our sinnes that whom the Diuell iustlie held as guiltie of sinne and obnoxious to death those hee might woorthilie loose through him whome hee wrongfullie slue beeing guiltie of no sinne with this iustice the Diuell was conquered and with this band was hee bound that his goods might bee spoyled And so Saint Austen concludeth in expresse wordes that THE BLOVD OF CHRIST which the Diuell was permitted to shedde by the handes of the wicked VVAS GIVEN AS A PRICE IN OVR REDEMPTION Which when the Diuell had spilt it was reckoned to him as a ransom for vs since Christ owed none for himself so were we dismissed out of his power In hac redeÌ„ptione tanquaÌ„ pretiuÌ„ pro nobis datus est Christi sanguis quo accepto diabolus non ditatus sed ligatus est vt nos ab eius nexibus solueremur In this redemption the bloud of Christ was giuen as a ransome for vs which being receiued the diuell was not inriched but concluded that wee might bee loosed from his snares S. Ambrose affirmeth as much Si redempti sumus non corruptibilibus argento auro sed precioso sanguine domini nostri Iesu Christi quo vtique vendente NISI EO qui nostruÌ„ iam peccatricis successionis are quaesitum seruitium possidedat Sine dubio IPSE flagitabat pretium vt seruitio exueret quos tenebat obstrictos PretiuÌ„ autem nostrae liberationis erat sanguis domini Iesu quod necessario soluendum erat EI CVI peccatis nostris venditi eramus If we bee redeemed not with corruptible things as siluer and golde but with the precious bloud of our Lorde Iesus Christ who selling vs BVT HE that possessed vs as his seruants by reason of our sinfull succession doubtlesse euen HE required a ransome to dismisse vs from the seruitude which he had ouer vs. Now the price of our deliuerance was the bloud of the Lord Iesus which price was necessarilie to bee payde to HIM TO WHOM we were sold through our sinnes They which traduce this doctrine as inclining to Manicheisme had more neede of Elleborus to furge their braines then of authorities to perswade their hearts For since Christ paid no ransome for himselâ—e but for vs and his innocent bloud could not be shed but by the hands of the wicked what touch of vntruth can it haue that God accounted the bloud of Christ to bee of more value then all the sonnes of men and consequentlie that which the diuell eagerlie thirsted and wrongfullie shed to be reputed as mans ransome and a price most sufficient for all the world Yea the scripture which is the word of truth doth not onely teach vs who redeemed vs and with what price as God bought his Church with his owne bloud but in manifest words from whom we were redéemed euen from the power of DARKNES DEATH and HEL that being deliuered out of the hands of our enemies wee should serue God without feare in holines and righteousnes all the daies of our life Whether therefore wee resemble the bodie and bloud of Christ to a PRAY that brake the téeth of the deuourer to a BAITE that held fast the swallower to a PRICE that concluded the challenger to a RANSOME that fréed the prisoner or to a CONQVEST that ouerthrew the infulter in effect it is all one Satan by killing him that was the authour of life lost both him and all his members the Lorde rising againe by his owne power and raising them all that could not bee seuered from him by the might and merite of his death and suffering And so the godlie which now liue on the earth are not their OVVNE but his that bought them with a price being before solde vnder sinne whose seruants they were till Christ with his bloud redeemed them vnto GOD and made them kinges and priestes to God his father Venit redemptor dedit pretium fudit sanguinem suum emit orbem terrarum Videte quid dederit inuenite quid emerit Sanguis Christi pretium est tanti quid valet quid nisi totus orbis quid nisi omnes gentes The redeemer came saith Austen and paied the price hee shed his bloud and purchased the worlde Consider what he gaue and marke what he bought The bloud of Christ was y e price what was valued at so great a price What but the whole world what but al the nations of the earth Hic sanguis effusus omnem terrarum orbenâ— abluit hic sanguis antea semper praesignabatur in sacrificijs in iustorum caedibus Hic orbis terrarum est pretiuÌ„ Hoc Christus emit ecclesiam Hoc eam omâ—em adornauit This bloud saith Chrysostom being shed washed the whole world This bloud was euer before figured in the sacrifices and martyrdomes of the righteous This bloud is the price of the world with this Christ bought his Church with this he wholy adorned it Christus non esset condignum pretiuÌ„ totius creaturae redimendae neque sufficeret ad bene redimendam mundi vitam etiamsi suam deponeret animam vt pretium pro nobis ac etiam pretiosum sanguinem nisi vere esset filius tanquam ex deo deus Christ had not beene a iust price saith Cyril to redeeme all creatures nor sufficient to purchase the life of the world though he would haue laid down his life and his precious bloud as a ransome for vs if he had not beene the true sonne of God as it were God of God Where as now Vnus dignitate vniuersos superans pro omnibus mortuus est quaecunque sub coâ—lo sunt sanguine suo redemit deoque patrivniuersae terrae habitatores acquisiuit He alone exceeding al other in worth valew died for al by his bloud redeemed all things vnder heauen purchased to God his father the inhabitants of the whole earth But our sauior saith the son of man came dare animaÌ„ suaÌ„ redemptionem pro multis to giue his soule a ransome for many And Esay foretold as much that he should make his soule an offering for sin It is no great masterie to cite places of scripture in shew repugnant one to the other howbeit in trueth these are not contrarieties but coÌ„sequents to the former authorities For where the soule of man is the life of his bodie Christ could not die for our sinnes but he must laie down his soule to death that it might be separated from his bodie so giue HIS SOVLE that is his LIFE a ransome for many an offering for sin And so she very traÌ„slators y t otherwise fauor this opinion of hel paines do interprete those words The son of man came not to be serued but to serue to giue HIS LIFE a ransome for many And the like elsewhere Bonus pastor dat animaÌ„ pro ouibus The good shepheard giueth HIS LIFE for his sheep AnimaÌ„ meaÌ„
manner and merit of Christs suffering death on the crosse to saue vs from the wrath of God that was kindled against our transgressions And since the scriptures mention none other meanes of our redemption but the DEATH and BLOVD of the SONNE of God I hold them wisest that leaue deuising any better or other help for our saluation then God himselfe hath reuealed And as for the death of the soule I take that to be the greatest hinderance that maybe to the worke of our redemption and to shake the verie foundation of our faith and hope in the crosse of Christ. Which least I should seeme to say no way to proue let vs view the COMFORT of Christes crosse and thereby see howe his soule was affected towardes God euen whiles his bodie suffered that grieuous and opprobrious death of the crosse I haue often mused what made men of great learning and iudgement otherwise to swarue so much from the plain tenor of the scriptures and to imagine in the soule of our sauiour such doubt and feare of Gods fauour such horâ—ors and torments of hell that they sticke not to match them with the paines of the damned considering there is no manifest ground nor euident proofe of so dangerous doctâ—ine in the word of God but contrariwise when the scriptures describe Christ on the crosse they propose his bodie martyred with al kinde of crueltie but his soule cleaning to God with all perfection of constancie Read the xvi and xxii Psalme who will which purposelie treate of Christes passion and tell mee whether there bee so much as a worde importing anie distrust of Gods fauour or anie suspicion of the paines of hell suffered in the soule of Christ The first entrance of the xxii Psalme you will say is My God my God whie hast thou forsaken me This is that Helen that hath bewitched the world I meane the misconstring of these words Of which though I haue spoken before as much as may content any man that is not fastned to his fancies more then to the truth yet let vs shortlie see whether the rest of the Psalme admit their new found exposition or no. It followeth in the same place Thou didst bring me out of my mothers wombe thou gauest mee confidence at my mothers breasts On thee was I cast from my birth THOV ART MY GOD FROM MY MOTHERS BELLIE Bee not farre from mee for trouble is neere and there is none to helpe Bee not farre O Lord my strength hasten to helpe me I will declare thy name vnto my brethren in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee for HE HATH NOT DESPISED nor abhorred the weakenesse or basenesse of the poore neither HATH HE HID HIS FACE FROM HIM but when he called vnto him HE HEARD HIM Is this the praier of a man whose soule is forsaken of God Did he doubt of Gods fauour that with such confidence pronounced Thou gauest me assurance at my mothers breasts thou art my God from my mothers belly Was he perswaded that god had refused and left him when as he saith God hath not DESPISED y e weaknes of the poore he hath not hid his face from him when he called God heard him If these be flat contradictions to their imaginations why wrest they the first verse to euert all the rest Christ therfore in the beginning of the Psalm might well complain that god had for the time of his passion withheld his PROTECTION or diminished his CONSOLATION but in no wise that God had decreased his loue or shut vp his fauor towards the humane soule of his sonne Yea the next words are an explication of the former Why hast thou forsaken me and art so farre from mine helpe Not to helpe in trouble is to forsake though God bee not angrie with the soules of such as suffer affliction The very words agrée to GO FARRE OFF froÌ„ a man is to FORSAKE HIM so he that desireth God not to be far off praieth not to be forsaken but rather to receiue helpe in time of néed Uerilie S. Ambroses iudgement and reason doth satisfie me whatsoeuer it doth others Ille nunquam derelictus est à patre cum quo pater semper erat Sed secundum corpus in quo traditus est passioni vox ista processit quoniam derelinqui nobis videmur quando sumus in periculis constituti Christ was neuer forsaken of his Father with whome the father alwayes was but this complaint came from his bodie which was left to suffer death for so much as wee thinke our selues forsaken when wee are oppressed with anie troubles If the xxii Psalme content vs not let vs examine the sixteenth and there marke what the holie Ghost doth attribute to the soule of Christ in the middes of his sufferings on the Crosse and then iudge which opinion draweth nearest to the truth of the sacred Scriptures I haue alwayes SET the Lord BEFORE ME for hee IS AT MY RIGHT HAND THAT I SHOVLD NOT BE SHAKEN therefore my heart is glad my tongue reioiceth my flesh also shall REST IN HOPE Because thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell nor suffer thine holie one to see corruptioÌ„ Thou wilt SHEVV ME THE VVAY OF LIFE THE FVLNES OF IOY IS IN THY PRESENCE and delectation at thy right hand for euer Thrée plentifull and wonderfull graces of the holie Ghost are here described in our Sauiour as he hung on the crosse in the middest of his miseries abundance of FAITH assurance of HOPE persistance in IOY The ground of our faith is the truth of Gods word sealed in our hearts by the working of his spirite The faith of Christ had a farre stronger foundation and clearer reuelation then ours can possible haue He was hoped for by the Patriarks searched after by the Prophets he was the end of all the lawe and truth of all the former testament He was serued by Angels acknowledged by starres seas windes beasts fishes and trees hee was obeyed by diseases death and diuels the holie Ghost visiblie descended on him when hee was baptised the father by thunder from heauen often proclaimed him to be his welbeloued sonne and commaunded all men to heare him he knewe the thoughts of mens hearts yea the secrets of heauen he was transfigured in the Mount and tasted of that heauenlie glorie prepared for him The confessing him to bee the sonne of God openeth heauen preuaileth agaynst hell supporteth his Church and obtaineth blessednes This he heard with his eares sawe with his eyes and wrought with his hands yea he spake with his mouth knew in his heart that God had sanctified him and sent him to saue the world I aske now a meane diuine was it possible that Christ Iesus after all this intelligence euidence and experience both of his owne person who he was and of his fathers loue and purpose how setled determined and euerlasting it was should feare or
greate a commaunde in the Church of GOD that no worde maie bee vsed by anie man without your consent Doeth anie Father in expounding the Scriptures put the Cleargie for the people as if the rest had no part in the Kingdome of Christ but if they wanted a word to note them that were called to the publike seruice of Christes church and thought best to name them clerici clerkes what haue you to do with it or what reason to speake against it so long as the rest of Gods people are not thereby depriued of their parte in Gods heauenlie inheritance And what if they tooke this tearme from the scripture and deriued the verie word from the Apostles mouthes are you not well occupied to quarrel with them Peter doth twice vse that worde for a parte or place in the publike ministerie and seruice of the church with which the people did not meddle Iudas saieth Peter was numbred with vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had his place in this ministerie So againe to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast no part nor lot in this businesse or function Where Peter in both places calleth the charge of an Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that Iudas or the rest of the twelue were chosen by lots but that he had a part with them in that function As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thinke there bee more saide then you will be able to answere you know where to finde it Could you proue that the Apostles did make elders with the peoples voices which you shall neuer bee able to doe you had some reason to thinke the worde might importe some such thing but where the worde in his owne nature is but to stretch out the hande and it is certaine by the scriptures the Apostles in ordaining elders did vse imposition of handes which is plainelie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 electing by voices they did not vse for ought that can bee prooued what a malepart guest are you to saie It was a rife thing with the fathers yea with the ancientest of them to alter change the authentick vse of words because the Athenians in Demosthenes time had a course in their publike assemblies to giue their consentes to make lawes and decrées with holding vp their hands which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But you bite on the bridle I perceiue and so you must till you learne to be more sober then to condemne so manie learned and religious fathers of ignorance and corruption which in such a companion as you are might well be beléeued in men of their religion and iudgement can by no reason be mistrusted â—â— is by the way because you glance at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though the rein you accuse not me that alleage them but the fathers themselues as corrupters of church discipline and peruerters of their own language howbeit hades is now in question and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore saie for hades what you can or rather for your selfe since all wise men will hold you more then rash and presumptuous if you condemne so many without great cause The classical writers you say the maisters of the Greek tongue do vse HADES in proper sense only in generall for the STATE OF THE DEADE the VVORLD OF THE DEADE the VVORLD OF SOVLES DEPARTED indifferently and indefinitely meaning as wel those in eternal ioies as those in paines Labour you Sir Refuter to bring into the créede the maribones of a gréeke phrase or an article of the christian faith if you be so idle headed that you striue to haue a new phrase into the Creede remember the kingdome of God is not in speach but in power If you intende an article of the faith pagans and Poets are no such classicall masters to be cited or followed in the mysteries of christian religion What if it were true which here as your maner is you auouch with a brazen face y â— Homer Plato Plutarch did so vse the word is it therfore a consequent the scripture must so speak how many hundred Gréeke words haue with Pagans their general significations which the holie ghost restraineth to expresse Gods truth and serue Gods will The gréeke wordes for Apostle elder Bishop Deacon Gospell Scripture faith hope repentance sinneâ— the law conscience concupisence and infinite such like doe they not with Pagans import one thing with Christians an other thing and that by the warrant of Gods worde touching hell it selfe with your classicall writers and maisters of the Gréeke tongue I meane euen Homer Plato and Plutarch are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken for good and blessed spirits yea for Gods which the scriptures vse onlie for diuels Plutarchs booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Socrates spirit which thing also Plato mentioneth in his Apologie and dialogue De sapientia meaneth not Socrates Diuell neither doth Isocrates prescribe vnto Demonicus by this rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hee shoulde worship the diuell but rather God and yet by that word the new testameÌ„t and the Septuagint in the olde intend onelie diuels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the masters of the Greeke tongue is but a carper or reprehender insomuch that most of Platoes schollers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet in the newe testament this is the proper name for the diuell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch doth take for the ayre and deriueth that word from colde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tartarus is so termed from colde whence Hesiode calleth it the ayrie tartare and he that shaketh and trembleth for cold is sayd tartarizein Yet your instructor maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tayle and prison in hell and saith S. Peter when hee telleth howe God condemned the Angels taketh all the words from Homer and HIS PROSE COMMENTARIE If he meane Eustathius the Christian Bishop it is a foule ouersigat if hee meane anie other he shall do well to proue and not to presume that Peter read Homer and his prose commentarie to expresse the punishment of Diuels Nowe if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue other significations and acceptions with the masters as you make them of the gréeke tongue yet in the new testament are wholy onlie referred to note hell and the diuels thither adiudged whie may not the word HADES in like sort be taken from his prophane vse among the heathen writers and bee applied by the Euangelistes and Apostles to signifie hell yea if the opinion which the pagan Poets and prophane Philosophers helde of HADES were false and repugnant to the christian faith howe could the canonicall writers of the new testament vse the word and not change the sense dare you so much as dreame that the holy Ghost woulde canonize the Poets fables and the Philosophers fansies of the world to come or if you be so foolish as to forget the difference betwéene
The effect of certaine Sermons TOVCHING THE FVLL REDEMPTION of mankind by the death and bloud of CHRIST IESVS WHEREIN Besides the merite of Christs suffering the manner of his offering the power of his death the comfort of his Crosse the glorie of his resurrection Are handled What paines Christ suffered in his soule on the Crosse Together With the place and purpose of his descent to hel after death Preached at Paules Crosse and else where in London by the right Reuerend Father Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester With a conclusion to the Reader for the cleering of certaine obiections made against the said doctrine 1. Corinth 3. I esteeme not to knowe any thing saue Christ Iesus and him crucified Athanasius de Incarnatione verbi dei Therefore the sonne of God tooke to him a bodie that might die that enduing it with a reasonable soule it might suffice for a full satisfaction to Death for all Imprinted at London by Peter Short for Walter Burre and are to be sold in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Flower deluce 1599. To the Christian Reader IT is some time since good Christian Reader that lying in London and preaching at Paules Crosse as the feast of Easter drawing neer did admonish mee I made choice to speake of the redemption of mankinde by the death and bloud of Christ Iesus And because that Citie then had and yet hath as manie learned and religious preachers so some conceited and too much addicted to nouelties who spared not in their Catechisings and readings to vrge the suffering of the verie paines of hell in the soul of Christ on the crosse as the chiefest part and maine ground of our Redemption by Christ I finding how fast that opinion had increased since it was first deuised and doubting where it would end thought it my dutie publikelie to warne them that were forward in defending this fansie to take heed how farre they waded in that late sprong speculation For as these words of Dauid The sorrowes of hell besieged me and these of Ionas Out of the belly of hel I cried thou heardest my voice may be tolerablie applied to Christ if they be metaphorically interpreted of Christ as the scriptures meane them in Dauid and Ionas so if wee grow from the figuratiue vse of the worde HELL to the proper signification thereof and rise from the degrees of sorrowes and feares which pursue the Saints in this life to the highest sense and suffering of ALL and THE VERIE SAME paines and punishments which the damned do and shall endure for euer freeing Christ from nothing but from the place and continuance of hell vve make not a curious and superfluous but an erroneous and daungerous addition to the mysterie of our Saluation The better to slacke their inconsiderate heate I laboured to prooue these foure pointes vnto them First that it was no where recorded in the holie Scriptures nor iustlie to bee concluded by the Scriptures that Christ suffered the true paines of hell and so the Consciences of the faythfull coulde not iustlie bee forced to the necessarie beleeuing of anie such strange assertion Secondlie that as the Scriptures describe to vs the paines of the damned and of hell there are manie terrors and torments which without euident impietie cannot be ascribed to the Sonne of God as namely extreame Darkenesse Desperation Confusion vtter separation reiection and exclusion from the grace fauour and kingdome of God remembrance of sinne gnawing the conscience horrour of Diuels tormented and tormenting and flame of fire intolerablie burning both bodie and soule Thirdlie that the death and bloud of Christ Iesus were euidentlie frequentlie constantlie set downe in the writinges of the Apostles as the sufficient price of our Redemption and true meane of our reconciliation to God and the verie same proposed in the figures resembled in the sacrifices of the Lawe and sealed with the Sacraments of the new Testament as the verie grounde worke of our saluation by Christ and so haue beene receaued and beleeued in the Church of God fourteene hundred yeares before anie man euer made mention of hell paines to bee suffered in the soule of Christ. Lastlie where the Scriptures are plaine and pregnant that Christ DIED for our sinnes and by his DEATH destroied him that had power of death euen the Diuell and reconciled vs when we were strangers and enemies IN THE BODIE OF HIS FLESH THROVGH DEATH for wee are reconciled to God by the DEATH of his sonne and sanctified by THE OFFERING OF THE BODIE of Iesus Christ once who himselfe bare our sinnes in his BODIE on the Tree where hee was put to death concerning the FLESH Besides that the holie Ghost in these places by expresse wordes nameth the bodilie death of Christ as the meane of our redemption and reconciliation to God no considerate diuine might affirme or imagine Christ suffered the Death of the soule for so much as the Death of the soule must exclude Christ from the grace spirit and life of God and leaue in him neither faith hope nor loue sanctitie nor innocencie which God forbid anie Christian man shoulde so much as dreame Wee shoulde therefore do well to reuerence the manifest wordes of Gods Spirit in so high a pointe of Religion and suffer our selues as schollers to bee taught by the leader into all trueth what to beleeue and confesse in the mystery of our redemption and not to controle or correct the doctrine so cleerelie deliuered in the Scriptures so consonantlie retained of all learned and vnlearned in the Church of Christ for so many hundred yeares And if anie man to maintaine his deuise woulde inuent a newe hell and another death of the soule then either scriptures or fathers euer heard or spake of they shoulde keepe their inuentions to themselues it sufficed me to beleeue what I read and consequently not to beleeue what I did not read in the word of God which is and ought to be the foundation of our faith Thus farre I purposed when I first entered by Gods grace to proceede in this cause according to y e simple vnderstanding wherwith god hath endued me for the good of his Church The article of the Creed Christ DESCENDED INTO HELL I meant not to meddle with choosing rather to leaue y t vntouched then to presse any sense as a point of faith for vvhich I had not so full and faire warrant as for the redemption of man by the death and blood of Christ Iesus but the vehemencie of some contradicting that I taught and the importunitie of others requesting to knowe what they might safelie beleeue of that article made mee to alter my minde For whē some vrged others doubted that if Christ did not suffer the paines of hell whiles he hung on the Crosse that part of the Creed was added in vaine and the wordes of Dauid Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell applied by Peter vnto Christ in
the second of the Acts could hardly haue any good construction because it seemed farre fet and altogither repugnant to the proper signification of the wordes to take the soule for the bodie and hell for the graue and as for the locall descent of Christ to hell after death they counted that but a fable I was forced to promise that I would openlie deliuer which I thought was the likeliest and safest sense as well of that article in the Creede as of those wordes of Dauid fulfilled in the person of our Sauiour This occasion drew mee to the next question of Christes descent to hell Wherin I resolued as by perusing the later part of this treatise will better appeare that Christs descent to the verie place of hell after his death did best concord both with the Creede and with the truth of Christian religion so we tooke care not to swarue frō the Scriptures in setting downe the cause why he went thither which was to ouerthrow destroy the kingdom might of Satan in the place of his greatest strength euen in hel and as our head to free all his members from daunger and feare of comming thither the sorrowes and terrors whereof hee loosed vvith his presence treading them vnder his feete and rose againe into a blessed and immortall life leading captiuitie captiue and taking from hell and Satan all povver to preuaile against his elect Both these resolutions that Christ suffered not the true paines of hell in his soule on the crosse and that hee personallie conquered and disarmed the powers and terrours thereof before his resurrection some as in such cases is common misremembred some misconstrued and some misliked vvhereupon I vvas both aduised and intreated by men of greater place then I vvill name to put the effect of that vvhich I had deliuered in vvriting that by mine ovvne vvords and not by other mens conceits or reports the learned might iudge of the doctrine Which I did that verie Summer and had it readie for the presse before Bartlemewtide but that the Parliament of States approching wherein men shoulde be otherwise imploied and a great hurle raised against it by certaine popular preachers in that citie through whose mouthes the contrarie had often passed to the people as currant I was desired by the same persons againe to staie till that time of businesse were ouer past that heat of contradiction somewhat alaied and respite giuen that it might be trāslated into Latin which also is now performed as wel as published in English To whole coūsell I yeelded referring the time wholy to their iudgements notwithstanding I were by many traduced in many places as a teacher of strange and false doctrine But I haue beene and am the more willing to beare the reproches of maligners because I seeke not my selfe heerein but that the church of Christ heere in Englande should hold fast that ancient and sure foundation of faith which hitherto it hath kept and professe that doctrine touching our Redemption by Christ which as wel the publike lawes of this realme as all the catholike fathers do vphold and allow In setting downe the summe of that which I preached I neither do nor can promise thee gentle Reader the same words which I then spake I wrote them not but I assure thee before him that knoweth all things that I haue not swarued nor altered anie materiall point from the methode propositions proofes and conclusions which I then vsed nor from the wordes as farre as either my notes or my memory vpon the fresh foote coulde direct mee which I haue yet to shew Manie proofes and authorities I omitted in the pulpit which the time shut me from and some obiections I haue answered here more largelie then the course of Sermons would permit but here is the selfe same in effect which then I vttered and purposed if the time woulde haue suffered The manner of handling this question I alwaies wished might bee temperate and sober as best became christian professours and teachers least by catching aduantages besides the cause wee increased quarrels and so much regarded our credits that wee neglected the truth I haue therfore in the Treatise it selfe touched no mans name oppugned no mans wordes traduced no mans iudgement but admitting and retaining as much as I thought might stande with the truth I haue pared off certaine extremities and reiected certaine additions which the first inuentors did refraine for that Christ suffered the death of the soule or all the same tormentes which the damned do and shall are positions lately coined and deriued from the proportion of Gods iustice as they call it but as I thinke from presumption of mans reason intruding into Gods secrets The doctrine which I defend that we are sufficientlie redeemed by the death and bloud of Christ Iesus without adding of hell paines to bee suffered in the soule of Christ hath the constant full and expresse warrant of the Scriptures and the like approbation from al the fathers without exception And therefore howsoeuer some men may despise all ancient writers and frustrate the scriptures with their figures al sober and wise christians will I doubt not beware how they admit this strange and late found nouelty into their Creede or consciences The second point I presse nor with like vehemencie because it hath not like certaintie So long as we confesse which the Scriptures do confirme that Christs humane nature after his extreame humiliation on the Crosse before his resurrection conquered spoyled not death only but hell Satan also of al their power right ouer y e faithful ascending on hie lead captiuitie captiue tooke the keyes of death and of hell into his owne hands with the precise maner and hower I will not burden anie mans conscience that cannot be perswaded by reading the latter part of this treatise though I my selfe after long diligent search find no sense so agreeable to y e words of the Creede so answerable to the rules of the sacred Scriptures and so fullie followed by all the Fathers as Christs descent to the verie place of hell for the purposes aforesaid Hauing premonished thee Christian reader of thus much I am not willing to detayne thee anie longer from vewing and examining the booke it selfe but onelie to tell thee that whiles I stayed the printing hereof till others did like it as wel as my self one more hastie then either aduised or learned calling himselfe H. I. would needes traduce it and confute it before he saw it resting belike on such notes as his angry mind and brickle memorie tooke at the time when I preached of these points Wherein though others condemne his follie yet I commend his pollicie that least hee should trouble himselfe with more thē he could answere he thought it y e best way to come into the field alone and like a stout Champion fighting with his owne shadow to say no more thē he would be sure to deny or decline with one
motion of the mind is but a temptation to trie the heart or shew the strength of the godlie So was Adam tempted in Paradise by Eue and Eue by the Serpent to prooue howe mindfull they were and thankfull they would be for the blessings of God bestowed vpon them So was Christ tempted in the wildernesse by Satan and all his life long by the wicked which were to him but occasions to declare the innocencie and integritie of his humane nature But the inwarde temptation of the heart and conscience though it bee in all the children of Adam the elect themselues not excepted by reason of their flesh lusting agaynst the spirite their conscience accusing them for sinne and their fayth sometimes fainting yet in Christ wee must graunt no such thing because in him there was neither corruption of flesh nor remorse of sinne nor weakenesse of faith that shoulde anie kinde of waie bréede or yeelde to the worme that gnaweth at our consciences A desperate feare is when the wrath of God awaketh the wicked to knowe and acknowledge what vengeance is prepared for them in the life to come and so hauing lost both fayth and hope they fall to an horrible expectation of iudgement and flaming fyre which shall deuoure the aduersarie But yet euen these men whose case is most despaired are not while they liue heere on earth in the true paines of Hell but are as farre from that as expecting is from suffering The last I knowe not howe to call but by the name of a damned rather paine then feare which the wicked departed this life doe presentlie feele For paine that is present inflicteth rather torment then feare since feare is properlie the trembling at euill before it come and not the grieuing at it when it is come Of these foure impressions yee see which I attribute vnto Christ and which not Despairing or so much as doubting of his saluation we cannot ascribe to him without euident impietie And as for Christes suffering the same paines which the damned soules in Hell doe to my simple vnderstanding it is rather a dreame then a doctrine to bee taught in the Church of Christ. Did they defende as great sense and anguish of paine to haue beene in Christes bodie or soule as hell fire doth inflict to the damned though that were a verie presumptuous and audacious position yet is it not so impious as when they affirme he sufred the self same which the damned do For the damned haue many sorts of paines in hel which by no means could fasten on Christs person and since there be degrées of paine in hell euen for the damned these curious teachers must shewe vs which of these degrees Christ suffered by what warrant of gods word they aâ—iunge the very paines of hell to the crosse of Christ. To perswade them to hold fast the forme of wholsom words which the holy ghost obserueth throughout the scriptures I feare is but lost labor hauing lighted on a strange doctrine they are forced to vse strange spéeches such as no where are found in the word of truth expressing mans redemption by the death and bloud of Christ yet somwhat to rebate the heat of such as despise all other sufferings of Christ in respect of their hell-paines I think it not amisse to examine the weight of those allegations and reasons that are brought to support their assertion The proofs that are pretended for this opinion may be recalled to thrée principal heds which are these PREDICTIONS that Christ should suffer the paines of hell in soul CAVSES why he must suffer them SIGNES that he did suffer them Predictions that Christ should suffer the paines of hel are cited the se Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell and againe The sorowes or streights of hell haue found me out beset me round The causes why he must suffer them are enlarged by some into many branches but may bee contracted into these two THE PART that chiefly sinned in man the VVAGES due to man for sin The WORKE of sin appeared first most in the soul of Adam therfore in y e satisfaction for sin the soul of Christ as they say must properly principally suffer The VVAGES of sin is expressely death both of soule and bodie and therfore Christ as our suretie and for our sinnes must taste of both as they affirm before he can discharge vs from both Signes that he did suffer were his AGONIE in the garden when he sweat blood which for a corporall death he would neuer haue don his COMPLAINT on the crosse that he was forsaken of God which as they thinke proouesh he felt in soule a most fearefull iudgement of God pronounced against our sinnes To euerie of these I will speake in order that finding the weaknesse of their foundation we maie the sooner see the lamenesse of their conclusion To the first I might answere with Saint Austen these words of Dauid specifie not anie suffering of hell paines on the crosse but rather a descent to the place of hell That the Lord after his bodie was dead came to hell is certaine enough for neither can the prophecie be contradicted which said Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell which least anie man shoulde dare otherwise to interpret Peter in the Acts of the Apostles so expoundeth nor the wordes of Peter bee auoided where hee saith that Christ brake the sorrowes of hell the which could not possiblie take hold on him who then but an infidell will denie that Christ was in hell But with antiquitte I will not vrge them if the text doe not refuse their exposition I will release them this authoritie That this saying of Dauid doth not import anie paines suffered while Christ liued but some honour done to his soule after his death maie thrée waies be prooued by the wordes next praecedent by the words next adioyned and by the application which Peter maketh when he citeth this place The wordes next before which are these My flesh shall rest in hope note Christs buriall and this is brought as a reason why Christes bodie should rest in hope not on the crosse where it had no rest but in the graue after he was dead because thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell If this respected any thing endured on the crosse the holy ghost must haue saide in the person of Christ because THOV HAST NOT LEFT MY SOVLE IN HEL the paines and time were both past but he speaketh in the future tence of future things Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell And this was the hope in which Christ died Now hope neuer tendeth to things past and known but to that which is to come This therefore toucheth somthing consequent after Christs death which he hoped for when he died and not anie paines suffered on the crosse or in the garden whiles he liued The words annexed infer the same Thou wilt not leaue my soule in
obedient to the death euen to the death of the crosse By his humilitie obedience and charity hee purged the pride rebellion and selfe-loue which our first father shewed when he fell and we all expresse in our sinnes and therefore as wee all died in Adams transgression so we are all iustified that is absolued from our sinnes and receaued into fauour by the obedience of Christ. Yea the obedience of Christ did in farre higher degrée please God the Father then the rebellion of Adam did displease him For there the vassall rebelled here the equall obeied there earth presumed to be like vnto God here God vouchsafed to bee the lowest amongst men there the creature neglected his maker here the creator so loued his enemies euen his persecutors that hee tooke the burthen from their shoulders and laid it on his owne contentedly giuing his life for them who cruellie tooke his life from him to conclude those were the sinnes of men these are the vertues of God which doe infinitelie counteruaile the other and for that cause the iustice of God is farre better satisfied with the obedience of Christ then with the vengeance it might iustlie haue executed on the sinnes of men For God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked neither doth hee delight in mans destruction but with the obedience of his sonne he is well pleased and therein euen his soule delighteth This is my beloued sonne in whom I am well pleased Loe my chosen my soule taketh pleasure in him In which words God doth not onlie note the naturall loue betwixt his sonne and himselfe but he giueth full approbation of his obedience as being thereby throughlie satisfied for the sinne of man By Christs obedience I doe not meane the holinesse of his life or performance of the lawe but the obedience of the person vnto death euen the death of the Crosse which was voluntarilie offered by him not necessarily imposed on him aboue and besides the lawe and no way required in the lawe For it could be no dutie to God or man but onelie mercie and pitie towardes vs that caused the sonne of God to take our mortall and weake flesh vnto him and therein and therby to pay the ransome of our sinnes and to purchase eternall life for vs. He must be a Sauiour no debter a redéemer no prisoner Lord of all euen when hee humbled himselfe to be the seruant of all his diuine glorie power and maiestie make his sufferings to be of infinite force and value And from this dignitie and vnitie of his person which is the maine pillar of our redemption if we cast our eies on any other cause or deuise any new help to strengthen the merits of Christ wee dishonour and disable his diuinitie as if the sonne of God were not a full and sufficient price to ransome the bodies and soules of all mankind On this foundation doe the scriptures build the whole frame of mans redemption GOD purchased his church saith Paule WITH HIS OVVNE BLOVD GOD noting the dignitie HIS OVVNE the vnitie of his person and both importing a price far worthier then the thing purchased God spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all In that he was the sonne of God al nations are counted vnto him or in ballance with him lesse thē nothing and vanitie in that he was giuen for vs the ransome excelleth the prisoner as much as God doth man We are reconciled to God by the death of his sonne Maruell we to sée Christs death of that power price with God that it appeased his wrath when he was angrie with vs as with his enemies when as his owne son being equall with him in the forme of God humbled himselfe to the death of the crosse for our sakes Fairer or fuller causes of our redemption we neede not aske the holie Ghost doth not expresse God cannot haue If the son of God be not able with his bloud to redeeme vs wee must giue ouer all hope and despaire For heauen cannot yéeld vs a greater value and the earth hath none like Wherfore if any man be disposed to seale his own condemnation with his own heart let him distrust the merits of Christs death but all that will be saued must acknowledge the infinite price of his death and bloud aboue our worth and we must learne being sinfull and wretched creatures not to amend the wordes of God in the mysterie of our redemption but suffer him that is trueth to be the guider of our faith and not by figures to frustrate all that is written in the word of God touching our saluation purchased by the death and bloud of Christ Iesus I am not the first that obserued or vrged this doctrine it is auncient and Catholike Cum super omnes esset Dei verbum merito suum ipsius templum corporale instrumentum pro omniū ammis pretium offerens id quod morti debebatur persoluit Where as the word or sonne of God saith Athanasius was aboue al worthily then by offering his owne temple bodily instrument as a price for the soules of all men did he pay that was due vnto death Cyril Si non esset deus quomodo ipse solus sufficeret ad hoc vt sit pretiū Sed sufficit solus pro omnibus mortuus quia super omnes est deus igitur est morte suae carnis à mundo mortē depellens If Christ were not God how could he alone suffice to be the ransome for al but he alone dead sufficeth for all because he is aboue all he is therefore God by the death of his flesh driuing away death from the worlde And againe Redempti sumus Christo proprium corpus dante pro nobis Sed si vt communis homo intelligeretur Christus quomodo corpus eius ad rependendum omnium vitam sufficeret At si deus fuit in carne qui dignissimus sufficiens ad redemptionem totius mundi per suum sanguinē merito fuit We are redeemed Christ giuing his own body for vs. But if Christ be taken to be no more then a man how should his body be sufficient to restore life to al men but if he were God in our flesh worthily thē did he suffice to redeem the whole world with his bloud Austen Si propter hominē mortuus est deus nō est victurus homo cum deo quomodo mortuus est deus accepit ex te vnde moreretur pro te nōposset mori nisi caro nōposset mori nisi mortale corpus If god died for mā shall not mā liue with god but how died god he took of thine wherin to die for thee There could nothing die but flesh there could die nothing but a mortal body And elsewhere an anciēt writer vnder his name if not himselfe Indubitanter credamus quod totum mundum redemit qui plus dedit quā totus mundus valeret
THE LAVV to do theÌ„ the remitting of sinne is the releasing of the curse that is consequent to sinne The curse importeth vengeance due to sinne Then where sinne is pardoned the curse is determined But wee haue redemption euen remission of sinnes through his bloud Ergo the bloud of Christ doth quench the curse of the law The maner how the curse of the law lighted seased on the person of Christ is thus expressed by S. Paule Christ redeemed vs from the curse of the lawe being made a curse for vs. For it is written accursed is euery one that hangeth on the tree As by his stripes we are healed so by his curse we are blessed In as much as he submitted himselfe to the curse of the law for our sinnes not only our transgressions are pardoned for which Christ suffered but the law stinging him to death lost his force for euer For the vengeance of the law once executed on our suertie can no more in Gods iustice be exacted of vs. But Christ receiued the sentence of the lawe in himselfe when he bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree wee therefore are quited for euer from the power of the lawe Since then by his receiuing and suffering the curse of the lawe in his owne person wee are fréed and blessed it remaineth wee search howe farre the curse preuailed against him Wherein we must take héede that wee slep not an hayres breadth from the Apostles words For if we stretch the curse farther on Christ then in truth it did or coulde take place wee arrogantlie and impiouslie pronounce that cursed which indeede was blessed and falsifie the promise of God made to Abraham that in his seede which was Christ All the nations of the earth should be blessed For howe could the blessing of Abraham be deriued from Christ to vs if euerie part of his humane nature were accursed Wherefore Christ must receiue the curse of the lawe in one part of himselfe which was his flesh and in the other which was his soule retaine the blessing of God as well for his flesh to bee raised againe as for his members to bee vnited vnto him If this bee not the doctrine of the holie Ghost I vrge no man to beléeue it if it bee let such as will wante GODS curse beware howe they refuse it It is no small aduenture to extende the curse of God vpon the soule of Christ Iesus without cléere sound and sure testimonie of the holie scriptures To shew that Christ sustained the curse of the lawe and by his enduring it acquited vs Saint Paul in effect vseth this reason CVRSED saieth Moses is euerie one that is hanged on the tree But Christ was content for our sinnes to be hanged on the tree of the crosse He therfore submitted himselfe to the curse of the law to redeeme vs from it That this is Saint Paules argument the thirde to the Galathians to proue Christ vnder the curse of the lawe I hope the simplest amongst you will soone perceiue the learnedest dare not denie By which it is euident that part of Christ which hung on the crosse was subiected to the curse but the soule of Christ was not crucified Ergo the soule of Christ was not made a curse but onelie his bodie And by suffering this curse that is by hanging on the tree hee redéemed vs from the curse of the lawe which wee had deserued both in bodie and soule Which of these thinges canne we contradict Shall wee saie the Apostle mist his marke in that hee cleareth vs from the spirituall and perpetuall curse of the lawe by Christes suffering a corporall and temporall parte thereof or shall wee chalenge him to be so simple that he knew not the difference betwixt the one the other I am far from any such thought I loue to follow and not to leade the holie ghost In matters of so great depth I dare not wade without or before my guide That Christ died hanging on a tree the Euangelistes are plaine That hanging on a tree is a cursed kinde of death in the lawe of Moses is as manifest That by hanging on the tree hee wâ—s made a curse for vs and thereby redeemed vs from the curse of the lawe the Apostle is resolute If anie man will offer farther I must leaue him To fasten the internall or eternall curse of the lawe on the soule of Christ is to my vnderstanding verie desperate diuinitie For men might naile his bodie to the trâ—e as did the Iewes but none coulde inflict the curse on his soule but onelie God Since then the innocencie obedience patience humilitie and sanctitie of his soule were so perfect euen in the sight of God that it could not â—ustlie be but blessed howe shoulde the righteousnesse of God immediatelie and vniustlie laie the curse which bringeth inwarde and euerlasting death on the soule of Christ Againe God spirituallie curseth none but whome hee first deseruedlie hateth as all vncleane and wicked persons If then the soule of Christ could not worthilie be hated of God it coulde not truelie bee cursed of God for the hatred and curse of God cannot bee seuered This doctrine is ancient and catholicke Saint Austen ripping this matter to the quicke saieth Securus Apostolus ait de Christo factus est pro nobis maledictum sicut non timuit dicâ—re pro omnibus mortuus est hoc est enim mortuus quod maledictus quoniam mors ipsa ex maledicto est maledictum est omne peccatum siue ipsum quod fit vt sequatur supplicium siue ipsum supplicium quod alio modo vocatur peccatum quia fit exâ— peccato Suscepit autemâ— Christus sine reatu supplicium nostrum vt inde solueret reatum nostrum finiret etiam supplicium nostrum Securely the Apostle saieth of Christ that he was made a curse for vs euen as he feared not to say Christ DIED FOR ALL. For HEE DIED IS ALL ONE VVITH HE VVAS ACCVRSED BECAVSE DEATH CAME FROM THE CVRSE and all sinne is accursed as well that which is committed and deserueth punishment as THE PVNISHMENT IT SELFE which in a sort is called sinne because it is consequent to sinne Nowe Christ bare our punishment without any desert that thereby hee might acquite our guiltinesse and ende our punishment And againe Maledictus omnis qui pendet in ligno non hic aut ille sed omnis omnino Etiamne filius dei etiam prorsus DISPLICET VOBIS MALEDICTVS PRO NOBIS QVIA DISPLICET MORTVVS PRO NOBIS Tune extra maledictum illius Adam si extra illius mortem Cum vero ex homine pro homine mortem suscepit ex illo pro illo etiam maledictum quod mortem comitatur suscipere non dedignatus est etiam ille prorsus etiam ille filius Dei semper viâ—â—s in sua iustitia mortuus autem propter delicta nostra in carne suscepta
a curse and sin but he was called by those names that he might abolish bâ—th the curse and sinne Christ was no more a curse then hee was sinne who indéede and with God was neither but with men he was reputed both wicked and accursed by reason God suffered him to endure that vilde and shamefull kinde of death which hee did to saue vs from the curse of sinne Epiphanius saith he was A CVRSE VNTO THE CVRSE that is a dissoluer and finisher of the curse Ignorat omnino miser ille quod neque Christus maledictio factus sit absit sed maledictionem quae propter peccat a nostra fuit abstulit seipsum cruci dedeâ—s factus est mors morti propter peccata nostra MALEDICTIO MALEDICTIONI Quapropter non est Christus maledictum sed maledicti solutio benedictio autem omnibus verè in ipsum credentibus That wretch Marcion is vtterly ignorant that Christ was not accursed God forbid but he tooke away the curse that lay on our sinnes in yeelding himselfe to the crosse and was made death vnto death for our sinnes and A CVRSE VNTO THE CVRSE Wherefore Christ WAS NOT A CVRSE but THE DISSOLVER OF THE CVRSE and A BLESSING to all that â—â—ulie beleeue in him These though they diuerslie applie the Apostles speach Factus pro nobis maledictum Christ was made a curse for vs some to the toleration of death some to the opinion of men and some to the depulsion of the curse from vs yet in this they all agrée that by giuing his bodie to die on the Crosse Christ receiued sustained and abolished the curse due to vs for transgressing the law of God And to iustifie their assertion they haue not onelie the plaine text of Paule and Moses Cursed is he that hangeth on the tree but the manifest wordes of Peter He bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree To proue the death which Christ suffered to be a cursed kinde of death the place of Moses is verie pregnant to proue the person to bee accursed in soule it hath neither cause nor truth For innocents maie suffer that wrong to bee hanged on trées and shall they then be accursed in soule And be they malefactors they may repent as did the theefe on the crosse and shall they notwithstanding their repentance bee accursed Shall we close both penitent and innocent within the true curse of the soule rather then we will suffer Pauls words to be referred to the death of the bodie For he saith Cursed is EVERIE ONE that hangeth on the tree excusing none and if anie might bee excepted out of the generall rule Christ Iesus most of all But euerie one that hangeth on the tree hath a cursed kinde of death though a blessed soule Paule therefore expresselie teacheth that Christ subiected himselfe to a cursed kind of death and in so dying he deliuered vs from the curse of the Lawe Ex parte quippe mortali pependit in ligno mortalitas autem vnde sit notum est credentibus Ex poena quippe est maledictio peccati primi hominis quam Dominus suscepit peccata nostra pertulit in corpore suo super liguum That part sayth Austen which was mortall in Christ hung on the Crosse and whence mortalitie came the faythfull knowe It came from the punishment of sinne and is the malediction of the sinne of the first man which the Lorde tooke vnto him and bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree Yea when Christ tooke the curse hee tooke the sinne of the olde man into his flesh and fastened it togither with his flesh vnto the Crosse. Quid pependit in ligno nisi peccatum veteris hominis quod Dominus pro nobis in ipsa carnis mortalitate suscepit Vnde nec erubuit nec tumuit Aposâ—olus dicere peccatum eum fecisse pro nobis addens vt de peccato condemnaret peccatum Non enim vetus homo noster simul crucifiâ— cretur sicut Apostolus alibi dicit nisi in illa morte Domini peccati nostri figura penderet What hung on the tree but the sinne of the olde man which sinne the Lorde tooke vpon him for vs in the verie mortalitie of his flesh Wherefore the Apostle was neither ashamed nor afraied to say that God made him sinne for vs that by sinne he might condemne sin For our olde man could not be crucified togither with Christ as the Apostle else where writeth except the figure of our sinne did hang on the Crosse in that death which the Lord died And if Peters words be true which can not be false Christ bare our sinnes that is the malediction and punishment of our sinnes in his body on the tree and thereby saued vs from the eternall malediction which is Go you cursed into euerlasting fire My resolution then is which I hope will bee receyued because it is the Apostles WE ARE DEAD TO THE LAVV BY THE BODIE OF CHRIST that we should be to another euen to him that is raised from the dead We are quit from the feare from the yoke from the curse from the vengeance of the law in one word WE ARE DEAD to the lawe which hath no more chalenge to vs nowe then a man hath to his wife that is long since dead And if you aske when and how we became dead to the lawe Saint Paul answereth BY THE BODIE OF CHRIST when hee suffered on the Crosse for our sinnes And as he that is dead is freed from sinne so we dying in and with the bodie of Christ are LOOSED FROM THE LAVVE OF SINNE AND DEATH Sinne beeing condemned and death conquered in the flesh of Christ VVHICH IS OVR FLESH not onelie because it was taken of vs but also for that it is vnited vnto vs as the heade to the members and communicateth with vs both in life and death as appeareth by that we died and rose againe in him and to this daie he suffereth in vs then which no coniunction can be surer or neerer Since then the corruption of our flesh the guilt of our sinne the curse of the lawe the sting of death were all closed and crucified in the bodie of Christ on the Crosse and his death hath discharged vs from their dominion iustlie doth the Apostle saie of Christ that hee did partake with flesh and bloud that through death hee might destroy him that had power of death euen the diuell For in that wee bee freed from the curse of the lawe which brought and bound sinners by death to hell the chaynes of darkenesse are broken and Satans force wholie frustrate and he himselfe nowe left to beholde the ruine of his kingdome to grieue at the spoyle of his goodes and to feare the vengeance prouided for him howsoeuer for a season hee bee suffered to pursue the members of Christ here on earth to his owne shame and their greater comfort in trying the mightie
with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen saith our Sauiour The second is that if more besides Abraham and Lazarus were in that bosome of rest the Prophets and Patriarks must néeds be there who for fidelitie and pietie are commended by the witnesse of Gods spirite and placed in the foundation of the Church with the Apostles next the heade corner stone as HOLIE MEN OF GOD inspired and mooued by the holie ghost These deductions being sound and sure whereof there can bee no doubt it is certaine Christ went not to hell to fetch the Patriarkes and Prophets thence for they were not there but in Abrahams bosome which was an habitation of REST COMFORT and BLISSE so farre distant from the place of torment that by no meanes it coulde bee a PART or MEMBER THEREOF But Austen himselfe saith hee doubteth not but Christ deliuered some from the paines of hell at his descent thither Saint Austen refelleth the receiued opinion of others before him that Christ descended to hell to deliuer thence the Patriarkes and Prophets that were there detained and addeth that because he then presentlie sawe no cause why Christ should descend but to saue from the paines of hel he doth not doubt but Christ deliuered some froÌ„ thence But when he commeth to make proof for this his opinion he fainteth and saith the words of Peter that Christ loosed the paines of hell may bee taken in that sense and that Adam was then loosed ALMOST the whole church consented Howbeit both these proofs are no more then probable scant so much and therfore they compell no man to receiue S. Austens coniecturall inclination but leaue vs at libertie as wel to examine his reasons as to suspend our iudgemeÌ„ts till we sée stroÌ„ger better motiues to induce our consent For touching Peters wordes himselfe confesseth they may bee referred to Christ. Quod scriptuÌ„ est in morte Christi factuÌ„ solutis doloribus inferni vel ad ipsum potest intelligi pertinere quod eos hactenus soluerit hoc est irru os fecerit ne ab eis ipse teneretur praesertim quia sequitur in quibus impossibile erat teneri EVM vel si causa quaeritur cur venire voluerit in infernum vbi dolores illi essent quibus omnino teneri non poterat hoc quod scriptum est solutis doloribus inferni non in omnibus sed IN QVIBVSDAM ACCIPI POTEST quos ille dignos ista liberatione iudicabat What the Scripture saieth was perfourmed in the death of Christ THE PAINES OF HELL BEEING LOOSED may either bee vnderstoode to pertaine to Christ himselfe that hee loosed that is frustrated those paines from taking anie holde of him speciallie whereas it followeth in the Text OF VVHICH PAINES IT VVAS IMPOSSIBLE HEE SHOVLDE BE HELDE or if wee aske for the cause why he woulde come to hell where those paines were which coulde take no hold of him these words loosing the paines of hel may bee taken not of all but of some whome he thought worthy to be deliuered Either way these wordes make nothing to S. Austens supposition that some were in the paâ—nes of hell when Christ did thence deliuer them For if we applie them to Christs person which in déede S. Peter doth they note that Christ brake before him the strength of hell when he approched to his resurrection If wee refer them to mans deliuerance thence that Christ in our names and for our safetie loosed the sorrowes of hell this will proue we should haue gone to hell if Christ had not saued vs thence but that wee were there it no way proueth For hee deliuered all his as wel liuing and not then borne as dead from all the right and claime that hell had to them and as we were deliuered not from being there but from comming thither so the dead might bee acquited and assured from the chalenge that hell had to them though they were then in rest and in hope of Christs comming to performe their expectation and perfit their redemption from the power of hell As for the consent of the whole church ALMOST since Austen himselfe leadeth vs to dislike the opinion of all the fathers ALMOST that the soules of the righteous were in hel before Christes descent thither hee openeth the waie for vs to aske how the church came by that perswasion whether by scripture or by Tradition Scripture there is none extant for Adam more then for all other men Tradition for things done in hell where no man liuing was present can none bee pretended The testimonie which Austen alleageth out of the booke of Wisedome maketh rather against that position then for it Wisedome kept the first man that was alone created euen the father of the world and BROVGHT HIM OVT OF HIS SINNE and gaue him power to gouerne all thinges That wisedome brought Adam out of his sinne is here affirmed but whether by chastisement and repentance in this life or by deliuerance out of hell after this life since neither is specified the first is rather to bee receaued For God both by punishing Adams offence and by offering him grace in the promised Scede did make way for repentance yea the whole life of Adam was nothing else but the meditation of his fall but that Christ fet him from hell when hee descended thither canne by no rules of religion bee warranted Indeed Christ went to hell to loose the bands of Adams sinne and so the church might well beléeue and professe For the guilt of Adams transgression and roote of Adams corruption brought vs all to be iustlie condemned to hell but that the death of Christ reconciled vs againe to God by the remission of our sinnes and the personall descent of our Sauiour loosed all the bandes and brake all the chaines of darkenesse that were prouided for vs and so fréed Adam and his ofspring from the power and paines of hell In this the whole church might consent that Adams sinne was released and Adams bandes loosed by Christs descent to hell but other tradition what soules were in hell and thence deliuered at Christes comming as it was altogether vnknowne to men on earth and consequentlie most vncertaine so is it rather presumptuous to define then religious to beléeue And least I shoulde séeme to be led with the spirit of contradiction to refuse both the tradition of the church and opinion of the fathers I will plainelie shew what causeth me to consent to neither First in these secret and vnknowne things no mans assertion is to be trusted without the witnes of the scriptures and forsomuch as is expressed vnto vs in the word of God it rather crosseth then fauoreth this assertion of the fathers Next the ancient writers heere in doe not onelie varie one from another but euen from themselues to manifest that they had no settled truth but some coniectures and those verie slender in these hidden matters Touching the soules of the
righteous departed this life before Christes death to omit the place of the booke of Wisedome alreadie recited which expresselie gaine saieth this supposall of the fathers that the soules of the iust were both in hell and in torments there is nothing exactlie reuealed vnto vs in the scriptures that are canonicall till we come to the xvi of S. Lukes gospell where our Sauiour by the parabolicall historie of the wicked rich man and the godlie Lazarus teacheth vs what became of them both after their deathes and consequentlie what was the state of all the deade before his time to wit that they were either CARIED BY ANGELS TO ABRAHAMS BOSOME or PVNISHED IN THE FLAMES OF HELL These two places as they bee farre distant the one from the other both in SCITVATION and CONDITION the one beeing full of comfort the other of torment so in this they agrée that there coulde bee no ALTERATION in either The rich man in hell coulde neither obtaine anie meanes to bee refreshed no not a drop of water to coole his heate nor expect anie time to bee released Our Sauiour maketh Abraham to say to the rich man which must néedes be true between you and vs there is settled a great gulfe or mightie distance so that they which would go from hence to you cannot NEITHER CAN THEY COME FROM THENCE TO VS After this life there was no changing of places and namelie from hell there was no release This our Sauiour taught for a resolute trueth in his life time howe then coulde the soules of the iust bee released and reduced from hell by his descent If Abraham and Lazarus were not in hell but in a place of rest and comforte farre distant from hell howe then were all the righteous before Christes time not onlie in hell but in the sorrowes and paines of hell yea the son of God with his owne mouth so often in the new testament expressing the fire of hel to be vnquenchable and the worme there neuer to die how dare we without any warrant of the word of God first to bring al y e soules of the righteous before Christ from Abrahams bosome to hell and then to deliuer them thence without anie witnesse of the holie scriptures With one breath our Sauiour doth thrice pronounce in the gospell of Marke that in hell neither the fire quencheth not the worme dieth and presume wee to quench the one and kill the other without any scruple But the scripture saith the soules of the Patriarkes and Prophets were in hell and there to leaue them after Christs descent were euerlastinglie to condemne them The translators mistooke the word Sheôl calling that hel which indéed was the graue where the bodies of all the iust both before and after Christ were laid but the teacher of all truth whose doctrine wee by no meanes may distrust placeth Abraham in rest and maketh his bosome a receptacle for the soules of the righteous and therefore we may striue about words if we list but we must leaue the spirits of iust and perfit men before Christes comming that place which Christ teaching here on earth assured vs was assigned them of God And since by the doctrine of our sauiour they were not in hell it is more then manifest he did not fetch them thence by his descending thither As for the supposall of the fathers that Abraham Iacob Samuel and Dauid with the rest of the Patriarks and prophets were in hell it were easie to shew their varieties contrarieties if I tooke pleasure to discouer their weakenesse S. Austen in his 99. Epistle to Euodius and his 12. booke de genesi ad literam cap. 33. exactlie contradicteth the opinion of Tertullian Basil Hierom Ambrose that Abraham the rest of the Patriarks and Prophets were in hell prooueth that Abrahams bosome must not be thought to be any part or member of hell In his 57. Epistle to Dardanus hee saith non faciledixerim I cannot readily pronounce In his 20. booke de ciuitate dei cap. 15. he saith non absurde credividetur antiquos etiam sanctos apud inferos fuisse it seemeth no absurdity to beleeue that the Saints of the olde testament were in hell vntill the bloud of Christ and his descent to those places did deliuer them And thus he either some times spared the credites of those that were before him or else by writing hee so profited that where at first he doubted or yéelded to others at last he resolued the contrarie vpon the dewe examining the wordes of our Sauiour Tertullian likewise in his booke de anima saith Habes de paradiso à nobis libellum quo constituimus omnem anâ—mam apud inferos sequestrari in diem iudicij We haue written a booke touching paradice where wee defende that all soules are kept in hell vntill the day of iudgement And speaking namelie of Abrahams bosome Omnes ergo animae penes inferos inquis velis ac nolis supplicia iam illic refrigeria habes pauperem diuivem Cur enim non putes animam puniri foueri in inferis Are al soules then in hell you wil aske will you nill you you shall finde there punishmentes and refreshments as in Lazarus and the rich man And why shoulde you not thinke that the soule may bee both tormented and comforted in hell and yet in his fourth booke against Marcion hee contradicteth that false position and commeth soundlie to the truth Aliud inferi vt puto aliud quoque sinus Abrahae Nam magnum ait intercedere regiones istas profundum transitum vtrinque prohibere Sed nec alleuasset diues oculos quidem de longinquo nisi in superiora de altitudinis longinquo per immensam illam distantiaÌ„ sublimitatis profunditatis Eam itaque regioneÌ„ sâ—â—m dico Abrahae etsi non coelestem sublimiorem tamen Inferis Hel is one thing as I thinke and Abrahams bosome is another For Abraham sayeth a great depth is betweene these two regions and suffereth none to passe to and fro Neither coulde the rich man haue lift vp his eies but vnto places aboue him and far aboue him by reason of the infinite distance betwixt that heigth and that depth That region then I call Abrahams bosome which though it bee not heauen yet is it higher then hell Ambrose after the same maner sometimes saith that Abraham was apud Inferos in hell sometimes againe that Lazarus in Abrahae sinu recumbens vitam carpebat aeternam Lazarus lying in Abrahams bosome enioied euerlasting life and hard it is that eternall life should be in hell In the one and the same chapter he alloweth the perswasion of the heathen quod animae liberatae de corporibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peterent id est locum qui non videtur queÌ„ locum Latinè Infernum dicimus that soules departed from their bodies did go to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
shalbe verified of any man we must no more deny y t he descended into the bottomles pit which is hell then y t he ascended into y e heauens both are necessary partes of our redemption euident proofes of his mighty operatioÌ„ We must be fréed froÌ„ hel before we can be placed in heauen and if Christ haue omitted either he hath performed neither What maruaile then if the ancient fathers with one consent make Christs descent to hel a material point of our redemption and presse it as an appendix to faith since it hath so good ground and iust proofe in the scriptures howsoeuer they or we doubt where the soules of the righteous were before Christs suffering Crux mors inferi salus nostra est saith Hilary The crosse death and descent of Christ to hell are our saluation Diuinitas neque corpus in monumento neque animaÌ„ in inferno destituit hoc est enim quod dictuÌ„ est per prophetaÌ„ non relinques animaÌ„ meaÌ„ apud inferos neque dabis sanctuÌ„ tuuÌ„ videre corruptionem Quocâ—rcain ANIMA quideÌ„ CHRISTI MORS DEVICTA EST resurrectioque ab inferis deprompta spiritibus annunciata est in corpore vero dei corruptio abolita est et incorruptibilitas é sepulchro emicuit Christs deity neither forsooke his body in the sepulchre nor his soule in hel For y t is y e meaning of the Prophet wheÌ„ he saith Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hel nor suffer thine holy one to see corruptioÌ„ Wherfore in THE SOVLE OF CHRIST DEATH VVAS CONQVERED and the rerurrection from hell performed and signified to the spirits that rose with him In the body of him that was God corruption was abolished incorruption shined out of the graue Yea Austen himself putteth great difference betwixt the certainly of Christes descent to hell and the vncertainty of deliuering of some soules thence which he found there as he imagineth Teneamus firmissimé Quod fides habet fundatissimâ auctoritate firmata quia Christus mortuus est secundum scripturas et caetera quae de illo testante veritate conscripta sunt in quibus etiam hoc est quod apud Inferos fuit solutis eoruÌ„ doloribus quibus euÌ„ erat impossibile teneri Let vs hold most firmly y t which y e faith containeth confirmed with most assured authority that Christ died according to the scriptures the rest y t is written of him by the testimony of the truth amongst y e which this is also to be nuÌ„bred y t he was in hel dissoluing y e pains therof Of which it was impossible he shuld be held Thus far doth Austen vrge the very articles of our faith confirmed by the scriptures that maketh him infer who then but an infidel wil deny that Christ was in hell But when he commeth to the second point of deliuering some from hel that were in the paines thereof he tempereth his stile and saith à quibus recte intelligitur soluisse liberasse quos voluit from which paines Christ may well be conceaued to haue loosed and deliuered whom he would that which Peter saith loosing the sorrowes of hel accipi potest in quibusdaÌ„ may be vnderstood of some whom he thought worthy to be deliuered For which since there can bee no sure proofe brought out of the worde of trueth we shall doe best to giue eare to his owne aduise in the like case Ergo fratres siue illud siue istud sit hîc me scrutatorem verbi dei non temerarium affirmatorem teneatis Therefore brethren whether this or that bee it heere take me as a searcher of the word of God and not as a rash affirmer All the defence that may be made out of the Scriptures that Christ deliuered some of the saints out of the present possession and power of hell is that which is written in the gospell of Saint Matthew touching the bodies of the saintes rising from death When Iesus yéelded vp the ghost Behold the vaile of the temple rent in twaine and the earth did quake and the stones did cleaue and the graues did open themselues and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graues after his resurrection and went into the holy cittie and appeared to many The death of the bodie as it is parte of the wages of sinne so is it the gate of hell and the Diuell is saide in the scriptures to haue the power thereof So that howsoeuer the soules of the iust were in the handes of God and at rest in Abrahams bosom their bodies lying dead in the graue rotten with corruption were within Satans walke and when Christ raised them out of their sepulchers to an happie life he tooke them from the power of darknes and translated them into the kingdome of light Death is an enemie though the last that shall be destroied and death as well as hell shall be cast into the lake of fire and therefore Christ tooke the keyes both of death and of hell and by his rising from the dead insulted against both ô death where is thy sting ô hell where is thy victory It is the force of sinne that killeth the bodie and likewise the force of sinne that rotteth the bodie sinne being the strength of hell against bodie and soule As then our soules are freed from the power of hell when our sinnes are remitted so our bodies are deliuered from the handfast of hel when corruption the consequent of sinne is abolished In this sense it may bee saide that Christ deliuered some from the power of hell that is their bodies from the sepulchers where they laie turned into dust For by death and corruption the sinnefull flesh of man is till the resurrection subiected to the range of Satan hee beeing the Prince of the ayre and gouernour of darknesse and ruler of death Saint Austen doubteth whether those bodies of the saints were wholie freed from corruption or laie down againe in death after they had giuen witnesse to Christs resurrection Scio quibusdam videri morte domini Christi iam talem resurrectionem praestitaÌ„ iustis qualis nobis in fine promittitur Qui vtique si non iterum repositis corporibus dormierunt videndum est quemadmodum Christus intelligatur primogenitus a mortuis si eum in illa resurrectione tot praecesserunt I know saith Austen some thinke that at the death of the Lord Christ the same kind of resurrection was performed to the iust which is promised to vs in the ende of the worlde but if they slept not againe by laying downe their bodies we must looke howe Christ can be vnderstood to be the first borne of the dead if so many went before him in that resurrection But his reasons are of no such force as to perswade that the bodies of the saintes which rose with Christ slept
The whole curse of the law containeth infatuation of minde obduration of heart desperation damnation and what not did Paul meane that Christ was made these thinges for vs or could hee haue redéemed vs if in these things he had beene yoked with vs But that I thinke Sir Refuter you sinne of ignorance not meaning to maintaine these blasphemies and yet including them within the largenesse of your words through the weaknesse of your wit I must by the duty which I owe to God and his truth haue giuen you other termes then now I do but I had rather fatherly warne you to take heede of these â—â—ies in time least they bring the whole curse of God vpon your owne souâ—e which you would so â—ame fasten on Christs Notwithstanding your follie thus to presume without all proofe vpon the Apostles meaning besides his wordes you haue a good conceit of your self like a proper man you say I vrge then let it be noted Christ is said to be made a curse for vs and before I shewed this curse was Gods curse And againe The Scripture it selfe affirmeth hee did all that for vs therefore who dareth denie it Who either man or Angel shall presume to say nay You haue vrged it I haue noted it and so haue manie wise and good men more and will you heare what I conceiue Trulie this you haue more néede of Phisicke to cure your braines then of labour to rebate your arguments So many and those speciall reasons so proudlie proposed so weaklie performed so â—alselie concluded did I neuer reade as long as I haue liued Thou wilt thinke perchance christian Reader I speake this to disgrace the encounterer and so to preiudice his cause with thee mine heart God knoweth but if thou bee not of the same minde with mee before I ende with his speciall reasons as hee calleth them I much deceiue my selfe speciallie if thou thy selfe bee intelligent and indifferent I hope though I vaunt not as he doth there can bee no doubt but the curse of God for sinne containeth these partes which I propose to wit the externall corporall spirituall eternall plagues and punishments wherewith God pursueth the wicked that rebell against him I count it as cleare that neither the eternall nor the true spirituall curse of God couâ—d take hold on the soule of our Sauiour For as the greatest blessings that God giueth vs in this life after he hath by mercie pardoned our sinnes are the faith of his truth to direct vs the strength of his grace to assist vs the earnest of his spirite to perswade our hearts of his fatherlie clemencie to vs and to inflame vs againe with the loue of his name hope of his promises and desire of his kingdome so the greatest curse for sinne that in this life maie befall men is to haue his holie spirite taken from them with all his graces and gifts that anie waie tende to saluation and to bee giuen ouer into a reprobate sense that with blindnesse and hardnesse of heart they may runne headlong to their owne destruction With these impieties and blasphemies I trust no Christian will burthen the soule of our Sauiour and yet these are the true spirituall curses of God against sinne If then the soule of Christ were alwayes full of grace and truth and the abundance of his spirite such that wee all receiue of his fulnesse If in the perfection of his holinesse innocencie and obedience there coulde bee no defect nor anie feare or doubt in that stedfast assurance of faith hope and loue which our Sauiour alwayes retained howe could hee beeing so fullie and perpetuallie blessed of God bâ—e also trulie accursed of him The curse of God is not in wordes but in déedes Then euidentlie saint Paules meaning is and must be that Christ voluntarilie vndertaking some part of the curse due to our sinnes for the whole hee could not vndertake without reprobation and damnation not onlie discharged vs of the whole but gaue vs the blessing of God promised to Abraham And to this ende I brought the testimonies of saint Austen Chrysostome and others fullie confirming that I said to which you replie as your custome is It is vaine and senselesse to thinke that the Apostle here speaketh of two seuerall kinds of curses Indeede it is vaine and fruitlesse to reason with him that preferreth his ignorant imagination before the iudgements of all the learned and auncient fathers in Christs church but Sir your follies will sticke fast by you when their expositions shall passe with all wise men for currant and good You quarrell as your manner is with those parts of the curse which I say Christ indured For where I proposed a SHAMEFVL VVRONGFVL PAINFVL death to be that part of the curse which Christ suffered for vs you skirre at euerie one of these And of the first you say Will any man of common reason affirme that to be openly hanged on a tree was all the curse that Christ bore for vs Nothing but the shame of the world because it was an ignominious death Whether you account saint Austen and saint Chrysostome men of common reason I know not The Church this 1200. yeeres hath taken them for reuerend and learned fathers You adde It is more then absurd so to say Iudge thou Christian reader whether this Prater be well in his wits that in his â—renzie thus reprocheth not onelie the fathers of Christes church but euen the Prophets and Apostles themselues as men more then absurd and not of common reason Moses from Gods mouth threatneth such as transgresse the lawe that God will send them trouble and shame and will make them a wonder a prouerbe and a common talke among all people Esay foreshewing Christs sufferings reckoneth this not for one of the least He was despised reiected numbred among sinners we did iudge him plagued and smitten of God and turned our faces from him Dauid in the person of Christ complaining of the wrongs receiued at the time of his passion putteth this as the first and the chiefest I am as a worme and not a man a shame of men and the contempt of the people All they that see mee haue mee in derision they make a mowe and nod the heade saying he trusted in God let him deliuer him let him saue him They gape vpon mee with their mouthes Saint Paule himselfe vrgeth as much the shame as the paine of the crosse Looke to Iesus the authour and finisher of your faith who for the ioy set before him endured the crosse and despised the SHAME He endured such contradiction of sinners least you should faint in your mindes How often doth God threaten shame and confusion of face to those that fall from him How earnestly doth Dauid euery where pray against it Howe truly doth Daniel make this confession to god O Lord to vs belongeth OPEN SHAME because we haue sinned against thee the
other manner of purchases then the due paiment of mans debt Howe coulde that bee due vnto the lawe which ouerthrew the law Sinners such as we are were to die by the lawe but that the sonne of God should die for vs what lawe did or coulde require that at his handes you shall doe well therefore to leaue these â—angerous discourses and learne to saie with the scripture and fathers that loue not lawe desire not debt mercy not necessity brought the sonne of God from his throne in heauen to his crosse on earth Such was the sentence of the lawe you will saie that without death he could not redeeme vs. Naie such was his loue you should saie that euen with his death hee would redeeme vs. Cum posset nobis etiam non moriendo succurrere subuenire tamen moriendo hominibus voluit quia nos videlicet minus amasset nisi vulnera nostra susciperet nec vim suae dilectionis nobis ostenderet nisi hoc quod a nobis tolleret ad tempus ipse sustineret Passibiles quippe mortalesque nos reperit qui nos existere fecit ex nihilo reuocare etiam sine sua morte potuit à passione Sed vt quanta esset virtus Compassionis ostenderet fieri pro nobis dignatus est quod esse nos voluit vt in semetipso temporaliter mortem susciperet quam á nobis in perpetuum fugaret Christ when he might haue succoured vs without dying woulde rather helpe man by dying saieth Gregorie because he had loued vs lesse if he had not taken to himselfe our woundes neither had hee shewed vs the strength of his loue vnlesse hee had for a tyme sustayned that from which he deliuered vs. Hee founde vs miserable and mortall yet hee that made vs of nothing might haue recalled vs from our miserie without his owne death But that hee might declare howe greate the vertue of Compassion is hee vouchsafed to bee that which hee appointed vs to bee that receauing a temporall death in himselfe hee might chase it from vs for euer Those saieth Austen that aske did GOD so want meanes to deliuer men from the miserie of this mortalitie that hee woulde haue his onelie begotten sonne to bee made a mortall man and to suffer death It is not enough so to refute that wee shewe this waie to be good and agreeable to the diuine excellencie whereby God vouchsafed to deliuer vs by the Mediatour of God and man Christ Iesus verum etiam vt ostendamus NON ALIVM MODVM POSSIBILEM DEO DEFVISSE cuius potestati cuncta aequaliter sub iacent sed sanandae nostrae miseriae conuenientiorem alium modum non fuisse nec esse oportuisse but also that wee shewe God VVANTED NOT OTHER MEANES to whose power all thinges are subiect but that neither there was nor coulde bee a more conuenient way to heale our misery For what was so needefull to raise vp our hope and to free mens mindes from despairing immortalitie being alreadie deiected by the condition of their mortalitie as to make euident shewe vnto vs how much God esteemed vs and how much hee loued vs whereof what plainer or perfiter proofe could be made then that the sonne of God remaining that he was would take from vs for vs that which he was not and vouchsafe to be amongst vs and first without anie deserte of his to beare our miseries and vpon vs then beleeuing how greatly God loued vs and hoping where afore wee despaired to bestowe without all merit of ours yea when wee deserued euill at his handes the giftes of his grace with bounty no way prouoked by vs. And so Ambrose By one mans death the world was redeemed Christ might if hee woulde haue refrained from death but hee neither refused death as vnprofitable neither could he haue saued vs any better waie then by dying So that no legall necessitie much lesse Iudiciall seueritie brought Christ to his Crosse but to teach vs obedience to God by his example to demonstrato his loue to vs by refusing nothing for our sakes and to declare his owne power whose weakenesse was stronger then all his and our enemies and to strengthen our patience and giue vs comfort in all the troubles of this life he chose the paynefull and shamefull death of the Crosse and there shewed so perfitte a patterne of obedience innocence patience that the Angels themselues did admire it So farre you make Christ suertie for vs that in taking our person on him hee became by our sinne sinnefull defiled hatefull and accoursed Similitudes if you sucke nothing from them but that which is agreeable to y e truth in teaching may be tolerated in concluding they wil halt That Christ is a suerty we find it once mentioned in the scriptures but not to y e law to pay our debtes but of a better testament euen of the new couenant of grace established in his bloud wherof he is also the mediator priest Now he died for vs not as a suerty bound to y e law but as a mediator to God for vs he interposed himself of his own accord to yeeld such recompence vnto his father as hee should be pleased to accept for vs. If you wil needs vse similitudes vse rather the similitude of a mediator and Redeemer which the scriptures often call him then of a suerty therby to bind him not onely to suffer the paines of hell in our stéede but also to defile him with our sinnes and make him hatefull to God by our curse No similitudes can prooue Christ in taking our person on him to be SINNEFVLL DEFILED HATEFVL and ACCVRSED and therfore your vncleane mouth and vncleaner heart that thus speake and thinke of the sonne of God are worthier of castigation then of refutation I know you will pretend the Apostles wordes God made him sinne for vs that knewe no sinne but howsoeuer some late writers turne sinne into sinner and thence giue cause of these and the like speaches the church of God from the beginning hath warilie declined such irreuerent wordes and yet plainelie confesse the truth That God MADE HIM SINNE hath two good and approoued senses one that he made him a sacrifice for sinne and so the clenser of sinne and no waie defiled by our sinne the other that he punished our sinnes in him and vsed him as hee doth sinners They that know saith Austen the scriptures of the olde testament acknowledge this that I saie Not once but often and verie often it is found Sacrifices for sinnes are called sinnes Then him that knewe no sinne God made sinne for vs that is a sacrifice for sinne Christ was made sinne in that he was offered to abolish sinne And againe peccatum vocabatur in lege sacrificium pro peccato assidue lex hoc commemorat non semel non iterum sed saepissime Tale peccatum erat Christus Peccatum non habebat peccatum erat peccatum erat
faith and truth The Apostle giueth not here the cause why Christ is able to helpe vs in our miseries and necessities for he is able in that he is God to do what he will but hee sheweth that our high Priest is faithfull and mercifull that is willing and readie to heare vs and helpe vs in all our afflictions and troubles for so much as in his owne person hee woulde feele our temptations and infirmities that he might be the better able to helpe vs in hauing more compassion on vs. And this is that the Apostle saith in the fourth chapter of this Epistle Wee haue not an high Priest which can not bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all things or throughlie tempted alike except sinne So that his sufferinges made him the more mercifull and faithfull because he knoweth best as well our naturall infirmities as our manifolde miseries This for the sense of the Apostle nowe to the truth of your collection CHRIST SVCCOVRETH VS NOT but wherein he hath felt the same Meane you Christ is not able or not willing For you saie hee succoureth vs not To saie hee is not able is blasphemie because he is God and God I hope can succour vs in all our miseries without suffering those things which we doe To say he will not though the Apostles word bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is able is as false in it selfe and as iniurious to Christ. For then Christ will neuer helpe anie man that is sicke because hee neuer felt anie disease of bodie nor anie whose bones are broken because his were whole nor anie Martyr that burneth in fire because hee died on the crosse â— the blinde deafe dumbe lame and a thousand such like Christ will neuer heare nor helpe because he suffered not the same You speake of ghostlie temptations you will saie not of bodily afflictions Saint Paule speaketh of both and Christ had experience of both and therefore if your collection be false and absurde in the one it will neuer bee sound and assured in the other But come to your owne pitch Will Christ deliuer no man from blindnesse and hardnesse of heart because hee neuer endured either Will he not aide vs to represse the lusts of our â—lesh because he neuer was tempted with them Will he not helpe our vnbeliefe because his faith was alwayes strong Will he not saue anie from desperation because he neuer despaired Will hee not cure frenzie and furie because hee was neuer out of his wittes Neither did hee nor will hee cast out Diuels because himselfe was not possessed Is this the reason that cannot bee refuted by mans witte which euerie childe maie presentlie controlle In deede you speake truer then you are ware of if your deuise maie bee receiued For you doe not sticke to defile Christ with our sinnes to astonish and amaze all the partes and powers of his minde to torment him with Diuels and in the ende to adiudge him to the death of the soule which hath in it blindnesse and hardnesse of heart infidelitie and what not Yea it is with you of all absurdities the greatest that meere men although they bee reprobates shoulde suffer more deepely then Christ did For Gods iustice saie you shoulde bee as seuere on Christ as on anie reprobate and yet they suffer reprobation desperation damnation From hence you go to another of your holie mysteries and as if you had not done the Lord of glorie wrong enough with these irreuerent and irreligious speaches you take from him in his passion at your pleasure not only his vertues graces but euen his sense memorie vnderstanding leaue him often times when you list your selues amazed astonished and forgetfull of himselfe for feare yea so distempered disturbed distracted ouerwhelmed ALL CONFOVNDED in his whole humanity both in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body that he knew not what he said or did God grant Sir Refuter you be wel in your wits that depriue the Sauiour of the world when you will of all sense memorie vnderstanding The euangelists you wil say in expresse words affirme that Christ in the garden was astonished grieuously perplexed Haue you the skill when the scriptures saie that Christ beganne to bee astonished and perplexed to stretch y e beginning to the highest degree of all astonishment that maie light on the Reprobate in this life or the damned in the next when the holie ghost toucheth a naturall infirmity common to Christ with all the godlie in the like cases doth your coÌ„science serue you to make of that not onlie a general and total distemper but an Infernall confusion of all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie had you consulted S. Ierom hee would haue taught you an other lesson Dominus vt veritatem probaret assumpti hominis veré quidem contristatus est sed ne passio in animo eius dominaretur per propassionem caepit contristari Aliud est enim contristari aliud incipere contristari The Lorde to shew himselfe a true man was sorrowfull in verie deede not that any passion ouerswaied his minde but he began to be touched with the affection of sorrow It is one thing to be sorrowfull and an other to begin to be sorrowfull his sorrow was not for any feare to suffer since he came of purpose to suffer and reproued Peter as too feareful but for that most wretched Iudas and the weakenes of all his Apostles and the reiection of the whole nation of the Iewes and the miserable destruction of Ierusalem And if heretickes doe interpret this sorrowe of heart not for our Sauiours affection towardes them that shoulde perish but for a perturbation of minde let them answere me howe they expounde that which Ezechiel speaketh in the person of God and in all these thinges thou didst make me sorrowfull Saint Ierome saieth the wordes enforce no more then that Christ began to bee sorrowfull and perplexed and if anie man stretch them farther hee giueth him the note of an hereticke and though I refraine that worde because I hope you doe it of ignorance and not of malice yet I cannot excuse you from a dangerous errour and that in foure speciall pointes First you mistake the cause whence this feare arose secondlie you extende it farther then in trueth you shoulde thirdlie you continue it longer then with anie warrant you may and fourthlie by pretence thereof you chalenge Christes prayers in the garden not onelie with want of good memorie but with flat repugnancie to the knowne will of God which is euident sinne Concerning the first I am resolued as in the treatise before I haue specified that the cause of Christes agonie could not procéed but from his submission to the maiestie of God sitting in iudgement or from his compassion on mans miserie or from both You will haue it procéede from the intolerable horrors
and moste sufficient reasons there are why Christ neither did nor might die the death of the soule thou hast good Reader before in the Treatise it selfe if this fumbler either will skippe them or can not answere them I must not repeate them as often as hee will neglect them Yet to ease thee of going backe I will here giue thee the effect thereof The life and death of the soule is in manie hundred places learnedlie and trulie vouched and prooued by Saint Austen Mori carni tuae est amittere vitam suam mori animae tuae est amittere vitam suam Vita carnis tuae anima tua vitae animae tuae Deus tuus Quomodo moritur caro amissa anima quae vita eius est sic moritur anima amisso Deo qui vita est eius For thy bodie to die is to loose his life and for thy soule to die is to loose her life The life of thy bodie is thy soule The life of thy soule is thy God As the bodie dieth when the soule is departed which is his life so the soule dieth when God is departed which is her life And againe Quomodo ergo mortua est anima de qua viuit corpus Audi ergo disce corpus hominis creatura Dei est anima hominis creatura dei est De anima deus viuificat carnem ipsam autem animam viuificat de seipso non de seipsa Vita ergo corporis anima est vita animae Deus est moritur corpus cum recedit anima moritur ergo anima si recedit Deus Carnem iacentem sine anima vides animam miseram sine Deo videre non potes Crede ergo adhibe oculos fidei How dieth the soule then by which the bodie liueth Hearken and learne The bodie of man is the creature of God so is the soule By the soule God giueth life to the flesh but the soule her selfe God quickeneth by himselfe and not by herselfe The life of the bodie then is the soule the life of the soule is God The bodie dieth when the soule departeth ergo the soule dieth if God depart from her Thou seest the flesh lying dead without a soule and canst thou not see the soule wretched without God Beleeue then and open the eies of faith And speaking of the particular consequents to the life and death of the soule the same father saith Quomodo cum anima est in corpore praestat illi vigorem decorem mobilitatem Sic cum vita eius Deus est in ipsa praestat illi sapientiam pietatem iustitiam charitatem veniente itaque verbo audientibus infuso resurgit anima à morte sua ad vitam suam hoc est ab iniquitate ab insipientia ab impietate ad Deum suum qui est illi sapientia iustitia charitas As when the soule is in the bodie shee giueth vigour comelinesse and motion to the bodie so when God her life is in the soule he giueth her wisedome pietie righteousnesse and charitie The worde of God then sounding and infused to the hearers the soule riseth from her death to her life that is from iniquitie follie and impietie to her God who is to her wisedome righteousnesse and charitie If this were not plaine inough the Scriptures themselues are so euident that no man can mistake the life of the soule except hee will purposelie blinde himselfe least hee shoulde come to the knowledge of the truth For the sonne of God is life and comming down from heauen gaue life to the world quickning whom hee would with the waters of life that is by the spirite of life yea whosoeuer beleeueth and abideth in him hath life and beareth fruite in him For the iust shall liue by faith and he that dwelleth in loue dwelleth in God and God in him for God is loue So that not onely Christ is our life and he that hath the sonne hath life but with him and in him alwaies was and alwaies will bee the fountaine of life which neuer did nor can drie vp how then could Christ die the death of the soule whose soule was personallie vnited vnto the worde that was life in it selfe And if the grace and spirite of God in vs make vs liue by God and in God if faith and loue knitte men to the life of God howe coulde the soule of Christ alwaies full of grace and truth alwaies full of faith and loue and of the holie Ghost bee deade But this Refuter meaneth another death of the soule What his meaning is is not materiall but whether hee meane truth or no. If he wil frame vs a monster in christian religion what haue I to do with that but to detest it There is another death after this life mentioned both in scriptures and fathers which is the second death But I hope this Confuter will eate and sléepe vpon the cause before hee wrappe our Sauiour within euerlasting damnation That is a death in déed from which God blesse and saue vs all They must néedes bee good Christians that labour to bring Christes soule within the compasse of the second death Haec mortalitas est vmbra mortis vera mors est damnatio cum Diabolo Our death is here but a shadow of death the true death indeede is damnation with the diuell saith Austen And againe Quid est istamors Est relictio corporis depositio sarcinae grauis mors secunda mors aeterna mors gehennarum mors damnationis cum Diabolo ipsa est vera mors What is this death It is the leauing of the bodie and the laying downe of an heauier burthen for the second death the death that is eternall the death of hell the death of condemnation with the Diuell that is the true death Which of these two deathes of the soules you will haue the soule of Christ subiected vnto you must tell vs Sir Refuter if you will néedes haue him die the death of the soule and the choise is so good that take which you will you inâ—ur hainous and horrible blasphemie I wish you to bee better aduised then to procéede to the defence of so wilfull a frensie As for new deaths of the soule you haue no commission to inuent anie shewe what scripture or Father spake it before you or you must giue the godlie leaue to thinke you no fit founder of a newe faith S. Austen was of opinion that no Christian durst auouch that Christ died the death of the soule Nam quod Iesus anima mortificatus fuerat quis audcat dicere cum mors animae non sit nisi peccatum a quo ille omnino immunis fuit That Christ was dead in soule VVHO DARES AFFIRME IT whereas the death of the soule in this life is nothing but sinne from which hee was altogether free you not onelie auouch it but you thinke no man sober that will not consent to it
be stirred himselfe in his special and choise arguments as thou hast heard christiaÌ„ reader now drawing to an ende purposeth like a politicke captaine so to entrench himself that no force shal fetch him out of his hold And because wordes are the weapons that can endanger him he taketh the readie waie with them to turne wind them at his wil and so maketh anie thing to be euerie thing that nothing should hurt him The scriptures affirmeâ— that Christ crucified is the wisedome and power of God to all that be called and that we are reconciled to God by the death of his sonne and our sinnes redeemed and the diuel destroied by the death of Christ Iesus as also that hee suffered for vs in the flesh yea he suffered for our sinnes being put to death in the flesh And least it should hence bee collected that Christ died not y e death of the soule but rather the death of his bodie was a sufficient price for the life of the worlde the Refuter vndertaketh this place of Saint Peter that Christ was done to death in the flesh and thence will proue that the flesh comprehendeth bodie and soule and that the soule of Christ DIED and was crucified as well as the bodie Reason or authoritie besides his owne he bringeth none but out of the hinder part of his head he giueth an obseruation which if he saie the worde must needes prooue sounde and good and this it is Whensoeuer in scripture the flesh and the spirit are opposed together the flesh is alwaies Christes whole humanitie as well his soule as his bodie From whence it followeth that Christs soule also died and was crucified How proue you this note Sir Refuter had you saide that wheresoeuer the flesh of Christ liuing is spoken of there the flesh of a man endued with a humane soule is intended you had saide well for Christ was perfect man and perfect God in one and the same person but when you will stretch all the attributes of the bodie and make them common to the soule because Christ had a soule as well as a bodie it is no true obseruation deriued from the scripture but a partiall supposition intended to further your hellish sorrowes In the 26. of Matthew when Christ telleth his disciples that the spirit is readie but the flesh weake doth hee take spirit there for the godheade as if that were readie to suffer anie thing or for the soule which was willing but that the flesh was weake In the 24. of Luke when Christ saieth a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me haue had his soule flesh and bones and those to be seene as his bodie had To the Romanes when Paul saith Christ our Lord was made o the seede of Dauid according to the flesh and declared to be the sonne of God touching the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection from the deade will you conclude that Christes soule was made of the seede of Dauid and came from Dauids loines as Christes flesh did The like he repeateth in the same Epistle of the Israelites came Christ according to the flesh which is God ouer all to be blessed for euer whereâ—f your obseruation faile not Christes soule must be kinne to the Iewes as well as his flesh Whie thenâ— when Peter saith Christ was put to death according to the flesh but quickned by the spirit doe you make it so cleere a case that the worde flesh there compriseth both bodie and soule and therefore by Peters confession Christ died in soule as well as in bodie so when Paul saith Christ was crucified through infirmitie yet liueth through the power of God what leadeth you to imagine that his soule was crucified as well as his bodie who did crucifie him I praie you God or the Iewes Peter saieth to the Iewes Iesus of Nazareth a man approoued of God after you had taken with wicked hands you haue CRVCIFIED and slaine So againe the holy and iust one ye denied and killed the Lord of life And likewise By the name of Iesus whom ye haue crucified whom God raised againe from the deade doth this man heere stande whole who before was a creeple If the Iewes then crucified and killed the Lorde Iesus coulde they crucifie and kill his soule Are you so simple that you remember not the wordes of our Sauiour Feare not them which kill the bodie but are not able to kill the soule And you make it not an ouersight but a positiue point of your holie truth as you call it that Christes soule was crucified and died and consequentlie that the Iewes directlie against the wordes of Christ were able to kill and crucifie the soule of Christ. Will you saie that God crucified the soule of Christ for what will you not saie that say Christs soule was crucified died in what scripture shall wee reade that God crucified the soule as the Iewes did the bodie of Christ you woulde seeme to conclude it out of the scriptures which whensoeuer they speake of Christ crucified they note the shamefull and cruel death which the Iewes executed on him not anie thing that God did vnto him And out of that word euerie where in the scriptures referred to the Iewes to inferre that God also crucified his soule is as much madnesse as the former If you feare not the paines of hell because you are so well acquainted with them feare at least the shame of the worlde least they deride you to skorne as lacking that common vnderstanding which boies in the streetes and prentices in the shoppes haue But what if your selfe being be like amazed and as you saie of Christ all confounded in all the powers of your soule and senses of your bodie when you wrate in defence of your holie cause do contradict your selfe and call your owne assertion ABSVRD and MOST FALSE and that not ten or twelue leaues off but in the verie same place where you labour to iustifie this position and prouing and pronouncing it to be absurd and most false you presently conclude it as a principle of your newe faith well if it bee not so then I must confesse I was a sléepe when I thought you did so But if it fall out to be true which I saie I hope christian Reader thou wilt thinke my time anie waie better imploied then longer to reason with such a brainsicke babler The words of Peter are Christ hath once suffered for sinnes the iust for the vniust and was put to death in the flesh but quickned by the spirit Saint Austen writing vpon this place obserueth this for a sure rule to expounde the whole In eare quippe viuificatus est in qua fuerat mortificatus Christ was quickned in that verie part wherein hee suffered death or was put to death This rule hath in it a mightie truth that maie not be resisted For if any part of
Christ died which was not againe quickned but still left dead then that parte suffered perpetuall death which is not onelie plainelie false but openlie blasphemous Then must this stande for an vndoubted grounde that whatsoeuer part of Christ was dead the same must be quickned againe to auoid the eternall death of anie part And if anie part of Christ néeded not quickning or restoring to life it neuer died for quickning is heere the restoring of life to that which was dead and not the giuing of life to that which had none before Then if Christs soule died of force it must either be quickned againe or kept vnder eternal death but to saie that Christs soule was quickned or made aliue IS ABSVRD AND MOST FALSE Ergo to saie that Christes soule died IS ABSVRD AND MOST FALSE You will aske me howe I proue the Minor or second parte of this Argument if Saint Austen did not helpe me to proue it the Confuter will Loe Sir Refuter your own words in the very same place take care I praie you that I misrepeat them not for if I hit theÌ„ right you wil proue your selfe as verie a baby as euer suckt a bottle BOTH THESE saie you ARE ABSVRD AND MOST FALSE that Christ was made alïue either in his HVMANE SOVLE OR BY THE SAME Sée and shame if there be anie grace or sense in you that going about purposelie to prooue that Christs soule died and was crucified you set this for a preface vnto it it is ABSVRD and most FALSE that Christ was made aliue in his humane soule which without any shift or colour you do saie must saie before your conclusion can be true except you wil flie to this that Christes soule died in deede but was neuer restored to life or made aliue againe which if wee come to I must proclaime you no longer foolish but blasphemous Howbeit I hope you will rather see your follie then fall to this frensie for my part I wish you better counsell and more reading and although you tell me of errors corrupt fansies and vayne imaginations shameful questioÌ„s toyish fables fond absurd without sense or reason when I doe but repeat the iudgementes of the ancient and learned Fathers yet I will beare them at your hand and from my heart doe pittie your ignorance for I hope it bee but ignorance howsoeuer you take vpon you to controle all as fond and absurde that yeelde not to your humour For the cleering of this place of Peter wherein the Confuter hath so much ouerseene himselfe I stand not vpon the aduantage of his wordes but vpon the sounde and learned exposition of Saint Austen whose antiquitie and authoritie concurring with the truth of the scriptures doth please me I trust christian reader wil content thee Christus spiritu viuificatus est cuÌ„ in passione esset câ—rne mortificatus Quid est enim quod viuificatus est spâ—ritu nisi quod eadem Caro qua sola fuerat mortificatus viuificante spiritu resurrexit Nam quod anima fuerat mortificatus Iesus hoc est eo spiritu qui hominis est quis audeat dicere cum mors animae non sit nisi peccatum a quo ille omnino immunis fuit Certe anima Christi non solum immortalis secundum naturam caeterarum sed etiam nullo mortificata peccato vel damnatione punita est quibus duabus causis mors animae intelligi pâ—test ideo non secundum ipsam dici potuit Christus viuificatus spiritu In ea re quippe viuificatus est in qua fuerat mortificatus ergo de carne dictum est Ipsa euim reuixit anima redeunte quia ipsa erat mortua anima recedente Mâ—rtificatus ergo carne dictus est quia secunduÌ„ solam carneÌ„ mortuus est viuificatus autem spiritu quia spiritu operante etiaÌ„ ipsa caro viuificata surrexit Christ was quickned by the spirit when in his Passion he was put to death in his flesh What meaneth it that he was quickned by the spirit but that the same flesh in VVHICH ONLY HE DIED rose againe by the quickning of the spirit For that Iesus DIED IN SOVLE I meane in his humane spirit VVHO DARE AFFIRME IT where as the death of the soule is nothing in this life but sinne from which he was wholie free Surelie the soule of Christ was not onlie immortal by nature as others are but neither died by sinne nor was punished by any damnation which are the two waies how the soule maie possiblie die And therefore Christ could not bee said to bee quickned in soule by the spirite for in that part was hee quickned in which hee died Therefore it was spoken by Peter of Christs flesh That reuiued when the soule returned because that died when the soule departed Christ then is sayd to bee done to death in his flesh for that hee died ONLY IN HIS FLESH and to be quickned by the spirite because that verie flesh rose againe being quickned by the working of the spirite These learned and sound conclusions of S. Austen are derectlie repugnant to your weake and false obseruations Syr Refuter Christ died in the flesh saith Peter that is saith Austen in THE FLESH ONLY for the soule of Christ died not since the death of the soule is either sinne in this life or damnation in the next both which were farre from Christ. You tell vs that Christs soule not onlie died but was also crucified and all the proofe you bring for it besides Terence is that Peter saith Christ died in the flesh Now the flesh saie you signifieth as well the soule as the bodie and so Christ died in both but such proofes if you vse them often will prooue you to haue a great deale lesse religion and learning then you would seeme to haue What death the Scriptures affirme Christ died for vs if you bee now to séeke at these yeares it is pittie your shoulders haue beene so long troubled with your head Can there bee fuller or plainer words then those which the foure Euangelists vse in describing the death buriall and resurrection of the bodie of our Sauiour Shew but one such word in Scripture or father that Christs soule died at the time of his Passion and take the cause He layd downe his soule vnto death you will saie You should haue done well in your pamphlette at least to haue laid that downe for a shewe and not vpon your single word to haue vouched so weightie a matter as the death of Christs soule is but you must be borne with your wits are often not at home What is ment by this that Christ laid downe or yéelded his Soule vnto death S. Austen largelie disputeth in his 47 treatise vppon S. Iohns Gospell The effect is when Christ laid downe his soule vnto death his bodie died and not his soule Quid fecit Passio quid fecit mors nisi corpus ab anima separauit
Sâ— enim mortuus est dominus immo quia mortuus est Dominus mortuus est enim pro nobis in cruce sine dubio caro ipsius expirauit animam Hoc est ergo ponere animam quod est mori Cum ergo exit anima a carne et remanet caro sine anima tunc homo ponerâ— animam dicitur Carni hoc tribue caro ponit animam suam caro iterum sumit eam Caro ponit animam suam expirando Ipse Dominus Christus dictus est sola caro Audeo dicere et sola caro Christi dictus est Christus Confiteris illud quod habet fides in eum Christum te credere qui crucifixus est sepulâ—ns Ergo sepultum Christum esse non negas tamen sola caro sepulta est Ergo Christus erat etiam caro sine anima quia non est sepulta nisi caro Disce hoc etiam in Apostolicis verbis Humiliauit scmetipsum factus obediens vsque ad mortem Iam in morte SOLA CARO a Iudaeis est occisa tamen carne occisa Christus occisus est Ita cum caro animam posuit Christus animam posuit cum caro vt resurgeret animam sumpsit Christus animam sumpsit What did the Passion what did the death of Christ but separate his bodie from his soule If the Lord died for vs yea rather because indeede the Lord did die for vs for hee died for vs on the crosse doubtlesse his flesh did breath out his soule Soe that to laie downe his soule and to die is all one When the soule departeth from the flesh the flesh remaineth any soule then a man is said to lay downe his soule VnderstaÌ„d this of the flesh for the flesh laieth down her soule taketh it againeâ— the flesh laieth down her soule by breathing it forth The Lord Iesus is called his flesh alone I dare be bold to auouch it THE ONLY FLESH of Christ is called Christ. Thou confessest as it is in thy Creede that thou beleeuest in that Christ which was crucified buried Then thou acknowledgest Christ to be buried yet only his flesh was buried Therefore flesh without a soule was Christ because nothing of him but his flesh was buried Learne the selfe same in the Apostles words Christ humbled himselfe was obedient vnto Death Now in his death ONLY HIS flesh was killed of the Iewes and yet the flesh being slaine Christ was slaine So when the flesh laid downe her soule Christ laid downe his soule and when the flesh tooke her soule againe to rise Christ tooke his soule againe To men that do not wilfullie blind themselues these words are cleare enough and they haue for their warrant the full consent of Scriptures Councels Fathers for 1400 yeares without dissenting from it Christ suffered for you saith Peter leauing you an ensample that you should follow his steppes who himselfe bare our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree that we being dead to sinne should liue in righteousnes Then when Christ died to sin his body died on the tree his soul liued in righteousnes So must we do for so did he when he left vs an example how to follow his steppes Our soules must not die before we can resemble his death they must liue in righteousnes as he did Euery where saith Paul we beare about in our bodie the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life of Iesus might also be made manifest in our bodies which he thus expoundeth afterward Therefore we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is daily renewed Then in our bodies we carrie about the death of Christ who for our example died in his bodie vnto sinne that we should follow his steppes And why doubt we hereof since the same apostle doth in as plain expresse words as might be spoken testifie that Christ when we were enimies reconciled VS IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH THROVGH DEATH to make vs holy and without fault in his sight grounded and stablished in faith and not mooued awaie from the hope of the Gospell What could the hart of Paul inuent or his toong vtter more effectuall then this that Christ THROVGH DEATH IN THE BODIE OF HIS FLESH reconcileth vs to God and maketh vs holie and without fault in his sight If you can quarrell with these words Sir Refuter you maie do what you will with the Scriptures No words will bind you that take bodie for soule life for death faith for amazed feare hope for intolerable horror descending for ascending and hell for heauen What is this els but to make a confusion of all Religion and giue open defiance to the trueth by taking one contrarie for the other You do not so you will saie Leaue so doing and these Questions will soone be determined I prooue there was alwaies in Christ euidence of faith assurance of hope Ioy of loue euen in the midst of his paines on the crosse and you graunt there was not anie the least diminution in Christ of his faith patience or obedience to God neither was Christ so much as touched with anie wauering much lesse fearing in his trust and confidence of Gods loue and protection towards him How then can the horrour of Gods seuere iustice and wrath like them that indeed be separated from the grace and loue of God bee in Christ Or how can the sorrowes of the damned which are separated from the life of God bee found in Christ how could Christ suffer the same terrours of Gods wrath and assaults of the Deuill yea far greater then the godlie féele in their consciences for want of faith and feare of Gods displeasure What are these but plaine contrarieties Againe in Christ you saie was no defect of grace how then could the soule of Christ replenished with the spirite of life and liuing in all fulnes of grace and trueth bee dead can you make one and the same part of Christ both aliue and dead Soe likewise if Christ had but feared to bee vtterly forsaken with the hatred of his Father that indéed you saie were desperation which God forbid And yet you doe not doubt but Christ was as deepelie touched with the vnspeakeable horror of Gods seuere wrath due to sinne as the Reprobates themselues A number of these hogepots you haue made vs speaking of things which your selfe cannot or dare not expresse Sometimes you would faine affirme it in generall words and when you come to particulars you renounce it againe In the verie case that gaue vs occasion of this rehearsall when the Apostle saith we are reconciled to God by the death of his sonne and explaining himselfe saith the death that reconciled vs to God was the death which Christ suffered in the bodie of his flesh Is it not as cleare as daie light that the bodilie death of Christ which he suffered on the crosse is by
For that which fell that rose againe that which fell not needed not rise Hee rose then according to the flesh which being dead did rise againe Ergo also he died in our nature which he tooke vnto him and suffered in the body which he tooke that we might beleeue he tooke a true bodie To the vnbeleeuer asking Shall I beleeue God in flesh God borne of a woman God crucified whipped dead wounded buried Austen answereth thy God remaineth vnchangeable feare not he perisheth not Christ was borne of a woman but in his flâ—sh Hee was an infant but in his flesh Hee sucked increased was nourished and grewe in age but in his flesh Wearied he slept but in his flesh Hee hungred and thirsted but in his flesh He was taken bound whipped mocked yea he was CRVCIFIED AND KILLED BVT IN HIS FLESH Why art thou afraid The word which was God remaineth for euer He that despiseth this humblenes of God wil neuer be cured from the deadly swelling of pride The Lord Iesus therefore by his flesh gaue hope to our flesh To be borne and to die were here on earth common to liue for euer was not here Christ found here our earthlie wares which were vilde and brought with him his heauenlie which were strange If thou feare his death loue his resurrection He came to the place of our pilgrimage to take that which aboundeth here eueÌ„ mocks whippes blowes spittings in his face reproches hanging the crosse and death These things abound in our region to this entertainment hee came What hath he giuen thee here Instruction exhortation and remission of sinnes What hath he promised thee O mortall man that thou shalt liue for euer Doest thou not beleeue it Beleeue it I say beleeue it It is more that he hath alreadie done then that hee hath promised It is more incredible that the eternall died then that the mortall shall liue for euer If God died for man shall not man liue with God But can God die Hee tooke from thee wherein to die for thee THERE COVLD NOT DIE BVT FLESH THERE COVLD NOT DIE BVT A MORTALL BODIE Hee clothed himselfe with that wherein hee might die for thee hee will clothe thee wherin thou shalt liue with him In that part Christ died in which thou shalt die in that part Christ rose in which thou shalt rise Thou wilt pardon mee Christian Reader if among so much lothsome stuffe of reprobate horrors damned paines and hellish torments as this Confuter hath heaped together I solace my selfe sometimes with the longer comfort of sounde and sweete doctrine so sincerelie and sensiblie deliuered by the learned and auncient Fathers I will alledge one place more wherein thou shalt see the full consent of prouinciall and generall Councels not to bee gainesaide by anie man that will beare the name of a Christian and so shutte vp this point Cyrill writing to Nestorius to stay and suppresse that false doctrine which hee beganne then to spreade teacheth vs verie plainelie howe the sonne of God is saide in the Scriptures to SVFFER DIE AND RISE AGAINE for vs and our saluation So wee saie the sonne of God suffered and rose againe not that the sonne of GOD suffered in his owne nature either the stripes or the boaring of the nailes or the rest of the woundes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deitie coulde not suffer by reason it is no bodilie substance but because THAT BODIE which hee made his owne suffered these things himselfe is saide to suffer these things for vs. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that coulde not suffer was then in his bodie which suffered After the same manner wee thinke of his dying The sonne of God is by nature immortall incorruptible life and the giuer of life but because the bodie which was his owne tasted death for all by the fauour of God as Paule speaketh hee himselfe is saide to haue suffered death for vs not that hee had experience of death as touching his owne nature it were a madnesse so to thinke or say but for that as I saide euen nowe his flesh tasted death So his flesh rising againe it is called his Resurrection not that hee fell to corruption God forbidde but that his bodie rose againe When this stayed not the frenzie of Nestorius the heretike but that hee replied in swelling woordes Cyrill called a Councell at Alexandria and there with one consent they approoued the trueth and sent it vnto Nestorius to bee confessed in these woordes amongst others If anie man doe not confesse that the Sonne of GOD suffered in his fleshe was crucified in his flesh and tasted death in his flesh let him bee accursed Dilating this and the rest of their Articles in their Synodall Epistle sent to Nestorius they saie Wee confesse that the onelie begotten God euen the sonne borne of God his father though hee were impassible in his owne nature yet suffered hee in his flesh for vs according to the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was in his bodie that was crucified accounting the sufferings of his owne flesh as proper vnto him though he were without suffering and by the grace of God tasted death for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he gaue his owne bodie vnto death This doctrine came to bee scanned in the third generall Councell helde at Ephesus and being there deliberatelie read was woâ—de for worde allowed of the whole Councell as agréeable to the Scriptures and the Nicene fathers The like approbation it had not onelie in the Councell of Constantinople vnder Fluuianus but in the great councell of Chalcedon where the proceedings of both these Councels were a fresh examined and the former woordes of Cyrill repeaâ—ed and confirmed with the ful consent of that general Councel as most â—ound and catholike So that he shall ill deserue the name of a christian that after so manie fathers and Councels both Prouinciall and Generall will begin to teach vs a new faith and tell vs that the Scriptures meane Christ was crucified and died as wel in his soule as in his bodie since the whole Church with one assent hath euer so conceiued and expounded the Scriptures that Christes crucifying and dying must bee referred to his bodie and consequentlie that the ioynt sufferings of Christ the soule feeling what the bodie suffered were most auailable for our redemption For when they ascribe the crucifying and death of Christ to his bodie they doe not exclude the soule from the sense and feeling of the paine which is a naturall consequent to the coniunction with her bodie but they shew what part of Christs manhoode suffered the crosse and death that the Scriptures so much speake of and whereby wee are redeemed and reconciled vnto GOD. One place repeated in the Councell of Ephesus maie serue in steede of manie to declare their meaning Howe can the Creator of all thnges who is neither visible palpable nor mutable sustaine the Crosse
and death Wee saie the sonne of God sustained the Crosse and death in his owne flesh that hee might deliuer vs from death and corruption Hee laide downe his soule for vs not as an alien and straunger to the sonne of God but vnspeakeablie vnited vnto him as himselfe saith I haue power to lay downe my soule and I haue power to take it againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is proper to the soule to bee pensiue to feele paine and griefe to depart from the bodie as it is proper to the flesh to be wearied to be crucified to be raised againe So the violence was offered to the bodie the sense whereof reached vnto the soule and these are the sufferings of the crosse and of death which the Scriptures attribute to the sonne of God for our saluation Insomuch that your long discourse of the proper and immediate suffering of Christes soule for sinne without and besides the bodie maie be hanged on the hedge as discording both from the scriptures and all the Catholike fathers that either haue priuatelie testified the truth by their writings or publiklie confirmed it by their assemblies And as for your hellish paines when your selfe can tell what they are and make some better proofe then yet you haue done that they were or might be in the soule of Christ you shal receiue further answere These are the Refuters exquisite arguments which he calleth his speciall reasons being indeede rather so manie monsters in Christian Religion then matters to perswade anie man were he neuer so simple and but that a straunge faith muste needes haue such straunge groundes as these bee I shoulde thinke hee did rather expose this conceyte of Hell paines to bee derided of the worlde then to bee beleeued hee euerie where so secondeth his badde cause with woorse proofes but where better foode wanteth Akornes are good meate and blacke Moores maie bee beautifull when others bee awaie I woulde heere make an ende of his first parte but that as his manner is when hee hath stumbled absurdlie a long while at hell hee steppeth on the suddaine as vnhandsomelie to heauen Knowe therefore saieth hee hell as we take it is euen in this life founde sometime as heauen is likewise for as touching materiall fire in hell what a toyish fable is that else I praie you how may the soules of the damned suffer by materiall fier seeing they are spirits and therefore with them and fier materiall there can be no communiâ—n But let it bee as it may be the locall hell of the damned we speake not of You slacke your hell paines Sir Resuter towardes the ende as if all this while you had beene too hot in them and heere you giue thrée qualifications to them or rather contradictions to your former spéeches Hell as you take it is SOMETIMES found in this life But two leaues before you tolde vs the paines and sufferings of Gods wrath which are the hell that you saie Christ suffered ALVVAIES accompanie them that are separated from the grace loue of God how commeth ALVVAIES to bee so quicklie changed into SOMTIMES were there fewer wicked when you spake the last wordes then when you spake the first or are you better aduised remembring what a grosse absurditie it woulde bee to cast all infidels and hypocrits wicked and disobedient persons into hel torments all the time of this life before the iudgment of God taketh hold of them Secondlie as there is heauen euen in this life in some measure euen so saie you there may be hell You doe not meane that here on earth are the verie same ioies and blisse that are in heauen nor anie way equall to them if you did it were a lewder absurditie then the former For here we reioice that our names are written in heauen as the Apostle teacheth vs to doe wee reioice vnder the hope of the glorie of God Now hope that is seene is not hope For howe can a man hope for that which hee seeth or possesseth but when we hope for that we see not we doe with patience abide for it In this life wee walke by faith not by sight and whiles we dwell in the bodie we are absent from the Lord. For though we be now the sonnes of God it appeareth not as yet what we shal be our life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall wee also appeare with him in glorie If you therefore affirme of heauen as you do of hell that the VERIE SAME ioies which are in heauen or EQVALL with them are here sometime found on earth it is a wicked errour flatlie repugning to the trueth of Gods promises and to the verie nature of our Christian faith and hope For faith is the grounde of thinges hoped for and the euidence of thinges not yet appearing but if you meane that as wee conceaue HOPE of heauenlie blisse so wee must néedes REIOYCE in it this position is verie true but plainelie opposite to your imagination of hell paines For then must there in this life bee no more felte of hell but the FEARE thereof and the griefe arising from that feare euen as the HOPE of heauen maintaineth our ioye Nowe in Christ coulde neither the feare of hell possiblie bee founde nor anie griefe or sorrowe arising from anie such feare since there was in his soule no wante of faith nor hope no not anie the least diminution of either as your selfe confesse but as the Apostle saieth FOR THE IOY THAT VVAS SET BEFORE HIM he endured the paine of the crosse and despised the shame And here you may see by your owne comparison the follie of your owne assertion For if your hellish sorrow be the only true and perfectly accepted sacrifice to God as you saie and without faith it is impossible to please God which alwaies hath hope and consequentlie the ioie of saluation annexed vnto it which you call heauen then can no man please God or offer anie sacrifice to God till hee bee both in hell and heauen at one and the same time and the ioyes of heauen are so coupled with the paines of hell that none of the faithfull can be in the one without the other but in both togither And thus haue you brought heauen and hell not onelie to bee euerie where but by your corrupt conceites to bee alwaies linked together Lastlie â—he fire of hell doeth somewhat trouble you and therefore you labour vtterly to quench it and aske what a toyish fable is that but good Sir if you would bring no more fables then I doe you might haue spared not euerie leafe but euerie line in this your vnaduised pamphlet I spake not in my sermon one word either of materiall or corporall fire in hell but I vrged the fire of hel to be a true created fire and not any metaphoricall flame as you here dreame from which since the bodie
and soule of Christ were both free he did not suffer the true paines of hell nor the same torments which the damned do in hell and which wee should haue suffered had wee not béene redéemed This you saie is great iniquity yea plaine sophistry to amplifie against you and to make your most holie truth odious with the people onely by the ambiguitie of the worde hell Begin you nowe to finde the sensible absurditie of your mishapen fancie if you woulde haue taken the name of hell metaphoricallie for great and excéeding paines this question had béene sooner calmed and our Creede freed from your newe found exposition But to father your opinion vpon the créed with more likelihood where the word hell is properlie taken though you now hatch vs a new signification of hell out of Socrates you then vrged as your selfe in this present confutation do still vrge that Christ must haue the FVL VVAIGHT AND BVRDEN of our sinnes laid vpon him and suffer those sorrowes and paines for sinne VVHICH ELSE VVE SHOVLDE that his price VVAS THE SAME which else wee shoulde haue payde that seeing it was possible for him to feele THE FVLL SMART of our sinnes yea ALL OVR SMART and Gods strict iustice so required IT VVAS SO AND MVST BE SO as also that it is not proportionable with iustice that an easier punishment should satisfie for a greater sinne and of al absurdities the greatest that meere men shoulde suffer more deepelie then Christ did and therefore Christ sustained euen the sense of Gods wrath DVE to our sinnes and had the VVHOLE CVRSE of God for sinne executed on him that is the DEATH OF THE SOVLE and the TORMENTES and sorrowes DVE TO THE DAMNED Without anie Sophistrie Sir what is the FVLL BVRDEN of our sinnes and THE SAME PRICE which we should haue paide what is OVR FVLL SMART yea ALL OVR SMART and the VVHOLE CVRSE OF GOD what is the DEATH of the soule and the TORMENTS DVE TO THE DAMNED but those verie things which I by the warrant of Gods word told the people were prepared and threatned to the wicked and shall bee executed on them in hell as they shoulde haue bin on vs if we had not bin redéemed by the bloud of Christ you must recall all your reasons and vnsaie all these positions before you can auoid that which I obiect If Christ did and must by Gods iustice suffer the VVHOLE the SAME and ALL that was due to vs for our sinnes shewe me good Sir I praie you for I confesse it passeth my reach how you can free him from the darknes destruction reprobation malediction worme or fire of hel yea those words if you looke not well to them and rebate them in time with some fresh write they wil carrie with them both the PLACE and PERPETVITY of hell for both these were DVE to our sinnes and are parts of Gods CVRSE and should haue béene executed on vs as they shall bee on the damned and out of ALL the VVHOLE and the SAME how can you except anie but by an open Vray dire of dotage The local hel of the damned you speake not of Speake of what you will so long as your assertions in full and plaine termes inferre and conclude so much well your words may runne without your wits but I tell you trulie what is the consequent of them and leaue those wordes and then your most holie trueth is left naked without shew or shadow of proofe For these generals the VVHOLE the SAME and ALL giue life such as it is to your childish reasons Without them you cannot open your mouthe to make one conclusion But because hell fire so much crosseth your cause that you would faine be rid of it and burneth your fingers so fast Sir Refuter that you striue to cast water on it giue mee leaue a little to let you vnderstand it flameth more fiercelie then that you can quench it with the licour of your mouth And the rather for that in the eares of all men it is a most sensible reproofe of your vnsauorie position For if Christ suffered not the fire of hell in bodie nor soule then most apparantlie he suffered not the FVLL burden of our sinnes nor paid the SAME price which wee should haue paide nor endured ALL our smart nor felt the VVHOLE curse of God nor sustained the tormentes DVE to the DAMNED and therefore the true kindeling of this fire is the vtter quenching of your new deuised hell paines Knowe you therefore Sir Refuter that your metaphoricall fire in hell is a phantasticall errour of yours and you shall doe well to tremble at the terrible iudgement of God threatned in his worde with more religion then to cast off that fire as a toyish fable I shall not néede to rehearse how often it is denounced in the Scriptures and in what vehement and constant manner let vs learne rather carefullie to shunne the place then cunninglie to shift the word which they shall finde to bee no figure that feele it A fire saith God himselfe is kindled in my wrath and shall burne to the bottome of hell it shall eate through the earth and the depth thereof and shal inflame the foundations of the hils Behold saith Esay the Lord wil come with fire that he may recompence his anger with wrath and his indignation with the flame of fire for the Lorde shall iudge with fire The slaine of the Lorde shall bee manie their Worme shall not die neither shal their fire be quenched Which wordes our Sauiour directlie reffereth to hell It is better to enter into life haulting then hauing two legs to bee cast into hell into the fire that neuer shall bee quenched where their Worme dieth not and the fire neuer goeth out If wee sinne willinglie saieth the Apostle to the Hebrues there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearefull expectation of iudgement and raging fire which shal deuoure the aduersaries As Sodome and Gomorra and the cities about them are set forth for an ensample and suffer the vengeance of eternall fire The fearefull and vnbeleeuing the abhominable and murtherers and whoremongers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all lyars shal haue their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death To whome the Iudge shall saie when they shall see the truth thereof before their eies Depart from mee ye cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Diuell and his angels For the Lord Iesus shall shewe himselfe from heauen with the Angels of his power in flaming fire rendering vengeāce to them which know not God and obey not the Gospell That the fire with which Christ shall appeare to iudge shall bee corporall and visible to all mens sights can bee no question it shall dissolue the heauens melt the elements and burne vp the earth with the workes that are therein as Peter
become an ale-house where no maÌ„ should heare you but in the face of the world to bray after this sort is tolerable in no man but in you that neither know what you say nor see what you should prooue nor vnderstaÌ„d what maketh with you or against you You no sooner reade in any maÌ„ new or olde mention of Gods wrath or of death but you straight fansy that he meaneth your hel paines the death of the soule and so you play with the homilies allowed by the lawes of this Realme Where because you find that Christ interposed himselfe betweene the wrath of God vs to auert it from vs you forthwith resolue the Homilies teach your doctrine But awake Sir Refuter and you shall sée great difference betwixt the doctrine taught in the booke of Homilies and publikely approoued by the lawes of this Realme your frenzies that Christ DIED the DEATH of the SOVLE that the VVHOLE CVRSE of God was executed on Christ that he was by our sins defiled sinful hateful accursed that al the powers of his soule senses of his body were ouerwhelmed distracted and all confounded that he felt the verie Diuels to be instruments executing the wrath of God vpon him that the sufferings of Christs soule by Sympathie as you call it that is from and by the body make not to our redemption that Christs soule died and was crucified where it is absurd and most false to say Christ was made aliue ether in his humane soule or by the same these and an hundred such absurdities and impieties haue no allowance in the bookes of Homilies nor any thing sounding towards your hellish paines of the damned The doctrine there taught is sound true and plaine that we are redeemed by the death and bloud of Christ Iesus that such was the iust displeasure of God against our sinnes that though he were his owne son that vndertooke the cause for vs the iustice of God pursued him with most painfull smart and anguish euen vnto death and forced the weaknesse of his humane flesh to crie my God my God why hast thou forsaken mee But you content not your selfe with this you must haue him suffer the verie paines of the damned in Hell or nothing His bodilie death were it neuer soe paynefull and sharpe you make light account of the theeues crucified with Christ suffered you say as great bodily violence as he did yea wicked vngodly men indure with boldnes great ioy far more exquisite barbarous tormeÌ„ts sharper tortures as touching the body then Christ could endure and therefore in plaine words you saie such follie in the sonne of God bee it farre from yâ—u once to imagine as that he should stagger shrink or faile for any corporal tormentes whatsoeuer forgetting what Ambrose writeth Neque enim habent fortitu linis laudem qui stuporem magis vulnerum tulerunt quaÌ„ dolorem it can haue no praise of fortitude to be desperately confirmed rather then patientlie subiected vnto paine of torments And what AusteÌ„ confesseth Nihil erat tunc IN CARNE INTOLERABILIVS there was nothing more intolerable in the flâ—sh then the crosse of Christ as likewise what Bernarde resolueth Nec aliquo modo dubitandum quin infirmitatem exterminationem corporis incomparabilem sustinuerit it must not be doubted but Christ suffered incomparable weakenes and torment of body For this if you did striue it were to be tolerated for that which no father euer testified nor scripture euer affirmed when you shew your selfe so eager you bewray your humor you benefit not your cause Thou hast heard christian Reader what things I haue misliked in the first part of this opponents pamphlet but nothing more then this that he wasteth so manie wordes and neither expresseth what hee meaneth nor proueth what hee pretendeth All that he hath saide is this in effect Christ suffered in soule the wrath and curse of God foâ— our sinne or due to sinne but these are so generall termes that in parte they bee true in parte they bee false and therefore hee that walketh in these cloudes and descendeth not to particulars meaneth to hide his heade vnder the Couert of these generalities when neede is and out of these to fashion to himselfe such assertions as please best his humour The waâ—e to come by a trueth is to specifie the partes of Gods wrath and curse which they suppose Christ suffered and then shall wee in fewe wordes trie whether those sufferings accord with the rules and groundes of the scriptures or no. And this I foretell because if hee or anie other for him bee disposed to reuiue his cause hee must not bring a sacke full of words for so waightie matters but plainlie and particularlie declaring what he holdeth and proouing what he affirmeth go directly to the point and then by Gods grace we shall soone trie where trueth standeth But if anie man will draw the grounde of our redemption to generall and ambiguous termes which shall still increase contention to noe purpose I meane not to repell words with words till they answere these proofes I will not trouble my selfe with their emptie phrases In the second Question of Christs descent to hell I shall not hold thee long gentle reader because this babler forgetting what I sayd concerning the proofe and purpose of Christs descent to hell runneth a new course to Pagans and Poets for help to expound that article of our Creede and there presumeth himselfe to be so strong that of the rest he doth prate without reason or remembrance The end of Christs descent to hell I noted out of Athanasius Fulgentius and others and prooued their speach conformable to the Scriptures the places thou hast in the latter part of the treatise I meane not to increase this close with néedlesse repetitions The CoÌ„futer belike distracted and distempered with the cogitation and confusion of his hell paines vtterly mistaketh or forgetteth the whole He supposeth Christs descent to hell had none other purpose but to triumph and insult vpon the thrice miserable and wofull wretches in their present vnspeakeable damnation infinitely confounded alreadie inferreth Sure a verie sorie triumph this were for the sonne of God which euen among men were nothing but dishonorable but if his braines be so briâ—kle that he can neither conceaue nor carrie awaie what I sayd I must not beate it into his head that I then preached is here now printed let him refell it if hee can Soe when I made the subduing of hell and treading on Satan with all the power of darknesse a chiefe part of the glorie of Chrits resurrection this scorner in his foolish conceite mocketh at it and saith a worthie priuiledge surelie and verie honorable All men would thinke it a greater honour neuer to haue come in hell at all For his actuall triumphing in hell all the world knoweth is the most inglorious and vilest debasing In sadnes Syr refuter if
light and daâ—kenes truth falshood wil any wise man entertaine your poetical furies The Gentiles you will sate tooke HADES for the worlds of the deade the worlde of soules departed generallie and indefinitelie were they in hell or in heauen and this is no error you think against the faith But this is an open falshood coÌ„mitted against your owne classicall writers and if your cunning in the greeke Poets bee no profounder the boies in Grammer schooles will deride it I praie you sir by your Greeke Poets Homer Hesiode and others what is HADES originallie the name of a person or of a place I aske you none other question but that which euerie childe acquainted with your Poets canne readilie tell which your maisters of the Gréeke tongue Plutarch and Plato confesse which euerie speech that you or your Instructor bringeth out of his Poets doth confirme And here christian Reader I must praie thy patience and pardon if I turne from the scriptures and fathers to the Poets and their fables I haue no desire to it nor delight in it but such is the insolence of these men grounded vpon ignoraÌ„ce that it may not bee endured and without some entering into these matters it will not bee displaied I will saie no more then I must néedes and omit what is not materiall Homer the first and eldest of your classicall writers imagineth that the thrée sonnes of Saturnus whom hee supposeth to bee Gods deuided the gouernement of the whole worlde betwéene them Iupiter taking the skie and the aire Neptune the water with her déepes and riuers and Pluto the heart of the earth with all the dead of what sort soeuer This thirde sonne of Saturne and owner of the deade is hee that Homer and all the Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HADES his name being diuerslie declined and inflected to serue their verse but still the same person Homer in the 15. of his Iliades maketh Neptune thus to speake We are three brethren the sonnes of Saturne by Rhea Iupiter and I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third is HADES the ruler of those y t lie dead in the earth The whole was deuided into three parts my lot was to dwell alwaies in the sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and HADES lot was to haue the darke mist and to Iupiter fell by lot the large heauen with the skie and clowdes This HADES or God of the deade Homer calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the god vnder the earth and giueth him in the same booke these properties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HADES implacable fierce for that cause of all y e gods the most odious to men Hesiode agréeth with Homer that Rhea companying with Saturne brought him notable children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euen mightie HADES that dwelleth in housen vnder the earth and hath a cruell and mercilesse heart The same Hades he maketh the gouernour of the deade as Homer doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HADES was afraid that is ruler of the deade vnder the earth This is that hades which you so much talke of to whose house your Poets make all the dead iust vniust good and bad to come and therefore the most of your authorities out of the Greeke Poets and others haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnderstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shewe that the deade go or come to HADES HOVSE or dwelling The rest of your classicall writers and masters of the Gréeke tongue both Plato and Plutarch alleadge and approue this fable of Homer Plato in his dialogue of rhetorick called Gorgias maketh Socrates thus to saie Heare then a very excellent tale which you will thinke a fable but I a good lesson That which I will saie I will speake to you for a trueth As Homer reporteth Iupiter Neptune and Pluto deuided the gouernement after they receaued it of their father There was a lawe touching men vnder Saturnus and euer was and still is with the gods that such men as led a iust and holie life when they departed hence shoulde goe to the Iles of the blessed and there liue in all happinesse without any euill and they that had beene wicked and vngodlie should goe to the prison of punishment and vengeance which is called Tartarus The iudges of these matters in Saturnes time and in the beginning of Iupiters raigne were the liuing of such as yet liued and gaue iudgement the same daie that each man should die wherefore their iudgement was corrupt PLVTO theÌ„ and the Gardians of the blessed Ilands going to Iupiter tolde him that there came vnto them men to either place vnmeete for that condition To whome Iupiter aunswered I will see it redressed The iudgementes are therefore now amisse because they that are iudged are couered round for they are iudged aliue and so many that haue wicked soules are compassed with beauty nobility riches and manie come to the place of iudgement depose they liued honestlie and so the iudges are astonished as also the iudges theÌ„selues are clogged hauing their soules wrapped with their eies and eares and the rest of their bodie First therfore men must be kept from foreseeing the time of their death TheÌ„ they must be iudged wheÌ„ they are naked from all these thinges that is after death and the Iudge likewise must be deade also that he may be free froÌ„ these lets and wiâ—h his soule he must view the soule of euery man newly dead forsaken of all his kind stripped of al worldly pompe that the iudgement may be sincere And I foreseeing this before you haue appointed Iudges two of my sons Minos Rhadamanthus out of Asia and a third which is Aeacus out of Europe These when they are dead shall iudge in an open meade in the meeting of three waies whereof two shall leade one to the Iles of the blessed another to Tartarus The soules of Asia shall be iudged by RhadamaÌ„thus those of Europe by Aeacus to Minos will I giue the prerogatiue to decide y e doubts that shall arise in either place y t the iudgmeÌ„t may be very eueÌ„ which shal send soules to their places This is that wich I haue heard beleeue to be true by their speeches am perswaded there is some such thing Thus far Plutarch citeth out of Plato y e iudges places for the dead al this within Plutoes kingdom vnder y e earth which they call HADES where as well the places pleasures for the good as the prisons punishmentes for the bad are in their conceit prepared sètled And this if you doubt read either Vlisses descent to HADES described by Homer in the 11. book of his Odisseas or Aeneas iourney to hel set forth by Virgil in the sixt booke of his Aeneidos or Dyonisius voiage to see Euripides expressed by Aristophanes as also the like aduentures of Hercules
be these wicked fancies either to the Créede or to Christian Religion Séeing therefore your Gréeke Poets with one consent make HADES to be a god below vnder the earth and put vnder his power as well the Elisian fields and seates for the iust soules as the prisons and dungeons for the vniust and this fantasticall conceite of Socrates touching a speciall place for himselfe and such Philosophers as hee was together with Swannes beasts trees flowers fruites as it was singular and secret to himselfe so it was most absurd and wicked you may by no meanes bring your Classicall writers that were Pagans to expounde the Créede much lesse must you binde the holy Ghost in the new Testament to vse the word HADES as the infidels did since the holy Ghost onely knoweth and speaketh trueth and their imaginations of the dead or as you speake of the world of soules was not onely false and foolish but impious and blasphemous And yet if you doe admit them to bée interpreters of the Créede which I vtterlie refuse for the causes I haue tolde you they make directly against you For HADES with them was the Ruler or place of soules that were beneath vnder the earth were they in rest or in paine and that Christian Religion will assure you must néedes be hell howsoeuer to beare out your broken matter you beginne halfe to doubt where hell is The authenticke authors of the Greeke tongue vsed hades for the place of the blessed soules you say and not properlie for hell So Leonidas cheered vp his men not to feare such a blessed death to suppe in hell had beene a colde comfort vnto them You reade nothing your selfe belike that you hit nothing right In Plutarch whome you alleage this is no comfort giuen by Leonidas but hée séeing the Persians now in sight as his men were dining and in number so infinite aboue his who were but an handfull willeth them to make short and saith So dine as men that must suppe in HADES that is care not for meate since death is so neere but prepare to fight for your Countrey It sheweth a resolution to dye but no consolation after death more than they knew before which was that in HADES were places as well for the good to rest as for the bad to bée punished but both were below vnder earth and in Plutoes kingdome as the Gentiles supposed Neither did Homer meane to make a new heauen for such as Achilles slue but to send them to the place where hée thought all soules did abide and therefore hée put Achilles soule in Plutoes region vnder the earth as well as the rest of the Grecians and Troians that died in that Battaile And because your Proctor will néedes haue the words that Achilles spirite spake to Vlisses at his descent to hell to bee a dictionarie for hades what place it is against which if the Creede had gone it had been a skoffe to all Hellas and had hindered all the proceeding of the Gospell Let vs sée whether his owne dictionarie will not returne all his allegations vppon his owne head If HADES in the Créede must bee the same place where Achilles spirite was whither Vlisses descended and where he saw and spake with so many Ghostes then apparantly HADES must bée the Poets HELL At Vlisses entrance Homer telling how the soules came about him saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soules flocked together out of Erebus now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very place where the Poets place Cerberus and whence the same Poet saith Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was sent to fetch from Erebus the dogge of HATEFVLL HADES Againe Vlisses mother asking him how hee came to that place saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sonne how camest thou vnder this darke mist Of Aiax Ghost who would not for anger speake to Vlisses Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee went away to other soules in Erebus There Vlisses saith hée saw Sisyphus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suffering grieuous torments as also Titius and Tantalus to endure the like There he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hercules strength a Ghost for hee himselfe was in ioye with the immortall Gods There Achilles spirite tooke so small comfort that when Vlisses said There is none happier then thou Achilles before whiles thou liuedst wee honoured thee as a God and now art thou a great commaunder among the Dead bee not therefore so fadde hée replied Praise not death to mee Vlisses I had rather serue any poore man on earth as his drudge though hee were scant able to liue then to raigne here ouer all the dead If the place bee darke and déepe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Cerberus bée there which the Poets make the very kéeper of hell if there bée grieuous and cruell punishmentes for such as deserue them if the best haue there so little ioye of the place as Homer maketh Achilles ghost here to confesse what place can this bée but that hell which all the Poets acknowledge though in some part thereof there hée worse punishmentes then in other This is not that Tartarus you will saye which the Poets make the â—ayle and Prison for the wicked What is that to the purpose if some punishmentes in hell bée worse than other Looke to those whome the Poets place without the dungeon and sée whether they bée in heauen or no And because you and your friends talke so much of the worlde of Soules and of heauen to bée found in HADES and INFERI and your selfe bring Virgill as one of your Classicall authors to proue this matter Who though hee were a Poet and fayned many things yet hee spake you say familiarlie and after the vulgar vse and for the substance of the matter vttered touching heauen and hell the opinion of the worlde then I must pray the Readers leaue and patience whiles I follow you in your owne fantasticall deuise though against mine owne liking to let the simple sée what your world of soules and your heauen is euen in those very writers which you produce for this purpose and whether they bée fitte things to bée Presidents for the Créede or no. In Plutoes kingdome vnder earth whether Aeneas went to sée his Father Anchises Virgil your authenticke author maketh besides Tartarus and your goodly Elisian fields the eternall habitation as you call it of the blessed many lodgings As first for sicknes care weeping pouertie labour warres discord dreames and death besides for Centaures Briareus Hidra Chimera Gorgon Harpies and Gerion and sundrie other monsters There wander the Ghosts whose bodies are not buried a hundred yeare before they can get ouer the foule and silthie riuer of Styx The other side of Styx is kept by Cerberus the Dogge with thrée heads where first are placed the soules of infants weeping and crying then such as were vniustly condemned to death
backe your HADES from the Créede howsoeuer your Hellas will take pepper in the nose to sée her follies refused Cicero is your last authenticke writer that you bring to proue Inferi to bée heauen out of whom you note thrée things First that he vtterlie misliked the opinion of the olde Latines that thought the world of the dead was vnder the earth and therefore gaue this terme INFERI to signifie the same this hee openly misliketh that the damned soules were beneath in the earth or at least in such kinde of torments as many did imagine How much more did he condemne them that thought all the deceased soules were beneath vnder or in the earth The blessed hee thought rather as Plato did to ascend vp to heauen Secondly you note That although hee reiected the opinion of the former Latines yet hee retayned the Latine phrase as being now common and familiar euery where which rose of olde from that opinion thinking all the dead after this life to be infra beneath He had learned to thinke wiselier but yet he spake so as the vulgar phrase had preuailed according to Aristotles rule we must thinke as the wise doe but speake as the people doe Thirdly Tullie saith of this opinion followed great errors If a man would hire you to speake against your selfe you cannot doe it in playner manner than here you doe You confesse that Cicero was the first for before him you bring none that misliked the opinion of the olde Latines whose seate and tongue in Italie was then 1200. yeares olde that the world of the dead was vnder the earth and to signifie so much they vsed the worde Inferi which had continued in the mouthes of all men learned and vnlearned till Ciceroes time to expresse the state of the dead Secondly you say the phrase was so common and familiar euery where for the worlde of the dead that Cicero himselfe though hee thought otherwise durst not depart from the vulgare phrase which had so generally preuayled Then by your owne confession wée haue thus much that Inferi for twelue hundred yeares in the mouthes of all men ignorant and learned among the Latines and Romanes did signifie the state of such soules as were vnder the earth Now let Cicero say what he can to the contrarie his authoritie is no waie so great that it should ouerwaigh so long and setled a consent Great errors followed hereof Tullie saith And you affirme the like but not so great as Tullie himselfe mayntayned in reiecting that opinion For he in some pride of his tongue and conceite of his wit brought heauen and hell to be vtterly nothing That the old Latines thought all men after death to go vnder the earth I sée no proofe I find rather the contrarie confessed by your owne author He alleageth out of Ennius Romulus in caelo cum dijs agit aeuum vt fama assentiens dixit Ennius Romulus leadeth his life in heauen with the Gods as Ennius approuing the fame writeth And againe Abijt ad Deos Hercules Vetera iam ista religione omnium consecrata Hercules is gone to the Gods These things are ancient and sealed with the religious consent of all men So that Ciceroes words which you alleage cannot import that they thought so of all men for then they must so haue thought of Romulus and Hercules which Cicero confesseth all men acknowledge to be in heauen but they supposed so of most men which amongst Pagans as they were was no such great error as you would make it nor any way so great as that which Cicero laboured to establish in place thereof For he through the insolencie of his opinion of himselfe or inconstancie of his disposition or both would somtimes haue an Inferi or hell below and sometimes he would haue none Examples whereof are euident in his writings In his spleene against Antonie he saith Illi igitur impij quos occidistis distis etiam ad Inferos poenas parricidij luent vos autom qui extremum spiritum in victoria effudistis piorum estis locum et sedem consequuti Those wicked whom ye slew shall IN HELL suffer the punishment of their parricide you that lost your liues in obtayning the victorie haue obtayned the place and seate of the blessed In his brauerie defending Cluentius he cast it all off as a foolish fable Quid tandem illi mali mors attulit nisi forte ineptijs ac fabulis ducimur vt existimemus illum apud Inferos impiorum supplicia perferre et actum esse praecipitem in sceleratorum sedem atque regionem quae si falsa sunt id quod â—mnes intelligunt quid ei tandem aliud mors eripuit praeter doloris sensum What harme could Cluentius do vnto Oppianicus condemned and banished for his lewdnes by killing him vnlesse wee beleeue toyes and fables to thinke he endured the punishment of the wicked in hell and that he was cast headlong into the region and prison of the vngodly which conceits if they bee false as all men may easily vnderstand what hurt could death doe him but take from him all sense of griefe To make a reason for his Client that by killing his aduersarie afflicted with penury and miserie he should rather doe him a good turne then a spite he vtterly reiecteth as a fable that the wicked haue any punishments after this life which in the former place against Antonius souldiers he vrged as vehemently for a truth And though in this place he taxe as you say the ignorance of the olde Latines yet in an other place hée commendeth their wisedome for the self same position Itaque vt aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita apud Inferos eiusmodi quaedam illi Antiqui supplicia impijs coÌ„stituta esse volueruÌ„i quod videliceâ— intelligebant his remetis non esse mortem ipsam pertime scendam Therfore to terrifie the wicked in this life THOSE AVNCIENT Fathers held there were some such punishments appointed IN HELL for the wicked because they saw without theÌ„ death was no way to be feared And Sir Refuter are you a Christian that thinke it worth the noting out of a prophane Orator that it is a foolish fable to thinke the wicked are punished after this life in hell Uphold you the proude and lewd conceite of a PagaÌ„ against the setled and reuealed iudgements of God by his word dare you adde of your owne head for your author hath no such word that the ignorance OF THE TRVTH beganne this opinion that Inferiwere vnder the earth and the terrors of hell also I see your deuise you would haue hell euerie where and TORMENTS OF HELL you would haue none but such as Christ by your assertion suffered in his soule here on earth and because you want good authoritie to countenance this matter you reade vs a Lecture out of Cicero that he thought so before you and that he is a verie authenticke and Classicall
writer But keepe this lesson till you get none but Atheists and Infidels to bee your hearers they will thanke you for it Christian cares doe abhorre it and will detest your prophanes as much as they doe Ciceroes For if there bee no punishment in hell fure there is no hell and he that decreaseth the terror decreaseth the truth of it therefore the olde Latines did not erre But your New Orator thinketh hee may buyld and ouerturne hell and heauen at his pleasure As he dealeth with hell so doth he with heauen somtymes he will haue one and somtimes he cannot tell whether there bee any such habitation for soules or no. And the heauen which he would haue is a Mansion of his owne making Such authors you bring vs to expound the Creede and to outface all the Fathers that they themselues cannot tell what they say Where he purposely disputeth of the seate and sanctuarie for the soule after death he concludeth the whole discourâ—e as doubtfully as he beganne Si supremus ille dies non extinctionem sed commutationem affert loci quid optabilius sin autem perimit ac delet omninò quid melius quà m in medijs vitae laboribus obdormiscere et ita conniucâ—teÌ„ somno sepeliri sempiterno If the daie of our death bring not a perishing but changing of places what can be more to be wished for But if it vtterly quench and extinguish bodie and soule what can be more acceptable amidst the troubles of this life then as it were wincking to slumber and shutting our eies to fall into an euerlasting sleepe Habes somnum imaginem mortis eamque quotidie induis dubitas quin sensus in morte nullus sit quum in eius simulachro videas esse nullum sensum Thou hast sleepe which thou daylie triest for an image of death and doubtest thou but there is no sense in death when thou findest no sense in sleepe which is the patterne of death Now on the other side for Ciceroes heauen which you will needs bring into the Creede vnder the name of Inferi hee maketh it no reward of vertue nor gift of grace to be bestowed where it pleaseth God but he affirmeth there is a fierie aire aboue of which soules are made and therefore as soone as the soule is loosed from the bodie it flieth vpward as fier doth by a naturall motion vnto the place which is like to it selfe and there stayeth and is nourished with the selfe same things with which the starres are nourished Quae quum consteÌ„t perspicuum debet esse animos quum é corpore excesserint siue illi sint spirabiles siue igneâ— sublime ferri accedit vt eo facilius animus euadat ex hoc aere quem saepe iam crassum appello eumque perrumpat quod nihil est animo velocius Qui si permanet incorruptus suique similis necesse est ita feratur vt penetret diuidat omne coelum hoc in quo nubes imbres ventique coguntur Quam regionem quum superauâ—t animus naturamque sui similem contigit agnouit vinctus ex anima tenui ex ardore solis temperato ignibus insistit et finem altius se efferendi facit Quum enim sui similem leuitatem calorem adeptus est tanquam paribus examinatis ponderibus nullaÌ„ in partem mouetur Eáque ei demum naturalis est sedes quum ad sui similem penetrauit in quo nulla re egens alitur sustentatur ijsdem rebus quibus astra sustentantur aluntur It is long and tedious good reader to be troubled with these prophane follies but because the confuter laboureth so much to haue Ciceroes world of soules and his heauen into the Creede and in respect of him disgraceth all other writers as ignorant of the latine tongue these words will playnly shew thée what an audacious irreligious and heathenish attempt that is and how absurdly and lewdly he saith Cicero had learned to thinke wiselyer then they that said hell was below in the earth For they deliuered a trueth and this of Ciceroes is a false foolish and wicked fansie The English of his words is in effect this These things being certain it ought to be a cleare case that our soules when they leaue the bodie whether they be of an aerie or fierie nature do mooue vpward A good helpe for the soule with more ease to passe and breake through this grosse ayre heere below is this y t nothing is swifter than the soule Which remayning vncorrupt and alwaies like it selfe OF NECESSITIE MVST ASCEND and pearce and deuide all THIS HEAVEN or ayre in which the cloudes windes and rayne engender Which region when the soule hath once passed and touched and perceiued a nature like to it selfe mixed of a subtile ayre and the temperate heate of the sunne in that fierie region IT STAYETH and maketh an ende OF ASCENDING ANY HIGHER For when it hath gotten like both heate and purenes of the ayre balanced as it were with equall waights it moueth no way AND THIS IS THE NATVRAL SEATE OF THE SOVLE when it commeth to a like ayre to it selfe in which needing nothing IT IS NOVRISHED and fed with THE SELFESAME THINGS VVITH VVHICH THE STARRES ARE NOVRISHED and sustayned Ciceroes heaueÌ„ is nothing but an heap of heathenish impieties The first that the substance of the soule consisteth of fier or ayre the second that of necessitie it ascendeth vpward as fier doth The third that when it commeth to a pure ayre and temperate heate of the sunne it stayeth there and ascendeth no higher The fourth that this is the naturall seat for the soule and thence it moueth no way The fift that it is there nourished and sustayned with the selfe same things with which the starres are The consequents to this heauen are most horrible First that all soules by necessitie of their nature being in this place there are consequently none in HELL nor none in heauen and so both those places are vtterly emptied by your eloquent Master Next that when the starres skies shall be melted and dissolued with fier then must the soules of all men be likewise dissolued consisting of the same matter which they doe and so vtterly extinguish Lastly Gods promises and threats are all frustrate if he can doe his enemies no more hurt nor his seruants more good then this heauen affoordeth And therfore if you bring the world of soules or this heauen into the Créede I must refuse the Article for open and euident points of Infidelitie which I suppose the Apostles nor Apostolicke men neuer meant when they made the Créede Yet this place such as it is Cicero you say called it Inferi Syr if you leaue lying you must leaue writing For you can skant write a true word Cicero doth no where call this place Inferi but howsoeuer he had his priuate conceits as a Philosopher yet when he spake before the senate or the people
he was forced to yéeld to such opinioÌ„s and to vse such words as were commonly receiued with all men and that is the direction which Aristotle giueth by the rule which you alleage that though we must learne to think as wise men do yet we must be content to speake as the people doe not that by so speaking we must alter the nature and proprietie of the words which wee vse but mynding to aduise or perswade the multitude we must condiscend as well to their vulgar phrases as to their generall and receiued opinions And therefore as the people thought all men dying to descend vnder the earth to Inferi so Cicero speaking in open place vseth this same phrase whatsoeuer he priuately thought of the place where the dead were From Pagans Syr Refuter you returne to ChristiaÌ„s whom before you accused for altering changing the autheÌ„ticke vse of words you now alleadge as obseruing the true proprietie of the same word for which you did chalenge them before Hereunto let vs adde saie you that the latter learned writers euen Christians haue also espied and graunted this proprietie of the latin word Infernum or Inferi as also of the Greeke HADES Ierom saith Infernus is a place where the soules are included either in rest or in paines The farder you go the more you shew you vnderstand neither Pagans nor Christians The fault you found with the latin Fathers was that they vse the word Inferi to signifie hell properlie and particularlie that is the place of the Damned or else an other particular place vnder the earth a part of hell and not farre from hell it self where soules remayned if not in paines yet in prison far from the place of eternall blessednes ioy but this you affirme is a meere and plaine abusion of the word And within two leaues when Ierom saith the verie same thing which you misliked before and called a meere and plaine abusion of the word you confesse hee espied the true proprietie of the word Infernus This is banding of Balles in a tennis Court and not anie searching after a truth in the church of God But when your learning reacheth no furder you must needes breath out your ignorance or bridle your toong which hath runne so long on a voluntarie that you cannot tell when you bee out nor when you bée in Ierom indéede was of opinion that before Christs death the soules of all as well good as bad were shut vp in a place within the earth the good in rest and expectance of Christs comming thither by him to bee deliuered the badde in paines and torments This place common to both sorts but wich different effects Ierom calleth Infernus which in our English toong is hell Of this place he saith Infernus locus est in quo animaerecluduntur siue in refrigerio siue in poenis Hell is a place in which soules are included either in rest or in paine Here you saie Ierom espied the proprietie of the latine word Infernum or Inferi Bee it so since you will needes haue it so But Infernum in this place doth no waie signifie the kingdome of heauen Ergo the true proprietie of the worde Infernum doeth not signifie the kingdome of heauen The Maior is your owne The Minor by Gods grace I will prooue euen out of Ierom. Marke well his wordes Quid simile Infernâ—â— regna caelorum What likenes haue Infernus and the kingdome of heauen you saie Infernus is taken by Ierome for the kingdome of heauen Ierome himselfe telleth you the one hath no likenesse to the other Are you not caught like a long beaked thing in your owne grin and because you shall perceiue it is not a tricke but a truth that I presse you wiâ—h out of Ierom that INFERNVS by no meanes is the kingdome of God and consequentlie must be properlie hell except you will builde newe receptacles for soules after Christs ascension where they may bee neither in hel nor in heauen you shal haue more out of Ierom touching the true proprieties of these words CERNE PROPRIETATES AD INFERNVM DESCENDITVR AD COELVM CONSCENDITVR MARKE THE PROPRIETIES of these two words TO HELL MEN DESCEND TO HEAVEN MEN ASCENDE And againe Nota ante aduentum Christi quamuis sanctos omnes Inferni lege detentos Porro quod sancti post resurrectioneÌ„ domini nequaquam teneantur inferno testatur Apostolus dicens melius est dissolui esse cum Christo Qut autem cum christo est vtique non tenetur in Inferno Note that before Christs comming all euen the saints theÌ„selues were detained vnder the lawe of hel but that after the resurrection of our Sauior they are not helde in hel the Apostle witnesseth when he saith It is better to be dissolued and to bee with Christ. And he that is with Christ certainely is not detained in hell There is no shifting from the force of these words Afore Christs comming the saints were in Inferno after his ascension they were not For hee that is with Christ is not in Inferno Saie if you dare that Infernus here is the kingdom of God For then these absurdities will pursue you That after Christes ascension the saintes are not in the kingdome of heauen and he that is with Christ is not in the kingdome of Christ wherefore maugre your bearde if you haue anie Infernus with Ierom is trulie and properlie hell and in no wise the kingdome of heauen as you imagine Thus thriue you by your own authors whom you produce to make the world beleeue that formerlie HADES INFERI did signifie heauen such heauens if you be wise keepe your selfe from neither professe to expound the Créed by the Classicall masters of the gréeke tongue being Poets Pagans What is to be thought of that opinion of the Fathers that the saints before Christs comming were in Inferno in hel but frée from feare or torment though in some darknes as also whence they tooke the ground of that assertion I haue shewed in the end of the treatise before as much as néeded to this question there with ease it may be perused They mistooke you will saie the word Infernum in the old testament and thence grew their opinioÌ„ that the Patriarks and prophets before Christes comming went to hell but the scriptures had no such meaning for neither the worde Sheol with the Hebrues nor the worde Hades with the Septuagint had any such sense to signifie hell And this a notable argument y t Hades signifieth the world of soules or generall state of the dead were they in hel or in heauen Wee are all this while out of our proper element to sift heathen philosophers Poets for the meaning of the créede a little smattering in the Greeke tongue made the Refuter so arrogant that hee bid defiance to all the fathers both gréeke and Latin as vnable to vnderstande one poore word in
and thou shalt see both the textes and the proofes whie the place of the damned must often bee vnderstoode by Sheôl in the bookes of the law and the prophets I hope thou wilt thinke it supersfluous for mee to defende it or enlarge it before anie man doe particularlie impugne it So that whatsoeuer you prate Sir Refuter without waight or warrant touching Sheol I count it lip labor when you or your helpers bring anie thing worth the regarding you shal find me readie to receaue it or refute it as the matter deserueth Sheol then in the olde Testament and Hades in the Septuagint signifiyng somtimes the state of deade bodies which is the graue sometimes the place of deade soules which is hell but neuer the world of soules whereof some are in heauen let vs see what force HADES hath in the new testament or whether it can thence be proued that HADES importeth the world of soules As y e mysteries of God were more fully declared by the gospel then by the law so the kingdom of heauen was more preciselie seuered from the kingdome of Satan by Christ then by Moses What Moses darkelie shadowed vnder figures that Christ reuealed in plaine wordes and therefore hell fire which is obscurelie mentioned in the law and prophets is often and openlie named by the mouth of our Sauiour and HADES which before extended to good and bad is nowe by the writers of the newe testament restrained to the place of the damned So that Hades with thē signifieth hell and the powers thereof and not the death of the bodie much lesse the world of soules Examples hereof I haue giuen thée gentle Reader in the Treatise before saue that I then reasoned the death of the bodie was not signified by HADES which now those deuisers haue changed into the VVORLD OF SOVLES I must therefore nowe ouerrun all those places againe and shewe that the VVORLD OF SOVLES cannot bee expressed by anie of those places Which I will with as much brenitie as I canne considering the wise Reader will soone bee able to discerne this newe Camisadoe latelie offered with the VVORLD OF SOVLES The first place is Woe to thee Chorazin and woe to thee Bethsaida saith our Sauiour And thou Capernaum exalted to heauen shalt bee brought downe euen to hell it shall bee easier for Sodome in the day of iudgement then for thee What is Gods curse and threates to impenitent sinners HELL or the VVORLD OF SOVLES and in the daie of iudgement when their punishment shall bee greater then the Sodomites shall they go to hell fire or to the VVORLD OF SOVLES I praie you Sir Refuter were are the Sodomites at this houre in hell or in your VVORLD OF SOVLES In hell I thinke Saint Iude saith They do sustaine the punishments of euerlasting fire Is that your VVORLDE OF SOVLES if it be not they shal certainlie be where the Sodomites are yea in worse case shall they bee and that I suppose must bee in hell and not in heauen The second place is in the wordes of Christ to Peter Vpon this rocke will I builde my church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it and I wil giue thee the keyes of the kingdom of heauen The VVORLD OF SOVLES doth not impugne y e church therfore it is no signe of Gods fauour for that not to preuaile against the church Againe whatsoeuer preuaile not yet if hell preuaile what safetie hath the church Heresie and iniquitie are the gates of hell fighting against the church as well as crueltie Ego portas Inferni reor vitta atque peccata vel certé haereticorū doctrinas per quas illecti homines ducuntur ad Tartarum Nemo itaque putet de morte dici quòd apostoliconditioni mortis subiecti non fuerint quorum martyria vides coruscare I thinke saith Ierom the gates of hell to be vices and sinnes or else heresies by which men being enticed are led to hell Let no man therefore imagine it is spoken of death as if the Apostles were not subiect thereto whose martyrdoms thou findest so famous Digna aedificatione illius Petra quae infernas leges Tartari portas omnia mortis claustra dissolueret It was a Rocke saith Hilarie worthy of Christs building which should dissolue the lawes of hell the gates of Tartare and all the Cloisters of death So Origen Portae inferorum dicentur etiam principatus ac potestates aduersus quas nobis est colluctatio The gates of hell may the powers and principalities bee called against the which we haue to striue Portas inferni haereticam prauitatem nominat siue vitia peccata vnde mors ad animam venit The gates of hel Christ calleth Haeresies saith Bede or else vices and sinnes by which the soule dieth So Ambrose Quae autē sunt portae Inferni nisi singula quaeque peccata What are the gates of hell but all kind of sinnes And Gregorie Portae Inferni haereses sunt quae quasi inferorum aditum pandunt The gates of hell are heresies which open as it were the passage to hell The fifte generall councell of Constantinople with one full consent alloweth the same Portae inferni non praeualebunt aduersus eam id est haereticorum linguae mortiferae The gates of hell that is the deadlie tongues of heretickes shal not preuaile against the church You might haue more but these are enough Here Sir Refuter you tell a long and a foolish tale of death out of your owne heade as if Christ did promise his Apostles protection against the violence of Tyrants but not against the rage of Satan To vnderstande sinnes and errours as some of the ancient writers doe the circumstances of the texte you saie doe seeme not to beare it Your ignorant humour is loth to haue it so otherwise the wordes of Christ respect the trueth of Peters confession that himselfe was Christ the sonne of the liuing God against the which faith no policie nor tyrannie of Satan shoulde preuaile and so by your leaue the Fathers goe directlie to the meaning of the texte and you woulde wrest it to your priuate fansie least HADES shoulde signifie HELL and yet at length vpon aduisement you confesse it may bee heere the GATES OF HELL and that HADES is thus vsed sometimes and namelie in the last example out of the 16. of Luke It is well then that in the 16. of Luke you yeelde HADES doeth signifie HELL where the wicked are tormented and did you denie it the Scripture auoucheth it the wordes are plaine I am tormented in this flame againe least they come into this place of torment Then HADES without anie other addition noteth HELL and when Christ saith the rich man IN HADES LIFT vp his eyes he addeth this as a necessarie consequent being in tormēts to shew that HADES is the place of torment and not the VVORLD OF
harts of men when y e diuel preuaileth with temptation there he worketh leading such as consent and yéeld vnto him into all wickednesse euen with greedinesse So he worketh in the children of disobedience as the Apostle testifieth This can haue no place in Christâ— because he did no sinne neither was there anie guile found in his mouth He that committeth sinne saith saint Iohn is of the diuel and for this purpose appeared the sonne of God that hee might dissolue the workes of the diuell Then since inward temptation by the hart Christ could haue none and outward temptation by the mouthes hands of the wicked is no effect of Gods wrath but rather a triall of Gods gifts and graces bestowed on vs It remaineth that if Christ felt the diuels as the very instruments that wrong he the verie effects of Gods wrath vpon him that is vpon his soule for that part of Christ you say must properly and immediateliâ— feele the wrath of God it resteth I saie by your owne wordes y e Christ FELT the DIVELS TORMENTING HIS SOVLE And indeede for so much as in executing the true paines of hell and of the damned God hath none other instruments but diuels you cannot defend that Christ suffered the paines of hell but you must graunt that Christ felt the diuels as instruments executing those paines on his soule Nowe the bodie of man they may torment with touching as they did Iobs the soule they can not but by possessing it For they can not woorke but where they are and therefore they must possesse the soule which they torment Is not here Christian Reader an wholesome clearke and an holie cause that concludeâ— Christes soule was possessed and tormented of diuels on the Crosse And the proofe is as ridiculous as the position is impious Christ spoiled principalities and powers and openlie triumphed ouer them ergo say you hee felt them the instruments of Gods wrath by tormenting his soule If your learning and Logicke serue you so well you may procéede Doctor in doâ—age when you will For my part christian Reader I will giue none other answere to these lewd and wicked absurdities but that which Iacob said to Simeon and Leâ—i Into their secret my soule shall not come To strengthen thee thou maiest remember what Peter saide of Christ. God anointed Iesus of Nazareth with the holy ghost with power to heale all that were oppressed of the diuell for God was with him or else what Christ said of himselfe The prince of this world commeth and hath naught in me or at least what the diuels themselues said to Christ Iesus the sonne of God VVHAT HAVE VVE TO DO VVITH THEE Art thou come to torment vs before the time And so in the Gospell of saint Luke the soule spirit when he saw Iesus cried out what haue I to doe with thee Iesus the sonne of God most high I beseech thee torment me not But perchance I mistake him would God there were so much grace in him as to reuoke it or refuse it I woulde gladlie confesse mine errour in mistaking his wordes but what if he go on from bad to worse What if he heapeth vp reasons as he thinketh but indeede trifles void of sense and reason to confirme the same This reason will proue the same saith hee taken from the lesse to the more Thus do the members of Christ suffer Therefore of necessitie Christ our head suffered the like Yea to the Hebrues hee sheweth a reason which can neuer be refuted by the witte of man Christ succoured vs not but wherein hee had experience of our temptations and infirimities but he succoureth vs euen in these our temptations of feeling the terrours of God and the sorrowes of hell Therefore hee himselfe had experience of the same Adde hereunto that of all absurdities this is the greatest that meere men should suffer more deepely and bitterly then Christ did You haue more words then witte Sir Confuter that propose these childish arguments for inuincible reasons Your selfe shall sée the weakenes of them What soeuer the members of Christ say you did or shall suffer of necessitie Christ our head suffered the like Meane you in bodie or in soule or in both If in bodie thâ—n Christ had his eies put out for so had Sampson he was swalowed vp by a whale for so was Ionas hee was cast into a burning furnace for so were Sidrac Mishac and Abednego he was stoned to death for so were Naboth Steuen and others You meane not in bodie meane you then in soule Inwarde assaults of error lust and sinne Christ neuer had He was â—ree from all conflicts of heart that rise in vs from the roote or remorse of sinne that increase with weakenesse of faith want of grace and quenching of Gods spirite The terrors of minde which wee feele through conscience of our vnworthinesse ignorance of Gods counsell and distrust of Gods fauour hee neuer felt his faith admitted no doubting his loue excluded all fearing his hope reiected all despairing So that howe you shoulde make a falser proposition and more repugnant to the Apostles wordes which you alledge then this which you haue made I by no meanes can conceiue Hee was tempted in all thinges a like except sinne Then neither the rootes partes nor fruites of sinne must bee in him But the Apostle that excepteth sinne excepteth all sinnefull adherentes The punishment of sinne which proceedeth from the iustice of GOD and is no sinne that Christ might and did beare but in no wise those terrours and feares of conscience which proceede from sinne and augment sinne as doubting distrusting despairing in which GOD reuengeth sinne with sinne these muste bee farre from Christ vnlesse wee will wrappe him within the snares of our sinnes The feare of Gods Maiestie armed with mightie power to reuenge sinne is profitable to keepe vs from sinne therein Christ may communicate with vs though not to that ende â—or he could not sinne but fearing doubting or distrusting that God wil for our manifold sinnes cast vs from his presence and condemne vs to hell commeth in vs from the guiltinesse of conscience and weakenesse of faith and hope which in Christ neither had nor coulde haue anie place But the Apostle you saie sheweth a reason which can neuer bee refuted by the witte of man Christ succoured vs not but wherein he had experience of our temptations Are those wordes in the Apostle No you will saie but collected from the Apostles wordes where hee saith In that Christ suffered being tempted he can helpe those that are tempted Hence you conclude vpon your owne warrant that Christ can succour vs in no temptation but whereof himselfe had first experience and this you proclaime to be irrefutable Such lips such lettice such doctors such diuinitie Your collection Sir Refuter is not onelie farre different from the Apostles wordes but euidentlie repugnant to the christian