery where vrge it you no where prooue it but boldly as your fashion is affirming it you thinke the world bound to embrace it I find by the Scriptures that the wrath which Christ suffered in Soule and Body differed from that which is proper to the wicked as well in the Nature and measure of the paines as in the purpose of the punisher and inward peace of the sufferer and in all the consequents of the paines themselues In this world the wicked find subtraction of all grace and fauour confusion and desperation in the world to come exclusion from glorie Malediction and damnation wholy and euerlastingly light on them none of which may be transferred to Christ without intolerable blasphemie Yet paine you thinke Christ suffered and more then paine the wicked and damned doe not suffer Were that true which is most false that the damned suffer no more then pain though indeed in hell cuery thing doth paine them yet all paines are not of the same nature and kind and no paines felt in this life come neere the paines of hell whereof this mortall life and flesh is not capable The paine of fire we see doth presently cut of this life and some diseases so much heate the body that they doe the like and yet the paine and force of this naturall fire or of any sicknesse is nothing comparable to the fury of hell fire for which the bodies of the wicked must be made immortall before they can endure it All aches and agues doe paine the body all feares and sorrowes afflict the soule and spirit of man Shall we thence conclude that all men at all times when they are pained or grieued suffer the paines of hell because it is paine which the damned doe suffer It is more then prophane abusing and deluding the terrible iudgements of God against sinne to suppose that all paines of body and soule are hell paines in nature and kind which you wrap vnder the fold of proper wrath and right punishment of sinne because they are paines Wherefore they must either be the selfe same paines that God in his iust and fierce wrath inflicted on the damned or you
any certaine measure of Christes paines felt in his bodie or soule by which his soule might easily be afflicted as farre as his humane strength could stretch but the matching and euening of it with hell fire I take to be a presumptuous and irreligious deuice of this Dreamer for the reasons which I haue formerly shewed to wit that hell paines are not executed in this life where Christ suffered nor sufferable to the bodie which is mortall nor tolerable to the strength of men or angels Now though the gifts and graces of Gods Spirit in the soule of Christ exceeded the measure of angels as well for himselfe who is Lord and Iudge ouer all as for vs that receiue of his fulnesse yet in his crucifying the Scriptures note his infirmitie not his infinitie and auouch him by the suffering of death to be inferiour to the angels and not in strength of flesh to be superiour vnto them who are not able to endure hell paines with patience as we finde by triall in diuels Wherefore assure thy selfe Christian Reader they are more than follies which this man fableth of Christes paines equall and euen to hell fire it selfe and such is his constancie in his new Diuinitie that sometimes Christ suffered the verie paines of hell themselues and the same which the damned doe sometimes Christes paine was equall to it and as hot as hell fire and so not the verie same that the damned do suffer who feele indeed the true force of hell fire though not in that heat and heigth which they shall feele it at and after the day of iudgement It is most necessarie and most comfortable to be vnderstood of all men how the Lord assigned to his Sonne in the worke of redemption two persons as it were or countenances or conditions His owne naturally which God euer deerely loued and our countenance or person or condition which the Lord truely accursed and punished His owne Nature felt the sorrow and paine of the curse and hatred but the hatred and curse was bent against the load of our sinne wherein he stood foorth as guiltie before God and appeared as it were clothed therewith The taking of our Nature person and cause by the Sonne of God for our saluation is a key of Christian pietie that most concerneth and most profiteth vs if it be rightly vnderstood But as Waspes out of sweete flowres gather sharpe and hote liquors so out of the wholsome mysteries of true religion you labour to encrease the tartnesse of your vnholsome humour The eternall and true Sonne of God by the determinate counsell of his Father tooke our humane nature that is both the bodie and soule of man into one and the same person with his diuine glorie that by the sanctitie power and dignitie of the one the basenesse and weakenesse of the other might with more certaintie securitie and facilitie performe the worke of our redemption For by the neere and inseparable knitting of those two natures together not onely the person was able by his owne power to destroy sinne death and Satan and of his owne right to giue the spirit of trueth and grace and euerlasting righteousnesse and happinesse to all that beleeue in him but his birth life and death that is his humilitie obedience and patience were of infinite price and value with God by reason the same person that so humbled himselfe to obey the will and suffer the hand of his Father was also God though he could not suffer in his diuine but onely in his humane nature And to assure vs of his mercies towards vs by making vs partakers of his graces and merits with him he tooke all his elect into one and the same bodie with him ioyning himselfe vnto them by the power of his spirit as the head to the members that from him they might draw the strength hope and ioy of eternall life and all his meritorious passions and victorious actions be fully theirs as performed in their names and to their vses by him that for their sakes became their like and their leader I meane their head and their Sauiour And because sinne was the thing which seuered vs from Gods holinesse and prouoked his iustice against vs subiecting vs to death and damnation Christ therefore tooke vpon him the recompence of his Fathers holines by his obedience the preseruance of his Fathers iustice by his patience admitting into his humane soule and bodie not the infection or pollution of our sinne much lesse the confusion or destruction due to vs for sinne since he could neither be defiled with our sinne nor damned for our sinne but the purgation and satisfaction of our sinnes To which end by his obedience he abolished our disobedience that as by one mans disobedience which was Adam many were made sinners so by the obedience of one which is Christ manie should be made righteous and through death suffered in the bodie of his flesh for the redemption of our transgressions he reconciled vs to God and set at peace by the blood of his Crosse things in earth and things in heauen bearing our finnes in his bodie on the tree that we might be healed by his stripes We then were in our selues defiled hated accursed reiected and condemned for sinne yet Christ our Redeemer and Sauiour tooke vs into himselfe and our cause vpon himselfe not to partake with vs in our spirituall filthinesse and eternall wretchednesse but to clense vs from the one and to free vs from the other So that we did neither defile nor endanger him But his blood washed vs from all our sinnes and by his death he destroyed him that had power ouer death euen the deuill You speake then not onely without booke but without trueth when you say that Christ was euer deerely loued of God for his owne condition yet in or for our condition he was truely accursed and hated You might with as much faith and religion haue said That Christ by or with our condition was truely polluted with sinne and truely reiected confounded and damned for sinne For so were we and if his taking our cause vpon him doe truely and necessarily subiect him to our deserts and dangers then can none of these things be auoided which you so much abhorre as blasphemies All those things were due to vs in the highest degree euen when Christ tooke vs and our cause vnto him and were not released vnto vs but in Christ and for Christ and consequently if your two countenances and conditions in Christ be such as you make you may aswell affirme the last as the first that is as well pollution of sinne and damnation for sinne as malediction and hatred for sinne But who is so foolish amongst men as to thinke or call him a Theefe and a Felon that vpon repentance of the partie and recompense for the fact intreateth and obteineth pardon for one that was a Theefe and a Felon or so childish to say that
that meanes further remoued from the dignitie and maiestie of the Sonne of God herefore the Scriptures more carefully expresse that he tooke our flesh and euen therein suffered death sor the ransome of our sinnes though he wanted not a soule when he became man nor any part in him did or could feele and discerne the paine and affliction of his bodie but onely his soule The respects of Christs comming into the world and suffering sor vs if we will learne we need not your termes of directly and primarily the holy Ghost hath taught vs this to be a faithfull saying and worthy of all admittaâ—… that Christ Iesus came into the world to saue sinners Himselfe is a witnesse without all exception that he came to serue and to giue his life a ransome for manie Yea his flâ—…sh which he gaue for the life of the world is the breâ—…d that came downe from heauen If then things in earth and things in heauen were pacified by the blood of his Crosse and we reconciled through death in the bodie of his flesh in which he bare our siâ—…es on the tree It is certaine that Christes bodie blood and death on the Crosse and consequently his sufferings from these and by these were directly and primarily intended as the meanes of our redemption and reconciliation and your vaine imagination of the soules most principall disposition in comparison whereof Christ say you did not respect this sensitiue suffering by Sympathie with and from the bodie which is common to vs with beastes is a lewde and irreligious reproch to the death and Crosse of Christ Iesus For what if the bodie of a beast may be crucified and his blood shed by piercing and wounding as Christs was shall wee therefore say that Christs death and passion were common to brute beastes Would any maâ—… frame his heart thus to think or his tongue thus to speake but he that is bruter then a beast Of your hell paines may it not more truly be said that as you would cast them on Christes soule they should be common to him with deuils who I troe are worse then beastes But these bee meete matters for such a master in Israel as you are You vntruely and vnlearnedly suppose the corporall afflictions of the Saints and of Christ himselfe to pierce no further then into the externall sensitiue part which you make common to them with beasts and sufferings proper to reasonable creatures you admit none but your hell paines which are common to them with deuils So that by your profound diuinitie all Christian men suffer either as beasts or as deuils Which errour of yours I haue sufficiently refuted before and by that enformed the Reader that the chastening and afflicting the soule of man by temporall and externall meanes and paines from the bodie is proper to men and not common to beasts who haue no soules nor to deuils who haue no bodies and that God doth thus chasten and correct his children whose patience is precious in his sight thereby to trie encrease and quicken his graces in them which is blasphemie to affirme either of beasts or deuils And from what spirit this can proceede to yeelde Christ no more sense taste nor thought of his bodily sufferings then you doe to a beast let the Reader iudge for my part I abhorre such heathenish if not hellish comparisons But sense you will say is common to man and beast I haue no doubt that beasts doe heare and see smell taste and feele as well as men but euen in all these fiue and specially in hearing seeing and feeling the soule of man sheweth difference sufficient betwixt a man and a beast For man by his immortall and reasonable spirit discerneth and vnderstandeth what he heareth seeth or feeleth which beasts cannot doe and he conceaueth not onely the things which affect his senses but the causes effects adiuncts consequents and remedies thereof and thereby frameth himselfe if he be religious to behold therein the worke and will of God which is as farre from beasts as reason and grace Though then eares eyes and sinewes be common to men with beastes yet in them and by them the soule of man worketh and suffereth which because beasts haue not it is a verie grosse ouersight of yours Sir Discourser to make the bodily sufferings of Christ common to him with beastes in which the soule of Christ shewed so much obedience pacience submission deuotion and loue that God accepted those sufferings violently and iniuriously inflicted on Christs bodie but humbly religiously and willingly receiued in his soule as the full satisfaction for our sinnes There is no reason in the world nor likelyhood that the naturall facultie in Christs soule of proper and immediate suffering for our sinnes should haue no vse and a suffering of paines onely from and by the bodie should be sufficient when as in his doing of righteousnesse for vs his soules ioynt obedience and mutually knit together in and with his body was not alone sufficient This must needes be a perfect reason for vs against you except you could by expresse Scripture disprooue this proportion of like necessitie betweene the operation of the proper faculties of Christs humane soule that is betweene his doing and his suffering for vs which you shall neuer be able to doe When and how came you by this authoritie or libertie that you may say what you will in matters of faith without all warrant of holy Scripture and your fansies must stand for authentike except I can disproue them by expresse Scripture Nay first proue them before we receiue them as you and all other Christians ought to doe if you will haue them passe for grounds of religion and then if I can not disproue them by the same Scriptures they shall go for good An answer to this perfect reason of yours if you would haue I answere you with Tertullian Non recipio quod extra Scripturam de tuo infers I receiue not this which you bring of your owne without the Scripture And with Athanasius If you will babble other things besides those which are written why striue you with vs that are persuaded neither to heare nor to speake any thing besides the Scriptures Shew vs this proper and immediate suffering for sinnes in the soule of Christ which you so much talke of by the Scriptures and we wil thinke our selues bound to answer it otherwise it is as easily reiected as it is offered But there is no reason in the world nor likelyhood it should bee otherwise Indeede there is no reason in the world nor likelyhood it should be so as you haue said For in Christes doings and sufferings there was obserued and must bee confessed a cleane contrarie course His doings were all iust and holy as hee himselfe was and proceeded first from his own mind and will by the immediate power and grace of Gods spirit in him whencesoeuer the outward occasions were offered him
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
ioyntedst me Lo here the conception and formation of mans bodie in his mothers wombe most excellently described It followeth now in Ieb touching the soule Life and mercie thou hast giuen me and thy visitation hath kept my spirit Beholde life that is the soule infused of God into the bodie alreadie framed Therefore rightly and according to the Scriptures do we holde that mens soules are created of God and infâ—…nded into their bodies perfectlie framed before in the wombe Caluine God is the Father as well of the soule as of the bodie and the only Father if we speake properly yet because in creating soules he vseth not the seruice or worke of man after a peculiar maner by a kinde of excellencie he is called the Father of spirits Beza I thinke not good to dissemble this that the doctrine of traducing the soule from the parents seemeth to me verie absurd because either the whole or a part must be traduced If the whole the fathers of force must presently dic hauing whollie lost their soules If a part how can a part be cut off from a simple and spirituall substance Vrsinus We grant the soules of all men are created of God when they beginne to liue for they at one time are created and vnited to the bodie Zanchius That the whole soule is created by God I beleeue confesse and teach with the whole Church and auouch it may be prooued by firme reasons His reasons are largely deliuered in the fift chapter of the same booke and all that can be sayd for generation and propagation of soules against their creation by the immediate worke of God without any humane meanes is there learnedly and sufficiently refuted So that in respect of Austens doubt whether God deriue the soule from the soules of the parents when he putteth it into the bodie being first finished or createth it of nothing as he did Adams soule I did relinquish that in question but as for the soules rising in and by generation from Adam which you now catch holde of I neuer meant to fauor that fansie so much as to make it any question in matters of faith since with one consent Philosophie Physicke euident experience and the Scriptures themselues conuince that to be an erroneous and manifest vntruth I haue shewed before at large that your Minor is nothing true for pollution that is sinne and reall iniquitie is not in our flesh without a soule You said so much in effect before in your Treatise and if your word bee a proofe you haue shewed it but other proofe you bring none saue that which inclineth rather to heresie then Christianitie if you speake to the purpose and stand to your words as they lie either in your Treatise or in your Defence In your Treatise you say Let vs not bee curious in this hard point holding this most euident trueth that sinne is a proper and vnseparable qualitie of the soule and can not be found being in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting If you take the word sinne in his right sense as you ought to doe speaking of the propagation of sinne and so comprise in it as well originall as actuall sinne here are two grosse errors euen against the Christian faith For if sinne can not be found in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting then can no sinne bee found in the deuils for they haue no soules Angels to haue soules I doe not remember that euer I read in the deuine and canonicall Scriptures saith Austen If Angels haue not soules then deuils haue none for they were holy and now are reprobate but still Angels as Christ calleth the deuill and his Angels Againe sinne being either actual or originall children in their mothers wombe haue not actuall sinne neither dispute we of actuall sinne when we talke of deriuing and inheriting sinne for actuall sinne is neither deriued nor inherited If then that which is conceiued haue no originall sinne so long as the soule wanteth since you content your selfe as you say with the opinion of the most at this present that the soule doth not passe together with the seede of our generation and conception most euidently you denie original sinne till the soule come to quicken the body and so contradict the expresse words of Dauid who saith Hee was begotten in sinne and conceiued in iniquitie No maruell then you stumble at Ambroses words that wee are defiled before we hauâ—… life as repugnant to your purpose when you spare not Dauids words who saith as much if not more then Ambrose I pray omit mens Authorities in this case and prooue by sound reason that which you would For pollution that is sinne and reall iniquitie is not in our flesh without a soule We were best to omit all learning experience and trueth that onely your conceits may stand vpright It hath pleased God in things naturall by sight and experience to leade Philosophers and Physitians to the trueth of his workes as farre as mans wit can reach and with one consent they resolue that the reasonable soule of man neither riseth in the body nor commeth to the body presently with the conception Mothers and midwiues doe certainely distinguish the time of quickning from the time of conceiuing and hee that would perswade them that the child quickneth immediately vpon the conception might as easily bring them to beleeue that the moone is made of a greene cheese But sound reason you require As if trueth of experience were not the soundest reason men can giue till God doe speake That the body is not straight way framed vpon the conception many thousand scapes in all femals and namely in women doe perfectly prooue The Physitians and Philosophers interpose many monthes betweene the conception and perfection of the body Iob himselfe declareth that we were first as milke when we were in seede then condensed as curds when we turned to bloud and after that clothed with skinne and flesh and lastly compacted with bones and synewes before we receiued life and soule from God The new Testament noteth these three degrees in forming our bodies to wit seede bloud and flesh and calleth our parents the fathers of our bodies but not of our spirits which God alone is If then nothing can be defiled with sinne as by your doctrine you resolue except it haue a reasonable soule of necessitie wee either had reasonable soules at the instant of our conception which is a most famous falsehood repugnant to al learning experience and to the words of Iob or else we were not conceiued in sinne which is a flat heresie dissenting from the plaine words of the sacred Scriptures and from the Christian faith Choose which of these issues you will you either way shew your selfe to haue little sense and lesse trueth But I must adde the word onely or else I say nothing against you No good Sir that shall not need
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
bodie against the soule So that when he will put any euill thoughts into the hearts of men as he did into Iudas and Ananias and dayly doth into the children of disobedience and often time into the godlie themselues when he is so permitted he can not of himselfe turne and winde the heart as pleaseth him that is proper to God alone but he abuseth our eares and eyes or els he stirreth the humors and spirits of the bodie and by tempering and mixing the resemblances of things receiued from the sense and reserued in mans imagination he obiecteth to the mind what he listeth and incensing the affections that are likewise bodilie he trieth whether he can draw the heart to consent Which he discerneth not by any inward power of his owne but by the different motions of the heart where the will of man is seated and according as he findeth his temptations to be either refused or admitted in the heart of man so he either desisteth from his lost labour or persueth the suggestion once allowed till the sinne be performed S. Austen discussing how diuels could diuine at mens thoughts and induce mens hearts sayth Suadent miris inuisibilibus modis corpora hominum non sentientium penetrando seseque cogitationibus eorum per quaedam imaginaria visa miscendo siue vigilantium siue dormientium The diuels persuade by maruellous inuisible means entring the bodies of men when they feele it not and by certaine resemblances or sights of the imagination intermingling themselues with the thoughts of men either waking or sleeping Of discerning our thoughts the writer of Ecclesiasticall opinions amongst S. Austens works sayth Internas animae cogitationes diabolum non videre certi sumus sed motibus eas corporis ab illo affectionum indicijs colligi experimento didicimus We be sure the diuell seeth not the inward thoughts of the heart yet finde we by experience that he collecteth them by the motions of the bodie and the shewes of mens affections To which S. Austen agreeth Sicut apparet concitatior animi motus in vultu vt ab hominibus quoque aliquid forinsecus agnoscatur quod intrinsecus agitur Ita non debet esse incredibile si etiam leuiores cogitationes dant aliqua signa per corpus quae obtuso hominum sensu cognosci non possunt acuto autem damonum possunt As a vehement motion of the minde appeareth euen in the countenance that men may outwardly perceiue what is inwardly purposed so ought it not to be incredible that the lighter thoughts of men giue some signes by the bodie which can not be descried by the dull sense of men but yet may be discerned by the quicke sense of diuels By themselues then diuels can not infuse any thoughts into vs that onely belongeth to the spirit of God immediatly to inspire the heart of man neither can they so much as discerne our secret thoughts which none can do but he that framed the heart yet as the soule getteth her knowledge by resemblance and informance of things carried from the senses to the imagination and thence presented to the minde so the diuell hath his meanes to worke in the outward and inward senses which haue corporall seats and spirits and by the similitudes and shewes of things there found to offer suggestions to the minde of man Whether it be therefore the world without vs the flesh within vs or the diuell both without and within that tempteth vs our senses imaginations and affections are the meanes which are vsed by all those three and these haue such vnion and communion with the bodie that after death there is no meanes for new temptations to be offered nor new sinnes to be committed but ech man shall receiue iudgement for the things done in the bodie and not after or before the bodie That all the thoughts of man be they neuer so light giue signes in the bodie I by no meanes affirme for so the diuels should easily discerne thoughts and S. Austen wisely did moderate that assertion and make some doubt how thoughts are knowen to diuels but in sinnes of which I speake not of thoughts it is more manifest that the diuell hath his meanes to see whether his temptations take place in the heart or no. For when S. Iames sayth Resist the diuell and he will flee from you surely the diuell must see when he is resisted in the heart of man els how shall he flee Giue no place to the diuell sayth Paul Then doth the diuell perceiue when place is giuen vnto him that he may enter and possesse the heart neither are his temptations so vainly offered that he can not discerne when the heart imbraceth them The soule therfore pleased or displeased with euill causeth certaine naturall motions and impressions on the bodie by which the wicked spirits obserue the inclination of the heart and that to them is as cleere as the outward carriage of the countenance is to men or the inward feeling of our affections is to our selues Of outward motions and impressions Iesus the sonne of Syrach sayth The heart of man changeth his countenance either to good or euill A cheerefull face is the token of the heart for good and when the countenance falleth the heart is displeased Why is thy countenance cast downe sayd God to Cain reprouing his dislike that Abels sacrifice was preferred And when Labans heart altered towards Iacob Labans countenance was not as it was before I haue seene thy face as the face of God because thou hast accepted me sayd Iacob to Esau and vsually in the Scriptures to finde grace in the eyes noteth a fauourable and louing respect had to any Nature teacheth vs as well as Scripture that anger and fauour sorrow and ioy feare and shame and all the affections of the heart appeare in the verie faces of men and so doe pride enuie luxurie aâ—…arice impudencie and such like vices betray themselues by the very lookes The loftie eye of man shall be humbled that is his pride shall be abased The wicked enuieth to see with his eye and turneth away his face and the eye of the couetous is not satisfied with any part Of wantons Peter sayth They haue eyes full of adulterie By what outward signes of face eyes gostures and motions of the bodie the inward affections and dispositions of the minde may be gathered would be long to deliuer Tertullian sayth truly Facies intentionum omnium speculum est The face is the glasse of all our intentions or affections And Ambrose Habitus mentis in corporis statu cernitur The disposition of the minde is perceiued by the state of the bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is more deformed sayth Basil and more displeasing euen to the sight then the soule when she is in her affections Obserue an angrie man and the fiercenesse of his looks Marke a man sorrowing
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
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
and drawing the body with the powers and parts thereof to the obedience of faith so farre as the law of sinne lusting in the flesh will permit and the measure of grace giuen vs doth preuaile Against this doctrine you would seeme to bring many obiections but they are such as will prooue you either to vnderstand nothing at all besides your owne fansies or to play with shadowes when you most professe to be serious and earnest Your first is Heresies Turcisme and Atheisme are committed and determined simplâ—…ly in the mind without any necessarie imployment of any parts of the bodie If you can tell me what religion you were of in your cradle before you did speake or vnderstand your instance were of some waight But if men be taught as well errors as trueth by their parents and masters then this is a wodden reason to make vs beleeue that heresies are inspired without teaching or hearing S. Paul saith Faith commeth by hearing and so I trust you did first learne it and not by reuelation If we be not borne Christians in knowledge but must be taught no more are any men borne Iewes Turkes or Heretikes but their eares and hearts must be first infected with the tongues or pennes of others This is one of your surest weapons wherewith you thought to doe great workes but put it vp at such strawes children will not stumble The first inuenters of heresies you will say were not taught The first authors of errours shut their eyes or eares against the trueth offered them and so declined from trueth to falsehood by leaning rather to their owne corrupt iudgements grounded on earthly reasons then to the voyce of God directing them aright For why doe men disbeleeue and impugne the word of God as all heretikes do but because they measure diuine things that passe their reach by humane sense and experience which are not gathered without the bodie The Turkes are strangers you thinke to the word of God and Atheists are vtter despisers of it The Turke destitute of trueth and so notable rightly to iudge of Gods fauours in this life bendeth his eyes on the worldly miseries of Christians and comparing them with the victories and felicities as he thinketh of his owne nation condemneth the faith of Christ as displeasant to God by reason of the manifold afflictions of the faithfull and preferreth his owne profession and Mahomet the first erector of it as most acceptable to God because they haue their desires in this world and are conquerors ouer Christians not knowing the finall reward of the one and of the other after this life Atheists are caried with almost the same respects to denie or despâ—…se the power and prouidence of God For they being earthly minded and seeing the wicked and prophane persons not onely free from punishment but most to flourish in this life doe hence collect there is no God whose patience and iustice they deride because hee dispenseth not transitorie things according to their expectation Further as the Angels sinned in the beginning by their meere spirituall conceit against God so nothing letteth but that man in his Angel-like nature the reasonable soule may sinne likewise without any bodily meanes thereunto This is another of your reasons not much vnlike the former For in Angels which now are deuils their vnderstanding and will might and did sinne because they were spirits and other essentiall partes in them we doe not know In men that cannot be because they consist of bodie and soule and haue many powers of the soule permixed with the bodie and so must sin in both the parts of their nature before they can sin as the Angels did that is in their whole substance If then you see no difference betweene Angels that are only spirits and men that must haue bodies as well as soules before they can be men your Angel-like nature is not very bright If you see the difference and yet vrge your consequence that is a meere spirituall conceite of yours but vtterly voyde of all reason For as well men as Angels must sinne in their whole natures least whiles you place one part in hell as nocent and the other in heauen as innocent you bring vs as strange iudgements as you doe doctrines In Gods iudgement Ea solummodo quaeruntur quae cum corpore gessit those things onely are required saith Cyrill which man committed with his bodie Neither will this serue your turne that the bodie is the instrument of the soule For as whiles man liueth many faculties of the soule are tempered with the bodie so when man sinneth the whole soule is not guiltie if the sensitiue powers and affections of the soule be exempted from sinne And since by Gods ordinance after Adams fall the corruption of sinne first riseth in the bodie the information and tentation to sinne commeth from the bodie and the consent of the soule to sinne is impressed on the bodie as also willing subiection to sinne is yeelded by the bodie this is let sufficient why the soule alone neither can nor doeth sinne in this life without her bodie Also as we can thinke well without vsing our bodie God so inspiring vs so may we thinke ill which is sinne our inborne corrupt vnderstanding and reason and will moouing vs only If Gods power be not tied to the course of nature prescribed vs will you thence inferre that we are likewise freed from it He that framed the heart can open it and alter it as pleaseth him but that is no charter for vs to chalenge any knowledge saue what is naturally gathered with our eyes or with our eares or supernaturally reuealed to vs. Wisedome infused from our cradles we haue none we KNOVV not our right hand from our left till by time we be taught and our teachers be they men or Angels must vse our outward senses or our inward imaginations to direct and instruct vs otherwise we can neither conceaue nor vnderstand what they say or shew since they can not lighten our hearts And when God doth inspire vs with that which is good he not onely openeth our hearts but filleth them with the loue of his truth goodnesse without which all knowledge is nothing Now the loue of God diffused in our hearts here on earth raiseth the selfe same inward and naturall motion of the heart which is incident to that affection and which other kindes of loue doe least our hearts should be colder and slower in louing God who requireth all the partes and powers of soule and bodie to be deuoted to his loue then they were in affecting and louing the world So that first your Antecedent is false for things inspired must be embraced with the whole heart before they can please God and your consequent is â—…orse since God worketh aboue nature in things that be good and leaueth vs in things that be euill to the naturall course of our corrupt condition which receaueth sinne from the soule and
bodie and imparteth it vnto both that neither scape vnpunished If the Soules operations were so necessarily tied to the faculties and instruments of the body as you doe auouch I greatly doubt how the Soules immortalitie will be defended against the effect of your assertion I giue the body no essentiall cooperation with the Soule in vnderstanding and will I giue it a prouocation impression subiection and execution in euill which argueth a communion with the Soule in sinne though vnderstanding and will bee the proper actions of the Soule Now if the soule so long as shee is ioyned with her body communicate her sinfull operations to the body is that any proofe shee can not bee seuered from the body Children in their cradles haue no knowledge of good and euill Shall they therefore remaine children for euer in minde and not discerne either their happinesse in heauen or their wretchednesse in hell What here they want because the soule is coupled with the body shall there be supplied when the soule is parted from the body Here the soule seeth with the eyes heareth with the eares and speaketh with the tongue but after this life our Sauiour teacheth vs that the Soule shall see heare and speake after an other maner as spirits doe though shee want eyes eares and tongue Here the soule can not mooue from place to place but with her body when shee is seuered shee shall be caried to Paradise or hell without her body Here the passions of the Soule desire ioy feare and sorrow are common to both parts of man hereafter they shal be proper to the soule so long as shee abideth vncoupled to the body Here foolishnesse madnesse forgetfulnesse sicknesse wearinesse do hinder the operations of the soule there shall bee no such thing Here the soule sinneth repenteth and beleeueth there is no place nor power to commit new sinnes nor to repent the olde S. Austen sayth thereof Istis voluntas illis facultas non poterit esse vlla peccandi The Saued can haue no will the Damned no power to sinne So that the condition of the Soule seuered from the body much differeth from the state of the soule ioyned with the body and though shee communicate her actions good and bad in this life to her body yet in the next shee shall vse her vnderstanding and will and feele her affections and passions without her body Surely it bringeth in the heresie of Pope Iohn the two and twentieth and of certaine Anabaptists that the Soule hath no being till shee resume her body at the last day Your ignorance is no argument to bring the soule a sleepe till shee resume her body Shee hath no seueral being from her body in this life for that Man consisteth of soule and body vnited and ioyned together Shall shee therefore not bee seuered or haue no being when shee is seuered Are you a Diuine and doe not know that God hath so framed the Soule that shee may be vnited to the body and also seuered from the bodie without losse of her essentiall powers which yet during this life are seated in the body and in some sort assisted by the body The very faculties of sense and motion which are permixed with the body and can not be exercised but in the body retaine their roote and force still in the Soule when their operation ceaseth for want of the body To gather knowledge and declare consent the Soule heere vseth the spirits and parts of the body yet after this life her vnderstanding and will shall not onely persist the same which they were but be exceedingly encreased and confirmed For now we see through a glasse darkely but then face to face Now we know in part but then shall we know euen as we are knowen Yea loue and ioy which here are discerned by the motion of the heart and alteration of the spirits shall there bee most perfect and neuer fall away So that your doubt of Pope Iohns heresie to be consequent to my position is a drowsie slumber of your distempered braine it hath no coherence with any conclusions or assertions of mine Hence is it that you say Gods iustice punisheth the soule onely by the body that is not till the resurrection You can hatch errours foule enough and fast enough if you may be suffered to adde and alter what pleaseth you in other mens words Betweene the professions of Arians Christians there was but a diphthongs difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists holding there is NO God swarue but one sillable from the truth What heresie then may you not come by adding ONLY to my words which I precisely did decline and made a manifest exception against it lest any should suspect it Giue me the like libertie in your words and I will find you holes in euery leafe to harbor the grossest heresies that euer were heard of in Turke or Pagan But Sir this is the diuels occupation plainely to peruert the words that otherwise containe nothing in them but the trueth That the iustice of God both temporally and eternally punisheth the soule by the bodie which are my words is a notorious and manifest trueth for he punisheth temporally in this world and eternally in the world to come after that sort so that no man is so doltish as to doubt thereof That God neuer punisheth otherwise in this life nor the next but ONLY so this is your exorbitant imagination it is no conclusion depending on my words much lesse any part expressed in them In trueth thus you must needs affirme and holde you can not auoid it if you will hold your maine question In trueth your Mastership is mis-sighted I do not see nor you do not shew how any such thing is consequent to my question The absurditie with which you would intangle me that els God did not properly punish Christ for our sins is weaker than a spiders webbe The proper punishment of sinne without respect to persons is spirituall temporall and eternall death which Christ could not suffer The full satisfaction and punishment of our sinnes in Christes person was the death of his bodie suffered on the crosse with those paines preceding and accompanying it which are described in the Scriptures And this is so euident and easie that besides such conceited Sirs as you are few do or need doubt it If I grant this point of heathen Philosophie that the Soule taketh occasion to thinke all things which she thinketh vniuersally from the Body and bodily obiects yet it followeth not that she taketh occasion to mis-thinke from thence also Doe you call that heathen Philosophie which is so plainely perceaued by nature so fully confirmed by Scripture and so vniuersally confessed on all sides that the very Heathen could not gainesay it Tell vs I pray you if you haue lately lighted on any new way how Man may come to knowledge but either from sense or by reuelation
Our Sauiour knew no more waies when he said to Peter Flesh and blood hath not reuealed it vnto thee but my Father which is in Heauen Where men that are teachers or learners are called flesh and blood because without the Body the Soule learneth nothing in this life but what is reuealed vnto it by the spirit of God Saint Iohn knew as few That saith he which we haue seene and heard declare we vnto you that you also may haue fellowship with vs. This a man would thinke were plaine enough that all knowledge must be either naturally infused in vs as it was in Angels or collected of vs by sense and experience or reuealed to vs from God For if we be borne voide of all knowledge as the Scripture expresly testifieth we know not at first our right hand from our left then must we get it by meanes And meanes to come by the knowledge of particular and externall things what can you assigne besides the sense If therefore the Heathen saw this and you see it not you prooue your selfe to haue lesse vnderstanding then the Heathen The Soule indeede by the power of vnderstanding and reason wherewith she is endued of God doth in continuance obserue discerne and compare the agreements and contrarieties of things as also their causes and consequents and what of her selfe she can not perceaue she learneth with more ease of others who are longer and better acquainted therewith and whose phantasiue spirits are thinner and quicker to pearce into the depth of things The differences then and defects of mens wits doe cleerele witnesse that not onely the instruments of sense but the Imaginatiue spirits must concurre to attaine and encrease knowledge in this life vnlesse God inspire the Hart aboue nature which he doth when and where pleaseth him These may be the meanes of thinking and yet not the causes or occasions of mis-thinking The naturall meanes of thinking must still be the meanes of well and ill thinking they varie not howsoeuer the minde varie in her resolutions What or how manie may be the causes or occasions of ill thoughts maketh nothing to this question it sufficeth for my purpose to make the bodie liable to the punishment of euery sinne that the parts powers or spirits of the Body haue any communion with the suggesting admitting or performing of ech sinne For in all sinne not onely the Doers but the leaders directors aduisers helpers consenters allowers and reioycers are in their degree partners with the principall Yea all the instruments are iustly detested where the crime is worthily condemned But whence ill thinking commeth can you tell A man may thinke and speake of all the errors and heresies in the world and yet not sinne It is the liking and embracing of them that maketh the offence and not thinking or reasoning of them The will then causeth thoughts to be good or euill the vnderstanding doth not Now the will must haue somewhat to lead it which is either the show of truth or the loue of some other thing which doth preiudice the truth There is no truth but in the word of God which we must either heare or read before we can apprehend If we stop our eares against the word of God shall not that wilfull deafenesse of ours turne to the deserued destruction of Body and Soule If we open our eares but not our harts to the voice of God doth not the loue of some earthly good or feare of some temporall harme close our harts against the truth Both which as well loue as feare come from the bodily senses and affections and make their manifest impression on the hart leading the will to consent to their law For where all ill thoughts are against veritie charitie or temperance men are ledde from the truth by commoditie glory soueraigntie or credulitie as Austen obserueth whereto if we put ease enuie and luxurie we see the causes of all ill thoughts which haue no place in the Soule apart from the Body The proper prouocations and pleasures of sinne are often times not outward at all but the mâ—…ere peruersitie and malignitie of our euill mind is vsually the very cause of ill thoughts and ill determinations You would say some what if you could tell how Doth any thing properly prouoke it selfe Doth the fire prouoke it selfe to burne or the Sunne prouoke him selfe to shine Lamenesse maketh a creeple to halt it prouoketh him not And so doth pitch defile the hands and not prouoke them to fowlenesse The next and necessarie causes of things are called efficients and not provocations So that will you nill you prouocations are externall either to the person or to the part that is the principall or speciall Agent The Apostle teacheth you how to vse the word properly when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prouoking one an other The very composition of the word proueth as much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prouocare is first to call or vrge a man to any thing before he him selfe be willing Then the naturall and inward corruption of the minde is no prouocation but the cause efâ—…cient of ill thoughts and if there be any prouocations they must be externall to the part or partie prouoked And did you know the principles of learning or grounds of nature you would soone perceaue that as well the will of man as his desire is led with respect of somewhat that is good or at least seemeth good which prouoketh and draweth both sense and will to performe her actions Now though the desire Antecedent and delight consequent be inward and inherent yet the good things which we affect and would attaine are then externall when we pursue them and when we vse them or enioy them they are but conioyned with vs in possession or opinion which contenteth both Body and Soule As you do not vnderstand what PROVOCATION meaneth so do you lesse perccaue what PLEASVRE is You mingle Soule and sense head and heeles together to make some shew of opposition but in the end you bewray your presumptuous ignorance and daube it ouer with your wonted words of PROPER MEERE which are as much to this purpose as salt to make sugar The PROPER prouocations and pleasures of sinne are often times you say not outward at all I vsed not the word outward but sayd the soule tooke from the bodie all PROVOCATIONS and PLEASVRES of sinne brought to effect and committed all ACTS of sinne by her bodie you neither marke the restraint which I made in the beginning of that section of all sinnes brought to effect neither see the words following in the same sentence which expresse as much the acts of sinne committed but rouing quite from the matter you â—…arle at my words without iudgement or memorie For as you fumble about prouocations so do you about pleasure which you would make to be meerely spirituall But notwithstanding your toying with termes that is properly PLEASVRE which the soule
taketh by or from the bodie Cicero the father of the Latine tongue disputing of pleasure sayth resolutely Omnes iucundum motum quo sensus hilaretur Graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latine voluptatem vocant All men both in Greeke and Latine call that pleasing motion wherewith the sense is delighted Pleasure And againe In eo voluptas omnium Latinè loquentium more ponitur quum percipitur ea quae sensum aliquem moue at iucunditas That is called pleasure by the vse of all that speake Latine when any delight is felt which moueth some of the senses Plato in his Dialogue called Protagoras referreth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gladnesse to the minde and pleasure to the bâ—…die Aristotle though he often extend the name of pleasure with some addition to other delights yet plainely confesseth the word alone signifieth bodilie pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pleasures of the bodie haue obtained the inheritance of that name So Clemens Alexandrinus By bodily spirits a man hath SENSE and PLEASVRE And Athenagoras likewise Desires and pleasures haue their motion from the bodie Zanchius no meane Philosopher and Diuine sayth Affectuum omnium duo sunt capita voluptas dolor Pleasure and paine are the two chiefe heads of all the sensitiue affections And did not the word pleasure alone without addition signifie the delights of the senses as by these Philosophers and Diuines we see it doth yet the soule taketh no delight which the Scriptures do properly call gladnesse and ioy but she doth communicate the same to her bodie insomuch that the Scriptures expresse the delight and ioy of the soule by the mouing and leaping of the heart as it doth sorow by the shrinking and gathering together of the heart That the heart is the seat of ioy and sorow is euident by the word of God Your heart sayth Christ shall reioyce Thou hast giuen gladnesse into mine heart sayth Dauid to God And againe Wherefore mine heart reioyced And that the affection of ioy in the soule is discerned by the motion of the heart is there as manifest Mine heart leaped that is reioyced in the Lord said Anna when she had obtained Samuâ—…l at the hands of the Lord. Let not thine heart leape sayth Salomon that is reioyce not at the fall of thine enemie My heart leaped for ioy in thy saluation sayth Dauid And God promising comfort and ioy to his people sayth Their hearts shall be glad as with wine yea their heart shall leape with ioy in the Lord. Which motion Dauid ascribeth to his soule saying My soule shall leape for ioy in the Lord and the virgin Marie to her spirit where she sayth My spirit hath leaped for ioy in God my Sauiour thereby shewing that the spirit and soule of man affected with ioy and gladnesse doth raise and stirre the heaâ—…t to a sensible kinde of dilating and leaping euen as in sorow she contracteth and gathereth the heart together I wrote vnto you sayth Paul in much compression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shrinking of the heart that is sorow which contracteth and shrinketh the heart together A better proofe that soule and bodie do communicate together in ioy and griefe we can not haue than that life and death thereon doe depend The ioy of heart is the life of man and sorrow hath slaine manie Which Salomon confirmeth saying A ioyfull heart preserueth the bodie like a medicine but a grieued spirit drieth the bones So that all delight of the minde in sinne which you call pleasure if it affect the soule it is communicated to the bodie if it be so small that it pierceth not the soule nor moueth the heart it deserueth none of those names In examining the acts of sinne you keepe the same course that you do in the rest you light on a licentious phrase and publish that for a proofe For where I sayd all acts of sinne the soule committeth by her bodie by acts noting deeds which the soule can not performe without her bodie you tell vs the soule can act manie sinnes meerely in itselfe without the cooperation of the bodie And though I do not denie the soule hath her kinde of action in all sinne which is actuall whence the name of actuall sinne reacheth to thoughts words and dâ—…eds yet thoughts are no acts neither by the rules of Philosophie nor of Diuinitie Cicero a man no way to seeke in the true proprieties of words prescribing the maner how histories should be written saith In rebus magniâ—… memoriáque dignis consilia primum deinde acta postea euentus expectantur In reporting of weightie matters and worthie of memorie first the counsels then the acts lastly the euents are expected Where counsels containe purposes and determinations and acts quid actum aut dictum sit what was sayd and what was done Aristotle a man too well learned to misse his termes sayth the end of speculatiue knowledge is trueth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…nd of actiue knowledge the worke Damascene noting their difference sayth n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must know that an action is one thing an act is another thing And though the words be often vsed one for another by liberty of speech yet in proprietie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an act is the performing of the action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the minde first discussing the euent then worketh by her bodie and that he defineth to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an act See we not the same confirmed by the Scriptures The Acts of the Apostles written by S. Luke do they declare the secret thoughts or open words and deeds of the Apostles The Acts likewise of Councels as the Acts of the Councell of â—…phesus expresse they what the Bishops there inwardly thought in their minds or what they publikely spake and decreed So that the signification of the word ACTS which I followed was neither deuised nor abused by me but â—…our new kinde of speech that the soule ACTETH manie sinnes meerely in it selfe is a vaine and idle opposition since the soule must worke by the bodie before it can be an Act. I graunt that occasion is often taken from the outward senses But it is meerely taken by the corrupt and peruâ—…rse minde not giuen by the sensâ—…s Which though they be otherwiâ—…e corrupt yet simply in seeing naturall things they sinne not You be very like to handle a Question well when you doe not so much as vnderstand the words therein contained When it commeth in question whether in all prouocations pleasures and acts oâ—… sinne the Soule vse her body or no you answer the mind is the principall agent in sinne and not the body as if that were any way peâ—…tinent to this mattâ—…r Who deuâ—…teth but life sense and motion come from the Soule to the body and in euery of theâ—… the Soule
is the chiefest agent in so much that these faile when the Soule departeth from the body yet that doeth not pâ—…ooue that in all these things the Soule doeth noâ—… vse her body You say occasion of sinne is not giuen by the senses but taken by thâ—… 〈◊〉 Then doeth the world which onely offereth things to the senses giue lesâ—…e occaâ—…on to sinne and Saint Iohn had no cause to say All that is in the world thâ—… 〈◊〉 of the flâ—…sh the dâ—…sire of the eyes and pride of life is not of the Father but of the world and 〈◊〉 whole world â—…eth in euill For the things which are in the world are the good creatures of God and by their first institution serued to show the bountie of God and to pâ—…ouoke man to thankfulnesse and expectation of better things which shall not peâ—…ish But man poysoned with sinne abuseth them all and turneth his desire and loâ—… from God to transitorie and earthly delights And so now considering his corruption they are not onely occasions but prouocations to induce and intise him to sinne And therefore God knowing vpon the fall of Adam what snares they would become vnto Man for whose sake they were made subiected them all to vanitie calling Satan 〈◊〉 Prince and Ruler of this world for that by infecting man with sinne he had altered and iâ—…uerted the vse and ende of the whole world If then the creatures which in themselues are senselesse and altogether innocent bee now baites to drawe men from God and so made occasions of sinne how much more are the senses of man alluâ—… 〈◊〉 sinne which not onely present these pleasures to the minde but inflame the afâ—…ctions to persue them and worke the will to imbrace them The corruption you say is properly and principally in the minde which being first sinfull abuseth their operation As if all the powers of the Soule obeying the will that is euill were not subiect and seâ—…uants to sinne as well as the minde Or the senses and affections of man rebelling against the minde and incensing the will with their delights and desires were not sinfull as well as the minde It is the Soule that taketh her pleasures of sinne as well by her senses as by her vnderstanding and to that end setteth her sensitiue powers on worke the naturall action of the vnderstanding is no more sinfull in it selfe then is the sense but the corruption of the Soule abuseth them both in their kinds to content her sinfull appetites Though then the senses bee not the very causes of sinne which resteth chiefely in the will yet since the Soule ioyneth her selfe vnto the powers of sense by them to imbrace and enioy the pleasures of this life aboue or against the loue of God at least they must be occasions of sinne if they be no more For you to affirme that the Soule committeth all acts of sinne by the body and that God did not forbid Adam to like or desire that fruite is more then strange doctrine In you nothing is strange no not new hels new heauens new deathes of the Soule and new redemptions of mankind vnknowen to the Scriptures and all the fathers of Christes Church but vnto you euerie thing is strange that fitteth not your distempered taste My words that the soule committeth all acts of sinne by her bodie what differ they from Cyprians which I cited that the spirit by the flesh performeth whatsoeuer it affecteth What diuersitie finde ye betwixt them saue that I say soule for spirit bodie for flesh all for whatsoeuer and acts for things affected my words being somewhat plainer and easier than Cyprians and for ought that I see hauing no disagreement The other words that God did not forbid Adam to like the fruit smell of your owne forge which reporteth nothing truely For to prooue that Adam transgressed the commandement with more than his minde I obserued that God did not say to Adam Thou shalt not like it which the soule of Adam did but Thou shalt not eat thereof Which precept since Adam did wholly violate it followeth he sinned with his hand mouth and not with his minde alone You clippe off that which I concluded and neglecting the affirmatiue which I adioyned you note the negatiue which I did not simplie exclude but augmented with an addition of another part that Adam sinned also with his bodie and therefore not with his soule alone or without his bodie The place of Scripture which Tertullian as you say pointeth vnto that out of the heart come euill thoughts being considered will prooue the contrariâ—… For Christ heere meaneth not by heart any part of the bodie but meerely the minde and soule of man and that with opposition to the bodie in this case of sinning You found in your Note-booke that the heart of man is taken in the Scriptures for his will and affection moued with knowledge either from the vnderstanding or from the sense but the reason why it is so vsed you neuer read or doe not remember For if a man should aske you why the hart of man rather then his hand or his heele doth import in the Scriptures his knowledge and will what answere would you frame That it is a figure of speech without all reason or cause Such indeed are your figures but the holy Ghost vseth no such The Scriptures by the parts of mans body expresse the powers of mans soule there seating and there working as sight by the eye hearing by the eare speaking by the tongue going by the feete doing by the hand lusting by the raines and many such The very same reason causeth the hart of man to be taken in the Scriptures for his will which is seated in that part and by which all his cogitations affections and Actions are made good or euill So that the vse of the hart in the sacred Scriptures well considered doth first plainely prooue that the chiefe Seate of the Soule is the hart and next that there it worketh where it dwelleth euen in the hart and on that part impresseth all her affections resolutions when they once grow to be liked or disliked And this is so farre from opposition to the Body in cause of sinning that it doth manifestly communicate sinne vnto the Body In effect Christ saith not the Body sinneth by taking in but the Soule by sending out that is to say the Soule onely properly sinneth and not the Body at all no not in grosse facts except as the Body is the Instrument the Soule being the Agent Your exposition of our Sauiours words and your illation vpon them doe well become one the other Our Sauiour doth not say the Body sinneth not But that which goeth into the mouth or eating with vnwashed hands defileth not the man Now this must be your reason if hence you make any Eating or meate defileth not a man Ergo the Body sinneth â—…ot How good this argument is I leaue to
soule that without it the soule doth not sinne If by naturall dreames you would prooue the perpetuall operation of the soule euen when the bodie is at rest for celestiall dreames come not often and but to few remember first that all ages and persons do not dreame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath hapned to some sayth Aristotle that they neâ—…er dreampt in all their life Plinie and Plutarch confirme the same To some sayth he dreames happen when they grow in yeeres who before that time neuer dreamed Next in those that vse it straight vpon meat whiles sleepe is sound they dreame not but vpon distribution and reuocation of the naturall heat vp to the head Thirdly in dreames except they be from God it is certaine that mens imaginations which haue corporall spirits and seats worke as well as their minde and so the operation of the soule in sleepe is no way continuall nor excludeth the bodie though the outward and common sense be bound and oppressed with sleepe And euen the first ordaining of sleepe for man by God proueth that in meditation contemplation the spirits of the braine which are aeriall yet corporall are vsed by the soule in this life For with inward and earnest intension of the minde and vnderstanding those spirits waxe hoat and drie and therefore of necessitie must be cooled and tempered with sleepe otherwise if men lacke sleepe long frensie disturbeth both reason and remembrance By the maner of curing Lethargies Apoplexies Epilepsies Frensies and such like Galen resolutely concludeth that the discourse of reason and remembrance of sensitiue imaginations haue their seat in the bodie of the braine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first instrument of the soule to all sensible and voluntarie operations is the spirit that is in the hollownesse or celles of the braine Damascene being a Diuine sayth as much The power of imagination receiuing the resemâ—…ances of naturall things from the sense deliuereth the same to the cogitation and consultation of the minde for they both are one which taking them and iudging of them sendeth them to the memorie The instrument of the cogitatiue and consultiue part of the soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the middle celle of the braine and the animall spirit that is there and the instrument of the part mâ—…moratiue is the hinder celle of the braine and the animall spirit that is in it Where the instrument is taken for the seat in which the soule worketh and obiect from whence the soule receiueth the representations of things on which she worketh If the soules operations hang so necessâ—…rily on the bodie the doubt is how she may be separated from the bodie The power by which the soule discerneth and iudgeth of things offered by sense or by reuelation is internall and essentiall so that when she is seuered she is fully possessed of that facultie as part of her nature The meanes by which she commeth to the knowledge of externall and particular things in this life are naturally her senses and spirits by which she worketh in the body supernaturally the power of God which now and hereafter lightneth the eyes of the soule and not onely continueth her knowledge here obtained but increaseth the same and representeth to the mind and conscience all things good or bad here obscured neglected or forgotten The separation of the soule from the bodie and her knowledge after this life depend not vpon her naturall power and strength but vpon the worde and hand of God who can diuide the spirit from the soule euen in this life and either take or giue both sense and reason from her or to her as pleaseth him From Nabuchodonoser God tooke all cogitation and operation of humane reason and sense hee doth the same to others when it liketh him Paul liuing was rapt into the third heauen whether in the bodie or out of the bodie he could not tell but either way was easie to God as also Iohn when he was in the bodie was willed to ascend vp to heauen and was there in his spirit his bodie not dying in the meane space whiles his spirit was absent To children that vtterly know nothing in this life God will giue exact and perfect knowledge of their States by reuealing vnto them either his mercies or their miseries In vs all God will lighten the secrets of darkenesse and as he is trueth so suffer no trueth to lie hid in his presence We shall not onely remember all the workes of our hands and counsels of our hearts which now we haue forgotten but we shall see each others deedes and thoughts which is no way possible for our naturall abilitie so farre as shall be needefull for the declaration of his iust iudgement For nothing is secret that shall not be open neither is there any thing hid that shall not be knowen and come to light Therefore neuer doubt whether the soule hauing left her naturall and corporall meanes of knowledge shall sleepe till the day of resurrection shee shall haue an other manner of knowledge then here shee had either to her euerlasting comfort or confusion She shall then perceiue and discerne the things which eye neuer sawe nor eare euer heard nor euer ascended into the heart of man here on earth Howbeit neither the separation nor intellection of the soule pertaine directly to this question I speake not of cogitations nor of operations of the soule except they be sinnefull and those cease after this life though the knowledge of the soule remaine and in this life when sense discretion or memorie doe wholy faile vnlesâ—…e it be by our owne fault as in gluttonie drunkennesse immoderate passions of loue or anger and such like there also the committing of actuall sinne faileth Further you commit two grieuous faults 1 Tertullian the principle ground which you haue for your opinion here is wonderfully ill vsed 2 you are strangely contrarie to your selfe in your verie winding vp of the matter It seemeth that Tertullian cited before the reason of the Heretikes holding that the soules slepâ—…â—…ill the day of iudgement and receaued no reward at all in the meane time for want of the societie of their flesh but Tertullian answereth and renounceth all the same And so those were the Heretikes words against Tertullian which you alleage out of him in steede of Catholikes It is no fault in you to reade so loosely and erre so grossely that you see neither Tertullians intent methode nor proofes but wilfully taking the words that are his owne anâ—… common to him with the rest of the ancient and Catholike Fathers as if they were the wordes of Heretikes to blurre him and the rest with the spot of heresie when they speake a trueth receiued and beleeued in the Church of Christ. It seemeth you say Tertullian cited the reasons of the Heretikes houlding the soule slept till the last iudgement It is past
himselfe you make him say the soule is sufficient by it selfe to do the lesse for it is able of it selfe only to thinke to will to desire to dispose Where the word solummodo ONLY which is added to the Verbes following you cut from them with a point and ioyne it to the Pronoune precedent saying it is able of it selfe only meaning without the body thereby to exclude the bodie from all communion and impression of the thoughts which Tertullian before did impart to the bodie And thus by wresting Tertullians words you make him câ—…ntrarie to himselfe because he should not seeme contrarie to you which is the couâ—…se of your vnlearned skill vsed euery where by you when any thing standeth in your way Otherwise Tertullians words are plaine enough after his maner and no way repugnant to that which went before but haue in them rather an exposition what seruice and subâ—…ction the bodie yeeldeth to the soule in sinne without which the soule can accomplish no sinne For though desire cogitation and will are in the soulâ—… as her owne and come from the soule to begin euery sinne yet she can perfâ—… no sinne without her bodie Likewiâ—… your colâ—…ection out of Tertullian that the soule now without the flesh receiuâ—…th iâ—…gement for such actions as of it selfe it was sufficient to doe hath neither any trueth in it nor concordance with your authors sense or words for Tertullian confidently pronounceth that the iudgement of God must be beleeued to be FVLL FINALI and PERPETVALL none of which agree to the iudgement that you pretend for the actions of the soule alone without the bodie It is NOT FVLL because the one halfe of man is absent it is NOT FINALL because an other iudgement and sentence shall follow after it is NOT PERPETVALL because it dureth but till the resurrection when both soule and bodie shall be cast into euerlasting fire it is NOT GENERALL because such of the wicked as liue when Christ shall come to iudge the quicke and dead shall not haue their soules punished apart from their bodies This doctrine therefore is verie false that sinnes mâ—…erely spirituall as you terme them namely Heresies Turcisme and Atheisme shall not be punished in or after the last iudgement when the bodie shall be reunited to the Soule because their punishment the soule alone must suffer since she alone committed them as you say without any consent or communion of her bodie Neither doth Tertullian call this punishment of the soule without the bodie simplie or absolutely IVDGEMENT but the TASTE or SHEVV of iudgement Hilarie saith rightly of it The day of iudgement is the repaying of eternall ioy or paine The time of death in the meane space hath euery one tied to his state dum ad iudicium vnumquemque aut Abraham reseruat aut poena Whiles either Paradise or punishment keepeth euery man for iudgement So Tertullian Cur non putes animam puniri foueri in inferis sub expectatione vtriusque iudicij in quadam vsurpatione candida eius Why shouldest thou not thinke the Soule to be comforted and punished below in the earth vnder the expectation of either iudgement of eternall happinesse or cursednesse in a kind of vsurping and foreshewing thereof That Tertullian here calleth degustans iudicium a foretasting of iudgement but no full finall perpetuall or generall sentence which are the properties of Gods iust iudgement against all sinnes of thoughts words or deeds Tertullian confesseth that the Soule doth not diuide all her works with the ministerie of the flesh and that the Diuine censure doth pursue the onely thoughts and bare Wills of men And therefore he saith Sensus delictorum etiam sine affectibus imputari solent anime The very purposes or desires of sinne without their effects are imputed vnto the Soule When Tertullian speaketh of sinne committed by the Soule alone without the Body or the helpe thereof he meaneth without any EXTERNALL PART of the Bodie concurring thereto as in outward facts when hands or feete or other members of the Body are imployed to bring the sinne to a sensible act and effect Take his owne example in both these places Qui viderit ad concupiscendum iam adulterauit in corde He that seeth a woman to desire her hath committed adulterie in his hart Is any man so childish as to thinke the Soule can see or desire a woman without corporall sense or concupiscence There is then in that case plainly the concurrence of the eyes and affections which are bodily but yet because the Act is not accomplished the sinne remayneth in the hart alone and proceedeth not vnto the DEEDE And so diuiding sinnes into thoughts words and deeds as Saint Austen and other Diuines doe when words and deeds are forborne they often say that men sinne in thoughts alone but this doth not exclude the inward coniunction and communion of the Soule with the Body in sinne which is denied to be corporall because it is not open to the sense Notwithstanding the powers of the Soule vsed therein are permixed with the spirits of the Body which are corporall in comparison of the Soule though spirituall in respect of the grossenes of the flesh in that they are aeriall and approch the nature and purenes of ayre to which the word spirit is vsually applyed So that the diuerse taking of the Body sometimes for the outward masse of flesh subiected to sense sometimes for the inward powers of life and sense tempered with the body causeth this difference of speech in Tertullian and the rest of the fathers who all concurre in this that except the body haue life and sense the Soule can commit no actuall sinne For we must not onely be liuing but awaked and aduised before wee can voluntarily runne into sinne Of sleepe which bereaueth vs of sense I haue spoken before of death which taketh life from vs it is also certaine that thereby sinne ceaseth in vs. He that is dead is freed from sinne saith the Apostle that is sinneth no more so Chrysostome expoundeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is deliuered from sinning any more And Ierom. Mortuus omnino non peccat The dead doth by no meanes sinne Ambrose Impius si moriatur peccare desinit The wicked when he dieth ceaseth to sinne Epiphanius In the next world after a man is dead there is no righteousnesse nor repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any workes of sinne For as Hilarie obserueth Decedentes de vita simul de iure decedimus voluntatis When we depart this life we are withall cut off from all libertie of Will Theophylact. The Apostle speaketh thus of euery man For he that is departed from this life is iustified from sinne to wit he is loosed and deliuered from it Our new writers affirme no lesse Bullinger This is a generall Rule the dead doth not sinne at all yea he
can not sinne Peter Martyr vpon the same place The dead cease from their euill actions in which before they liued Caluine The Apostle reasoneth from the proprietie of death which abolisheth all the actions of this life Beza The Apostle speaketh of the effect of death which maketh vs when we are dead necessarily to cease from the actions of this life and consequently from sinne So that leroms conclusion is very true The dead are able to adde nothing to that which they brought with them out of this life For neither can they doe well nor sinne neither encrease vertues nor vices If then the Soule can not sinne except the body haue life and sense for neither in death nor sleepe men doe sinne without question the body must concurre to the committing of all sinne and the action is common to both And if not onely life and sense be required in the body but intelligence and remembrance to discerne good from euill must remaine vnperished before the Soule can sinne for otherwise Insants mad men and others stroken with Lethargies Epilepsies and Apoplexies should doe nothing but sinne by continuall omitting of good if not committing of euill and these naturall infirmities or violent distempers of the braines come from the body and ouerwhelme the actions of reason and memorie how can the body bee excluded from the communion of all sinne whose parts and spirits if they bee inflamed or obstructed doe excuse men from sinne by hindering the iudgement of good and euill And where no sinne is committed but that which is either embraced with loue and delight or else inforced with feare and dislike and all these haue their sensible impressions and motions in the heart how should the body bee free from any sinne which hath his manifest delectation and contentation in euery sinne bee it neuer so inward and spirituall Howsoeuer then your vnlearned and vnbridled humour pronounce this Doctrine to bee exceeding vntrue and hurtfull and more then strange and euen hereticall it is a faire plaine and Christian trueth that all sinne in man is common to body and Soule and that as both parts do ioyne in the committing of each sinne so shall both bee coupled in the punishment of each sinne though the Soule as shee first beginneth and most affecteth sinne whether by her sense or vnderstanding so shall shee first taste and most feele the iust iudgement of God against sinne Lastly you contradict your selfe For you graunt that the Soule hath some sufferings in this life and the next which come not by the body I graunt it indeede and therefore your impudencie is the more who by adding onely to my former words would make mee say the contrarie I suppose you denied before the Soules punishment without the body Where and what are my words that make the deniall You and your friends haue skanned them often and neere enough shew them or else your supposing will prooue by your leaue but a shamelesse inforcing The strongest words that I haue sounding that way are these The iustice of God both temporally and eternally punisheth the Soule by the body Which words are apparently sound and true and therefore you could not falsifie them but by putting onely of your owne vnto them which was no part of my speech nor intent Seeing now you graunt it therefore it followeth by your owne words that the wicked sinned meerely in and by their Soules It is a world to heare a man conclude so much and conceiue so little For first though the Soule bee punished without the body yet is that not the full punishment of sinne which is and must bee eternall for want of the body and therefore this reason is rightly returned on your owne head For if the body as you say doe not sinne at all then should the Soule euerlastingly bee punished without the body But that is expresse heresie gainesaying the resurrection and condemnation of the body to euerlasting fire Since then the punishment of the Soule is not full without the body it is a necessarie point of Christian truth that the body did sinne as well as the Soule otherwise it should vniustly be punished together with the Soule Againe what if the body before Iudgement bee not punished in the same place nor with the same paine that the Soule is is that a consequent the body is free from all punishment of sinne As though priuation of life corruption to dust subiection to the curse and obligation to eternall fire were no punishments which are allotted to the body for the time till the day of generall resurrection and iudgement Wherefore this reason also recuyleth vpon you For if the bodies of the wicked when they bee seuered from their Soules are not exempted from some punishment of sinne that rather inferreth the body was partner with the Soule in sinne then vtterly innocent as you would haue it How sound this is I wot not where you yeelde none other reall and positiue punishment now to the Damned but remorse and remembrance of sinne onely as it seemeth What talke you of soundnesse till you shew your selfe to haue more sense in matters of Religion To repeate all the paines which the damned doe suffer would trouble your wits and if I could doe it to what purpose were it I said the Soule seuered from her Body was punished in hell with the remembrance of sinne gnawing the conscience losse of Gods fauour afflicting the mind besides the paine of fire which torment is vnspeakable Your eyes did not serue you to see those words besides the paine of fire You vouch I yeeld no punishment to the damned now but remorse and remembrance of sinne ONLY Let your discrete Readeriudge what dealing this is and how well you deserue to be beleeued vpon your word The fire of hell you will say is no reall nor positiue punishment The triall of that will cost you deere you were best forbeare your dreames till you bring your proofes You would haue if I ghesse right at your meaning immediate paine from the hand of God tormenting Soules in hell but when you prooue that God is not able as well with meanes to punish the Soules of the wicked as without meanes and that the fire of hell so often threatned in the Scriptures is but a figure of speech to make vs afraid we wil harken after your new reall and positiue punishments which you so highly esteem because they are deuised by your selfe In saying that Christ was not free from some proper punishments to his Soule as sorow and feare in his Agonie If you meane as you speake then it followeth euidently from your owne words that Christ suffered proper punishment in his Soule from the very wrath of God which in a word is the granting of our whole Question He that will follow you in your fansies and follies shall haue some what to doe That sorrow and feare for what causes
soeuer are punishments of our first sinne inflicted on Adam and all his posteritie whiles here they liue is newes to none but to you Saint Austen saith Sunt duo tortores animae Timor Dolor There are two tormentors of the Soule sorrow and feare Now torment without sinne the Soule should neuer haue had Fnding then sorrow and feare in the Soule of Christ by the witnesse of the Gospell though the cause thereof be not expressed I resolued that Christ tasted these which were punishments of sin by their first institution as well as other our infirmities of Soule and Body What followeth hereupon That these were proper punishments inflicted on Christ by Gods very wrath Who saith so You or I They are your words in deed but no way mine It followeth you say euidently from my words As how Christ was not free from SORROVV and feare and these were punishments of our first offence ergo what Ergo the whole Question is granted in a word Ergo fooles might flee but for want of wings The Question is whether Christ died the death of the Soule or suffered the paine of the damned You heare me say Christ sorrowed and feared as also he hungred in the desert and thirsted on the Crosse which likewise came into mans nature as punishments of sinne will it hence follow that hunger and thirst are the paines of hell No more doe sorrow and feare inferre the whole Question except in a mad moode you will auouch that no man can feare or sorrow vnlesse he suffer the paines of the damned and death of the Soule But Christ suffered these as a punishment of our sinnes you will say And so did he those For though euery thing which he suffered did not yeeld satisfaction for our sinnes because death was required to make the full paiment thereof yet euery infirmitie and miserie that he felt consequent to our condition were receaâ—…ed in him as punishments for sinne fastned to our nature and state I feare you meane his holy affections as deuotion to God and compassion to men Were there any sufferings in Christ that were vnholy Would you haue him afraid that he was or should be reiected and condemned of God Or sorrow for the losse of Gods grace and sauour in him selfe That were vnholinesse in deede to be in any sort so affected and without hainous blasphemie you can not suspect that of Christ. But his paine you thinke was infinite Then was his patience and obedience the more religious and pretious in Gods sight wheresoeuer he felt the paine either in Soule or in Body or in both And when you haue said what you can and deuised what you will except you will weaken Christs faith hope and loue in God which without sinne can not be you must leaue feare and sorrow in him to be naturall and holy affections and no way defiled with our sinne The obiect or cause of Christs feare is that you would speake of if you could tell what to make of it but you dare not depart from your couert of Gods very wrath and proper punishment for sinne least you should vtter as many absurditics as syllables That feare and sorrow then were affections in Christ I thinke no man doubteth besides you and that they were in him most holy you dare not deny least to folly you should ioyne heresie and so notwithstanding your feare what I meane sorrow and feare in Christ were most holy affections whatsoeuer the occasions of his feare and sorrow were If they were affections common to Body and Soule how then were they punishments proper to the Sonle I vse not PROPER as you doe for that which is peculiar to the Soule and not imparted to the Body for so no feare nor sorow is proper to the Soule in this life and least of all Christs whose Body no doubt was afflicted with the feare of his minde which as you thinke astonished and ouerwhelmed all the powers of Christs Soule and senses of his Body but I take proper for that which first beginneth in the Soule though it after offend the Body Otherwise the Body feeleth nothing which doth not affect the Soule neither is there any feare or sorrow in the Soule which is not impressed on the Body The sorrow of this world worketh death saith the Apostle which it could not do but by changing and decaying the Body and godly sorrow for sinne though it make a deepe impression in Soule and Body yet the pardon of sinne and comfort of grace doe more reuiue the spirits then sorrow doth quench them and so that hurteth not mans life as worldly sorrow doth But why cite I the Fathers that Christ did not feare either death or hell Forsooth because you and your friends make that the cause of Christs feare and Agonie though now you hide it vnder the name of Gods proper wrath And if it be an absurd impudent and impious assertion to say that Christ trembled or doubted for feare of hell as due to him or determined for him what is it then to defend that he did and must suffer the very paines of the damned and of hell before we could be redeemed If he did not feare it how could he suffer it since he was not ignorant what should befall him A naturall feare you say he had of death and hell A disliking and declining of hell Christ might haue as well for him selfe as for vs that were ioyned in one Body with him but a doubtfull feare what should be the end of him selfe or his sufferings he could not haue The weaknesse of mans nature might also iustly tremble and shake at the might and power of God prouoked with our sinnes which were to be answered and ranfomed by his Body but other feare Christ could haue none and these I trust be religious submissions and not amazed confusions such as you put in the Soule of Christ. You come now to your fortifying of your speciall reasons not speciall for any more excellencie in them then in the rest which you may safely sweare but for that they more specially touched the question as you say though you neuer offered to come necre it To the words of Esay the Prophet by you cited that Christ bare our iniquities and sustained our sorowes themselues I answered shortly the words made nothing to your purpose the text did not expresse whether Christ sustained all or some What now replie you I meane all and euery whit so farre as possibilitie will admit Keepe your meaning to make sawsigies as I aske not after it so I little regard it How prooue you the Prophet meant so Not by his words for they are not generall what other helpe you haue to come by his meaning I would gladly heare The verie text expresseth so much WITH GREAT EMPHASIS Christ bare our sorowes themselues You shew your skill when you come to your proofs for first this is no Emphasis and were it how prooue
the English Translation to be openly reade in the Church confirmeth not the Marginall appositions which may not be read in the Church though they may be receiued so farre as they haue manifest coherence with the Text or consequence from the Text in respect rather of their veritie then Authoritie For these notes at first were not affixed and in sundry editions they haue been altered increased as the Corrector liked euen this note which you alleage somewhat differeth from the Geneuian notes whence this and the most of the rest were taken The words of the Geneuian edition vpon this place are these The word Agonie signifieth that horror that Christ had conceaued not onely for feare of death but of his Fathers Iudgement and wrath against sinne The Printer of the great English Bible or his Corrector ouer against those words of the Text he was in an Agonie setteth this obseruation in the Margine He felt the horror of Gods wrath and iudgement against sinne I refuse not those words as if they gainsaid the Doctrine which I defend but I see no farder ground in them then ghesse when they ayme at the cause of Christs Agonie which the Scripture suppresseth Howbeit let the words stand in their full strength though by no meanes I acknowledge either Authentike or publike Authoritie in them they rather euert then support your opinion The vttermost here ascribed to Christ is HORROR that is a shaking or trembling feare of Gods Iudgement and wrath against sinne which all the godly finde in them selues when they enter into the serious cogitation of Gods holinesse displeased and his Iustice prouoked with their sinnes but this is farre from the death or paines of the damned except you make the vengeance of the Reprobate all one with the repentance of the faithfull This therefore is like the rest of your proofes no way tending to your purpose The feare of Gods wrath against sinne which is common to all the godly in this life though not at all times hath no fellowship with the feare of the Reprobate much lesse with the torments of the damned The one is a religious and godly sorrow for sinne which worketh saluation and yet agniseth with feare and trembling the iustnesse and greatnesse of Gods wrath against sinne the other is the beholding of the terrible and eternall destruction of Body and Soule prepared for them without all hope of ease or end In Christ there might be a double cause of this horror conceaued or felt by him as affections are felt in the Nature of Man the one touching vs the other touching himselfe Christ might tremble and shake at the terror of Gods Iudgement prouided for vs which was euerlasting damnation of Body and Soule in hell fire and the more tenderly he loued vs the greater was his horror to see this hang ouer our heads euen as we naturally tremble to see the desperate daungers of our dearest friends present before our eyes And if Paul said truely of him selfe we knowing the terror of the Lord meaning the terror of the Lords Iudgement against sinne how much more then did the Sauiour of the world know the same the cleare beholding of which might iustly worke in him a manifest horror to teach vs to take heede of that terrible Iudgement at the sight whereof for our sakes he did tremble in the daies of his flesh An other cause of that horror might concerne himselfe For since the wrath and Iudgement of God against our sinne was so terrible to behold that Christ in his humane nature trembled at it how could it but raise an horror in him to know that he must presently receiue in his owne Body the burthen thereof and make satisfaction therefore with his owne smart which how farre it would pearce his patience the weakenes of our flesh in him might well feare and tremble though his spirit were neuer so resolute and ready to endure the most that mans nature in this life could sustaine with obedience and confidence So that either the sight of Gods wrath against sinne due to vs or the satisfaction of the same which Christ was to make might vrge his humane nature to that feare and trembling for the time which these notes obserue and yet neither of these come neere the feare of the wicked or paines of the damned Besides that religious horror and feare is nothing lesse then the paines of hell inflicted on the Soule by the immediate hand of God which is the deuice that you seeke to establish Thus my Text of Scripture is also iustified that Christ gaue himselfe the price of Redemption for vs WHICH ELS VVE SHOVLD HAVE PAYD If wresting adding and altering may be called iustifying then is your sense of that text iustified indeed otherwise there is nothing yet alleadged that any way approueth that meaning of the text which you would inforce The price of our redemption Christ payd not the same which els we should haue payd had we not beene redeemed for so Christ must haue suffered euerlasting damnation of bodie and soule which was the payment exacted of vs but he payd a PRICE for vs that more contented his displeased Father than our euerlasting destruction could haue done You dallie therefore with the doubtfulnesse of the word PAYD which sometimes signifieth the enduring of punishment sometimes the yeelding of recompence The Price of our sinnes which we should haue payd that is the punishment of our sinnes which we should haue susteined was eternall destruction of bodie and soule in hell fire and other payment we could make none This payment due to vs or punishment which we should haue payd the person of Christ could not suffer it is most horrible blasphemy so to speake or thinke but he payd a price for vs that is a SATISFACTION and AMENDS for our sinnes which by no meanes we were able to pay And so much the word ANTILYTRON noteth euen a Price Recompence or Ransome in exchange of the punishment or imprisonment which the captiue should suffer This Price you will say was himselfe I make no doubt that Christ gaue himselfe to die but NOT TO BE DAMNED for our sinnes as we should haue beene Neither can the common custome of redeeming captiues inferre any more than the giuing of a price for the Prisoner And therefore I did iustly aske Who told you that the Scripture here speaketh after the common vse of redeeming Captiues taken in warre And where you answere the nature of the word ANTILYTRON importeth so much which is properly vsed in such cases you vndestand neither the nature of the word neither the maner of our redemption rightly For first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Antilytron commeth properly signifieth a mutuall redemption of ech other as Aristotle obserueth and so we should redeeme Christ as he redeemed vs. Wherefore the word is heere improperly taken and signifieth no more than LYTRON without composition Againe the common vse of
it For to the impenitent no sinnes are pardoned Except yee repent saith our Sauior ye shall all perish likewise As sinne is accursed so all punishment of sinne saith Austen is accursed meaning till it be released and no longer a punishment of sinne Which he auoucheth not of the wicked onely whose punishment is perpetuall and therefore truely and properly a curse but of all the godly when they suffer for their sinnes We saith Austen came to death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death is the sacrifice for sinne And that the death of our bodies is hatefull to God euen as our sinne is he resolueth in these words Nisi Deus odisset peccatum mortem nostram non ad eam suscipiendam atque delendam filium suum mitteret Except God had hated sinne and also death in vs he would neuer haue sent his Sonne tâ—… vndertake and destroy our death For so much the more willingly God giueth vs immortalitie of our bodies which shal be reuealed with Christes comming how much the more mercifully he hateth our death which hung on the crosse when Christ died Here you may learne that the bodies of Martyrs are so acceptable to God that he hateth death which detaineth them in dust and that the loue which he beareth to the one is the cause why he will destroy the other as an enimie to them â—…hom he loueth and therefore iustly hated of him but in the meane time how false is this reason which you so much stand on God in his secret and euerlasting counsell loueth the soules and bodies of his Saints as being the members of Christ and temples of his holie spirite therefore he hateth neither sinne in their soules nor death in their bodies Nay rather the more he loueth the one the more he hateth the other and sent his Sonne to destroy both sinne and death in his elect as the Enimies that hinder and defer the true blisse promised to his seruants You say we must call things by those names which God first allotted them That I deny if God since euidently hath altered them My rule had more reason in it then you doe comprehend For if it be written of Adam in his innocencie that God brought all liuing creatures vnto man to see how hee could call them and how soeuer the man named the liuing creature so was the nâ—…me thereof how much more shall it be verified of Gods wisdome With whom is no change that he knew all his workes from the beginning of the world and therefore the word of the Lord abideth for euer that he may be iustified in whatsoeuer he saith but God you say hath made the alteration himselfe or else your conceite deceiueth you For God hath not reuoked the generall iudgement which he gaue vpon all men for sinne Dust thou art and to dust thou shalâ—… returne but he hath performed his promise made before he inflicted this punishment that the Seed of the woman should bruize the Serpents head And therefore there is no change made by God as you imagine but he qualified his sentence at the first pronouncing of it on all his elect euen as it standeth to this day And were there that addition since made by God which you vntruely dreame of Yet Saint Austen telleth you that altereth not the name of punishment first imposed on all but sheweth Gods goodnesse towards his owne Whatsoeuer it is in those that die which with bitter paine taketh away sense by religious and faithfull enduring it it increaseth the merâ—…te of patience Non aufert vocabulum poenae it taketh not away the name of punishment His firme resolution is Wherefore as touching the death of the body that is the separation of the soule from the bodie when such as die suffer it Nulli bona est it is good to no man And noting the vse that God maketh thereof in crowning his Saints with as ample words as you haue any he resolutely concludeth Mors ergo non ideo bonum videri debet quia in tantam vtilitatem non vi sua sed diuina opitulatione conuersa est Death theâ—… OVGHT NOT TO BE THOVGHT GOOD because by Gods mercie and not by any force of his own it is turned to so great vtilitie And this assertion you and your adherents must yeeld vnto least you rather conuince your selues then that woorthy pillour of Christes church to be in an errour For the ground that he standeth on is sure God turneth euill to a good vse and will you therefore denie euill to be euill because God vseth it well to how many good and blessed purposes doth God vse the diuell and shall the diuell by your doctrine now cease to be a diuell what excellent effectes doth God worke by the sinnes of the faithfull shall we therefore not call them nor account them sinnes you be cleane out of your byas good Sir when you come in with your changes made by God to alter the names or natures of things that be euill Afflictions and death which originally and Naturally were punishments for sinne and so are still in the wicked the same to the godly are since changed and now not punishments nor curses To wise men there is enough said to bablers who will still talke they know not what nothing is enough The Scriptures and Fathers may not be set aside to giue way to your follies Daniell confessing the sinnes of himselfe and of his people Israel plainly saith Therefore the Curse is powred vpon vs written in the Law of Moses the seruant of God because we haue sinned against him Baruc made the same confession during the Captiuitie Saint Iohn in his Reuelation of the Citie of God now brought to the presence of the Lambe saith There shall be no more Curse meaning amongst the faithfull as there was before For the wicked then shall be most deepely accursed Saint Austen learnedly and largely writing of the miseries of mans life saith Quot quantis poenis agitetur genus humanum quae non ad malitiam nequitiamque iniquorum sed ad conditionem pertinent miseriamque communem quis vllo sermone digerit quis vlla cogitatione comprehendit With how many and how great punishments mankinde is persued which pertaine not to the malice and leudnesse of the wicked but to the common condition and calamitie of man what tongue câ—…n expresse what heart can comprehend And repeating many particulars which there may be seene he concludeth Satis apparet humanum genus ad luendas miseriarum poenas esse damnatum It appeareth sufficiently that mankâ—…de is condemned to endure the punishments of miseries And lest you should flie to your shift of improper speeches as your maner is S. Austen exquisitly discusseth and resolueth this question that these miseries and afflictions come from the iust iudgement of God
men as a sinfull and accursed wretch and saith Christ was content so to be made a curse for vs when indeed he was none by the wrong which he suffered at mens hands to free vs from the iust desert of our sinnes with God Which exposition I bring to let the Reader see how much the learned and godly Fathers detested your proper and true curses in the whole manhood of Christ. But we shall haue fresh proofe That your speech was sound your reason euident and that I openly peruerted your words You were neuer brought vp belike but where will went for reason and speech for proose you tell vs so often of sound and euident reasons when you bring nothing besides your naked and absurd fansies Your speech you say was sound that Christes dying simply but as the godly die might in no sort heere be called a curse Take home your As that you set running abroad to breed a brabble and your speech hath neither soundnesse nor sense in it That Christ died the same kinde of death which the godly die I meane the death of the bodie and not of the soule nor of the damned is a plaine position of the Scriptures We are afflicted persecuted and deiected saith Paul euerte where we beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Iesus and againe I count all things losse that I may be CONFORMED to his death Christ laid downe his life for vs saith Saint Iohn and we ought to lay downe our liues for our brethren Ibi mortuus est Christus vbi tues moriturus there or in that part Christ died in which thou shalt die Hactenus morerentur ad Christi gratiam pertinentes quatenus pro illis ipse mortuus est Christus carnis tantum morte non SPIRITVS We are Redeemed that such as pertaine to Christes grace should so farre forth die how farre forth Christ himselfe died for them that is onely the death of the bodie and not of the SPIRIT So that the godly are conformed and matched with Christ as touching the kind of death which must be common to both and that being a punishment and curse on our nature for sinne why is it not truely saide of Saint Austen that Christ receaued our curse that is a bodily death to free vs from euerlasting death which is the true curse of body and soule The reason is euident because the text heere doth speake and treat of the curse of the Law against sinne such therefore was Christs curse which he sustained The text speaketh of the curse of the Law pronounced against vs for violating the Law That curse the Apostle doth not applie to Christ as you doe but bringeth another text of the Law where the violent and shamefull punishment of hanging on a tree is called a curse To which since Christ submitted himselfe for our â—…akes and so suffering a curse of punishment he discharged vs from the whole curse of the Law due to vs for transgressing Wherefore your leaping from the one curse to the other and from a part to the whole is no euident reason but an euident falsehood which Chrysostome Augustine Ambrose Nazianzene Epiphanius and Cyrill doe mightely impugne and your selfe in the end doe yeeld Christ may be rightly called sinne and so a curse in that he was a sacrifice for sinne and for the curse which is as cleane contrary to your Assertion heere as holinesse and righteousnesse is to vncleannesse and wickednesse You openly peruert my words affirming that I say death here that is Christes death noted Galat. 3. vers 13. may in no sort be called a curse when I expresly euen there and euery where say the contrarie You are very iealous that I goe about to cleare you from your absurd and false conceits without your consent but your feare is needlesse as your quarrell is causelesse I applied not HERE to Christes death as you most fondly mistake and inuert my report of your words but I referre HERE to the curse there mentioned obseruing in you that you defended Death which all the godly haue common with Christ as touching their bodies might in no sort here be called a curse that is the curse which the Apostle here nameth I am so far from enuying your glorie in this point though I pitie your folly that where you make Christes Afflictions euerie one both small and great from the day of his birth to the houre of his death to bee proper punishments and so true curses and effects of Gods very wrath in him for our sinne I will adde if you will that Christes hunger wearinesse weeping and growning in spirit for these are afflictions brought into mans nature by sinne are likewise defended by you to be true curses in Christ. Howbeit you shall doe well in all these miseries and infirmities of our life and nature to finde out Christes most blessed humilitie and charitie not refusing them for our comforts and leaue the proper and true curses of God for the diuell and his associates Your greatest exception is that this curse laide on Christ cannot bâ—…e vnderstood of the whole curse of God or of the law The exception is such that withall the wits and shifts you haue you shall neuer auoide it For where the whole curse of the Law hath in it corporall spirituall and eternall death well deserued by sinne and most iustly inflicted on sinners as we see in the wicked and reprobate who for sinne are subiected to these three deathes or curses the two last which are spirituall and eternall death you can not offer to Christ without hereticall and diabolicall blasphemie and to draw the Apostle into that societie were arrogant and impudent impietie Since then there are so notorious impediments why Christ neither did nor could suffer the whole curse of the Law denounced to sinne and prouided for sinne with what face and conscience you shift and shuffle this geere let the Reader iudge if he haue either godly wisdome to which you appeale or but humane sense from which I doe not appeale Your conueiance is as weake as your cause is wicked Christ you say suffered the whole curse of the Law saue what you excepted thence onely so farre as possibilitie of things could admit that is which you saw was impossible he should suffer And so wee haue here your owne confession that possibilitie of things could not permit Christ to suffer the whole curse of the Law and yet you make the Apostle to meane all these impossibilities For he maketh none of your exceptions But looke somwhat neerer and you shall see greater barres to that totall assertion then impossibilities euen horrible impietie and blasphemie which if they barre not you from your boldnesse they terrifie me and all good Christians to come within the sound of them This shift being shameâ—…l you slide to another as absurd and impertinent to your purpose as the former For were it granted
against him was no law though in loue to vs which was the fulfilling of the law he would humble himselfe not vnder the law only but vnder the worst of men to be the contempt of men and reproch of the people If the Sonne shall make you free you shall be free indeâ—…d sayth our Sauiour For the seruant abideth not in the house for euer but the Sonne abideth for euer If then when we are made the sonnes of God by faith we can be no longer seruants to the law because the law ingendreth bondage which is repugnant to the libertâ—…e wherewith Christ hath made vs free how much lesse could the manhood of Christ which not only freeth vs but was personally borne the Sonne of God be a seruant and in bondage to the law sauâ—… onely because he would humble himselâ—…e to serue in our steads This Paul learned of his master and followed in his maâ—…ter when he sayd Though I be free from all men yet haue I made my selfe seruant vnto all men and am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes saue some So that by your leaue it is a plaine errour in you because Christ submitted himselfe willingly to the lâ—…w to conclude his manhood was bound to the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of â—…m else in his manhood bound to the law for vs but freely and voluntarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods gratious eternall decree appointing him so he became bound to the 〈◊〉 The â—…eader will finde in the end that your greatest strength is the mistaking oâ—… oâ—…her mens words and abusing of your owne For when you haue wrangled foure leaues to â—…e Christ to the true curse of the law and to hang him by the iust sentence of the same law because he stood bound with vs as a Suretie to pay our debts now at last long lingering you say he did freely and voluntarily vndertake to redeeme vs yet loth to let go you adde and so became bound to the law Sir you should tell vs Wâ—…o did â—…ely and voluntarily vndertake our redemption and WHEN For if it were vndertaken by the Sonne of God long before Christes manhood was borne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you the Sonne of God to the law which before you disclaimed And did â—…od thiâ—…ke you eternally decree and appoint his Sonne to be bound to the Law 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 if you appoint any of the persons in Trinitie to be one bound 〈◊〉 thâ—…n another with any manner of bondage or seruice Then as the Sonne coâ—…ld not â—…e boâ—…nd because he was God No more would the Father binde the Sâ—…nne whose loue to vs ledde him to vndertake our Redemption and to binde him that was willing was to distrust him which suspition I hope you will not impure to the Father against the Sonne The Father therefore in the same loue to vs wherewith his Sonne offered to be the person that should redeeme vs accepted the offer of his Sonne and gratiously decreed with one consent of the whole Trinitie as well the manner as the meane of our redemption which decree did not binde but accept and approoue the loue of the Redeemer And when the time came that the Sonne of God would execute this decree made as well by himselfe as the other persons in Trinitie he tooke an vndefiled humane bodie and soule into the person of his Godhead which he so repleâ—…ished with the woonderfull light and supported with the infallâ—…le strength of his spirit that it most willingly embraced and most earnestly affeâ—…ted the same submission and obedience which the diuine nature of Christ was pleâ—…sed to yeeld for our redemption So that the manhood of Christ neuer hauing any subsistence by it selfe apart from the Godhead of the Sonne it neuer had any humane action or pasâ—…ion in birth life or death which pertained not to the whole person consisting of God and man And in that respect the Scriptures say God sent his Sonnâ—… maâ—… of a womâ—…n and made vnder the Law and we are reconciled to God by the death of hiâ—… Sonne the 〈◊〉 crucified the Lord of glorie and God purchased his church with his owne bloud Which speeches could haue no trueth in them as likewise our saluation no certaintie if the manhood of Christ could haue had any action or passion asunder from the Godhead The person therefore of God and man after his incarnation was subiect to the Law and euen the same person that from the beginning vndertooke our redemption and so not the manhood of Christ as you would shift the matter off but the person of God and man must be bound to the Law if our Suertie were bound May not God be bound by his promise Then must you say that God is bound to giue vs grace mercie and glorie because he hath promised euerie one of these and hath sworne to performe them and so you turne the whole Scriptures vpside downe and put your selfe in Gods place and make him your attendant and seruant because by an immutable decree he hath promised to heare vs when we call and helpe vs in time of need By this Diuinitie like to the rest of your deuices the loue fauour compassion bountie mercie trueth and maiestie of God shall be not onely a necessitie but euen a bondage vnto him which blasphemie no Christian eares I hope will enduâ—…e God therefore is a most mercifull promiser a most gratious giuer and a most faithfull performer his promises are assurances that he will giue what he saith but they are no bands that he must yeeld what he oweth because we haue neither meanes to deserue them nor â—…ight to chalenge them nor power to exact them but onely need to receaue them praier to entreat them and thanks to acknowledge them He is content to make himselfe our debtour by promise to let vs see how much we are bound to him that deseruing nothing we are yet by his mercy assured of all things Though he who ordinarily Redeemeth a prisoner from the Enemie be not bound but content so to doe yet a Suertie being content becommeth bound and so Christ our Redeemer became bound as a Suertie to pay our debt for vs. Though the Scriptures euerie where calling Christ a Redeemer and no where a Suertie to God for vs to pay our debts but Gods Suertie or assurance to vs doe by the verie name giue vs to vnderstand that God must needs be lesse bound then men which are not bound but content to redeeme others from their enemies yet you will haue your will in spite of Scriptures and Fathers and make Christ no Redeemer indeed by taking his freedome from him but biâ—…de him with your similitudes to doe that in thraldome which in loue and meâ—…cie he was content to doe for vs. And where Gods decrees and promises which aâ—…e most faithfull and firme assurances can not be called bonds in him without blaspheâ—…ie yet you will haue him bound to saue vs because he
that was against vs and spoyling powers and principalities he made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in himselfe Yee died and were buried with Christ who fastned the handwriting of ordinances to the Crosse that he might abolish it from hauing any right to tie or yoke his members Yee likewise were quickned and raised together with Christ who rising spoyled powers and principalities and triumphed ouer them in his own Person that he alone might be Lord of quicke and dead of Men and Angels so that these words spoyling powers and Principalities and triumphing ouer them are not referred to the Crosse for any thing that appeareth in the Text but to Christs Resurrection and take their truth and force from his subiecting all power in heauen and earth vnder him by his rising againe from the dead This triumph ouer Satan and all his kingdome the same Apostle to the Ephesians setteth downe as a consequent to Christs death and pertinent to his Resurrection Ascending on high he led Captiuitie Captiue and this he ascended what meaneth it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth So that ascending from the lower parts of the earth he led Captiuitie Captiue which is all one with he triumphed ouer powers and Principalities The Syriack translation of the New Testament together with the ancientest of the Latine Fathers doth not only so interpret the place but it doth expresse so much in the verie text that Christ had this conquest after his death The Syriack translation sayth By the dispoiling or putting off his bodie Christ made â—… shew of principalitics and powers and confounded them openly backnumch in his owne person For kenumah whence backnumch is framed in that tongue properly signifieth a Person The translations which the eldest Fathers of the Latine church either made or followed contained as much Apostolus de Christo refers vt exutus carnem potestates dehonestauit palam triumphatis illis in semetipso The Apostle reporteth of Christ sayth Nouatian how putting off his flesh he disgraced powers openly triumphing ouer them in his owne person Neither doth he idlely propose him putting off his flesh but because hee would haue him conceiued in his resurrection to put it on againe Hilarie sometimes translated it Exutus carne and sometimes Spolians se carne Principatus potestates tradux it cum fiducia triumphans cos in semetipso Christ putting off or stripping himselfe of flesh led powers and principalities captiues with boldnesse triumphing ouer them in his on ne person Both which he repeateth in his ninth booke shewing how they may stand together and adding Spoliata enim caro Christus est mortuus The flesh put off was Christ now dead So Ambrose alleageth this place Carnem se exuit Christ put of his flesh And Pacianus Exuens se carnem traduxit potestates libere triumphans eas in semetipso Christ putting off his flesh carried powers as Captiues freely triumphing ouer them in his owne person S. Austen often citeth the same place interpreting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the rest doe Exuens se carnem or carne and thereby noting Christes laying aside of mortalitie Apostolus dicit exuens se carnem principatus potestates exemplauit fiducialiter triumphans eos in semetipso The Apostle sayth Christ putting off flesh made an example of principalities and powers and confidently triumphed ouer them in his owne person Where he sayth Christ douested himselfe of flesh by flesh in this place we vnderstand the mortalitie of flesh for which the bodie is properly called flesh Zanchius a learned and aduised Reader and weigher of antiquitie not onely followeth this exposition himselfe saying Resurgendo de inferis triumphauit principatusque potestates expoliat as in triumphum captiuas abduxit vt est ad Coloss. 2. By rising from the lower parts Christ triumphed and spoiled principalities and powers carying them captiue in maner of a triumph as is in the second to the Colossians but he also giueth his testimony of it Therefore nothing hindereth but what Paul here writeth we may interpret as the words doe sound of a reall triumph of Christes soule seuered from his bodie in the sight of God onely and of the blessed spirits specially since the Fathers for the most part do so expound it and of our writers not a few nor the meanest Bethinke your selfe now how wide you range from the Apostles meaning by the exposition of so many learned and ancient writers Christ rose Conquerer of death and hell Ergo say you the diuels tormented Christes soule before he died with the very paines of the damned If any man be so patient to like this Logicke and not to laugh at it I much maruell seeing the Conclusion so meere a stranger to the Antecedent which hath no coherence with it But some you will say expound it of the Crosse. That is more repugnant to your purpose than the former for if not only after but euen on the Crosse Christ had that apparent and glorious triumph ouer Satan and all his power which the Apostle speaketh of then was Satan farre from tormenting Christes soule with the paines of hell as you imagine There was a conflict you thinke before the conquest A conflict argueth a resistance for the time but no preualence There was a battell in heauen sayth S. Iohn Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his Angels but they preuailed not And the great dragon called the Diuell and Satan was cast out into the earth Shall we say that the dragon and his angels euen the Diuell and his assistants preuailed against Christ because they resisted and encountered him If this please you not take the Similitude which our Sauiour himselfe vseth of his owne doings towards the Diuell When a strong man armed keepeth his house the things that he possesseth are in peace but when a stronger then he entreth vpon him and ouer commeth him he taketh away all his armour wherein he trusted and diuideth his spoiles And no man can enter into a strong mans house and take away his goods except he first binde that strong man and then spoile his house If Christ then did enter on Satan and binde him and disarme him and so spoile him that he might make an open shew of him and of all his power what necessitie is there that Christ being the stronger should be endangered or oppressed by Satan farther then hee himselfe would The conquest was bloudie for so much as in ouercomming Satan Christ lost his life He lost it not he layed it downe to put the diuell to greater confusion for when he was not onely weake and wounded vnto death but past all helpe and hope as Satan in his pride presumed then Christ raised himselfe from the dead and ouerthrew the whole kingdome and strength of Satan spoiling him of all his
did but to giue place to the diuel to fill his hart with wicked spirituall motions as you call them which God forbid should come within any Christian mans hart And therefore if ignorance carie you to thâ—…s conceite recall it in time if Pride for my part I must needs deâ—…st â—…t as much as I doe any point in all your Defence Defenâ—… pag. 83. li. 37. Thus tâ—…en it was possiâ—…le and most likely it is also that Christ was assaulted and wrastlâ—… withall by the diuels spirituall suggestions now when in his most bitter Agonie he hanged on the Crosse. In steedâ—… of full and infallible proofes to iustifie your strange conceits you pretend possibilities and probabilities which to me are nothing else but ignorant and absurd impâ—…eties For you labour tooth and nayle to shew the holinesse of your cause by drawing the Sonne of God within the limites of our sinnes not onely aâ—…â—…earing them on the Crosse in his Body which the Scriptures affirme but as desiâ—… with thâ—…m and hatefull to God for them and guiltie of them not by Imputation alone where you first began but by the violent and inward impression thereof in Christs hart and on Christs Spirit through the working of Satan And the sinnes wherewith you would haue Christs owne hart by Satans Instigation assault him in the Wildernesse were no lesse then distrust in God presumption to tempt God and blasphemous adoring of the diuel besides a manifest and malitious dishonor to God that Satan gaue all the kingdomes of the earth to whom he would And on the Crosse you ascribe to Christ in like manner the spirituall and inward cogitations of reprobation dereliction malediction confusion desperation and damnation wherewith his owne hart tempted him as you would haue it by the diuels spirituall suggestions since this is the inward conflict which you dreame Christ had with the powers of hell not outwardly filling his eares with these reproches from the mouthes of his blaâ—…phemous Persecutors as the Scriptures witnesse but the diuell inwardly so distracting and diuiding Christs thoughts that his own cogitations by your vngodly resolutions prompted and suggested these things vnto him as thereto stirred and incensed by Satan k Defenc. pa. 84. li. 5. You say he was tempted of Satâ—…n all the time of his abode heere on earth I haue no doubt but Satan did what he could as well by flatteries as by contumelies to sift the soule of Christ all the time of his abode heere on earth but he did not this with his owne voice saue onely in the wildernesse by others he did it and sometimes by such as were neere about Christ as when Peter l Matth. 16. tooke him aside and said Master spare thy selfe this shall not be vnto thee To whom Christ replied Get thee behinde me Satan thou art an offence vnto me because thou sauourest not the things that are of God bâ—…t of mâ—…n Where Christ sharpely rebuked Peters counsell and loue as stirred by Satan vnder shew of good will to hinder him in his purpose of mans Redemption But I neuer said as you alleage my words that Christ was tempted by Satan all the time of his â—…ode on earth by which you would haue men beleeue that I confesse Satan inwardly tempted Christ all his life long My words are He m Conâ—…lus pa. 283. li. â—…4 was tempted in the desert by Satan himselfe and by Satans members all the time of his abode on earth n Defenc. pag. 84. li. 6. Then you denie not but now euen on the crosse Christ was tempted and assâ—…lted by Satan that is by Satans instruments mooued and enraged by him That men may be the diuels instrumens in perswading or persuing others both which are called temptations there is no cause why any man should doubt and if these externall temptations could haue sufficed your humorous head you needed not to haue plunged your selfe so dangerously as you haue done into the spirituall cogitations of Christs heart leading and moouing him to sinne in Satans steede Yea rather you would haue seene that as men cannot be Satans willing instruments in this case but they must be partakers of Satans wickednesâ—…e so the heart and thoughts of Christ could not be Satans meanes to suggest any sinne to Christ in Satans place because euerie part and thought of Christ was holie and vndefiled God himselfe conceaueth and considereth of all mens wickednesâ—… when he reprooueth or punisheth the sinnes of men To conceaue therefore or consider what Satan by his owne voice or by the mouthes of his members saide vnto Christ was no way vnfit for Christes humane integritie and puritie but that Christs heart or inward thoughts should suggest or perswade the same vnto him which Satan and his members did if you know what you say you cannot auoide either haynous impietie or monstrous stupiditie o Defenc. pag. 84 li. 9. This is none other indeed but that which in the entrance of this Question here I obserued which as I haue before shewed sufficeth to prooue Christs combating as it were wrastling with the powers of â—…ell on the crosse Ment you no more al this while but that in tormenting reuiling Christ on the crosse the Iewes were Satans instruments What needed then so many foolish and lewd speeches of Satans p Defenc pag. 83. li. â—… 14. 27. â—…7 inward spirituall motions and â—…mptations spiritually suggested into the heart of Christ And what proofe is this of Gods proper wrath and indignation laid on the soule of Christ that the wicked derided him as they doe God himselfe Or is this all the spoile and triumph that Christ had ouer hell and Satan that he endured whatsoeuer mockes and paines they could deuise This no doubt he did and so did frustrate all the force of hell with his patience and confidence in God his Father but he had an other manner of triumph and recompence for the wrong which he suffered at Satans hand except you list to deface his glorie as you doe his innocencie Howbeit the Reader may heere perceaue on what conceits and coniectures your new redemption by the paines of hell is founded euen on your owne dreames and deuices which you cannot expresse and daâ—…e not specifie for feare of hatefull absurdities and impieties q Defenc. pag. 8â—… li. 12. But you obiect against this that outward temptation by the mouthes and hands of the wicked is no effect of Gods wrath No is Heere you are cleane contrarie to your selfe and the trueth Were it newes to see you wander either from the trueth or from your owne positions heere a man might take a full view of your idle and forgetfull rouing and snatching at euerie thing where not taking the paines to peâ—…use the whole reason or to looke fower lines farder to the knitting of the conclusion or to weigh the wordes themselues which you bring you foolishly mistake my words grounded on your assertion as if they were mine
saying o Mark 9. Thou dumbe and deafe spirit come out of him and enter no more into him So that the diuell cannot inwardly torment the bodie of man or beast but he must enter it and so possesse it How much lesse can he torment the soule or worke therein but he must likewise possesse it and haue it in his power before he can afflict it The entring and possessing of mens bodies and soules by diuels are no such infernall sâ—… 〈◊〉 as you would make them they are the caueats and admonitions of Christ himselfe p Matth 12. When an vncleane spirit sayth he is gone out of a man and returning sindeth his house whence he came out emptie he taketh vnto him seuen other spirits worse then himsele and they enter in and dwell there and the end of that â—…an is worse then the beginning And q Luke 11. when a strong man armed keepeth his house the things which he possesseth are in peâ—… So that the Scriptures warne vs to haue Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith lâ—…t the diuell finde them emptie and so enter aud possesse them Now touching your Iuniper conceits that Satan inwardly did worke or stirre in Christes heart those strange temptations which you talke of which indeed were wicked and impious cogitations or that he did torment the soule of Christ with the paines of the damned what Scripture I pray you doth warrant these worse then infernall speculations For the diuels themselues confessed they had nothing to doe with Christ and you make them the raisers of strange temptations in Christes heart and inflictors of incomprehensible sorrowes on Christes soule And where they truly acknowledged that Christes word and power tormented them you haue deuised that the diueâ—… should vnspeakably torment Christ on the Crosse. So lawfull is it for you and vsuall with you to take the fulnesse of power and grace from Christ and to subiect his soule and spirit to Satans subtiltie t Defenc pag. 85 li 9. Notwithstanding this heere I 〈◊〉 that howsoeuer the meanes or maner was of Saâ—… and his furious bands assaulting of Christ on the Crosse it made certainly an impression of most 〈◊〉 sorrow and torment in his soule Your single and double vouchers with certainty and warranty are so rise that no wise man will take your word for a grey goâ—…e quill You auouch it and you are certaine of it but how proue you one line or letter of all that here you say Christes stripes and wounds receiued of the Iewes were painfull to him and the taunts mocks and blasphemies of all sorts vttered against him were gâ—…euous vnto him but what is this to the most dolefull and incomprehensible torments inflicted on Christes soule as you say you be assured by the diuell The Euangelists expresse what was done and sayd to Christ on the Crosse that you disdaine as grosse and in your curious but irreligious subtilitie will haue the diuell not only tempt inwardly the spirit of Christ with strange and most wicked cogitations for the diuell hauing by your doctrine power and choise what he would suggest would forbeare no wickednesse but incomprehensibly torment the soule of Christ and when you should make proofe thereof you tell vs you auouch it was certainly so s Defenc pag. 85. â—…i 12. Christ felt and discerned by that meanes the verie stroke of Gods owne hand vpon him and receiued the sting of his wrath and indignation therein which then wrought and was reuealed chiefly then vpon him for all our sinnes Meane you that Christ felt the stroke of Gods owne hand by the temptations or by the torments which Satan offered to his soule If by temptations besides that you giue S. Iames the lie who sayth t Iames 1. God tempteth no man with euill you make God with his owne hand to moue and prouoke Christ to wickednesse which is more then infernall wickednesse to auouch If you meane by torments those you teach must come from the immediate hand of God vpon the soule of Christ and will you make the diuell to be Gods immediate hand Choose here whether all your graue discourse at your first entrance into this question of the soules proper and immediate suffering shall be wholy idle and vtterly false or whether the diuell shall be Gods immediate hand Gods immediate hand is his eternall diuine and almighty power which if you admit the diuell to be I must confesse all my speculations beleeuing but one God and him to be most pure and holy are plaine and grosse in respect of your new found hell and your eternall and almighty Ruler thereof the diuell As for proofe I should wrong you to aske for any it is not your maner to vouchsafe to proue what you say but to say what you list vnder certaine generall stales of words which are but dennes of theeues to rob Christ of his sanctitie and glorie What Christ discerned in his sufferings is neuer like to come from you with any trueth you follow your fansies so much as your best guides which leade you to a sidelesse and bottomlesse pit of absurd dreames and doctrines You distinguish nothing you define nothing you proue nothing onely you wallow in the mire of strange temptations and most dolefull and incomprehensible sorrowes how why or what you can not tell but the hand of God serueth you at all assayes to bring out your misborne and misshapen speculations vnder some shew of religion because you pretend the power of God For my part what the Scriptures euidently auouch of Christes sufferings that I faithfully beleeue what is deuised or added by mens imaginations and fictions I vtterly reiect not as false and presumptuous only but as absurd and irreligious What the Scriptures say Christ discerned in his sufferings I haue often specified which farre differeth from your strange and imaginary speculations They auouch of Christ that he u Acts 2. saw God alwaies at his right hand that he should not be shaken and therfore his heart was glad and his tongue reioyced And x Heb. 12. for the ioy proposed vnto him and therefore discerned by him he endured the crosse and despised the shame thereof Christ himselfe after his last supper y Ioh. 18. knowing all things that should befall him and that z Ioh. 13. his houre was come that he should depart out of this world vnto the Father and that the Father had giuen all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God not onely pronounced the diuel for all his comming against him a Ioh 14. had nothing in him but speaking directly of his passion said b Ioh. 17. Father the houre is come glorifie thy sonne that thy sonne may glorifie thee as thou hast giuen him power ouer all flesh that hee might giue them life euerlasting I haue glorified thee on earth and now Father glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee
haue what reason had you out of the Apostle to conclude so confidently that Christ must suffer the very same sorowes and paines of hell which sometimes in this life befall some men through vehement remorse of sinne and faintnesse of faith For they are not generall to all Ages and Persons and if they were yet proceede they from the guiltinesse of our owne consciences and the not feeling of Gods grace for the time that we may see our owne vnworthinesse neither of which could haue place in Christ. Generall termes you say should be vnderstood according to the possibilitie and probabilitie of the matter Be those the raines of your Reasons that you will vtter matters neither probable nor possible and then require to haue your speech recalled to possibilitie and probabilitie Doe other men vse so to speake or write that when they haue ouer lashed themselues they flie to probabilities and possibilities such as they best like You must looke good Sir to your Propositions and Conclusions that they be sound and good concording with the grounds of Faith and Rules of holy Scripture and then you shall not neede to make such idle reseruations Now in your Conceits which I repeated and refuted what probabilitie or possibilitie doe you dreame of that Christ was touched and plunged deeper then any other man into feares Passions and Agonies of reiection confusion desperation and damnation though at last with much a doe he wrastled from them all Such Probabilities keepe to your selfe no wise Christian will admit them except he see them prooued with stronger Reasons and cleerer Testimonies then such loose possibilities and probabilities as you bring Your waterish stuffe in the rest of this page is not woorth the speaking to You wander about to salue the smallest and cleane skip ouer the greatest points that are obiected against you That l Defenc. pag. 87. Christ had not his eies put out as Sampson had nor was swallowed vp by a Whale as Ionas was nor was cast into a burning fornace as Sydrac and his fellowes were nor was stoned to death as Naboth and Steuen were These I say were iust and full reproofes of your licencious inference that Christ of necessitie must suffer whatsoeuer his members suffered I opposed other instances besides these touching the soule of man from which Christ hath holpen many though he neuer had experience of thâ—… same as from caecitie and obstinacie of heart from infideliâ—…ie and all manner of Iniquitie from frensie furie follie and such like vexations and afflictions of diuels Wherein if you giue Christ no power nor abilitie to heare and helpe at his good pleasure you take both his honor and office from him If you confesse which the Scriptures auouch that he hath healed many which were possessed and oppressed by the diuell then you must either recall your inuincible Reason as a palpable follie or else you must subiect the Body and Soule os Christ not only to diuels which you dare doe but to all manner of Impâ—…etie and iniquitie since there is no sinne so great which Christ will not forgiue vpon true repentance saue wilfull Blasphemie against his Spirit You speake of Paines not of sinnes And is it no paine to be possessed with the diuell in body or mind as we read of many in the Gospell diseases burning 〈◊〉 and such like which Christ neuer suffered are they no paines frensie furie lunacie are they not rather painfull and greeuous punishments of sinne then sinne your Proposition which could not be refuted by the witte of Man was this Christ succoureth vs not but wherein he had experience of our Temptations and Infirmities This speaketh of Temptations and Infirmities now how farre these words doe stâ—…etch can you not tell but you will amend the matter and cleere both the Apostle and your owne Conclusion m Defenc. pag 87 〈◊〉 37 pag â—…8 1. 1. Thus this Scripture is cleered and my Reason iustified Christ succoureth vs not in any extreamer kind of paine then he himselfe had experience of But he succoureth vs in the feeling of the terrors of God he releaseth vs of the paines sorrowes vnâ—…easurable that rise thereof Therefore him selfe had experience of them You should doe well to tell vs how this Scripture is cleered the place prooueth that Christ had a Similitude with hiâ—… Bretheren in generall that is as well in flesh and bloud subiect to death as other sufâ—… and temptations These three the Apostle reckneth and calleth katapanta all the parts of Resemblance which Christ had with the weaknesse and wretchednesse of our condition and Nature Your selfe confesse those three to wit n Defenc. pag. 8â—… li. 6. Infirmities Temptations and afflictions to be all the things wherein Christ was like vs for his manhood in substance was the same that ours is and so more then like As for en 〈◊〉 by which you would haue to be signified o Ibid. li. 28. All the matter and euery kinde of paine Wherein Christ succoureth vs besides the manifest falsenesse of that construction which I haue sufficiently reprooued you depart as your manner is from all Interpreters new and old to a singular sense that no man liketh but your selfe The Gâ—…ke Schoâ—…s collected by Occumenius thus expound it p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2. cap. ad Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that he suffered signifieth For as mvch as he 〈◊〉 And Theodorct The Apostle saith q Theodoret. â—…n 2. ca. ad Heb. Whereas by experience Christ learned the weakenesse of Mans Nature he hâ—…lpeth those that are impugned And Theophylact. r Theophylact. in 2. cap. ad Hebreâ—…s That which the Apostle saith is this Because as a Man Christ vnderstandeth all by experience and knoweth what affliction and 〈◊〉 is therefore he can helpe that is he is the readier to streteh forth his hand and with mercie to aide the oppressed From these perhaps you will derogate the knowledge of the Greeke tongue though they were all naturall Grecians as you do from Saint Austen but that will doe you little good and lesse honestie For the skilfullest interpreters that are of our Age and Religion and wâ—…l learned in the Greeke tongue do exactly agrâ—… with them against you 〈◊〉 in his obseruations vpon the new Testaâ—…ent saiâ—…h s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2. ca. ad Hebreâ—…s 〈◊〉 id est 〈◊〉 THEREFORE 〈◊〉 Christ suffered and was tempted he is able to 〈◊〉 them that are tempted t In 2. caâ—… ad Hebrees Caluine t In 2. caâ—… ad Hebrees Beza t In 2. ca. ad Hebrees Piscator t In 2. ca. ad Hebrees Marlorate t In 2. ca. ad Hebrees 〈◊〉 in his Translation and others with one consent expresse en ho not by WHEREIN as you doe but by ex eo quod 〈◊〉 hoc quod ex quô by that which Christ suffered or becausâ—… he sufâ—…ered and was tempted he is able or ready to succour the tempted The 〈◊〉
submission and Sacrifice as a sufficient recompence and Satisfaction for the sinnes of the world Againe he certainly knew that Gods displeasure against our sin in loue would not in Iustice could not extend to the dissolution râ—…iection or dâ—…struction of his Person but that God would temper the punishment of our sinnes in his Body where he bare them that neither his obedience nor patience should be wearâ—…ed or ouerwhelmed And to that ende the Scripture plainly testifieth that Iesus i Iohn 13. knew the Father had giuen all things into his hands and so whatsoeuer Christ suffered was a triall of his obedience to which he most willingly submitted himselfe that neither the burden of our sinnâ—…s might seeme a sport to him nor his case common to him with the desperate and damned persons Christ then neither did nor could apprehend or discerne any wrath of God kindled against his person as the reprobate feare and the damned find neither any purpose in God to punish sinne farther than by the death of his bodie to purge it and abolish it nor the measure of paine determined to be sharper then his humane patience could without repining or refusing endure Wherefore though I willingly grant as much paine in Christes sufferings as his patience could sustaine without declining or disobeying yet see I no point wherein the sufferings of Christ either apprehended or inflicted did concord with the paines of the damned As for the terrour of Gods anger against sinne which wrought in Christ submission not confusion and sorow for sinne conceiued for that God was thereby iustly displeased these and all such religious FEARES sorowes tremblings I easily yeeld to the soule of Christ which were sacrifices in Gods sight of inestimable price and very painfull though very faithfull submissions and passions of the inward man The farther proofe of these I referre to the place where I shall speake of Christes agonie and in the meane time assure the Châ—…istian Reader that neither this Praâ—…er nor all his compartners shall euer be able by the sacred Scriptures to make any proofe of any farther or other sufferings then I haue specified Whether the paines of bodie or soule in Christ were greater or sharper I take it to be a needlâ—…sse and fruitlesse question The paines of Christes body were proportioned The paines aâ—… well of Christes sâ—…ule as of his bodie were equall to the strength of Chrâ—…stes patience to the strength of his patience and so were his feares and sorowes and in either the soule was the part that felt the smart and discerned the cause And if we balance these things by the consequents of nature since the paines from the body doe in this life by their vehemency separate soule and body farre sooner and oftner then sorowes and feares of minde except in present and ouerwhelming euils which coole quench and ouerthrow the spirits with more speed though with lesse paines then the sharpnesse of Christes bodily paines hauing no release nor ease but perfect sense and continuance did pinch as neere not as the paines of the damned but as the passions or affections of Christes soule hauing fath and hope to support them and comfort and ioy proposed to mitigate them And euen in the damned both men and diuâ—…ls whence you would seeme to fetch your president for Christes sufferings whether thinke you are the sharper the paines which they now feele before the day of iudgement or the violence of fire which shall then exceed all the paines they now suffer For both the diuels and the damned haue as much griefe of reiection confusion and desperation and as mighty terrors and inward torments of minde as they are capable of and yet neither of them haue their sharpest punishments Of the diuels the Scriptures say k Iude epist. vers 6. They are reserued in euerlasting chaines vnder darkenesse vnto the iudgement of the great day And the spirits themselues could say to Christ l Maâ—…th 8. Art thou come to torment vs before the time Of the wicked Peter sayth m 2. Pet 2. God knoweth how to reserue the vnâ—…ust vnto the day of iudgement to be punished And n Rom. 2. thou sayth Paul to euery one of them according to thine hardnesse and impenitent heart heapest vp wrath to thy selfe against the day of wrath and reuelation of the iust iudgement of God By which it is plaine that the terrors and torments of minde presently felt by the deuill and the damned are farre lesse then the vengeance of externall and eternall fire reserued and then augmented on all the reprobate both men and angels o Defenc. pag. â—…0 li. 4. The greatest paines are no more sinne then the least Therefore by your owne graunt Christ might and did feele and endure the grâ—…atest sorrowes of the minde and soule as well as the lâ—…sser in the bodie Paines if they be onely paines and nothing els are not sinne and therefore the suffering of hell fire is no sinne but the terriblest punishment of sinne that men or angels shall feele yet terrours and torments of minde are increased by doubt feare or despaire of Gods goodnesse towards vs which are sinnes in this life where grace and mercie are proposed and could not be in Christ without intolerable infidelitie after so plaine and plentifull assurances of Gods loue and fauour towards him Take therefore from Christ all doubt and distrust of Gods anger and displeasure towards his person and then it is euident that neither his apprehension of Gods wrath was the same that the damned and desperate feele noâ—… any way so sharpe as if Christ had conceiued God to be displeased with him or purposed to destroy him as the wicked are perswaded of Gods indignation against themselues Christes sufferings then were wrath to the sense and feeling of mans nature but his Christs Faith did not faile in the sharpest of his paineâ—… faith in the sharpest of his paines beheld the setled and assured loue of God towards his person and he not only called God his Father in all his afflictions but out of his owne power he gaue the thiefe that confessed him on the crosse the inheritance of Gods kingdome that present day together with himselfe So that he was more then perswaded or resolued of Gods fauour and faithfulnesse who tooke vpon him in the midst of his sufferings to giue the kingdome of heauen to such as acknowledged and beleeued in him though the chastisement of our sinnes in his body and soule were by Gods iustice and his owne consent very sharpe and bitter vnto him that his loue to vs and obedience to his Father might appeare the more fully not in peace ease and dalliance but in sorrow paine and grieuance by which ardent and constant loue is tried as golde in the fire Whereby it appeareth that all your talke of Gods wrath against Christ equall with the damned or reprobate hath no trueth nor sense in it but is a meere and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
li. 33. Distemper Touching my alleadging their griefe for Gods people I doe not vse to venture on such desperate conclusions as you doe To my purpose it was sufficient that they both were e Rom. 9. grieued at hart with great and continuall heauinesse for their Nation which are the vndoubted and vnquestioned words of Paul and causes of Moses Prayer farder I did not goe but from that care and sorrow of theirs I obserued it both lawfull and likely for the Messias as he was man to be inwardly and deepely troubled in his affection with the present and perpetuall ruine of that people for his death by taking his bloud vpon them and their children And this standeth sound and good whatsoeuer become of your newe and notable collections which shew your small Iudgement and lesse truth in points of Diuinitie f Defenc. pag. 96. li. 34. Secondly we see here that there may be possibly a death of the Soule a curse and separation from God which is in it selfe neither siane nor conioyned with sinne necessarily but meerely a suffering of punishment from God for the sinnes of others imputed Contrarie to you also pag. 73. 310. yea generally euery where You remember belike the olde rule Ex impossibili sequitur quodlibet from an impossibilitie supposed any thing will The second errâ—…r drawâ—…n from their example follow and seeing your selfe destitute of all proofes for your new Doctrine you will needs make lotteries of impossibilities and thence draw what you like best For taking a plaine impossibilitie for your maine ground you thereupon frame vs foure obseruations as impossible as the first supposition And this absurd wandring from all truth and faith you would haue the Reader Note as a speciall demonstration of your discretion and vnderstanding in matters of Religion Suppose as you doe that God through his omnipotent power may turne heauen into hell and reuerse all that he hath decreed and prouided for the different rewards of pietie and impiety and you may soone prooue what falsitie you will by flying from Gods counsell and truth to his power and might But Christian religion teacheth not whatsoeuer is possible to Gods power but what is ordained by his will and reuealed by his word Otherwise what heresie can you name touching Gods works in his creation or redemption of the world that defendeth impossibilities to Gods power setting aside all respect of his will and truth This therefore is the high way to vphold all falsities and impieties to oppose Gods power against his will and word and to beleeue he hath done whatsoeuer his almightie power is able to doe Concerning the death of the Soule though here be no place to speake largely of it it is double by the confession of all Diuines and euen of the Scriptures themselues For as the places are diuerse where men doe abide here and else where in this life and the next so the life which the Soule enioyeth is proportioned to the place where she continueth God in his wisdome and goodnesse hauing so prouided that whiles she gouerneth the body here on earth she should be partaker of him by the grace of his spirit and hereafter in the kingdome of heauen she should haue the full fruition of him by the manifest reuelation and communion of his glorie Likewise the death of the Soule preuaileth in this life by sinne which is the naturall depriuing or voluntarie renouncing of all grace and in the world to come by damnation which is the iust reiecting of all the wicked from any fellowship with God in his glorie and the fastning them to euerlasting torments in hell fire Gods actions in either of which are most iust and holy for he withdraweth and denieth his grace when it is refused and excludeth them from all accesse to his blessednesse that heere on earth despised both him and it adiudging them to the iust desert of their sinnes in euerlasting flames But neither of these can possibly take hold of man without sinne committed or inherited And therefore your imagining a death of the Soule without sinne is a supposing of things impossible since neither Moses Prayer nor Pauls wish in that sense which you follow were possible as all Diuines both new and old confesse g Chrysost. 〈◊〉 16. in ca. 9. ad Roâ—… Paul wished saith Chysostome to be separate from Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were Paul wished if it were pâ—…ssible and lawfull possible And againe Therefore am I grieued saith Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if it were lawfull or possible to be separated and estranged not from the loue of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 farre be that from me to wish because he did this for loue but from that fruition and glorie I could admitt it that my Lord should not be blasphemed Photius as he is collected by Oecumenius Ibidem thus expresseth Pauls wish h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ca. 15. in 9 ca. 〈◊〉 ad Romanos Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that if it were possible by my destruction for Christ to be glorified and the Iewes to be saued I would not refuse it I could wish it sayth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it might be if it were lawfull if that choise were giuen me I would preferre the glory of Christ and the saluation of manie before mine owne The new writers that take Anathema for a separation from Christ as Chrysostome doth adde the same conditions which he doth confessing it neuer the lesse to be simply impossible The iudgements of Peter Martyr and Zanchius we saw before Aretius repeating this exposition amongst others saith Or els i Aretius in ca. 9. epist. ad Romanos separated from Christ that is euerlastingly damned if that were possible that with the losse of one soule the saluation of manie thousands might be redeemed The affection of those that speake louingly proceedeth often to things impossible For of it selfe neither was it possible that the Apostle with his destruction should redeeme the vnbeleeuing Iewes and it had beene wicked so to thinke since the merit of Chrâ—…st alone is propitiatorie neither was this lawfull for the Apostle to offer himselfe to be a Redâ—…mptorie sacrifice for the saluation of others but the Apostles affection is to be considered wishing impossibilities vpon an honest desire Piscator in his Scholies vpon that Chapter to the Romans k Piscatoris Scholia in ca. 9. ad Rom. I did wish for I could wish Nempe si licâ—…ret sulua pietate meaning if it were lawfull so to doe without breach of pietie Beza l Bezae Annotationes in 9. ca. ad Rom. This is very much to be obserued that Paul doth not say he did so wish at any time but he was so affected that willingly he could be content to redeeme the destruction of his nation with his owne nempe sisieri sic potuisset meaning if that might possibly be And therefore it is a needelesse
teacheth that we must follow the will of God though nature reclaime So that the preferring of Gods will before the desire of his owne nature and the limiting of his prayer with this condition If it were possible not to Gods power but to Gods purpose to saue the world without his death then he desired the cuppe might passe from him prooue apparently that Christ was not onely well aduised in that prayer but he meant to teach vs that neither the power of his enemies did oppresse his weaknesse nor his owne loue leade him to a needlesse death it was rather Gods determined and irreuocable counsell and will that he must die or we must perish By which we learne not Christes inconstancie as of a man amazed but an excellent mysterie of Christian religion that no sacrifice could take away sinne but onely The intent of Christs prayer in the garden the death of Christ on the crosse which he for our sakes earnestly desired though by his thrise declining it if we might possibly be otherwise saued he shewed how painfull and grieuous that suffering would be vnto him We are therefore by the one to collect how intolerable that cuppe would be to his flesh and by the other to beholde his ardent loue to vs and willing obedience to his Father which things if in your conceit they conclude Christ to haue beene therein amazed I shall coniecture that your wits are not to this houre yet well recouered since greater pietie and charitie could not be shewed in that infirmitie wherewith Christ was then compassed and acerbitie of paines to come which he did not dissemble Now let vs heare how you impugne this o Defenc. pag. 99. li. 26. The first of these foure maketh in my minde much for vs. For vnderstanding that Christ tooke all the infirmities and passions whereto mens nature is subiect to the end he might cure all and euerie kinde of them in vs then it followeth that he wanted not the paines and immediate sufferings of paines inflicted by Gods owne hand in his soule It is but your mind that maketh so much for you your collection is otherwise as wide from reason and trueth as any may be For what if Christ taking our nature vnto him tooke therewith all our infirmities and affections which you cunningly call passions a word indifferent to affections and sufferings doth that inferre that he tooke vnto him the paines of the damned because mans nature through the hardnesse of his impenitent hart is subiect after this life by Gods iust iudgement to euerlasting damnation for sinne are your eyes so ill matches that you cannot discerne betwixt naturall affections cleauing to all men from their birth and the reall suffering of hell paines inflicted as you defend by Gods immediate hand on the soules of the faithfull here in this life which in deed are reserued for the wicked in another world are somtimes feared of the godly here on earth when the conscience of their sin through want of faith calleth Gods fauor in question with their owne harts first proue that all the godly haue the pains of the damned inflicted here in this life on their soules by the immediat hand of God for nature is not proper nor priuate to this or that man but common and constant to all men and next that notwithstanding your hell paines thus suffered they are in constant and perfect faith and assurance of Gods fauour and his heauenly kingdome and then you haue some pretence for your purpose which now is none For touching the first I appeale not onely to the Scriptures which teach no such thing but to the consciences and experiences of all the faithfull whether this can haue any trueth in it that the true paines of the damned are really inflicted on all their soules here on earth by Gods immediate hand And secondly when they feele any feare of Gods wrath or doubt of Gods fauour whether that come not through the failing and shrincking of their faith which pressed often with the number of their sinnes feareth least God will visite their offences with a mercielesse iudgement because they haue so greatly prouoked him The feare of hell may iustly make them quake and tremble which they acknowledge they haue worthily deserued and the same terrour doth often though not alwaies pursue the wicked vnto desperation but other torments of hell actually inflicted by Gods owne hand on the soules of all the faithfull as the Scriptures deliuer none so you shall not be able to prooue any common to all mankind though God want not power to punish where and as pleaseth him If therefore you speake of naturall affections they were common to Christ with vs but in vs excessiue vpon euery occasion which in him were moderate till they were inflamed with piety or charitie and then they burned more in him then in vs by reason of his abundant giftes and graces farre passing ours But if you talke of some secret speculations priuate to your selfe and some others of your sort that dreame perchaunce of hell paines both night and day according to your owne fansies then no words of mine nor of any auncient father come neere those deuices of yours which are knowen to no man either by reading or feeling but to such conceiters as you are if happely you doe not belie or deceaue your owne hearts p Defenc. pag. 99. li. 37. This your authors here doe fully affirme Cyrill Ambrose and others as before we haue obserued Mine authors there are easily redde and if any such thinge be there mentioned or thence to be concluded I am content you shall be thought to speake some trueth which is almost a maruaile in you you wrie all things so absurdly to your senselesse fansies Of your fourth argument and of these authors I haue largely deliuered what I take to be true euen in the place where you produced them to this purpose And so I leaue this as lately refuted lest I lengthen the volume to much q Defenc. pag. 100. li. 1. It is most vnreasonable which here you doe if you doe as you seeme to vnderstand them of meere bodilie death and of the infirmities meerelie of his flesh Shew that they name or intend any other death then the death of Christes body on the crosse or els your otherwise conceauing them without any words of theirs is a plaine peruerting them to pull them to your part Of infirmities when they speake they meane naturall such as were no derogations to faith nor hope nor to any other the graces of Gods spirite in Christ and in them all Christ was like vnto vs whether they were infirmities of body or soule Whether feare and sorow be infirmities meerely of the flesh is a doubt fit for Feare may be intellectiuâ—… or sensitiue your discussing they may be sensitiue or intellectiue according to their obiects and in Christ since they were caused by things rather foreseene then felt or at least
voluntarily subiect himselfe to our miseries paines and afflictions I then neither doe nor neede denie that our naturall infirmities were common to Christ with vs but those were voluntarily receiued in him e August de trinitate li. 4. cap. â—…3 quia voluit quando voluit quomodo voluit because he would when he would and as he would euen as Austen saith of his death And though it be most true which the Apostle writeth of Christ f 2. Cor. 13. He was crucified through or as touching his infirmitie which was the flesh of man in him yet Saint Austens exposition of those words is right good where he saith g Ibid. lib. 13. cap. 14. de qua infirmitate ait Apostolus quod infirmum est dei fortius est hominibus euen of that 〈◊〉 wherein Christ was crucified the Apostle also saith the weaknesse of God is stronger then men What seemed weaknesse in Christ and is so called in the Scriptures in comparison of his diuine power euen that farre passeth the power and strength of men and therefore the same Apostle calleth h 1. Cor. 1. Christ crucified the wisedome and power of God i Defenc. pag. 101. li. 9. Faine you would wipe away that Argument of ours which sticketh neerer to you then you will seeme In malefactours there is a quiet and contented suffering of most exquisite and extraordinarie torments often times which they endure onely by 〈◊〉 naturall strength and courage of mind How much more likely is it then that Christ the very Rock of all strength and fountaine of patience would not thus seeme affrighted and astonished for his meere bodily death and that before it came vnto him Your brablement is more tedious to me then your Argument troublesome You spend here a whole leafe to shew that Malefactors and Martyrs oâ—…ten suffer most horrible torments very quietly and altogether without any such agonie as Christ shewed in the Garden How maketh that against me who teach out of Hilarie Ambrose Ierom and Bede that Christ was not thus agonized for any sufferings of his owne much lesse for feare of a bodily death though he would be like vs in hauing a naturall horror of death as Athanasius Austen Cyrill and Damascene affirme What wandering and trifling is this to be loquent in things superfluous and silent in matters most serious The whole worke and waight of our redemption was now before Christs eyes and apprehension in more exact and liuely manner he now appearing before the iudgement seate of God then we in this body can discerne or describe For as all things needfull shall be present and patent to vs when we are brought to Gods Tribunall where no truth of things without vs or within vs which concerne vs shall be couered or concealed from vs so Christ presenting himselfe before the iudgement of God to haue Man redeemed by the ransome which he would yeeld for him and satan eiected from preuayling against his members by his mediation did perfectly and fully behold both the detestation that Gods holinesse had of all our sinnes and the power of his wrath prouoked by our defection and rebellion as also the dreadfull vengeance prepared and ordained for sinne and our dull and carelesse contempt of our owne miserie together with the watchfulnesse and egernesse of the Aduersarie the brunt and burden of all which he must receaue and auert from vs by that kind of satisfaction and recompence which the iustice of God should then require at his hands None of those things might be hid from Christs present and perfect view when he came now to performe that which the iudgement of God should thinke a iust price and full recompence for the sinnes of men The due consideration contemplation intuition and apprehension whereof being in Christ more cleare then we can conceaue might worthily make the Manhood of Christ not onely feare and tremble but in his prayers to God to stirre and inflame all the powers and parts of body and Soule as farre as mans nature and spirit were able with all submission intention and deprecation possible to powre forth themselues before God These you push away not as false but as parts of Christs holinesse as if any feare or sorrow could be in Christ which were not religious and holy and substitute other sufferings of the damned as the second death and the true paines of hell from the immediate hand of God deuiced by your selfe without any direction of the Scriptures and those you dreame Christ not onely feared but really felt in the Garden otherwise he could not sorrow and sweate as he did And because you would seeme to say somewhat though little to the purpose and lesse against me who auouch no such thing you heape vp heere malefactours murderers and theeues besides martyrs who neuer sweate bloud for any bodily torments inflicted on them Grant all this though there be differences which yet you see not what inferre you That Christ did not thus sweate for his bodily death What then Ergo he suffered in the Garden the death of the damned and the true paines of hell This conclusion hangeth to the premisses with hay-ropes you winde it which way you will and then you say I would faine wipe it off But to me that neither say nor said any such thing that Christ was thus agonized onely for feare of his meere bodily death these be rather wildgoose-races then sober mens reasons impugning any thing that I did or doe defend And yet your comparisons be not so currant as you conceaue them For though murderers or malefactors for obstinacie or stupiditie and martyrs for constancy may despise the torments which they suffer so long as strength of desperate malice in the one or of heauenly grace in the other resisteth or endureth the paine yet when nature is subdued and conquered by paine that the soule must yeeld to death and depart then can no man expresse nor euer could any man declare what conflicts of feare and horror the soule hath with death and in death Onely Christ who on the Crosse did voluntarily and instantly breath out his soule with all quietnesse contrarie to the course of mans nature might before hand shew in himselfe if it pleased him the anguish and agonie which naturally the soule hath in her strugling with death and fainting vnder death and which God had impressed on mans nature at the time of the departure of the soule from the bodie in remembrance and resemblance of Gods displeasure against sinne when by his mightie power he seuered the soule and spirit of man asunder to giue way to death for the reuenge of the first mans disobedience in all his ofspring I speake not this as if there were none other causes that might be of Christes agonie but to shew that your comparisons which you take to be so strong are woorse then weake since the soules both of Martyrs and Malefactors haue a naturall terror and horror of death
impressed in them by Gods power and will though whiles strength and memorie dure they may be so confirmed in their good or euill purposes that they doe not yeeld so long as they can make resistance This naturall horror of death which mans soule hath impressed in her by Gods owne doing if Christ would admit in the Garden priuately before his Father as obedient to his ordinance not openly before his enemies to whom he would shew nothing but patience and constance aboue all malefactors and martyrs what force haue your examples to refute this since Christ voluntarily shewed that in the Garden which the soules of all men naturally doe when the feare or force of death falleth on them k Petri Martyris loci communes class 2. loco 1. sect 51. Omnes pij statuunt in morte irâ—… diuinae sensum esse ideoque sua natura dolorem horrorem incutit quod Christus ipse dum or aret in horto alij multi sancti viri declarauerunt All the godly saith Peter Martyr resolue there is a sense of Gods wrath in bodily death and therefore by the nature thereof it striketh a feare and terrour into vs which Christ himselfe when he prayed in the Garden and many other holy men haue declared To let you farther see that your Malefactors and Martyrs doe not prooue that Christ might not shew himselfe afrayd of death in the Garden though in patience and constancie he exceeded all mankinde when he came to the present feeling of his paines you shall heare the iudgement of S. Austen affirming that Christ by this voluntarie Christ would be like the weake to comfort the weake feare would of mercie conforme himselfe to his weake members for their comfort lest they should despaire when they feele the feare of death oppressing them l August in Iohannem tract 60. Firmissimi quidem Christiani si qui sunt qui nequaquam morte imminente turbantur Sed numquid Christo fortiores Quis hoc insanissimus dixerit Quid est ergo quod ille turbatus est nisi quia infirmos in suo corpore hoc est in sua Ecclesia suâ—… infirmitatis voluntaria similitudine consolatus est c. They are indeed most setled Christians if there be any such which are not troubled when death approcheth But are they stronger than Christ Who will so say though he were neuer so madde What is it then that Christ was troubled therewith but because by the voluntarie shew of his weaknesse he did comfort those that were weake in his bodie which is his Church that if any of his were troubled with the approching of death they should in spirit beholde him lest thinking themselues by this fearefulnesse to be reprobates they should be swallowed vp with a woorse death of desperation And elswhere with admiration of Christes goodnesse for this verie cause m Idem in Iohannem tract 52. O Lord sayth he God aboue vs Man for vs I acknowledge thy mercy for in that thou being so great wouldest of thy loue be voluntarily troubled by n Ibidem taking the affection of thy members thou doest comfort many in thy bodie the Church which are necessarily troubled with this their infirmitie lest by despairing they should perish So that neither of these wayes Martyrs nor Malefactours are stronger than Christ though he feared death which you imagine they do not but Christ either in respect of his Fathers ordinance against sinne shewed that conflict with death in himselfe which the soules of all men haue naturally be they Martyrs or Malefactors before they depart their bodies or els of mercie towards vs he would voluntarily assume our weaknesse in the Garden lest we should despaire when we feele the stroke and terrour of death as by his example on the crosse he ledde vs to immooueable patience and confidence in all our afflictions Some Malefactors you say despise death often smile in their torments Being hardened in their sinnes and obstinate against God they may haue either stupefaction of sense by Satans meanes to encourage others to the like wickednesse by their contempt of death or els obduration in their mischiefe till the time of repentance be past but their soules that so stifly contemne Gods iudgements haue another maner of terror before they forsake their bodies when indeed it is too late for want of sense and memorie to call for grace And the Martyrs themselues as all good Christians that are resolued not only quietly to suffer but to desire death that they may be with Christ are by Gods grace preserued in that minde so long as vnderstanding and faith preuaile but when the powers of the soule are ouerwhelmed by the violent paines and pangues of death she is by Gods ordinance in all mankinde and euen in the All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before 〈◊〉 aied faithfull suffered to feele the touch and sting of bodily death which is fully knowen to none but to God that ordained it and to herselfe that feeleth it though this agonie of death be shortened or succoured as pleaseth God of his mercie to dispose in euery man and in Gods elect this anguish though it be very sharpe for the time turneth to their good and his glorie God supporting and comforting the soules of his Saints with hope of a better life Your reasons therefore are all idle and impertinent which you draw from the patience of Martyrs or stifnesse of Malefactors For admitting all that to be true which Martyrs by grace and Malefactors of pertinacie performe in their torments whiles strength and memorie serue them yet haue they both their conflicts with death when they can neither speake nor expresse what they feele and malefactors a most fearefull confusion when repentance being past which they neglected their soules are now suffered to see the terrours and torments of hell into which they shall presently depart And this naturall anguish of death which assaulteth all men when the soule feeleth the strangenesse and bitternesse of her diuorce from the bodie Christ might purposely â—…uffer to arise in himselfe in the Garden that tasting it with perfect sense and memorie he might sustaine it with greater patience and obedience though it were very painfull than all mankinde besides o Defenc. pag. 101. li. 20. All your answeare is malefactours are no fit comparison for the sonne of God for they are desperate not hauing any feare or care of God till they feele the force of his wrath in hell fire What an answeare is this The answeare is â—…itter and fuller then your wit serueth you to vnderstand or your learning to refute For this ignorant or desperate contempt of Gods iudgment which you alleage in malefactors Christ might not follow since he rightly discerned and religiously feared Gods displeasure against sinne euen in the death inflicted on the body of man So that Christ shewed an humble regard of Gods punishment with due feare and sorow which
but he clearely confesseth before hand that all which himselfe will say touching the second death of Christes soule on the crosse is apparantly false doctrine and euidently repugnant to the sacred Scriptures Thou wilt maruaile much at this and so doe I but that Liars are often so earnest to serue their turnes and not the trueth that they forget their former tales whiles they inuent newer As here for example He that would before allow to Christ on the crosse NO SENSE NOR FEELING OF COMFORT OR IOY in spirit soule or body Now vrgeth to promote another purpose Christs EXCEEDING GENERALL AND CONSTANT IOY euen at the same time when he spake these wordes My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and not content with this he addeth that Christ euen then IN HIS MIND SPAKE TRIVMPHANTLY OF HIS CONSTANT and CONTINVALL IOY in GOD and prooueth it by the words of the holy Ghost where Dauid being a Prophet spake concerning Christ on the Crosse that he l Acts 2. beheld the Lord alwaies before him at his right hand that he should not be shaken And therefore did Christs hart reioyce and his tongue was glad Vnderstand you sit faith-maker the difference or repugnance betweene NO SENSE NOR FEELING OF COMFORTOR IOY in spirit soule or body A most shamefull contradiction and EXCEEDING GENERALL CONSTANT and TRIVMPHANT IOY in GOD in the mind of Christ can you read this and not thinke you reele as your reasons doe to and fro can you salue this sore without sweating or make vp this breach without blushing and I pray you since the ground of these wordes is true in that it is the holy Ghosts and you may not flie from your owne inference which you presse so violently against the fathers to beate downe their exposition how could Christs Soule on the crosse IN THIS EXCEEDING GENERALL CONTINVALL CONSTANT and TRIVMPHANT IOY OF MIND suffer also the paines of the damned and the second death wherein IS NO SENSE NOR FEELING OF ANY COMFORT OR IOY IN body soule or spirit Can you hang these gymmoes together that the one shall not crie shamefull and intolerable falsehood against the other the best excuse that I can make for your to saue you from ebriety or frensie is that these things were posted ouer to you from diuers that saw not each others fansies and so without due perusing or remembring where they crossed ech other you patched their papers together with more hast then good speed How beit surely I take it to be a iust iudgement of God when you are diuided from the trueth to diuide either your tongues from your harts or your harts from themselues that all men may learne to take heed how they dally with the Christian faith or delude the Scriptures I thanke God I hate you not so much but for your owne sake I could wish you had beene silenter or circumspecter And see how euill you lucke or at least your cause is For heere haue you spoken enough to confute all that you formerly haue said and afterward will say and yet you haue brought nothing to infringe that which I said For a naturall seare and mislike of death as also griefe and sharpnesse of paine in the body may well stand with a continuall and constant comfort in God yea where grace is present and preuaileth the m 2 Cor. 4. perishing of the outward man bringeth the renewing of the inward man and bitter affliction maketh vs seeke after God and call vpon him the more earnestly for his assistance in which case it is most true that Gods n 2. Cor. 12. power is perfected in our infirmity For when I am weake saith the Apostle in body then I am strong in spirit And if Paul could o 2. Cor. 12. delight in reproches persecutions and anguishes for Christes sake and yet feele the smart of them could not Christ retaine comfort in his afflictions though his flesh were pressed with extreame paine Many thinges more may be strongly alleaged against this opinion With such strength as you haue already shewed whereneither words nor matter shall hang together p Defenc. pag. 110 li. 37. As first that seeing he perfectly knew that as his flesh should now quietly rest so his soule should enioy perfect glory and comfort more then before it did That doth not quench the detestation Was there no comfort in all this which mans nature hath of death euen by Gods ordinance though it comfort and courage the soule in hope of future blisse to indure the paine and horrour of death S. Austen saith q August epistola 120. Nemo vnquam carnem suam odio habuit et praeterea non vult anima vel ad tempus abeius etiam insirmitate descedere quamuis 〈◊〉 se sine infirmitate in aeternum recepturamesse confidat Tantam habet vim carnis animae dulce consortium No man euer hated his owne flesh and therefore the soule is not willing to depart euen from the weakenesse of the body for a time though she beleeue that she shall receiue her flesh againe for euer without infirmity Of so great 〈◊〉 is the sweet 〈◊〉 betwixt the soule and the body And so againe r 〈◊〉 tract in 〈◊〉 123. This affection of mans weakenesse whereby no man is willing to die is so naturall that age could not take it from blessed Peter to whom it was said by Christ when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 old thou shalt be led whither thou wouldest not And to comfort us our 〈◊〉 himselfe assumed and shewed this affection in himselfe when he said Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me So that these respects made Christ the more comfortable in death but by no meanes did vtterly quench the naturall dislike that Christes manhood had and lawfully might haue of death knowing it to be the punishment of sinne and dissolution of our creation though by Gods goodnesse it be now made a passâ—…ge in his to a better life Your next reason is of the same stamp The resurrection of the body maketh no man willing to die if he could with Gods liking decline death but obedience ouerruleth the naturall instinct that God hath impressed in vs to abhorre death And where you take it for a mighty'pillar in your building that Christ s Pa. 111. li. 6. would not so extreamly mourne and complaine only for this cause as my fansie importeth you build but on sand which will haue the greater fall For I shew you many more causes and senses of those words then this only all which you kindly skippe and pretend this only which I neuer professed calling it my fansie that I cited out of auncient and reuerend writers t Defenc. pag. 111. li. 8 Further he knew perfectly that this was the very appointment of God for the obtaining of his most desired purchase of our health for the more aduancing of Gods glorie and for the aduancing of his very manhood Finally it was
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
misconster But let vs heare your proofes which want answeare as you pretend f Treat pa. 46. The members of Christ doe wrastle with the power of darknesse and endure the fierie darts of the diuell A learned reason and like the maker Doth the Apostle there speake of hell torments or of the temptations to sinne busily offered by Satan to all the godly if your conceit of hell paines be true we must wrestle not with the powers of darknesse but with God himselfe by whose immediate hand as you imagine the paines of hell are inflicted on all mens soules As wisely you quote that the members of Christ endure the fierie darts of the diuell where the Apostle willeth them to take the shield of faith wherewith they may quench all the fierie darts of the Diuell Whence if your corruption and misconstruction of the text were true may be drawen a good argument against your hell paines to be suffered in the soule of Christ. For the shield of faith as the Apostle noteth quencheth all the fierie darts of the Diuel which you presume to be the fierie paines of hell Christ then who wanted no perfection of faith endured none of these fiery darts of the Diuel since they are all quenched by faith Choose now whether by your owne reason you will charge Christ with infidelity or discharge him from enduring your fierie darts of the Diuel which you suppose to be the paines of hell except you play with this place to no purpose Howbeit in these words the fierie darts of the Diuel are not the torments of hel but either dangerous tentations which quenching our faith consume and wast our consciences as fire doth where it taketh hold or els sinnes which inflame our harts with wicked and worldly desires making them burne with vnlawfull and vngodly lusts g Treat pa. 46 li. 2. Iob crieth out The arrowes of the almighty are in me the venom whereof doth drinke vp my spirit and the terrors of God sight against me Out of these metaphors wereby Iob describeth the vehemency of that disease wherewith the Diuel strooke him h Iob. 2. from the sole of the foot vnto the crowne You shall neuer conclude any thing for the paines of hell Metaphors make no direct conclusions in doctrine but serue to resemble or amplifie the things to which they are applied Then as venemous arrowes doe not only teare and wound the flesh but the poison added doth inflame the whole body and consume the vital spirits so Iob complaineth that his disease did not only rot but burne his flesh and wast his spirits so that the paine thereof was intolerable By the terrors of God he meaneth the terrible and bitter affliction sent from God and not the paines of hell as you fondly conceaue For that these wordes are applied to the greeuousnesse of his disease appeareth both by Iobs speach and wish i Iob. 6. ver 12 Is my strength saith he the strength of stones is my flesh of brasse that it can endure the rage of this disease Wherefore he wisheth k Iob. 6 ver 9. that God would destroy him with this sicknesse and cut him of by death l vers 10. then should I yet haue comfort though I burne with sorow let him not spare m vers 11. What is mine end that I should prolong my life Iob wisheth not here destruction of body and soule that were more madnesse but he desireth an end of his life that he might haue rest and comfort Then doth he not meane the terrors of conscience which bring with them a most vncomfortable end but the terrors of his n Ibid. ver 21. fearefull plague which death would ease not augment Not that I thinke Iob wanted dangerous tentations in his greeuous afflictions but that this may be referred either to the greatnesse of his plague or to the vnquietnesse of his mind though he alwaies trusted in God and was forced with extreamity of paine to desire ease He may also meane as he after saith o Iob. 7. v. 14. Thou fearest me with dreames and astonishest me with visions but none of these three terros were the paines of hell neither did Iob desperately rage in his mind but felt violent torments in his flesh as he himselfe confesseth p Iob. 7. ver 5. My flesh is clothed with wormes and filthinesse of the dust my skinne is rent and become horrible And touching the terrour of God that word in the sacred Scripture doth not necessarily import the paines of hell nor the conflict of conscience with doubt or despaire of Gods fauor but the greatnesse of his power and righteousnesse of his iudgements which we must confesse with feare and trembling q Psal. 88. From my youth sayth the Psalmist to God I suffer thy terrours Shall we thinke that he was all his life long in the paines of hell or that he liued in perpetuall affliction which continually humbled him and made him afrayd of the mighty hand of God r Prou. 28. Blessed is the man sayth Salomon that is alwayes afrayed of God where he doth not account the paines of hell to be blessed but he meaneth as the Apostle doth that we should worke our saluation s Phil. 2. with feare and trembling And so the Saints at the sight of Gods presence are afrayd not with an hellish paine or perfidious feare but with a quaking and trembling at so great Maiestie knowing that power and t Iob. 25. terrour is with him though they trust in his mercie u Treat pa. 46. The like terrors doth Ionas seeme to feele in the fishes belly when he cryed to the Lord out of the bottome of hell You doe well to say it seemeth for indeede neither haue the words any such force neither had Ionas any such meaning The word Sheol noteth the graue as well as hell as I haue else where sufficiently prooued and in this case the Whales bellie may resemble the graue by the very direction of our Sauiour x Matth. 12. As Ionas sayth he was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nights in the hart of the earth Where Christ expresseth his buriall and not his discent to hell by the Whalles belly in which Ionas lay And Ionas himselfe sheweth by his prayer that he ment the present danger of death wherein he was and not the paines of hell of which he speaketh not For besides the discription of his danger when he saith y Ionas 2. The flouds compassed me about all thy surges and all thy waues passed ouer me the weeds were wrapt about mine head and I went downe to the bottome of the mountaines His praier declareth his faith in the beginning middle and ending thereof I cried in mine affliction vnto the Lord and he heard me I sayd I am cast out of thy sight not to be amongst the liuing any more
man compassed with sinne is able to see He saw posteriora Dei the backe parts of God for so God sayd vnto him y Exo. 33. v. 22 I will couer thee with mine hand whiles I passe by z 23. After I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see mine hinder parts but my face shalt thou not see Whereupon S. Austen sayth very aduisedly a August de Symbolo aâ—… Catethâ—…menos li 〈◊〉 ca. 3. Ipsa sunt illa posteriora Dei Christus Dei Those hinder parts of God were the Christ of God Which exposition Christ confirmeth when he sayth b Iohn 8. Your Father Abraham reioyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Other shewes of Gods glorie some others had as Elias in the Caue the People in the Wildernesse Salomon in his Temple and Iohn Baptist in Iordan when he saw the Holy Ghost descend like a Doue and abide on Christ but none of those was the sight of Gods face which no mortall man can see and liue And that is the true and essentiall ioy of heauâ—…n to which all other degrees of perfection and happinesse are consequent c August dâ—… ciuitate Dei li. 16. â—…a 9. Videns Deum quod erit in sine praemium omnium sanctorum The sight of God sayth Austen shall in the end be the reward of all his saints Which doctrine he learned from S. Paul and S. Iohn the Apostles of Christ and they from their Master d 1. Cor. 13. Then we shall see him face to face and then shall I know sayth S. Paul euen as I am knowen When Christ shall appeare sayth S. Iohn e 1. Iohn 3. we shall be like to him for we shall see him as he is And so our Sauiour f Iohn 14. I will loue him that loueth me and shew mine owne selfe vnto him g Defenâ—… 〈◊〉 120. li. 15. Secondly it is true the Apostle sayth that here we walke by faith and liue by hope yet some rare exceptions do not ouerthrow this generall course The Scriptures are true with you saue where you list to make exceptions of your doctrine as not conteined in them nor agreeing with them No man in this life Christ Iesus only excepted had euer any such vision of God or possession and fruition of his heauenly kingdome that he did not walke by faith and liue by hope Paul was h 2. Cor. 12. taken vp into the third heauen and heard words not lawfull or not possible for man to vtter Did he then cease to walke by faith who after and alwayes prosessed of himselfe i 1 Cor. 13. Now I know in part but then I shall know as I am knowen And including himselfe with the rest k 2. Coâ—… 5. We walke by faith not by sight And â—…xactly speaking of himselfe l Galat. â—… That I now liue in the flâ—…sh I liue by the fâ—…ith of the Sonne of God m Phil. 3. that I may know him and the vertue of his resurrection and fellowship of his afflictions not as though I had alreadie attained to it but I endeuour my selfe to that which is before and follow hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Iesus Christ. If you dare defend that Paul in Paradise did see God face to face then may you say that at that time he walked not by faith but by sight but if that be a plaine errour then Paul as yet attained not the sight of Gods face nor the crowne of righteousnesse layed vp for him which should be giuen him by the iust Iudge at that day and consequently neither faith nor hope ceased in Paul notwithstanding his being in the third heauen The like I say of S. Iohn who n Reuâ—…l 4. saw a dore open in heauen and was willed to come vp thither and of all the Saints that either talked with God or had any manifest reuelation of his glory whiles here they liued The transfiguring of Christ in the mount was to him not only a ioyfull hope but a reall taste of his very heaueâ—…ly ioyes That transfiguration of Christ whether it were for himselfe or for the confirmation of his Disciples the Scriptures doe not precisely determine When a voice came from heauen to Christ in the audience of all the people Christ answered This voice came not because of me but for your sakes S. Peter who was one of those Disciples that saw him transfigured writeth thus of it o 2. Pet. 1. We followed not deceiuable fables but with our eyes we saw his Maiestie for he receiued of God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased This voice which was greater glory than his transfiguration came in respect of them to confirme them in their faith and obedience to the Sonne of God then incarnate and yet to assure their eyes by sight as well as their â—…ares by that voice he was transfigured before them but this transfiguration did not frâ—…e Christ from feare sorrow shame violence and death which followed and therefore this was not heauen to him nor all the glory prepared for him but an outward shew thereof to establish rather his Disciples then himselfe For his soule within him had here on earth greater glorie continually then a transitorie change of his body as namely the personall vnion with God which no creature man nor Angell in earth or heauen had or hath besides him the fulnesse of Gods spirit resting on him by which he knew all the counsell and will of God and all the secrets of mens hearts power ouer all flesh and command ouer all creatures which neither Saint nor Angell in heauen hath In the glory of his body Moses and Steuen did here on earth in part communicate with him P 2. Cor. 3. Moses face did shine when he knew it not The children of Israel could not behold the face of Moses for the glorie of his countenance which so glittered that the children of Israel were afrayd to come neere him he forced to put a vaile vpon his face when they spake with him and yet Moses q Exod. 34. ver 29. wist not that the skin of his face shone bright And likewise r Acts 6. all that sate in the councell where Steuen was conuented condemned looking stedfastly on him saw his face as the face of an Angell that is bright and glorious though Steuen knew it not no more than Moses for ought that the Scripture noteth of him saue that in the end Steuen s Acts 7. looking stedfastly into heauen saw the glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God But the inward and continuall glorie of Christes soule heere on earth was proper to him no man nor angell matching him therein How come you then to attribute heauen vnto Christ for the
momentarie transfiguration of his bodie and to neglect and ouerskippe the constant and continuall ioy and glory of his soule which far better deserued the name of heauen than the change of his bodie t Defenc. pag. ◅21 li. 2. We grant the ioyes of heauen here are nothing equall to those hereafter only we say the very same in nature may be and are by the effectuall working of Gods gratious spirit in his elect reuealed in some measure and sometime euen in this world Neither is this as your charity speaketh any lewd or wicked error My charity serueth me and my duty bindeth me to tell you that if you of your owne head without the word of God will make an heauen or defend that to be heauen which is imperfect mutable and often defiled not with misery and death only but with weakenesse and wickednesse also you maintaine an euident and pestilent error The graces of God are heauenly aswell because they are giuen from heauen and direct to heauen as also they assure men of heauen but the measure of grace or ioy which we haue heere on earth is not the heauen which we are willed to beleeue and expect where our reward is and where an incorruptible vndefiled and immutable inheritance is reserued for vs and whence we looke for our Sauiour Your distinction that our ioy is the very same in nature though not in measure which is in heauen is not only false but a void and idle refuge For the ioy of heauen The name of Nature in the graces of God and ioyes of heauen is a vaine distinction is the plaine vision of Gods face which bringeth with it a present perfect perpetuall and plenary possession of all light power loue holinesse and happinesse deriueable f◅m God which in this weake fraile sinnefull and wretched life no man hath nor can haue And therefore though there be the knowledge loue and ioy of God both in this life and in the next yet the differences are so many and so great that no man of any reason or vnderstanding will make the one to be the other for some agreements in some points whereas in the whole there is not only a substantiall difference betwixt them which is the sight of Gods face but so many parts effects and consequēts in the one which are not in the other that it is more then folly to make the one by pretence of nature to be the same with the other All ioy in nature is the same if by nature we meane the generall definition therof for ioy is the impression or inward sense of good present or instant yea hope is in nature all one with ioy since in hope there is ioy as in feare there is paine and in hope we reioice yet no considerate diuine will confound hope and ioy together because they differ but in time much lesse make the ioies in this life which are defectiue mutable and permixed with our infirmity misery and iniquity the very same in nature with the ioies of heauen which are abundant constant and sincere in all parts and effects of brightnesse mightfulnesse righteousnesse and blessednesse which men can possibly comprehend when they come to the presence of God The sight of God by his creatures by his iudgments by his word and by himselfe is the same in the generall nature of knowledge yet are there as great differences betwixt them as betwixt darkenesse and light The Apostle saith u Rom. 1. The inuisible thinges of God that is his eternall power and godhead are seene by the creation of the world considered in his workes and that which may be knowen of God is manifest in them Shall we then say the heathen haue the very same knowledge of God by his workes which the Angels in heauen haue by the sight of himselfe the Diuels know him also by his workes by his word and his iudgements x Ionas 2. Thou beleeuest saith Iames That there is one God thou doest well The Diuels also beleeue◅t and tremble Yea they know Christ to be the sonne of God y Luc. 4. I know who thou art said the Diuell to Christ euen the holy one of God Shall we then thinke that the Diuels faith is the very same in nature with our Christian faith of many castawaies which fall away from the grace of God and receaue it in vaine the Apostle saith z Heb. 6. They were once lightened and tasted of the heauenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come Shall we auouch these reprobates were in heauen in this life because they had once the very same graces in nature which the elect haue If our knowledge doe differ in this life and the next Our loue and ioy do follow our knowledge then doth our ioy likewise differ From our knowledge of God riseth our loue of God and our ioy in God For we can neither haue loue nor ioy of that which we know not but as our knowledge increaseth so doth our loue and ioy And therefore when we see God infallibly as he is then shall we loue him vnfainedly as we ought and reioice in him vnspeakeably euen as much as we are capable of not by the strength of our nature but by the working of his power Till then as our knowledge is darke and in part so our loue is weake and our ioy is faint but then shall these very thinges not only rise to an higher degree and be of another nature but be replenished with all parts of light power and blisse without which we may defend nothing to be heauen indeed howsoeuer wee may vse figuratiue speaches to comfort or encourage the godly As then worke and wages labour and rest sowing and reaping running and obtaining striuing and crowning abroade and at home doe differ euen in nature so faith and sight hope and haning promising and performing that is our state in earth and heauen doth likewise differ though it be one and the same thing which is now promised beleeued and hoped for and which hereafter shal be receaued attained and enioyed a Defenc. pag. 121. li. 7. Now then if more then hope only euen heauenly ioies may be on earth surely it followeth that likewise more then feare euen hellish paines themselues may be in men on earth also If the ioies of heauen be not only constant in nature but perfect in measure and consist in the sight of Gods face which no man shall see and liue then certainly the ioies of heauen are not in this life imparted to any mortall and sinnefull man And though that might be which yet God expressely denieth shal be yet the other is no con◅quent that the paines of the damned may be likewise in this weake and fainting flesh because ioy is an affection that preserueth this life and paine if it be violent and aboue our strength presently seuereth the soule
to all that obey him but that he must be God aswel as man to be able to suffer the paines of hell the second death that is a new deuice of yours not conuerting the Godhead of Christ to the infinitenesse of his merits but abusing it to the infinitenesse of his paines to make place for your new-found hell from the immediate hand of God where Scripture mentioneth no such thing in the worke of our redemption but plainly and fairely teacheth vs that we are k Rom. 5. reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne who l Coloss. 1. by the bloud of his Crosse procured perfect peace in heauen and in earth and restored vs to the fauour of God through death in the bodie of his flesh in which he m Rom. 8. condemned sinne that we might be n Heb. 10. sanctified by the offering of his bodie once made on the altar of the Crosse. And this doctrine so euidently and frequently deliuered by the Holy Ghost in the sacred Scriptures is so sufficient that I see no cause nor need of your hell paines besides no warrant nor witnesse of them except we dreame that the spirit of God did not well vnderstand or could not aptly expresse your hellish mysteries which he alwaies ouerpasseth with silence when hee speaketh of the purgation of our sinnes and our redemption by the precious bloud of the Lambe vnspotted and vndefiled If therefore it be not lawfull in the highest points of faith to adde ought to the word of God nor to thinke that the spirit of Trueth faileth or defecteth in his instruction vnto trueth I do not see with what dutie to God you and others may be so bolde with the Sonne of God as to subiect his soule to the second death and to the paines of the damned when the Scriptures offer vs no such part or point of our beliefe o Defenc. pag. 121. li. 36. You seeme to grant vnto Christ all naturall sorrow and feare neither doe we seeke any more but you trust the paine of the damned is more than a naturall oppressing and afflicting of the heart with humane feare and sorow For sooth it is not It is no more than a very naturall humane feare and sorow It proceedeth immediately and principally from God himselfe who is the Nature of Natures Also mans nature is apt to receiue such sorow and feare from him Thus the very paines of the damned are meerely naturall If you make vs many such conclusions you will proue your selfe a meere Naturall For if all things be meerely naturall to man that God either bestoweth or inflicteth on man then grace and glorie are meerely naturall to man yea heauen it selfe is as naturall to man as hell and the Holy Ghost himselfe shall become meerely naturall to man for God doth giue and we p Rom. 8. receiue the spirit of adoption whereby we crie Abba Father yea the second person in Trinitie is inseparably ioyned to mans nature and as well the â—…ather as the Sonne q 1. Ioh. 4. abide and r 2. Cor. 6. dwell in all the Saints So that the coniunction communion and inhabitation of the godhead in man is meerly naturall vnto man by your doctrine and not only God but the Diuell is as naturall to man and so are those things which are most vnnaturall and most repugnant to mans nature For man doth and suffereth them by and from God or the Diuel As corruption and incorruption mortality and immortality righteousnesse vnrighteousnesse saluation and destruction eternall life and eternall death are meerly naturall to man by your learned discourse which if you persist to defend take heed least men doubt whether frensie be naturall to you or no. Natural I called not whatsoeuer is any way incident to men in this life or the next but that which is generall necessary to all men in that they are men Wherfore I make neither hell nor heauen naturall vnto men since the one God giueth by his power and grace aboue our nature for our nature is not to be as the Angels of God and in the other by iustice and wrath God worketh against our nature For that fire should euerlastingly burne and flesh euerlastingly dure therein and soules be extreamely tormented therewith are to my vnderstanding farre beyond nature except you beâ—…eaue God of his almighty power and will which the Scriptures confesse in him and call him by the name of nature which is no more but the condition and operation that he hath assigned in this world to euery creature If you would needs know whence I tooke the word naturall read either Fulgentius or Damascene and you shall soone see what they and I meane by nature s Tulgentiâ—… ad Trasimundum li. tertio Because Christ saith Fulgentius tooke vpon him to be a true man ideo cunct as naturae humanae infirmitates ver as quidem sedvoluntarias sustinuit therefore he sustained all the infirmities of mans nature truely but voluntarily and so Damascene t Damas. li. 3. ca. 20. We confesse that Christ vndertooke all naturall and sinlesse passions Naturall and sinlesse passions are those which entered into mans life by the condemnation of Adams transgression as hunger thirst wearinesse labour weeping shunning of death feare agonie and such like which are naturally in all men So that what is geneâ—…all and necessarie to all men in this life is naturall to man which I trust neither hell nor heauen is though by iustice or mercie all men after this life shall feele the one or enioy the other u Defâ—…nc pag. 122. li. 6. Supernaturall I graunt they are if we meane this that they are aboue our natures state to beare or to comprehend them If your rule be true that men naturally receiue the paines of hâ—…ll why should not mans nature as well beare them or compâ—…ehend them as receiue them except you meane the bearing of them with patience or comprehending the end of them what punishment men receiuâ—… that they beare x Gala 5. He that troubleth you shall be are his condemnation whosoeuer he be And againe y Gala 6. euery man shall beâ—…re his own burden And so elsewhere z Ephes. 3. I bow my knees vnto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that he will grant you that ye may be strengthened by his spirit in the inward man that ye may be able to COMPREHEND with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and height and to know the loue of Christ which passeth the knowledge of man And if men shall feele the paines of hell why shall they not comprehend that which they feele They shall apprehend no end nor ease thereof but feeling is a comprehension of the paine though it shall be so great that they cannot endure it with any patience And yet since you striue for the paines of hell in the soule of Christ aduise you whether Christ shall
if it were possible that houre might passe from him Then he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter Couldest not thou watch one houre Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation What signes or words are here of astonishment continuing astonishment stoppeth speech and motion as well as sense y Rhetoricorum ad Herâ—…nnium li. 4. Omnes stupidi timore obmutuerunt They all amazed with feare were mute sayth the heathen Oratour And so the Poet z Plautus in Epidiâ—…o Quid stas stupida quid taces Thou amazed thing why flandest thou still why art thou tongue-tied Yea Galen himselfe giueth euident testimonie that men amazed with feare neither speake nor doe any thing but stand still with their eyes open a Galenus in Aphorismos Hippocratis li. 7. apho 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amazednesse is when men neither speake nor do any thing but abide silent with their eyes open like to men astonished with feare So that if Christ were astonished with feare or amazed he could neither haue done nor sayd any of those things which the Gospell reporteth he did and sayd and therefore vnlesse you can alter the rules of nature as you doe of Scripture Christ was in no such astonishment as you dreame of neither did his memory faile him in speaking those words for then how could he not haue rememâ—…red that they were spoken amisse and needed correction as you conceiue them Your selfe acknowledge that he might be It helpeth not you I sayd if we should so interpret the word which S. Marke vseth that Christ began to be afrayd or somewhat astonished for if b In verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to admire some sudden or strange sight as Phanorinus auoucheth then might our Sauiour approching Gods presence now sitting in iudgement to redeeme the world easily finde cause both of admiration and feare and yet be free and farre from suffering your hell paines And where you say my words are vtterly vntrue that c Defenc. pag. 123. li. 13. many things might astonish our Sauior for the time besides such paines they are truer than any thing you haue yet spoken or will speake of his astonishment For whether we respect the sight of his eyes or the apprehension of his minde he might either way beholde many things woorthie of that feare or astonishment which the Scripture describeth in him d Zanâ—…hius de Incar Christi li. 2. quaest 11. Thesi 2 de scientia Christi pa. 302. If with the eyes of his bodie cleered with diuine light Christ being in earth sayth Zanchius could see the things in heauen and being in heauen doth see what he will in earth as he saw and heard Steuen saying Lord Iesu receiue my spirit he saw and spake to Paul persuing him in his Church how much more can and could the soule of Christ see particular things in the word which is his Godhead So that either the eyes of Christ or the minde of Christ might beholde or consider the glory of Gods iudgement whereof he spake when he sayd e Iohn 12. Now euen at hand is the iudgement of this world or the greatnesse of mans sinne or power of Gods wrath or the vengeance deserued from which he was to ransome man and for which he was to satisfie God all these things might in more likelihood in some sort astonish the humane soule of Christ than the paines of the damned presently then inflicted on him with Gods immediate hand as you imagine but are no way able to proue saue by your owne conceit And therefore your second obseruation that these infinite incomprehensible and incomparable paines which you meane astonished is but the froth of your fansie for you shall neuer be able to iustifie any such thing by the text or historie of the Euangelists f Defenc pâ—…g 123. li. 20. Thirdly adde heereunto that which you rightly grant that it is true a mighty feare may so affect a man for the time that it shall hinder the senses from recouering themselues and stoppe the faculties from informing one another Likewise afterward astonishment draweth the mind so wholy to thinke on some speciall thing aboue our reach that during the time we turne not our selues to any other cogitation You take this to be true that I said and so do I but this vtterly subuerted your former position which now you recant that g Treat pa. 53. li. 32. Christ could not but be astonished forgetfull and all confounded in his whole humanity botâ—… in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body If Christ according to your desperate doctrine were all consounded in his whole humanity were not his vnderstanding and memory confouÌ„ded aswel as other parts of his humane nature If he were all confounded in all powers of his soule and senses of his body as your wicked error imagineth are not vnderstanding and memory powers of the soule and did not I charge you iustly and truely with casting Christ into an infernall confusion for the time since in hell it selfe they can be no more but all confounded in their whole manhoods both in all the powers of their soules and senses of their body Tell what confusion in hell is or can be more then all in all and I will yeeld I did you wrong If you cannot then bethinke your selfe how lewdly and loosely you aduentured all to confound Christ in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body in which case whether you leaue sense memory or vnderstanding vnconfounded in Chist I leaue to the censure of the discreet Reader h Defenc. pag. 124. li. 1. I say as you say he now on the suddaine might turne neither sense nor memory to any other obiect and so not thinke on any thing els but onlie on this terrible and mighty sorow and feare Your helpers haue aduised you to recall that forgetfulnesse and all confusion in all the powers of Christs soule senses of his body which before you sounded out with such waine loades of wordes as was maruailous and now you be come to say as I say that there was no confusion in the powers of Christs soule nor in the senses of his body but an intentiâ—…e cogitation on some fearefull or sorowfull thing which for the time so detained the powers of the soule as on a matter most importing and nearest touching the state of himselfe either in soule or in body that he did conuert them to no other obiect If you say thus with me then must you say farder with me that as soone as Christ beganne to vse speach or conuert his cogitation to praier this astonishment was eased and howsoeuer feare was not altogether dispelled yet he could no longer be said to be amazed or to seeke what to doe For praier to God without the mind intending and attending it is sinne which might not be in Christ and
is euident as I haue shewed out of Galen a sufficient witnesse of naturall effects and defects that men throughly amazed with feare neither speake nor doe any thing yea no man is so very a stranger to nature but he knoweth that astonishment in the highest degree hindreth both sense and motion outward and inward And therfore when you put our Sauiour into the p Ibid. li. 26. extreamest and most violent degree of amazednesse that might be and into farre greater astonishment then is to be seene in any man els that euer was or shal be I report me to the Christian Reader that hath read or seene any thing whether by this bold and violent imagination of yours you doe not take from Christ the vse of bodily sense motion and speach and euen of vnderstanding and memory The Scripture noteth of the ghest which wanted his wedding garment that when he was chalenged for it he q Matth. 22. was speachlesse When Saul heard the threats of him that appeared in the person of Samuel He r 1. Sam. 28. sodainely fell all along on the earth as sore afraid because of the words When Saint Iohn saw the sight of the sonne of God in his glory s Râ—…u 1. v. 17. He fell at his feet as dead for very feare So that feare may so farre amaze men as to take from them speach strength and all vse of life that they may lie euen as dead for the time which whether it agrâ—…e to our Sauiour in the garden I make any man iudge that euer read or heard that part of the Gospell t Defenc. pag. 128. li. 35. For my life I cannot answere this that followeth The suffering of hell paines which astonish and confound all the powers of the soule and senses of the body neither was nor could be meritorious with God I deny this assumption Not only all Christs paines were meritorious but euen all his infirmities also his wearinesse his hunger his sleep and so his astonishment and amazednesse The sleightnesse of your answere doth prooue that which I said to be truâ—…r then you are ware of For though diminution of strength as in wearinesse affliction of nature as in hunger and ligation of sense as in sleepe yea if you will priuation of life as in death were meritorious in Christ because the person that was God and man submitted himselfe to these infirmities of our nature which no way peruerted nor hindered the inward powers or actions of Christes humane soule yet that is no proofe that such impressions as depriue the soule of Christ of her proper and essentiall operations by confounding Reason vnderstanding will and memory should be meritorious because they all confound the very instruments of grace in the soule of Christ which are requisite vnto merit For though the person in Christ which by nature did owe no obedience by reason it had an equality with God was the chiefe fountaine of all Christs merits which could not haue infinite price and valew but that he was infinite and no way bound who wrought them by his humane nature yet the instruments of merit in Christs manhood were his soule and his body and chiefly his soule by her vnderstanding and will alwaies pâ—…rfectly knowing absolutely liking and constantly performing by the presence and power of Gods spirit those things which were most pleasing to God So that the paines and infirmities which you suppose in Christ if they did confound and astonish all the powers of Christs soule and senses of his body For so are the words of your assertion and my assumption they neither were nor could be meritorious In sleepe the senses of Christs body rested which he could haue strengthened by power without sleepe but that he willingly submitted himselfe to those infirmities of our nature for obedience to his Fathers will yet euen then was the soule of Christ left free to diuine cogitations and visions which could not want in the soule of Christ hauing the full and perpetuall possession and fruition of Gods grace and trueth though he would want the power and glory prouided for him till Gods appointed time Christs sleepe then had no agreement with your late deuised confusion of all the powers of Christes soule yea the praiers speaches and actions of Christ in the garden if you then confound in him all vnderstanding will and memory which are the powers of Christs soule must by your doctrine be full of vanity and rather distractions thâ—…n religious and humane actions as not proceeding from the direction of grace apprehension of mind and submission of will but from a confusion of all these which no Christian man can tell what to make of And therefore you must either recall the confufion of all the powers of Christs soule which you say was the extreamest and most violent that might be or worse consequents will follow vpon these desperate and false amplifications then you yet see For take once from Christes soule his humane vnderstanding and will and place nothing but confusion in his whole humanity or as your words are all confusion in his whole humanity both in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body and tell me what patience obedience or sanctity could be left where neither vnderstanding will not memory were but all confounded in the extreamest manner that might be u Defenc. pag. 129. li. If it seeme a hard phrase which in my former Treatise I vsed saying Christ at this instant became forgetfull of that which before he knew my meaning is and so still I speake now he remembred not he considered not Which many times we vse to name forgetting but indeed strictly and properly it is not remembring If you looke well to it you haue harder phrases both in your defence and Treatise then Christ to be forgetfull of himselfe Which if you reuoke not or plainly excuse not rather by your folly not vnderstanding the force of them then standing to iustifie them they will prooue open impiety I haue so often repeated them that I am weary of so vnsauery words And as foâ—… proofes that Christ should be thus all confounded in all the powers and senses of body and soule you be so vsed to wilfull assertions depending only on your secret conceits that you doe not thinke your selfe bound to prooue that you say or to say no more in Christian Religion then you can prooue For what one signe or step of this great and generall confusion in the soule of Christ doe the Scriptures mention that you should thus racke it to the extreamest highest degree that euer was shall or might be They be well holpen vp that haue such an heady presumer and affirmer as you are to fashion their faiths after your vnaduised and inconsiderate fansies But God send you his grace to wax soberer which is all the harme I wish you though I like none of your pangs to be the principles of my faith x Defenc. pag.
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
day If you could take any hold I doubt not the sharpenesse of your teeth but your foolish conceits are caried like clouds in the aire they rest not before they vanish r Defenc pag. 139. li. 5. Then Luke where both spirit and flesh are not intended of Christ as our obseruation requireth but only the flesh Your obseruation is made to fitte S. Peters words to your fansie For there are not many places in Scripture where spirit and flesh are expressed and intended of the two natures of Christ though in other places some words adioyned doe prooue him to be God as well as man In that of S. Luke Christ doth not denie himselfe to be a diuine spirit for then he were no God since God is a s Iohn 4. spirit nor to haue an humane spirit for then he were no man but that which they saw with their eies he affirmed was flesh and bloud and not any apparition in the shape of a man And the words following t Luke 24. as ye see me to haue containe and note the other part of his humane nature which was his soule and spirit and consequently inferre that he was a man and had an humane spirit though compassed with flesh and bones as we haue u Defenc. pag. 139. li. 7. Then the Romans where I affirme that flesh signifieth the whole manhood of Christ according to the which he came from Dauid euen as well as Salomon or Nathan did who were Dauids sonnes in their intire and perfect nature Whether Christs body without a soule which was but a Carcasse be alwaies in the Scriptures intended by the name of Christs flesh this is not the question there is but one place in the new Testament where Christs flesh importeth his dead body as when Peter saith Christes x Acts 2. flesh saw no corruption but whether whatsoeuer is attributed to Christs flesh with comparison or mention of his diuine nature doe properly agree as well to his soule as to his body this is the thing in question betwixt you and me That the man Christ was borne of the Virgin and died on the Crosse there is no doubt but that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid and circumcised crucified as well as his body this is your error and for this you haue no shew in the word of God and therefore you seeke by rules of your owne making to draw it in by the heeles when you cannot by the head It is but a shift to saue your selfe when you tell your Reader that Christs whole manhood came from Dauid as well as Salomon or Nathan did The point is whether Christes soule were made of the seed of Dauid as well as his body was That I denie and haue the Apostle for my warrant that men are only the y Heb. 12. Fathers of our bodies and God is the immediate Father of our spirits Which if it be true in all men then Salomon and Nathan were the sonnes of Dauid not because their soules were made of the seed of Dauid but only their bodies and yet since they drew as much from their father as children by Gods ordinance do or may do therefore were they the sonnes of Dauid In Christ it is most sure which the Apostle saith that according to the flâ—…sh he was made of the seed of Dauid This by no meanes can be verified of his soule howsoeuer you would slubber it vp by calling his whole manhood the sonne of Dauid which I doe not denie Not that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid as was his body that is an open and an odious error but that his flesh made of the seed of Dauid which was the Virgins body was also quickened with a soule from God in due time that came not out of Dauids loines Euen so the whole man in Christ died on the Crosse not that his soule was depriued of life or left dead as was his body but that the coniunction of soule and body which maketh the whole man was dissolued by death his flesh lying in the graue without corruption and his soule remaining in the hands of God to which it was commended z Defenc. pag. 139. So likewise Christ was kinne to the lewes according to his whole humanity as well as Paul was When you can shew kindred in spirits as well as in flesh that is deriued from parents then say that Paul and Christ were kin to the Iewes according to their whole humanity till you proue that howsoeuer vse of speach may be endured which must be interpreted according to the truth you can neuer conclude there is consanguinity betweene soules as there is betweene bodies And spight of your heart if you will not maintaine vntrueths to vphold your credit as your maner is the Apostle teacheth you how to vnderstand those words that as we haue fathers of our bodies from whom our spirits come not but immediatly from God so kindred and consanguinity which commeth by the parents goeth by flesh and bloud receiued from them and not by soules infused from God S. Iohn leadeth you to the same rule that men are borne of bloud and of the will of the flesh and so by flesh and bloud commeth kindred God giuing soules to quicken their bodies Wherefore the Scriptures when they expresse kindred they note it by flesh and bone As when Laban said to Iacob Thou art my a Gene. 29. bone and my flesh So Iudah of Ioseph b Gene. 37. he is our brother and our flesh So Abimelech to his mothers brethren c Iudic. 9. I am your bone and your flesh And vsualy where kindred is claimed or yeelded the Scriptures expresse it by d 2. Sam. 5. 19 flesh and bones as Adam said to Eue e Gen. 2. This now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh So that howsoeuer you dreame or talke of the consanguinity of soules it is like the rest of your nouelties which haue no handfast but in your head and the exception taken by me will stand good doe you and your adherents what you can that in these attributes to the manhood of Christ you shall neuer prooue they properly pertaine to both parts but to the whole conioyned or to one part seuerally respected f Defenc. pag. 139. li. 21. Further that which you bring out of the Corinthians compared with this in Peter doth most cleerely open and confirme the same He was crucified touching his infirmitie but liueth by the power of God His soule had infirmities of suffering in it aswell as his bodie therefore his soule also is vnderstood here that it was crucified and died that is according to the condition thereof You proue not what you promise but pronounce what you please which if any man will suffer you to doe we shall soone haue a new Church a new Faith and all things new Afore you pretended rules at least though void of reason and trueth now you
crucifixi corporis iniuria intelligitur Sola in Christo materia carnis mortis fragilitate defuncta spem resurrectionis expectabat The prophesie in the Psalmes auouch the passion of Christ in the flesh only when it saith they pearced my hands and my feet and numbred all my bones Where not the iniurie of his deity but of his body is percâ—…aued in Christ the matter only of his flesh yeelding to the srailty of death expected resurrection Petrus quoque Apostolus Christi supplicium sic praedicat in solo corpore consummatum a Ibidem qui peccata inquit nostra pertulit in corpore suo super lignum Peter also the Apostle preacheth the passion of Christ to haue beene performed ONLY IN HIS BODY when he saith Christ bare our sinnes in his body on the tree And againe b Ibidem Sola caro crucis exitium sensit sola caro lanceam pertulit sola sanguine aqua manauit Ipsa sola mortua ipsa sola in sepulchro posita ipsa sola tertio dic resuscitata Only the flesh of Christ tasted the sharpnesse of the Crosse only the flesh endured the speare only the flesh yeelded forth bloud and water That only died that only lay in the graue that ONLY ROSE AGAINE And assuring themselues this to be the Christian faith confirmed in the old and new testament they say c Ibidem Ecce pronunciata est passio corporis Christi ex lege Prophetis Cuius quidem fidei verit as tam est efficax vt eam nec tyranni sua potuerint crudelitate confundere nec haereticorum subdola circumâ—… to pessumdare nâ—…c hypocritarum diminuere fallax simulatio The passion of the body of Christ is prooued by the law and the Prophets The trueth of which faith is so forcible that neither tyrants with their â—…rucltie could confound it nor Heretickes with their crafty deuices euert it nor Hypocrites with their false dissembling diminish it Theodoret. d Theodoret. Dialogo 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how could the soule of our Sauiour hauing an immortall nature and not touched with the least spot of sinne be possibly taken with the hooke of death Cyril e Cyril de recta fide ad Râ—… li. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we conceaue Christ to be God incarnate and suffering in his owne flesh the death of his flesh alone sufficeth for the redemption of the world Fulgentius f Fulgentius aâ—… I 〈◊〉 li. 3. ca. 7. Quis ignoret Christum nec in diuinitate sed IN SOLO CORPORE MORTVVM sepultum Who can be ignorant that Christ was dead and buried not in his deity but in his body only Cum sola caro moreretur resuscitaretur in Christo filius Dei dicitur mortuus Idem Christus secundum solam carnem mortuus secundum solam animam ad insernum descendit When the flesh onely died and was raised againe in Christ the Sonne of God is said to haue died The same Christ died in his flesh onely and descended into hell in his soule ONELY g Idem ca. 5. Moriente carne non solum Dietas sed nec anima Christi potest ostendi commortua The flesh dying not onely the dietie but the soule of Christ cannot be shewed to haue bene also dead The same Father and fifteene other Bishops of Africa make this confession of their faith h Mors silij Dei quam sola carne suscepit vtramque in nobis mortem animae scilicet carnisque destruxit The death of the Sonne of God which he SVFFERED IN HIS FLESH ALONE destroyed in vs both our deaths to wit the death of soule body This confession Gregory followed when he said i Gregorius in 〈◊〉 li. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solumpro nobis mortem carnis suscepit Christ vndertooke for vs the only death of the flesh And againe comming to vs who were iâ—… the death of spirit and flesh Christ brought his owne death to vs and loosed both our deaths His sâ—…le death 〈◊〉 applied to our double death and dying vanquished our double death Vigius k Secundum proprietatem naturae sola carâ—… mortâ—…m sâ—…t sola caro sepulturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ergo 〈◊〉 dominum iacuisse in sepulchro sâ—…d in sola carne Dominum d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the propriety of nature onely the 〈◊〉 of Christ 〈◊〉 death onely the â—…sh was buried Therefore we say the Lord lay in the grâ—…ue but in flesh alone and descended into hell but in SOVIE Aâ—…ONE Bede treadeth iust in their steps l 〈◊〉 in ca. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc 〈◊〉 quod mâ—…atur Nam verbum 〈◊〉 non potuit 〈◊〉 anima illa mortua â—…it Caro tantum mortua est resurrexit tertia 〈◊〉 That was raised which died the Godhead could not die his soule was not dead onely his flesh died and râ—…se againe And againe m Idem Homiâ—… 4. in 〈◊〉 Veniens adnos qui in morte carnis spiritus eramus vnam suam id est carnis mortem pertulit duas nostras absoluit simplam suam nostrae duplâ—… coâ—…t dulpam nostram subegit Christ comming to vs that were in death of bodie and spirit suffered onely one death that is the death of the flesh and freed both our deaths â—…ee applied his one death to our double death and vanquished them both Albinus n Quid significat morte morieris duplicem mortem â—…ominis designat animae videlicit corpâ—…s Animae mors est dum proptâ—…r peccatum quodlibâ—…t animam dâ—…t Deus Corporis â—…rs est dum propter necessitatem quamlibet corpus descritur â—…b anima Et hanc duplâ—…m Christus sua 〈◊〉 destruxit Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ad tempus anima vero nunquam qui nunquam peccauit What is ment â—…y this tâ—…ou shalâ—…â—…e the death it noteth a double death in man to wit of soule and body The death of the soule is when for any sinne God forsaketh it the death of the 〈◊〉 is wâ—…en for any necessitie the bodie is depriued of the soule This double death of 〈◊〉 Christ destroyed with his single death for hee died onely in 〈◊〉 for a time but in soule he neuer died who neuer sinned This continued without change to Bernards time who saith of Christ o Ex duaâ—…s 〈◊〉 nostris cum aâ—…ra nobis in cuâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reputaretur susâ—…ns pâ—…am nesâ—…ns culpam dum sponâ—…é TANTVMâ—…N CORPORE MORITVR vitam nobis 〈◊〉 promâ—…ur Of our two deaths where one was the desert of 〈◊〉 the other the dâ—…e of punishment Christs taking our punishment but 〈◊〉 from sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dieth willingly and ONELY IN 〈◊〉 hee meâ—…h â—…or vs life and 〈◊〉 I haue bene the longer good Reader in alleaging these fathers to assure thee that I deliuer no doctrine touching our redemption but â—…uch as the whole Church of Christ in the best purest times professed to
his power to be destroyed and ouerthrowen If you regard the Catechisme so highly as you pretend why slippe you from it in these or other points at your pleasure why obtrude you that to others as authorised which your selfe doe not admit indeed some men haue of late yeeres inclined to vehement and violent temptations offered to the soule of Christ in his sufferings and some to feares and horrors euen of eternall death as master Caluin and the Catechisme which you cite but if you may be suffered to shrincke from them at your liking neuer blame me if I doe not preferre them before all these fathers Howbeit to speake vprightly without wronging them I doe not see that either the Catechisme or master Caluin doe expressely defend the death of Christs soule or the second death but only the feare and horror not of a temporall hell as you haue distilled their infusion but of eternall death which you with might and maine reiect And surely if they did contradict the confession of all these fathers I would adhere to the primatiue church of Christ in matters of faith rather then to the deuices of late writers dissenting from themselues and others But touching the death of Christes soule I see no cause to depart from them since they define no such thing and therefore they aâ—…e idlely alleadged by you euen as the rest are by you proudly neglected And till you leaue this contemning of ancient Fathers and straining of later writers beyond their meaning I for my part thinke you worthie of no charge in the church of Christ neither of that you had wherein you sowed as much cockle as corne nor of that you may haue except you change your mind and learne to teach nothing to the people of God but what is warranted by the word of God c Defenc. pag. 142. li. 36. ` You say I should haue donne well to haue laied downe for a shew which is written in Easy he laied downe his soule vnto death Verily if I had it would haue made some shew I said indeed the Prophet Esay would make a better shew for the death of Christ soule then the Poet Terence whom only you produced for proofe thereof but such was then and still is your presumption that on your bare word you will pronounce what best pleaseth your fansie Howbeit the words of Esay are but a shew for the death of Christes soule since they exactly declare his bodily death to be the redemption of mankind For when the soule in the Hebrew tongue and in the old Testament is said to die either by the soule are ment the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule whereby the spirit of man is vnited to his body and which are quenched by death or by death is ment the distraction of the soule from the body which violence of death is common as well to the soule thrust from her body as to the body left without a soule That signification of the word soule the Apostle sheweth when he praieth the d 1. Thess. 5. whole spirit and soule and body of the faithfull may be kept blaâ—…lesse vnto the comming of Christ and saith e Hebr. 4. The word of God pearceth to the diuiding a sunder of the soule and the spirit And this sense of the word death the Scriptures expresse when they often mention that the soules of the godly doe or would die When Iosephs brethren would haue slaine him Ruben said vnto them f Genes 37. vers 21. Let vs not strike him in the soule that is let vs not kill him So Balaam seeing the glory of Gods people said g Numb 23. vers 10. Let my soule die the death of the Righteous and mine end be like his that is Let my soule depart in peace as the Righteous doe And least any thinke that Balaam spake he knew not what Sampson willing to end his life with reuenge of the dishonour done to God by the Philistines insulting at his bonds and blindnesse when he pulled the house on his and their heades said h Iudâ—… 16. vers 30. Let my soule die with the Philistines So Elias wearie of his life i 1. Kings 19. vers 4. desired for his soule to die saying Lord take my soule he ment from his body So Moses comparing a rape with murder saith k Deuter. 22. vers 26. This is as if a man should fall vpon his fellow and kill him in the soule And so Ieremie to Ierusalem l Iere 2. v 34. In thy bosome is found the bloud of the soules of the poore innocents Infinite places are there in the Scripture to like effect All which declare that the soule of man feeleth the death of the body by her departing from it and that the Prophet Esay when he said of Christ He m Esa. 53. v. 12 powred forth his soule vnto death Had no meaning but to describe Christs bodily death in which the soule is powred out from the body that is wholy separated from it The very phrase of powring forth the soule which must needes be from the body sheweth that the Prophet directly described the death of Christs body by which the soule is emptied and powred out of the body as out of a vessel replenished with it So that heere you haue as much hold for the death of Christs soule as you had before which is vtterly none n Defenc. pag. 143. li. 1. You earnestly affirme that this word signifieth soule or spirit in a proper sense Also how resolute are you forbidding to diuert from the natiue and proper significations of words but when the letter impugneth the grounds of Christian faith and charity In the Page 167. which you quote I neither spake of this place nor of this word and therefore your considering cappe was not on when you so much mistooke my words I know Nephesh is applied as well to beasts who haue no soules as to bodies once liuing but then dead And therefore of Nephesh I affirmed no such thing of S. Lukes words repeating Dauids and exactly distinguishing the soule from the flesh in Christ I did indeed auouch and still doe that we must not rashly depart from the proper significations of that and other words in the Scripture except the letter breed some inconuenience to faith or good-maners But what is that to this place where though the word Nephesh be granted properly to import the soule yet the rest sheweth it to be referred to the death of the body because the soule is powred forth of the body by the death thereof where before it was conteined and inclosed o Defenc. pag. 143. li. 15. The rather if we note that which followeth he was counted with sinners that is he was punished by God as sinners are punished and not by the Iewes only counted among Theeues You take vpon you to controle both the Prophet and the Euangelist who refer this misiudging of Chriâ—…t to men not to
est mortuum anima illa non est mortua The word died not the soule of Christ died not And therefore the death of Christ which the Scriptures euery where note was the breathing of his soule out of his body not the separating of his soule from God as you would haue it Austins purpose in that place you little conceiue if you make him haue but one purpose As occasion serued he taught many things pertinent incident to his text which was large euen from the 10. verse vnto the 20. of that f Iohn 10. Chapter And these words I lay downe my soule for my sheepe being part of his text he had iust occasion to treate what death Christ died for his sheepe which was neither the death of his diety nor the death of his soule but only the separating of his soule from his bodie if this make not against you you haue good lucke that nothing will reach you his words refute the foolish error which you would establish that by the Scriptures Christ may be said to haue died the death of the soule as well as the death of the bodie which Austen expressely contradicteth auouching the one and denying the other in as plaine speach as any wise man can require g Defenc. pag. 143. li. 34. All your other discourse heere against me is almost nothing but reuilings and reproches and bitter skoffes Yet you say you haue not learned nor vsed to giue reuiling speaches Haue you not learned it is it then naturall vnto you Nâ—…y you meane these are fatherly warnings and admonitions If your fatherly admonitions are such what are your Lordly rebukes If these be your bishoply blessings what are your cursings What my discourse is against Hâ—… your defendour 〈◊〉 som what pleasurable you muâ—…t bee left neither to your censure nor mine but to the Readers If I called your conclusions bold and foolish shewing neither learning nor wit but sauouring onely of the vanitie of your owne conceits the trueth forced me so to doe which I might not betray When you reiected the iudgements and expositions of the fathers one after an other as k Trea. pa. 69. li. 67. 68. fond and absurd void of sense reason and likelihood yea most absurd and too fond to be spoken and trampled on their names credits as you would on nutshels affirming i Ibid. pa. 95. 96. It is onely the Fathers abusiue speaking and altering the vsuall and ancient sense of words that bred this error their vnapt and perillous translating that confirmed the same and that is a thing too rife with the Fathers yea with some of the auncient est of them to alter and change the Authentike vse of wordes whereby it is easie for errors and grosse mistakings to creepe in is or ought any good man to be so patient or rather negligent as to heare a parrat thus prate against the whole Church of Christ in her best times next after the Apostles and not onely to spare his folly but to reuerence his pride For my part I must confesse I tooke my selfe bound in duety to yeeld him no more regard then he deserued that thus sought to blaze his errors with contempt of all men saue of himselfe If therefore your absurd positions and proofes S. Treatiser did not iustly prouoke these replies which I made in the opinion of any wise and Christian Reader I crie your mercie but if you thinke me to blame for not taking you to be some Patriarke of Vtopia because you can scoffe and mocke as well at Bishops as at fathers Salomon aduiseth me to answere some men according to their merits k Prou. 26. least they seeme wise in their owne eyes Your Mockes I remit to your selfe I am as readie to bearâ—… them for the trueth as you to giue them Howbeit you wanted colours in your coate when you made such pastime with the blessing of Bishops and pepper in your porrage when I taking learned for skilfull which is not strange to any saue to you whose skill is void of all good learning you would needs make your selfe such mirth that railing must be naturall to me because I was not learned or expert therein I wish these were the worst of your toyes and then my sufferance should quiet the whole l Defenc. pag. 144. li. 8. Finally that is not true where you say the flesh doth often signifie the soule in vs. Is it ignorance or malice which driueth you to this waywardnesse to auouch you know not or care not what so you seeme to crosse that I say better learned then you or I obserued that before me which you affirme to be false Austen saith m August dâ—… 〈◊〉 Symbolo â—…a 10. Anima cum carnalia bona adhuc appetit caro nominatur The soule so long as it affecteth fleshly things is called flesh And Ambrose n Ambros. in 6. câ—… 〈◊〉 ad Romanos Caro aliquando corpus intelligitur velipsa anima sequens corporea vitia The flesh is sometimes vnderstoode to be the bodie of mâ—… or the soule it selfe addicted to corporall vices And Ierom. o Hâ—… in 5. ca. â—…pist ad Galat. Anima inter carnem spiritumque consistens quando se tradiderit carni caro dicitur The soule consisting betweene the flesâ—… and the spirit when it yeeldeth it selfe to the flesh is called flesh And least you clamour against these Fathers as your Treatise doth that they change the authentike vse of words heare what Zanchius a man of good iudgement though a late writer saith thereof p Zanchij tractat Theologicâ—… de peccato originali Thes. 6. Flesh and bloud reuealed not this vnto thee saith Christ to Peter The mind of man he calleth flesh and bloud why so because it is wholy corrupted by the flesh so that it sauoureth nothing but flesh How thinke you Sir is it true or false which I sayd that the soule is often called flesh because of her corruption as well as the bodie q Defenc. pag. 144. li. 12. Heere I desire the Reader to change a worde or two in my former Treatise for alwaies to set vsually and for a Man to set Christ. Because since I finde that flesh and spirit together applied to men doe once 2. Corinth 7. vers 1. signifie meerely the body and soule Which then I thought euery where did signifie in vs our corrupt and regenerate man Which ouersight the Bishop spieth not but in this place confirmeth The Bishop that professed hee found fewe true sentences in your Treatise had neither will nor leasure to traduce them all but obseruing your errors in doctrine remitted this and many other ouersights as not preiudicing the maine point in question As for his confirming it that is one of your vsuall verities who by the defending of falshood haue gotten you such an habite that you can scant see or speake a trueth when it toucheth but the skirts of your cause
And how come you now to put so great a difference betwixt alwaies and vsually where before you did interpret alwaies to be ordinarily but now you finde flesh and spirit together applied to men once to signifie meerely the body and soule Meane you in all the Scriptures or in the new Testament onely You call it the r Treatis pag. 136. li. 8. perpetuall vse of the Scripture and so must include the old Testament as well as the new except you will barre the old from being part of the Scripture What then shall become of that which Moses so often ascribeth to God when he saith s Numb 16. 27. O God the God of the spirits of all flesh Praieth he for the spirits of men or of beastes If you will straighten your wordes to the new Testament how insolent a bragger and negligent a Reader of the Scripture are you that first said it was alwaies so and now correcting your error say you finde it once otherwise where a childe might easily haue found it oftner The Apostle decreed the Offender at Corinth to be t 1. Coâ—… 5. deliuered vnto Sathan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saued in the day of the Lord. And to the Hebrewes he telleth vs u Heb. 12. We had fathers of our flesh which corrected vs and we reuerenced them Should we not much more be subiect to the Father of spirits In both which places the spirit of force must signifie the substance of mans soule x Defenc. pag. 144. li. 19. Finally to make an end with your Fathers and Councels I haue shewed before that your large claime prooueth a very short gaine For in substance and full effect they are euidently and generally against you and for vs. If thou thinke Christian Reader that I charge this man vniustly with impudent facing behold but these wordes and say what thou thinkest of them He that hath not brought nor can not bring one euident or pertinent word out of any Father for the death of Christes soule he yelleth out with open throatâ—… that generally and euidently they are in substance and full effect for him and against me It is no time heere to repeat what is past by that which is said thou maist easily iudge on which side the Fathers stand with full confession of the trueth and their faith Bragging is boies play where all performance wanteth y li. 24. As for their denying that Christ died in his soule I haue answered before With senselesse and shamefull shifts that Christes soule died not as the body did that he died not the ordinary death of the soule expressed in the Scriptures but an extraordinary newly deuised by your selfe and more then this in summe and substance you haue not said one word z li. 25. Further where you bring them in many places saying by his bloud onely he redeemed vs and he suffered onely in his body they are abused by you woonderfully not in their wordes but in their meaning You would faine change dying into suffering and haue your Reader imagine that I say Christes soule suffered nothing at all but these are now so stale tricks of yours that euery man reiecteth them as fast as I doe From death you 〈◊〉 to sufferings from sufferings to proper sufferings of the soule to which you à dde as a supplussage the paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God And so where you finde any Father affirme that Christ GRIEVED FEARED OR SORROWED in soule which are the naturall passions of mans soule common to good and badde you looke no farder but presently pronounce that Father maketh euidently with you But awake out of this ignorant lâ—…thargie there be many steps betweene their words and your wiles which you will neuer tread ouer with any the least shew of truth or proofe If I haue not abused their wordes in alleaging them as you confesse and I assure my selfe I haue not but where the Printer perchance hath made some fault which no man can auoid as pag. 81. August de Trinitate li. 11. the Printer hath set for lib. 13. and some such then haue I lesse abused their meaning whereof I make euerie Reader iudge and so referre my collecting to their censuring which is no abuse a Defenc. pag. 144. li. 28. They striuing against Arians and such other heretikes who would haue Christs Deitie to take part in his sufferings for our redemption the godly auncient writers doe heereupon say he suffered and satisfied for vs onely in his body not excluding the proper and immediate sufferings of his spirit Let the Authors themselues be viewed if you thinke 1 affirme of them falsely Against whom they write is not so much as what they write and how they confute those heretikes whom they vndertake The positions which they establish out of the Scriptures against such heresies are most to be regarded by their proofes you shall see their purpose To confound those misbeleeuers that would haue the Godhead of Christ suffer in his flesh or together with his flesh the Fathers do soundly oppose first that the Godhead is inuiolable impassible immutable and such like properties of the Godhead Secondly that the soule of Christ was subiect to no kind of death neither of sinne nor damnation which are not the death of the body as you wilfully but most absurdly would wrest it and therefore the Godhead was much more free not onely from this death of the bodie but from all touch of any kinde of death Thirdly to shew what it was in Christ that died since neither the Deitie nor the soule of Christ could die any kinde of death they prooue that that which died was a mortall bodie buried and raised againe the third day according to the Scriptures Which accidents and attributes belonging onely to the body of Christ It is most certaine by the sacred Scriptures that onely the body of Christ was yeelded to death for the redemption of our sinnes These be the chiefest of their reasons though they haue many others tending to the same issue which whether they truely and effectually exclude the death of Christes soule from the worke of our redemption I leaue it to their iudgement that shall peruse the former places by me cited or view the Fathers themselues in their full discourses And yet a number of these Fathers in the places by me alleaged doe not refute the Arians but handle professedly other points of our redemption saluation as Tertullian in his booke of the Resurrection of the flesh Chrysostom in his Homily of drunkennesse of the resurrection Augustine in his 99. Epistle those Chapters of his fourth Booke de Trinitate which I produced Gregorie vpon Iob Bernard in his Sermons to the Souldiers of the Temple Bede in his Homilies and Albinus in his questions these I say doe not there take in hand to refell the Arians but to deliuer what kinde of death Christ died to free
worth but if they be diuers proofes of one thing though in place one before another they all haue one intention and must haue one construction Your maner is to make what you list of euery mans wordes my course is to shew by the wordes precedent and consequent that I take the right sense of each Writer not vpon the aduantage of one word wrested from the rest but out of the whole context to manifest the true meaning of ech mans speach If therfore Tertullian had said Haec mors est carnis animae this is the death of soule and flesh as he saith Haec vox est carnis animae this is the voice of soule and flesh It had been worth the obiecting and yet I must tell you that Tertullian being of opinion that the soule was traduced with the seed of the body when he diuideth a man into flesh soule and spirit as heere he doth by naming all three parts it may well be doubted whether he spake of the substance of the soule which is a spirit or of the powers of sense and speach which faile by death and are often comprised in the name of the soule But it is cleare by Tertullians owne words that Christs humane spirit was not dead or forsaken since he there vrgeth it was committed to the fathers hands and consequently was not forsaken nor left to death as the rest of Christs manhood was k Tertullianus aduersus Praxeam Caeterum non reliquit pater filium in cuius manibus filius spiritum suum posuit Denique posuit statim obijt spiritu enim manente in carne caro omnio mori non potest But the Father did not forsake the Sonne into whose hands the sonne laid downe his spirit For he laid it downe and presently died the spirit remaining in the flesh the flesh could not die at all The Father then left the flesh of his sonne vnto death but he tooke Christs spirit into his hands and so for the sonne to be forsaken was nothing els but for his flesh to be left to death This is Tertullians owne exposition of himselfe howsoeuer you would dally and deceaue both your selfe and your Reader by generall or speciall before or after l Defenc. pag. 145. li. 24. Cyrill also euen in that booke which you cite for you sheweth that he excludeth but Christs deity though he mention only his suffering in flesh Christ then is God impassible as God passible according to the flâ—…sh You put a whole But to Cyrills sense more then you find in his text and yet the words passible and impassible are not the things we striue for Impassible is that which by no possibility can admit any mutation or alteration by force or affection which is proper to God alone So no part of Christs manhood was impassible But though his soule were passible with diuers affections and impressions how will it follow from these or any other words in Cyrill that Christs soule died Cyrill hath in many words shewed which I before haue cited that Christs soule was subiect to all humane and naturall passions or affections but without sinne or corruption in this sense what doth it helpe you to haue the soule of Christ passible by nature and not impassible as his godhead is but you loue to loyter that thus still repeat one lesson not only besides your booke but against your booke m Defenc. pag 145. li 30. In a word so doe all the rest as before is partly noted A totall summe is as soone made of lies as of trueths All the answer you giue is they spake against other Hereticks not against you but this is the danger that if such points as they prooue against other Hereticks make against you you had need beware of the coniunction and communion between you and other Hereticks Against n li. 31. Nestorius they affirme you say the vnion of Christs natures Why skippe you o Sermo fo 331. Athanasius Epiphanius Ambrose and Augustine that neuer heard of Nestorius who teach directly that Christs suffering of death mentioned in the Scriptures was the suffering thereof in his mortall bodie which died and rose againe and by the death of this body was the ransome for vs all payd p Ambros. in Lucâ—… ca 4. de ductu Christi in desertum What pray saith Ambrose could there be for death and Satan but his bodie You say his soule q August in Psal. 148. Accepit ex te vnde moreretur pro te Non posset mori nisi card Non posset mori nisi mortale corpus Christ tooke of thee sayth Austen wherein he might die for thee There could die in him nothing but flesh There could die in him nothing but his mortall bodie These and many such places yon cleanly skippe and tell in a word they are all for you r li. 32. They preserue the properties of ech They therefore holde not his only bodily sufferings Nay they therefore holde not the death of Christes soule since that is no necessarie propertie of mans nature assumed by Christ. Their reasons likewise and expositions of the Scriptures which you peruert exclude your conceit of the death of Christes soule most apparently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deitie could not suffer death say they because it was no bodie Then onely the bodie could suffer that death which Christ died And since the soule is no bodie that also must be free froÌ„ the death which Christ died These positions likewise of the Christian faith that the Son of God was wounded crucified dead and rose againe for vs all they expound to be expresly meant of his bodie wounded crucified dead and raised the third day so that where you would cauill that the name of Christes flesh importeth his soule as well as his body they directly refell you and pronounce all these things to be verified of his body and not of his soule or deity since nothing in him could suffer death but his body And the Scriptures that Christ by the grace of God tasted death for all and by death conquered him that had power ouer death and such like they exactly referre to the death of his body which argueth all your doctrine of the death of Christs soule to be meerely superfluous if not wholy pernicious f Defenc. pag. 145. li. 33. Is this then your great boast of all the Fathers and councels nay are they well vsed at your hands to be thus drawen clean from their purpose to an opinion which they neuer thought of is this good dealing towards Gods people to tell them that the Fathers generally teach the only bodily sufferings of Christ and denie our assertion of his soules peculiar suffering which they iustifie and conâ—…irme indeed Intrueth good Reader if I were not too well acquainted with this mans vnshamefastnesse I should thinke I rather heard a plaier on the stage then a Pen-man in the Church Is it possible for a
Saints they congratulate one another and reioyce ech at others rewards and honors Gualter The summe of all that shall be said by the Prophet is this that the Medes should kill the king of Babylon and his soule be cast downe to hell among other tyrants to suffer euerlasting torments This place hath an euident testimonie teaching vs that soules do not die with their bodies but are spirits immortall and gathered into a place appointed for them the wicked to hell where vtter darkenesse is and eternall weeping and gnashing of teeth Mollerus In these verses is described the state of the dead which depart this life in their sinnes without repentance as it is in the storie of the rich glutton Lucae 16. for as he was caried to hell so this tyrant and all others that die in their sinnes descend to hell Wigandus vpon these wordes Hell below is stirred to meete thee The Prophet saith that other Tyrants in hell meet the Babylonian tyrant and insult at him qui iam in imum Tartarum detractus sibi â—…iat similis who being brought downe to the deepest hell is now become like to them As these learned interpreters rightly obserue the circumstances of Esaies words so depart they not from the propriety of the Hebrew phrase which Munster confesseth generally to be this The wicked descend lishol tachtith to the lower sheol that is to Gehenna where their fire quencheth not for euer The words of Ezechiel 31 32 haue as many and the same circumstances to resute your follie as the wordes of Esay haue and make proofe sufficient that those words doe not import only the Graue as you falsely presume First Rabbi Iehosuas and Midras Tehilim of good authority amongst the Iews auouch as I haue shewed erets tachtith the lower carth to be the description and appellation of Hell in the Scriptures Next Mercer and Forster and other famous Hebricians obserue as also your selfe doe yeeld that erets tachtith hath manifestly the same sense and signification with Sheol Tachath in the foureteenth of Esay of which there is now no doubt but hell is thereby implied Thirdly Ezechiel purposely noteth and so nameth the same place where all the vncircumcised and wicked that from the beginning were barbarous and bloudie enemies to the people of God were gathered and receiued after this life whereof many thousand were drowned and otherwise depriued of their graues except the name of graue be figuratiuely taken for death when yet Ezechiel pointed out the place where they were at the time that he spake these words euen in the lower earth Fourthly Ezechiel giueth them sight speech and affections as Esay did in saying They are now ashamed of their strength by which they became terrors to the liuing and see and speake ech to others insulting and vpbraiding one another euen as Esay before described them Lastly the selfe same phrase is found in Dauid threatning this vengeance to those who sought his soule to destroy it that they should go betachtijotâ—… hâ—…arets to the lower parts of the earth and yet their carcasses be left as a portiâ—…n to the foxes that is to be deuoured of wild and raâ—…ening beasts What the Iewes conceaued by the lower earth appeareth by the prayer of King Manassâ—…s which though it be not canonicall yet it is of credit enough to expound that speach wherein he besought God not to be angrie with him for euer nor to condemne him into the lower parts of the earth And the Hebrue translation of S. Matthews Gospel which S. Ierom testifieth was long before his time expresseth the words of our Sauiour touching his Church the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it by shaâ—…re tachijoth the lower gates So that the same reasons serue to limit Ezechiels words that serued for Esaies and you haue none other obiections against them but the selfe same that were before which are very firuolous to inferre any such thing as you resolue that only the graue is ment by Ezechiels words Yea the name of graue or sepulchre which there is sometimes vsed though not alone inferreth as well eternall as corporall death in the wicked the one being alwaies consequent to the other in them And so much Mercerus a man of good iudgement admonisheth Spulâ—…hri nomine scriptura exitium mortem aeternam intelligit ex externa morte internam accipiens By the name of graue or sepulchre the Scripture vnderstandeth destruction and eternall death noting the inward death by the outward And as for interpreters new and old they likewise concurre in the exposition of Ezechiels words and of Dauids that hell is ment by crets tachtith the lower earch and tachtijoth arets the lower part of the earth no lesse then it was by Sheâ—…l tachath the lower sheol in Esaias speach Ierom. to the lower earth hoc est ad infernum that is to hell ad cos qui descâ—…ndunt in Lacum haud dubium quin inferna significet to those that descend to the lake it cannot be doubted but he meaneth hell Lyra. To the lowest earth that is to hell as touching the soule which the Doctors say is in the deepe of the earth Munster If thou aske where are the Assyrians buried Ezechiel answereth in the sides of the lake and in the lower parts of the earth by which the Prophet signifieth the damnation of body and soule Oecolampadius vpon Ezechiels words There is Asshur and all his multitude in Gehenna in the place of the damned amongst the vncircumcised Assyrians round about his graue or pit that is in the midst of hell For with this figure of speech the Prophets vse to describe the damnation of the wicked or accursed who together with their soules are punished with euerlasting death Pellican Ad terram vltimam hoc est ad infernum To the lowest earth that is to hell And they are sayd to be buried in pits round about them because they are gathcred in hell to the fellowship of their forefathers and such as were like them who by their â—…eenesse and crueltie against mankinde which they sought to oppresse deserued reproch with the liuing in all ages and in hell euerlasting punishment and fire Lauater non solum Rox â—…d Tartara prâ—…cipitatus fuit not only the king was cast downe to hell but his wicked counsellors souldiers and helpers By the vncircumcised he vnderstandeth the dâ—…ed meaning the king should perish body and soule Out of this place of the Prophet Ezechiel we vnderstand first that there is an hell or place appointed to punish the wicked next that it is beneâ—…h vs thirdly who shall be cast thither The like is obserued out of Dauids words by Ierom. They shall goe into the lower parts of the earth In inferno damnabuntur they shal be condemned to hell Haymo Into the lower parts of the earth that
hades either for the place or state of the godly now deceased in Christ nor for the generall or common condition of both elect and reprobate since Christs resurrection but as we saw before in Iustine the martyr Chrysostome and Theodoret precisely for a place opposite to Paradise and heauen where the wicked after this life find the due wages of their sinnes which is eternall darâ—…knesse and death where the dwelling and dominion of Diuels is and whence the Saints dead and liuing from the beginning of the world to the end thereof weâ—…e and are redeemed and deliuered by Christ. Iosephus a Iew and yet a fauourâ—…r of Christian Religion as appeareth by his testimonie giuen of Christ and one that liued euen in the Apostles time as being a chiefe leader of the Iewes in the battaile against the Romans and taken by Veâ—…pasian to whom he foretold by the gift of pâ—…ophesie whiles Nero yet liued that he should be Emperour in his oration to dissuade them that would haue killed themselues and him before he should yeeld to the Romans Know you not saith he that such as goe out of this life by the law or course of nature and repâ—…y the debt which they râ—…ceaued of God when he that gaue it is willing to receaue it haue immortall glory an house and ofspring setled and their soules cleansed and fauoured of God inhabit the holiest place of heauen and whose hands waxe mad against themselues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THEIR SOVLâ—…S HADES that is darke RECEIVETH Ignatius the third bishop of Antioch after the Apostles sayth of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended alone to Hades Hell and threw downe the rampier that had stood from the beginning and brake vp the partition wall thereof which kept men from heauen To the state of the dead Christs soule did not descend alone the thiefs soule was with him neither had the rampier of bodily death continued vnbroken from the beginning since many before Christs suffering rose from the generall condition of the dead but hell it was to which he alone of all men that euer returned went and brake the strength and force thereof which till that time was vntouched Theophilus the sixt bishop of Antioch about 170 yeeres after Christ alleageth against Autolycus a maligner of Christian religion the verses of Sybilla to prooue that the Gentiles did sacrifice to diuels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You made sacrifices to diuels in hades Clemens Alexandrinus not long after labouring to proue that Peters words Christ preached to the spirits in prison pertained to the wicked not to the godly giueth this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who being well aduised will thinke the soules of the iust and of sinners to be in one condâ—…mnation Whence he concludeth that none heard Christs voice there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were placed in hades and had yeelded themselues wâ—…ttingly to destruction And for proofe thereof alleageth these words as out of the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades sayd to destruction We saw not his shape but we heard his voice I cite not these places to approoue euery allegation or opinion that is occurrent but to shew in what sense the auncient Greeke writers that were Christians vsed the worde Hades not for the common condition and state of soules iust and vniust which Clemens heere disaâ—…oweth but for the place where the wicked were detained that wilfully wrought their owne destruction Eusebius speaking in the person of Christ saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I see my descent to Hades approch and the rebellion against me of the contrarie powers that are enemies to God He saith Eusebius went thither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the saluation of the soules that were in Hades and descended to breake the brasen gates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dismis those that before were prisoners of hades And out of Plato he alleageth this for a trueth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the soules of the wicked immediately after death departing hence endure the punishment in Hades of their doings heere Athanasius a man of no meane iudgement in whose confession or Creede allowed in the Booke of Common Prayer we finde it a part of the Christian faith that Christ descended to Hades declareth in infinite places what he meaneth by the word Hades After man had sinned saith he and was fallen by his fall death preuailed from Adam vntill Christ the earth was accursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades was opened Paradise was closed Heauen was offended but after all things were deliuâ—…red to Christ the whole was reformed and persited the earth in steede of a curse was blessed paradise was opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades shranke for feare the gates of heauen were left open He suffering for vs recouered vs and hungring refreshed vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And descending to hades brought vs backe For if the Lord had not beene made man we had neuer risen from the dead as redeemed from our sinnes but had remained vnder the earth as dead neither had we euer beene lifted vp to heauen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but had lien in hades Againe he that examined mans disobedience and gaue iudgement inflicted a double punishment saying to that which was earthly Earth thou art and to earth shalt thou returne and to the soule Thou shalt die the death and so man was distracted into two parts and condemned to abide after death in two places If you can shew an other place whither man was condemned well may you say man was deuided into three parts and that being recouered out of two places he remaineth bound and chained in the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if you can shew none other place besidâ—…s the graue and hades hell out of which man was perfectly freed by Christ how say you then that God is not yet reconciled to man This appeareth not onely in vs but in the death of Christ the body comming to the graue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the soule descending to Hades being places that are seuered with a great distance the graue receauing his body for there it was present and hades his spirit or soule els how did Christ present the shape of his owne soule to the soules detained in bandes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hee might breake in sunder the bandes of the soules detained in hades So likewise speaking of Christes persuing the diuell by his life and death hee else where saith The diuell was fallen from heauen hee was cast from the earth hee was persued in the aire euery where conquered and euery where straightned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he determined to keepe Hades hell for this place was yet left him But the Lord a true Sauiour would not leane his worke vnfinished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor leaue those that were in hades as yeelded
their bodies in the dust of the earth And therefore that which followeth and is by you cited By this which we confesse that the Lord descended to infernus we must vnderstand that the Lord ioined himselfe in spirit to the spirits of the Saints deceased that I say is added as a consequent to Christs death and not as the proper signification of the phrase For it were more then absurd by your leaue that one and the same word which he saith signifieth the graue should properly note the burying of the body in earth below and the ascending of the spirit to heauen on high though in all the Saints the one is performed as well as the other And where Bucere seemeth to impugne the sense which the fathers gaue of this Article as his reasons be none so his words in no wise mans iudgement can ouersway theirs Peter martyr that Christ descended to inferos or hades signifieth nothing els but that he did vnder goe the same state as other soules doe that depart this life Why stoppe you there are you bleere eied that you cannot see what presently followeth or short winded that you can read no farder the very next words will plainly shew with what sincerity and fidelity you be conuersant in old and new writers Peter Martyrs words are these Eundem subijt statum quem reliquae animae à corpore seiunctae experiuntur quae aut in Sanctorum societatem coaptantur aut cum damnatorum spiritibus in aeternum exitium detruduntur Et vero vna atque altera tum piorum spirituum tum eorum qui damnati essent societas animae Christi praesentiam persensit The soule of Christ did vndergoe the same state by going to the same place which the rest of the soules seuered from the body doe trie that are either admitted into the fellowship of the saints or cast into euerlasting destruction with the spirits of the damned For both the one and the other society aswell of godly soules as of those that were damned perceaued the presence of Christs soule The soule then of Christ by Peter Martyrs iudgement cleane contrary to Bucers went aswell to the place of the damned as to the seats of the blessed and either society perceaued the presence of his soule seuered from his body Mollerus touching Sheol Hades and infernum ascribed to Christ saith they do signisie but that Christ died and to be no more then if he should say in the Psalme therefore I reioice because I know that although I die yet I shall rise to life againe Of Sheol Mollerus saith Saepe pro sepulchro dicâ—…tur it is often taken for the graue which no man denieth Of hades and infernus he speaketh not a word And albeit he be of opinion that Christs descent to hell sat is certò euinci non potest ex hoc loco cannot cleerely and fully be euinced out of this place of the Psalme by reason as he thinketh the words may be wrested to diuers senses yet touching Christs descent to hel he saith We vnderstand that Article of the Creed simply and without allegory and we beleeue that Christ truely descended to the lower parts of the earth as Paul speaketh Ephes. 4. and his victory he would shew to the Diuels after a speciall manner to strike perpetuall terrors into them and to free vs from the feare of their tyranny Bullinger speaking of Christ and indifferently of the godly sheweth that to goe to infernus is to goe to Abrahams bosome that is into heauen not into hell And that inferi and hades doe makâ—… difference onely betweene the liuing and the dead and nothing els Bullinger bringeth foure senses of that Article of the Creed Christ descended to Inferna The first that is all one with he was buried which exposition he saith others mislike The second is Austens who in his Epistle to Dardanus writeth The Lord descended to Tartarus but felt there no torment The third to which he more inclineth Longe simplicius videbimur hunc articulum intelligere si senserimus virtutem mortis Christi dimanasse etiam ad defunctos his profuisse We shall seeme farre more simply to vnderstand this article if we thinke that the force of Christs death pearced euen to the dead and profited them The fourth is Vel certe per inferos inferna intelligimus non locum certè destinatum impijs sed defunctos fideles Or els by inferi inferna we vnderstand not the place of punishment appointed for the wicked but the faithfull deceased Here are all foure senses He liketh best that the vertue and force of Christs death descended and was shewed both to the blessed and to the damned as Saint Peter telleth vs that the Lord went in spirit and preached to the spirits that were inobedient and kept in prison Nimirum innotuit his iust a damnationis ex morte Christi sententia For euen to the damned appeared the sentence of their condemnation to be iust by the death of Christ. This he confesseth Christ did in spirit If by Christs spirit he ment Christs soule he expressely refuteh your conceits If he mean the force of Christs diuine spirit descended he hath Athanasius Cyril and others opposite against him Athanasius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How could the word or Sonne of God descend to Hades And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How could he descend with his Godhead open and vncouered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither could hades endure the accesse of his Godhead vncouered And so Cyrill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither in any wise may we say that the Godhead of the only begotten was brought from hades or the dennes vnder the earth for that was not worthy of woondering if the Sonne of God were not left in hades Exactly they teach that the Deitie of Christ or his diuine spirit could by no meanes be sayd to descend to hades or to returne from thence but it must be verified of his humane soule which reuealed it selfe and the vertue of his death as well to the damned as to the blessed Lauater saith Hades in Greâ—…ke is a generall word for the condition of the dead both in torments and in peace Lauater saith of hades as he doth of Sheól that Non solum locum Damnatorum sed Sâ—…pulchrum vel statum mortuorum passim in Scripturis signisicat it signisieth not onely the place of the damned but also the graue or state of the dead And so doth Hades with the septuagint who alwaies render Sheôl by that word Now the graue or state of the dead the one being an exposition of the other reacheth not to the Soules of the godly which are not in their graues but to their bodies and hath in it corruption silence obliuion and priuation of all things in this life from which the graue excludeth them be they neuer so blessed And so
bodie which is not performed before the bodie rise to glorie you turne it as if I professed our redemption from hell to be imperfect till the last day And when I mention with Saint Paul the redemption of our bodies from corruption which shall not be before the resurrection you would inferre thereupon if you could tell how that the bodies of the Saints remaine subiect to the power of hell to the curse of the law and to the claime of Satan Thus you runne on like a riotous spaniel chalenging vpon euery foote but finding nothing With like wit and trueth you inferre vpon my wordes where I say the death of the body was inflicted on mankind as part of the wages of sinne that therefore the godly must pay a part of their owne redemption and satisfaction for sinne and then Christ was not our onely and absolute redeemer But which way doth this follow can you tell punishment for sinne is in our persons neither redemption nor satisfaction for sinne in Christs person it was both Know you not the difference betwixt Christs person and ours But I say pa. 216. that the bodies of the dead Saints are in the possession of hell and in the handfact of hell In wresting and wrangling is all your grace Where some auncient writers seeme to say that Christ deliuered some of the Saints out of the present possession of hell all the defence I said that could any way be made out of the Scriptures to excuse this was to take hell improperly for the sting and wound of bodily death which Satan the ruler of hell procured to man by sinne For sinne death and corruption are the workes of the Diuell which Christ came to dissolue God made not death as the wiseman obserueth but created man without corruption and through the enuie of the Diuell came death into the world This then being one of the wounds which Satan through sinne gaue vnto our first father and all his ofspring this is not perfectly cured but with the resurrection of our bodies to eternall life though the poyson of this wound bee in the meane time allayed and the danger secured And thus whiles I seeke to mitigate other mens wordes and to extenuate the name and power of hell vnderstanding thereby nothing but the dissolution of mans life and corruption of mans bodie which Satan occasioned by sinne you make the Reader beleeue I take the name of hell properly for the power and right that hell hath ouer the bodies of the wicked and teach that the Saints are not deliuered from hell till their bodies rise from death which when you list you can find to bee refuted elswhere by me and therefore to be no part of my meaning heere How death is an enemie which must be destroyed aswell as sinne and hell we neede not your commentarie except it were stoared with better Diuinitie It hindreth the Saints you graunt from enioying their appointed felicitie yet as a peaceable and quiet stop Ascribe you this peace and quietnesse to their bodies voide of life and sense or to their soules staied from the full fruition of eternall glorie by that meanes And troe you the soules of the Saints be well and quietly content to lacke their appointed felicitie not at all to desire it or not earnestly to pray for it were plainly to loath it and not obediently to expect it Wherefore they exceedingly affect and instantly pray for the destruction of this enemie that keepeth their bodies in dishonour and corruption and hindereth their spirits from enioying that glorie which shal be reucaled in the last time which appeareth by their vehement prayer in the Reuelation how long O Lord holy and true doest thou not iudge and auenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Where they in heauen seeke not reuenge on them for whom they prayed in earth but they expresse their continuall and ardent desire for that day when they shall be wholy conformed to Christ their head And when they are willed to rest for a season they gladly submit themselues to the will and wisedome of God but meane while they hate death as an hinderer of that blisse and ioy which they so much loue and long for and shall no doubt reioyce exceedingly when this last enemie is swallowed vp in victorie as the rest were before But let death be an enemie which way you will how doth this conclude that Hades here 1. Corinth 15. in no sort signifieth hell The very text seemeth thus to expound it selfe saying where is thy sting O Hades the sting of death is sinne Where the later seemeth a direct exposition of the former noting these two wordes Hades and death as Synonymas for one thing being applied to men When you talke of the text of holy Scripture you should not leaue the wordes that are extant in all our printed copies retained and alleaged by the best and most of the Greeke Fathers as likewise of our new writers and cleane to the single conceite of some one man taking vpon him to correct all the printed copies that euer he saw and of his owne authoritie to alter the Originall I doe not therefore by your and his leaue admit this for Saint Pauls text since it is his priuate change of the wordes in the Greeke against all the copies that are either manu-scripts or printed at this day His owne confession is this Contrario ordine legunt hunc locum non modo Graeci omnes codices quos inspeximus sed etiam Syrus Arabs interpretes Not onely all the Greeke copies that we haue seene but the Syriack Arabick Interpreters read this place in a contrarie order that is they put these words ô Hades where is thy victorie in the last place which you set in the first and the other words ô death where is thy sting they set first which you will haue to be last Thus then stand the Apostles wordes cleane contrarie to that which you bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting O Hades wher is thy victorie And in this order doe Luther Erasmus Zuinglius Peter Martyr Caluine Bullingere Gualtere Aretius Hemmingius Hyperius Osiander Marlorate and I know not how many more both keepe and cite that text in Latin vbi tuus mors aculeus vbi tua Inferne victoria Where is thy sting O death where is thy victorie O hell And touching the Greeke copies and Fathers that are auncient and obserue the same order of the wordes for the Apostles text we haue Origen Athanasius Nazianzene Nyssene Epiphanius x Chrysostome x Oecumenius and though the translatours of x Theodoret and x Theophylact retaine the wordes of the old Latin Bible in this place for the text yet there is no likelihood that these two in their own tongue varied from the rest specially Theophylact who in his commenting
I trust you dare not endure Perhaps your meere priuations shall be euerlastingly punished in hell the danger is not great for them since nothing can be no where nor feele no paine and so not in hell But after many deuices and aduices you say the power and dominion of death shall be cast into hell That shall vtterly cease at the resurrection when all soules are ioyned to their bodies againe How then shall that which wholy and finally ceaseth be cast into hell You meane it shall bee eternally abolished This is an erection of a new hell and no part of the old Happy were the damned both men and spirits if they might be cast into this new hell of yours that is vtterly and eternally be abolished But these be mockeries in themselues and falsities against the Christian faith That which is cast into the lake of fire shall there euerlastingly burne and not consume but dure in perpetuall torment Shall your dominion of bodily death euerlastingly burne in hell And shall it also feele the force of that fire You must then make Hades a person for besides persons nothing shal be cast into hell fire And if it be a person it must be a diuell or a man except you will find out a place for it amongst your sheepe and cattell that you sent aliue to Hell But such childish and peeuish deuices are not worth the refuting The Reader may see what it is for men to forsake the learned and sound expositions and assertions of auncient Fathers and betake themselues to their fresh and new fansies of which thy cannot tell what to make nor how to speake Though you meane the containing to be put for the contained hell for the diuels of hell as one Andreas and Bede likewise vnderstand it yet neither you nor they it seemeth doe consider that this place assigneth them to hell at the last day who yet then are not in hell But the Diuels are in hell alreadie Therefore the diuels cannot be vnderstood heere by Hades Can a man be so sottish vnlesse hee were besides himselfe as not to find that all this while he refuteth his owne falsifications of Saint Iohns wordes and not any position of mine nor of these two learned writers whom he disdaineth as not considering where the diuels are before the day of iudgement They doe not say the diuels shall then be cast into hell this is your coltish conceit from which you will not depart but into the lake of fire prepared as our Sauiour pronounceth for the diuell and his Angels And how come you now in your heate so hastily to determine where hell is which not long since you called rashnesse in me you told vs ere while The Apostle mentioneth the aire on high as being the place of Diuels Put to this that which heere you say the Diuels are in hell alreadie you meane the place of hell or else you say nothing against Andreas and Bede whom you would confute as not considering where the Diuels are Doe not you then determine that hell is in the aire on high and so not onely condemne your selfe of rashnesse by your owne verdict but gainesay the Scriptures who testifie that the diuels desired Christ not to commaund them into the deepe Yea by this resolution of yours the face of the earth where wee liue is hell since the diuels are heere also and compasse the earth and walke therein So that if we let you alone in steed of one hell you will make vs three the aire the earth the deepe since in all these three it cannot bee denied but the Diuels are And yet for all your tripping so light on the toe the diuels may and shal be at the last day cast into hell that is affixed to the place and torments there from which they shall not stirre as now they doe whiles the iustice of God doth suffer them to vphold and encrease their kingdome here on earth And where you vouch of your hades that it shall at the last day of iudgement be throwen into hell that is eternally be abolished as you conceaue and deriue your Hades that day shall enlarge it more then euer before and so continue it so reuer For all visible creatures in heauen and earth saue men shall after that day haue no more any being at all yea the first heauen and the first earth shall passe away and there shall be no more any sea which will greatly enrich your generall Hades that containeth the destruction of vnreasonable things and the perishing of visible creatures from hence as the proper Etymologie thereof admitteth Nay if the very naturall Etymologie of the word according to Grammar doe properly signifie NOT SEENE ANY MORE IN THIS WORLD as you affirme it doth then all both good and bad be they in heauen or hell shall after the day of iudgement be properly and euerlastingly in Hades For they shall neuer be seene any more in this world whose figure passeth away without returning and giueth place for euer to the world to come And this your Hades which you would cast into hell there to bee for euer abolished shall by the naturall Etymologie and proper signification thereof confessed and vrged by your selfe not only continue in hell and in heauen but comprise them both seeing the Citizens of either shall not be seene any more in this world Lastly heere is shewed the most generall and vniuersall rendring vp of all the dead whatsoeuer to iudgement But hell plainly hath not all the dead Therefore death and Hades doe not heere properly signifie the diuell and Hell When you say heere is shewed the vniuersall rendring vp of all the dead whatsoeuer to iudgement If you meane this of death hades that they rendred vp all the dead that came to iudgement you vouch a manifest vntrueth repugnant to the very wordes of Saint Iohn going next before for thus his wordes stand And the sea gaue vp her dead which were in her and death and Hades deliuered vp the dead which were in them So that all the dead were not rendred to iudgement by death and Hades the Sea had part by Saint Iohns owne speech and therefore death and Hades heere doe not signifie the Dominion of death which reacheth to the sea aswell as to the earth Againe Saint Iohn in the twelfth verse saw the dead both great and small stand before God And in the thirteenth he addeth the Sea also gaue vp her dead and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which were in them Hee saw then some dead stand before God which neither the Sea nor hades deliuered And since Paul telleth vs that the dead in Christ shall rise first and God will bring them which sleepe in Iesus with him to iudgement what hindreth but the dead in the twelfth of Saint Iohn may be the elect and the rest be deliuered vp from the deepe of the Sea and of
mortall and miserable life in this world but to be conformed to his glorious body that is to incorruption and immortality g Thus I vnderstand your Thaddeus also Athanasius in his Creed as it seemeth most reasonably and necessarily because they expresse neither his death nor his buriall at all in any other words saue these he descended to hades You runne so fast on your owne conceits that you see not what you passe by Hath Thaddeus no words touching Christs death what make you then of these scant a line before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how Christ humbled himselfe and died And though the Creed prouided for the simpler sort distinguisheth Christs crucifying death buriall and descent to hell yet what need is there that the learned euery time they talke of Christs crosse or death should number all these seuerally and orderly as they stand in the Creed crucifying is enough to note his death for they crucified him vnto death Christs buriall had in it no more but the certainty of his death and by Gods prouidence the vigilancâ—…e of his enemies that his body should not be thought to be stolen away by his owne Disciples Other moment or matter of our redemption there was none in Christs buriall The goodly words with which you would feed vs that in the graue he came vnder the power strength dominion and kingdome of death are rather variations for a nouice then any points of sensible doctrine for a diuine So that Athanasius expressing Christs suffering for our saluation his descending to hades and rising the third day from the dead fully compriseth all the principall works which Christ performed for our saluation from his crosse to his resurrection Now what Athanasius meaneth by hades since his works are extant in Greeke we shall not need to depend on your partiall coniectures We haue many plaine and perspicuous places which deliuer his sense and meaning vnto vs. I haue shewed before which I must not so often repeat that Athanasius maketh two places of condemnation whither man after death was adiudged for sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the graue and hades And of Christs body and soule he directly saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bodie of Christ went to the graue the soule to hades these places being diuided with a great distance and the graue receauing the presence of his body for there was his body present and hades receiuing his humane spirit Thinke you this to be plaine enough that Christs descent to hades was not his buriall where his body lay but the going of his soule to hades whither man was condemned for sinne and which Athanasius saith The Diuell kept as the onely place of his strength The enemie saith he fallen from heauen remoued from the earth expelled from the ayre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euery where vanquished determined if he could to keepe hades safe For this place was yet left vnto him But as soone as Christ died the world wanted the light of her Sunne the Vaile of the temple rent the earth trembled the Rocks did cleaue in sunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the souldiers together with the keepers of Hades did shake for feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Diuell thiâ—…ing to carry Christ to hades was himselfe throwen out of hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not long after but Christ loosed the sorrowes or paines of hades Athanasius then without peraduentures taketh hades for hell and Christs descent thither in soule to worke the subuersion of Satans kingdome and deliuerance of all his elect thence were they liuing dead or yet vnborne Your seeking to peruert this reason because the auncient Creedes want sundry other Articles which now are in our Creede is to no purpose For so much as they all do euermore intend to set downe perfectly the summe of Christs accomplished Redemption and mediation at the least Not any of those his maine workes are in them omitted If your pride were not greater then your skill we should haue a great deale lesse prating from you How shall the Reader beleeue your report of Fathers and their meanings when you neuer saw so much as the Creedes of the auncient Councels and yet pronounce so boldly of them as if you had perused them all but yesterday The great Nicene Creede maketh no mention of Christs death or buriall but saith He suffered and rose the third day The first generall Councell of Constantinople whose Creede was after vsed in the Church Seruice saith Christ suffered and was bâ—…ied and rose the third day omitting his crucifixion and death The great Councell of Aphrica and the generall Councell of Ephesus concurre with the Nicene and say he suffered and rose the third day What truth then is there in your words where you say they all doe euermore intend perfectly to set downe the Summe of Christs Redemption for vs not any of those his maine works are in them omitted Is the death of Christ none of his maine works for our Redemption finde you now that his buriall may be omitted and yet the Creede not be imperfect These things good Sir are implyed as consequent or antecedent to the parts expressed For if Christ did rise the third day he rose from the Graue where he had lien three daies and buried he was not before he was dead As also he rose not but from the dead Wherefore in his resurrection are both his death and his buriall comprised Besides he suffered vnto death Which things were all plainly proposed to the simple in their Creede called Aposto like but not in the Creedes concluded by the learned Pastours in their Councels The same course kept the Greeke and Latin Fathers sometimes expressing Christs death buriall and descent to hell sometimes omitting some of them as the cause required Epiphanius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ saith he speaking of the things as they were done is crucified buried he descended to the places vnder the earth in his Deitie and in his soule he leadeth Captiuitie Captiue and riseth the third day Vigilius Constat Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum sexta feria crucifixum ipsa die ad Infernum descendisse ipsa die in sepulâ—…hris iacuisse ipsa die Latroni dixisse hodie mecum eris in Paradiso It is certaine that our Lord Iesus Christ was crucified on the sixt day and that day descended to hell that day lay in the graue and that day said to the Theise This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And declaring how this was verified in Christ ergo dicimuâ—… Dominum iacuisse in sepulchro sed in sola carne Dominum descendisse ad infernum sed in sola anima Then we say that the Lord lay in his graue but with his Body alone and descended to hell but with his Soule alone without his Body Howbeit to speake plainly your Thaddeus whom
soule suffereth in and by all her powers 134. 135 The soules suffering by sympathy is the Defenders owne phrase 170 The soule is not deriued from the fathers of our bodies 171. 172 The Soule chiesly sinneth and chiefly suffereth but not onely 181. 182 What powers and faculties of the Soule the Fathers 〈◊〉 corporall and why 187 The Soule ioyned with the Body hath one state and seuered another 198 The Soule vseth her corporall spirits in thinking and remembring 207 The Soule leadeth and the flesh followeth to all sinne 210. 211 The Soule hath a â—…st of sinne and paine before the last day 213 The Soule feeleth paine and griefe by her vnderstanding and will 344 Whence theâ—… Soules come that are raised to life 425 The Soule is a consequent to a liuing body but no part of it 426 The Soule is some time called flesh 529 The Soule taken for life 570 The Spirit of sanctification is the holy Ghost 511 Flesh and Spirit doe not alwaies note the two natures of Christ. 512 The Spirit signifieth the Soule of man 529 The preaching to the Spirits in prison 676 The law which curseth offendors admitteth no Suerties 264 Christ no way bound to be our Suertie 277 Christ a Suretie to vs of the new Testament 278 Though Christ may be called a voluntary Suerty yet was he truely a mercifull Redeemâ—…r 280 The similitude of an earthly Suertie not fit for Christ though the name may well be vsed 282. 2â—…3 The Law alloweth no offendois any Suerties 288 I mislike not the name but the bondage of a Suertie in Christ. 291. 292 Submission to God and compassion on man the generall causes of Christs Agony 347 Submission with great feare and trembling Christ yeeldeth to God sitting in iudgement 350. 351 The correcting of King Edwards Synode 675 The things misliked in king Edwards Synod ibid. T TArtarus a part of Hades with the Poets 613 Tartarus with the Pagans is hell 617 Tartarus taken for the aâ—…e ouer vs. 617 Christ could not be tempted to euill by any motion of his owne hart 304. 305. 306 Christ was tempted in the wildernesse by the suggestion of Satan 307 Christ was tempted after 40. daies 307 Christ was tempted all his life long but not inwardly 312 Perswasion tempteth as well as compulsion 314 Difference of outward and inward temptations 314 No temptations without desperation kill the soule 525 The Terror of God felt by Iob and Ionas were not the paines of hell 452 Tertullian ascribeth all sinne to the whole man 208 What forsaking Tertullian speaketh of 427 Tertullian nameth no death but of Christs body 428 Tertullian is farre from affirming the death of Christs Soule 532 Tertullian admitteth none to Paradise before the last day but Martyrs 594. 595. 596 Tertullian therein followed Montanus the Hereticke 597 How 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades and Inferi concurre in signification 579 The storie of Thaddeus no fable 660 Thaddeus did not receaue adoration 662 Thomas how he might be called Iudas 660 Euill Thoughts defile the whole man 204 Our will the cause of our euill thoughts 200 Christs bodily transfiguration was imperfect and transitorie 458. 459 Triumphes are not secret and solitarie 664 V VEngeance proper to the wicked appeared not in the Crosse of Christ. 156. 157 All Christs infirmitie was Voluntarie 407 W VVHat the Scriptures meane by the Wages of sinne 12 A threefold death the Wages of sinne 13 Weakenesse appeared in Christs flesh but willingnesse in his spirit 424 Whole redemption and propitiation are verie large and doubtfull termes 103 The Whole man dieth though the soule liue 513 514 Euill thoughts defile the whole man 204 The whole man guilty of all sin 185. 186. 187. 208 Our Will the cause of our euill thoughts 200 What is ment by the Worme that neuer dieth 46 What the Scriptures meane by the Wrath of God 15 What proper applied to wrath signifieth 18 Christ suffered not the proper and meere wrath of God 19. 23 What Wrath of God Christ suffered 57 58 What is Gods Wrath against sinne 60 God hâ—…d neuer displeasure or Wrath against Christs person 61 God wrath against sinne hath many degrees and â—…arts 157 How the wrath of God in this life differeth from wrath to come 158 Christ might suffer the wrath of God and yet not the true paines of hell 159. 160 Wrath must be measured by Gods intention not mans discerning 165 The triall of Gods Saints is no effect of Gods proper wrath 313 What Christ discerned of Gods wrath against our sinnes 333 Christ did not apprehend of Gods wrath as the damned doe 335 Christ was to see more of Gods wrath against our sinnes then he felt 376 Christ might iustly feare the power of Gods wrath 380 Z ZAnchius what he teacheth of mans redemption 537 Faults escaped should thus be amended PAge 4. line 25. for fourth read foorth ibid. l. 34. infimities r. infirmities p. 26. l. 48. neighbour r. neighbour p. 38. title to his r. to hell p. 58. marg of agony r. of Christs agony p. 66. l. 47. death r. death p. 230 tit in subuerting r. in subiecting p. 353. l. 47. what to doe r. what they doe p. 428. marg in manibus r. in manus p. 466. l. 14. the comfort r. to comfort p. 468. l. 4. thambeesa r. thambeesai p. â—…69 l. 1. astonished r. astonished him p. 473. l. 38. because God r. because Iacob p. 485. throughout enlabeia r. eulabeia p. 487. l. 49. eisaekonstheis r. eisakoustheis p. 488. l. 6. eisakonstheis r. eisakoustheis ibid. 26. in marg Zinglius r. Zuinglius p. 502. l. 35. in members r. in my members p. 597. l. 23. since r. sense ibid. 32. affections r. afflictions p. 520. l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 522. l. 17. Vigius r. Vigilius p. 523. l. 39. enstranging r. estranging p. 528. marg your r. the. LONDON Printed by Melchisedech Bradwood for John Bill 1. Sam. 2. Acts 26. The sermons The first and second Sermon of the Passion The Sermon of the Resurrection The Treaâ—…ise The Conclusion of the Sermons The Defence Treat pag. 95. De Trinitate li. 10. Epistola 99. Epistola 99. a Praefat pag. 9. lin 2. b â—… Conclu pa. 243. l. 5. c Pag. 2. l. 10. d Sermons p. 8. lin 22. e Serm. p. 11. l. 24. f Serm. pa. 41. l. 14. g Serm. pa. 48. l. 34. h Serm p. 42. l. 2. i Serm. p. 73. li. 13. k Serm. p. 133. li. 13. l Ibidem li. 30. m l. 14. n l. 34. o fo 243. Their foure restraints of hell paines p Defence p. 7. l. 32. q Math. 8. vers 17. r 1. Pet 2. s Heb. 4. t Heb. 2. u Defence p. 7. x Prâ—… p. 3. l. 8. y Serm p. 73. l. 13. z Serm. p. 78. l. 32. a Serm. p. 83. l.