to him if his case or condition were the same But if of a private master he should become a publike Judge and shew the same favour to him that had been his servant being arraigned for the like offence committed against another hee should hereby grievously transgresse both the Law of God and man The true reason whereof is not because the former rule Of doing as hee would bee done unto doth hold as one of late out of the spirit of contradiction rather than judgement hath taught not universally or alwayes but ad plurimum for the most part or now and then or more certainly in private men than publike Magistrates For they especially are most strictly tied to that fundamentall rule of justice and equity of doing as they would bee done unto But seeing as the great Casuist Gerson somewhere observes Every Judge sustaines a double person one of his owne as he is subject to the like infirmities with other men another of the Publike Weale or Community wherein hee liveth Hence it is or should bee that how mercifull or gracious soever he be by naturall disposition or grace yet when he ascends the seat of Justice hee must lay aside his private person all private considerations and arme himselfe with the publike Now the object of the observance of the former rule of doing as hee would bee done unto is not the person or party accused or arraigned but the persons whom hee wronged or may hereafter wrong The greatest Judge in this case must do to the Commō Weale whereof he himselfe is a member as he desires is should be done to himselfe in like case that is to right them when they are wronged and to protect them from further danger by putting wholesome lawes in execution for cutting off noisome members of publike Society 4. But what of all this God is no member of any Community being in himselfe farre greater and better than the whole Universe of things visible and invisible and for this reason not bound to conforme himselfe to any of the former rules which greatest Princes are by his Law bound to observe However hee is immutable goodnesse it selfe more than the rule of all those rules of mercy justice and goodnesse which hee enjoines us to follow It is most true he can doe whatsoever he will yet cannot any thing be willed by him that is contrary to goodnesse justice or mercy Though his mercies exceed the mercies of the best of men yet some sinnes there are which exempt men from participation of his mercies sinnes unpardonable to mercy it selfe So saith our Saviour Mar. 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you all sinnes shall be forgiven unto the sonnes of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme But hee that shall blaspheme against the holy Ghost hath never forgivenesse but is in danger of eternall damnation And S. Matthew more fully Chap. 12. ver 31 Wherefore I say unto you All manner of sinne and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men And whosoever speaketh a word against the Sonne of man it shall bee forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the holy Ghost it shall not bee forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come It is not the sole infinitie of that Majestie against which wee sinne that makes the sinne so unpardonable For the Father is of infinite Majesty the Sonne is of infinite Majesty and the holy Ghost can bee no more their Majesty and glory is coeternall and coequall The sinne here meant then cannot bee any speciall sinne more offensive against the person of the holy Ghost then against the person of the Father or the Sonne Nor is it whatsoever else it be any one sinne specifically distinct from other sinnes as murther is from lust or lust from pride and envie but rather a confluence of many grievous sinnes It alwayes presupposeth a great measure of long continued contempt of Gods speciall favour gifts or goodnesse Those whom our Saviour in the forecited places forewarnes as being at the pit brink of this infernall bottomlesse sinne were as S. Marke tells us Scribes that came downe from Ierusalem Mark 3.22 and as S. Matthew addes Pharisees too Matth. 12.24 Both of them had seene or heard our Saviours miracles which were so pregnant that they could not deny the truth of them The particular miracle which occasioned this discourse was the healing of one possessed of a Devill insomuch that being blind and dumbe before he both spake and saw and all the people were amazed and said Is this the sonne of David And when the Pharisees heard it or as S. Marke addes the Scribes which came downe from Jerusalem they said this fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Matt. 12.22 Mark 3.24 And S. Marke giving the reason why our Saviour after hee had called the Scribes and Pharisees to him and debated this controversie with them did forewarne them in speciall of this dangerous sinne addeth Because they said he hath an uncleane spirit Mark 3.30 5. Into this fearefull sinne or rather high measure of sinne of whose danger our Saviour so graciously forewarnes these Scribes and Pharisees those convert Hebrews to whom S. Paul wrote that excellent Epistle were ready without his like admonitions to fall It is impossible saith he for those men who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them againe unto repentance seeing they crucifie unto themselves the Sonne of God afresh and put him to an open shame For the earth which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft upon it and bringeth forth herbes meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which bringeth forth thornes and briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to bee burned Heb. 6.4 5 c. Others perhaps in those times had either incurred this sentence here denounced or stood in greater danger than these Hebrews did of whom our Apostle at this time had good hope But beloved wee are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speake For God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love which yee have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred towards his Saints and doe minister Heb. 6.9.10 Of our Apostles punctuall meaning or sense in these two verses last cited as of all the rest unto the end of the Chapter I shall have occasion hereafter to treat Of the former verses I have no more for this present or hereafter for ought I know to say then this That their meaning if any be disposed to scan them more exactly may I take it bee best illustrated by the type or parallel exhibited in the dayes of
himselfe But this opinion without prejudice to the Authors or abettors of it is very improbable because the mystery that the Son of God should become a creature or take any created substāce into the unity of his person was not for ought I have read or can gather from any passage in Scripture revealed either explicitly or implicitly before the fall of man or before his convention for his Apostacy from God which was not untill the first day of the second weeke at soonest when the world was as we say in facto not in fieri onely as it respectively was in the first weeke or seven dayes When this opinion that the assumption of any creature into unity of person with the Sonne of God or with any person in the blessed Trinity was either knowen or probably conceived by man or Angel before the fall of man shall be sufficiently proved I shall yeeld assent to their opinion as probable who think the first sinne of Lucifer was a desire or longing after personall union with the Sonne of God or God himselfe No question but the old Serpent had sinned more grievously in the same kind than our first Parents did when the woman by his cunning and malice and the man by her prevarication did taste the forbidden fruit in hope or expectation to bee made thereby like to Elohim or God himselfe 3. But was it possible that either the collapsed Angels or man by their suggestion should attempt or desire to bee equall with God or to bee Gods Almighty To bee in all points coequall with God was perhaps more than Lucifer himselfe did desire yet that even our first Parents desired to bee in some sort or other equall with God is probable from the Apostles character of the Sonne of God Hee being saith hee in the forme of God thought it no robbery to bee equall with God This to my understanding implies that the robbery or sacriledge committed by our first Parents for which the Sonne of God did humble and ingage himselfe to make satisfaction was their proud or haughty attempt to be equal with God at lest in knowledge of good and evill And yet as was said before the collapsed Angels had doubtlesse sinned more presumptuously before they tempted our first Parents to the like sinne Neither man nor Angel could have affected equality in any one attribute with their Creator much lesse in all or most so they had made his glory power or majesty the chiefe or principall object of their first contemplations But how farre the previal sinne of omitting this duty might let loose their strong and swift imaginations unballanced with experience or what entrance it might work for that desperate and positive sinne of Ambition or seeking to bee equall or like to God for power and wisdome God and they onely know if haply they now know or perfectly remember the maner of their first transgressions Many things many learned and wise men doe and attempt more through incogitancy want of consideration or ad pauca respicientes which by men of meaner parts would bee suspected for a spice of madnesse if they had taken them into serious consideration before 4. There is no Christian man I am perswaded this day living unlesse he be stark mad who if this interrogatory were propounded unto him in expresse termes whether doe you think your selfe altogether as wise as God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost but would answere negatively I am not And yet how many writers in our time through forgetfulnesse to put this or the like interrogatory to themselves when they set pen to paper have continued for many yeares together grievously sicke of our first Parents first disease whatsoever that were yet not sick of it in explicit desires or attempts to bee every way equall with God but in implicit presumptions that they are altogether equall with him in wisdome and knowledge at lest for the governing of this universe from the beginning of it to the end and for the dispensing of mercy and justice towards men and Angels before they had any beginning of being and for ever even world without end after this visible world shall be dissolved To give a true and punctuall answere to all their presumptuous contrivances or to accept their challenges in this kinde would require more skill in Arts then most men are endowed with and a great deale more time than any wise man or skilfull Artist can bee perswaded to mispend It would be a very hard task for the cunningest needle woman or other Professor of manuall or finger-mysteries to unweave or dissolve a spiders webb threed by threed after the same manner which shee did weave it And yet a meane houswife or childe may with a wing or besome in a moment undoe all that the spider hath wrought in a whole yeare And so may every Novice in Arts unbuble all that some great Clerks or Schoolemen have been twenty or thirty yeares in contriving or working as in setting forth maps or systems of the manner of Gods decrees before all times or disputes about election or reprobation as they are immanent acts in him with that common but usefull exception aut nihil aut nimium Their conclusions might for ought I know bee unanswerable and sound upon supposition that they are every whit as wise as God But this being not granted them or the contradictory being granted that the omnipotent Creator is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser then they are the most elaborate and longest studied Treatises which it hath been my hap upon these Arguments to see afford no document of greater strength or cunning than is exhibited in the spiders web The Authors of them tell us onely and herein we beleeve them what they themselves would have done if they had been delegated to make Decrees or Acts for the government of men and Angels or what God should have done if they had been of his privy counsell when hee made all things visible and invisible But what God doth hath done or will doe according to the sole counsell of his most holy will that they shew us not nor goe about to shew whilest they runne the cleane contrary way to that which God our Father and the Church our mother hath prescribed us to follow Now the way which the English Church from the warrant of Gods word to this purpose prescribes is to admire not to determine the equity of Gods Decrees before all times from contemplation of the manner of their execution or sweet disposition of his providence in time It is a preposterous presumption to determine the manner how they have been or shall bee executed by prying into the projection or contrivance of the Almighty Judge before man or Angel or any thing besides God himselfe had any being 5. He sinned grievously that said in his heart or secret unexamined thought similis ero altissimo whether this bee meant of Nebuchadnezzar or some other earthly Tyrant onely or literally of one or more of
Moses in those men which were excluded by oath from the land of Canaan Num. 14.20 21 22 23. And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word But as truely as I live all the earth shall bee filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seene my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have tempted mee now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it All these which were all the Males of Israel above twenty yeares of age save Caleb Ioshua and Moses who was in part involved in this sentence did beare a true type or shadow of those who offending in like manner against Christ and his Gospel we call Reprobates yet not so true types of such a sinne against the holy Ghost as those which went to search the land of Canaan And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmure against him by bringing up a slander upon she land Even those men that did bring up the evill report upon the land after they had seene the goodlinesse and tasted the pleasant fruits of it died of the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the sonne of Nun and Caleb the sonne of Jephunneh which were of the men that went to search the land lived still and many happy dayes after that time Numb 14.36 37 38. 6. Very probable it is though I will not determine pro or con that the irremissible sinne whereof our Saviour and S. Paul speake for which there remaineth no satisfaction was if dot peculiar yet Epidemicall unto those primitive times wherein the kingdom of heaven was first planted here on earth by our Saviour and the holy Catholike Church was in erection by the ministery of the Apostles or in times wherein the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit were most plentifull and most conspicuous Even in those times into this wofull estate none could fall which had not tasted of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come and had not beene partakers of the holy Ghost Nor did such men fall away by ordinary sinnes but by relaps into Iewish blasphemy or heathenish Idolatry and malicious slander of the kingdom of heaven of whose power they had tasted God was good to all his creatures in their creation and better to men in their redemption by Christ of this later goodnesse all men werein some degree partakers The contempt or neglect of this goodnesse was not irremissible the parties thus farre offending and no further were not excluded from the benefit of Christs satisfaction or from renewing by repentance but of the gifts of the Spirit which was plentifully poured out after our Saviours ascension all were not partakers This was a speciall favour or peculiar goodnesse whose continued contempt or solemne abrenuntiation by relapse either into heathenisme or Jewish blasphemy was unpardonable not in that it was a sinne peculiarly committed against the person of the holy Ghost but because it did include an extraordinary opposition unto the indispensable law of justice or goodnesse which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are 7. Some sinnes then there be or some measure of them which being made up no satisfaction will be accepted for them It is impossible according to the sacred phrase that the parties thus delinquent should bee renewed by repentance But whether according to this dialect of the holy Ghost that grand sinne whereof our Saviour and the Apostle speakes be absolutely irremissible untill death hath determined their impenitency which committed it or onely exceeding dangerous in comparison of other sinnes I will not here dispute much lesse dare I take upon me to determine either branch of the maine question proposed As whether satisfaction were absolutely necessary for remitting the sinnes of our first Parents or their seed Or whether the Son of God could have brought us sinners unto glory by any other way or meanes than that which is revealed unto us in his Gospel It shall suffice me and so I request the Reader it may doe him to shew that this revealed way is the most admirable for the sweet concurrence of Wisdome Justice Mercy and whatsoever other branches of goodnesse else bee which the heart of man can conceive more admirable by much than wisdome finite could have contrived or our miserable condition desired unlesse it had been revealed unto us by God himselfe 8. For demonstration of this conclusion and for deterring all which pretend unto the priviledge or dignity of being the Sonnes of God from continuance in sinne no principle of faith or passage in the sacred Canon can bee of better use then that 1. Ioh. 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devill for the Devill sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the works of the Devill However the words which severall translations doe render one and the same word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee of different signification in point of Grammar yet is there no contradiction betwixt them upon the matter Our later English which I alledged readeth that he might destroy the former that hee might dissolve the works of the Devill Neither of them much amisse and both of them put together or mutually helping one another exceeding well Some works of the Devill the Sonne of God is said more properly to dissolve others more properly to destroy Sinne it selfe as the Apostle tells us is the proper worke of the Devill his perpetuall worke for he sinneth from the beginning And for this cause the man that committeth sinne is of the Devill the Devills workman or day labourer so long as hee continues in knowne sinnes Sinne the best of men dayly doe But it is one thing to sinne and doe a sinfull Act another to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phrase used by our Apostle a worker or doer of evill operarius iniquitatis Such workmen the sonnes of God or servants of Christ cannot be at lest so long as they continue sonnes or servants The points most questionable in those forecited words of S. Iohn now to bee discussed in this preamble to the manner how the Son of God did dissolve or destroy the works of the Devill are two The first from what beginning the Devill is said to sinne or to continue in sinne The second what speciall workes of the Devill they were which the Sonne of God did or doth undoe or for whose dissolution or destruction hee was manifested in our flesh CHAP. IV. From what beginning the Divell is said by S. John to sinne Whether sinne consist in meere privation or have a positive entity or a cause truely efficient not deficient onely 1 THe word Beginning is some times taken universally and absolutely
surprisall of David and his traine about the same place or not farre beyond it 2. Sam. 17. 4. When I behold my Saviour in that heavie plight and dejected posture described by the Evangelist prostrating himselfe on his knees and face to the earth yet sending out these ejaculations unto heaven Father if it bee possible let this Cup passe from mee Me thinks I see the exquisite accomplishment of the Psalmists complaint charactering his owne wofull case for the present yet by way of prophecie or prefiguration of more just cause which the promised Messias should have of uttering the like complaint who was as hee saw to partake more deeply of his grievances and afflictions though not of his passion or impatience in them For this Sonne of Righteousnesse was willing to suffer with all submission to his heavenly Fathers will whatsoever any of his forerunning shadows had suffered either immediatly from the hand of God or by the violence of men and to suffer them without any token of grudging or impatience The complaint of the Psalmist who did foreshadow the dejected estate of the Sonne of God in that houre of temptation wee have set downe Psalme 38.14 My sinnes are gone over my head and they are like a sore burden too heavy for mee to beare But the heavy burden not of the Psalmists sinnes alone but of the sinnes of the world were now laid upon the Sonne of man in the garden and did deject him to the ground But how patiently soever he did beare or fall downe under this burden yet he stood in need of comfort from heaven as his forerunners in farre lesse anguish had done And if wee would take St. Lukes relation of the Angels comming to support and comfort him in this his weaknesse into serious consideration we may have a briefe yet a most true and punctuall Commentary upon that Prophecie Psalme 8. Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the Angels to wit as he was the Sonne of man though never ceasing to be the Sonne of God For the most valiant Generall that is which stands in need of Support or helpe from his meanest Souldier is for the time being lower then hee is which lends him his hand or helps him up being throwen downe or prostrate Now this our chiefe Leaders Agony and the time betweene his apprehension and his death was the onely time that little while whereof the Psalmist speakes wherein CHRIST JESUS as man was made lower then the Angels lower then the ordinary sonnes of men For hee was as another Psalmist in his Person complaines a worme and no man But immediately after this bitter Agony the strength and vigour of the Sonne of righteousnesse which for a time was eclipsed or overcast with a bloody sweat did breake forth afresh and though in the night time did no lesse dazell and astonish the armed band which came with Iudas to apprehend him then the light which shone at mid-day did S. Paul when he was armed with authority to attach his Followers For immediatly after that Cup which he prayed against was passed from him Hee knowing all things saith St. Iohn that should come upon him went forth and said unto them that came to apprehend him Whom seeke yee They answered him Iesus of Nazareth Iesus saith unto them I am hee And Iudas also which betrayed him stood with them Assoone then as hee had said unto them I am hee they went backward and fell to the ground Then asked hee them againe Whom seeke yee And they said Iesus of Nazareth Iesus answered I have told you that I am hee If therefore yee seek me let these goe their way That the saying might be fulfilled which hee spake Of them which thou gavest mee I have lost none Joh. 18 4 5 6 c. Here was a true document both of his royall and spirituall power of his royall power in that hee could command them to forbeare any violence towards his Disciples yea not to oppose violence offered unto one of their company For Simon Peter as St. Iohn saith having a sword drew it and cut off one of the servants of the high Priests right eare the servants name was Malchus 10 11. verses c. St. Luke recordeth that hee touched his eare and healed him so farre was he from all desire of revenge upon his enemies This was an act of his power spirituall so was that likewise in protecting his Disciples from danger as well of soule as of body For as S. Iohn to my apprehension intimates if they had been put unto the same fiery triall unto which hee himselfe was exposed they had denied him and their former faith Therefore hee commanded his Apprehenders to let them goe their way that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake some few houres before Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none John 18.10 So he had said Iohn 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keepe through thine owne Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest mee I kept and none of them is lost but the sonne of perdition Either Iudas was never one of them whom his Father had given him or at least at this time had given himselfe to his Father the Devill 5 But as one and the same prophecy may be often filled by events much distant in time so may divers prophecies much distant for time be accomplisht in one and the same event in the same point of time as in this dismission of JESUS his Disciples both his owne praediction as Saint Iohn tells us was fulfilled and another prophecy likewise as we may gather from S. Mark or rather from our Saviours exposition recorded by the Evangelist Mark 14. Iesus saith unto them All yee shall be offended because of me this night For it is written I will smite the Shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered This smiting of the Shepheard was amongst other prophecies both foretold and prefigured as is probable by the death of Iosiah unto which most referr that of Ieremiah Lamen 4.20 The breath of our nose-thrills the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the heathen Some there are which referr this complaint unto the Captivity of Zedekiah but not so pertinently or considerately as most other of their meditations or observations would occasion the Reader to expect For the Prophet Ieremiah did never conceive such hope of Zedekiah or Iehoiakim as the deepe straine of this particular threne or throb doth import No sonne of good Iosiah was either in life or death such a type of the Lords promised Annointed as himself had beene From the houre of his death untill the return of his people from Babylonish Captivity Jerusalem and Judah did not
eares so opened by the Lord God as this Lord God himself had a temper of body and mind not moveable to any passion either by indignitie of speeches which he heard or by the blows which he suffered CHAP. XXV The unjust proceedings of the high Priest and Elders against the Sonne of God were punctually foretold by the Prophets 1 BUt was it any where else foretold besides in those passages of the Prophet Isaiah and the Psalmes forecited that the Lord of glory or God the Redeemer of Israel should suffer all those indignities should bee despightfully arraigned unjustly examined and sentenced to death by his native subjects and by the Gentiles If thus much had not been both foretold and foreshadowed both by Moses and other Prophets our Saviour would not have censured those two Disciples whom hee did vouchsafe to accompany to Emaus saying Wee trusted that it had been hee who should have redeemed Israel His taxe of this their present distrust or dull beliefe is more sharpe then any reply or answere which hee made unto such malicious Infidels as from the time of his apprehension did deride beate scourge and crucifie him for avouching he was the God of Israel or King of the Jews For unto these two Disciples hee said O fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets hee expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe Luke 24.25 26. I can no way dislike but rather approve of Maldonats and other learned Commentators wishes upon this place that if so it had pleased the Lord the Evangelist had related unto us either the places which hee expounded to them or his expositions upon them But as I have heretofore advertised the Reader and shall take occasion hereafter to put him in mind it seemed not expedient to the wisdome of God to have the full exposition either of our Saviour or the Apostles themselves upon those Scriptures which they alledge extant upon undoubted record but rather to exhibit us certaine hints or just matter of sober and serious search of the Scriptures which they alledge Amongst other sacred passages which our Saviour expounded to those two Disciples I make no question but the eighty second Psalme was one To omit all enquiry who was the Author of the Psalme whether Asaph whose inscription it beares or David himselfe or what speciall occasions the Author of it whosoever he was had to compose it whether his owne experience in suffering wrong or some observation of grosse partiality or corruption in the course of Justice towards others the Psalme it selfe is Propheticall and was never so punctually verified at any time before or since as it was at our Saviours examination by the high Priest and Elders and at his arraignment before Pontius Pilate yet the full accomplishment of the last clause will not be untill the finall day of Judgement God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty saith the Psalmist he judgeth among the Gods How long will yee judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked Defend the poore and fatherlesse doe justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poore and needy rid them out of the hands of the wicked Psalme 82.1 2 3 4. Here was a faire caveat put into the Courts of Justice by the Psalmist not to passe sentence upon the Messias for saying hee was the Sonne of God or for making himselfe equall with God not to accept of the person of Barabbas before him who now as GOD did stand amongst them But besides this caveat of the Psalmist the circumstances of time and the manner of their owne proceedings against him did warne them as Pilats wife did him to beware how they had any thing to doe with that just and holy man And our Saviour himselfe vouchsafeth to bee the remembrancer that however hee now stood to bee Judged by them yet he was that very God which the Psalmist foretold should be their Judge and the Judge of the whole world For so the Psalmist concludeth Arise O God and judge the earth for thou shalt inherite all Nations verse 8. This universall Inheritance and power to judge the earth was bestowed upon our Saviour at his resurrection after they had judged him for saying he was the Sonne of God 2. After they had sought many false witnesses against him but could find none whose testimonies did agree or if they agreed did reach home to convince him of any capitall crime they sought to entrap him by his owne confession which being judicially made and taken they knew to be a full and legall conviction The high Priest failing in his intended subornations against him said unto him I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou bee the Christ the Sonne of God Matth. 26.62 63. And unto this interrogatory ministred unto him by the high Priest ex officio not in a criminall cause but in a point of beliefe or doctrine hee vouchsafeth a full and punctuall answere as to his competent Judge quoad haec such an answere as he did not vouchsafe either to Herod when he was brought before him nor to the high Priest and Elders when they examined him before the two false witnesses which at the last cast were brought against him These circumstances wee have related in the forecited place of St. Matthew At the last came two false witnesses and said This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it in three dayes The high Priest said unto him Answerest thou nothing what is it which these witnesse against thee But Iesus held his peace Matth. 26.60 c. And S. Luke tells us Chap. 23.9 When Herod questioned him in many things hee answered him nothing But assoone as the high Priest adjured him by the living God to tell him the truth whether hee was the Christ the Sonne of the living God Iesus saith unto him thou hast said Neverthelesse I say unto you hereafter shall you see the Sonne of man sitting at the right hand of power and comming in the clouds of heaven Then the high Priest rent his clothes saying Hee hath spoken blasphemie what further need have wee of witnesses Behold now yee have heard his blaspemy what think yee They answered and said Hee is guilty of death Matth. 26.65 66. All these circumstances are related by S. Luke but not in the same order which S. Matthew doth for as hath been heretofore observed albeit wee are bound to beleeve that every Evangelist wrot nothing but divine truth yet every one of them did not record the whole truth with all its circumstances nor relate either our Saviours answers or his enemies practises against him in the same order of time in which they were made or exhibited St. Matthew referres or rather intermingles the fulfilling of Isaiahs Prophecy for spitting in his
him These were the weapons by which he foiled the old Serpent and obtained the victory by managing our weaknesse and infirmities better then our first Parents did those great abilities wherewith their Creator had endowed them to resist temptations The weapons which the old Serpent used in the conquest of our first Parents and by which hee retained their posterity in continuall slavery were their owne desires and affections these hee improved so farre that they became unweeldy And he having gotten as wee say the better end of the staffe did wrest our wills at his pleasure to doe those things which God forbids us to do and make us furious executioners of his cunning contrivances against our own soules The particularities of his sleights or cunning for bringing us into thraldome inextricable unlesse the Sonne of God set us free are elswhere deciphered These two are the maine generals First the extension of our naturall desire of things within their bounds good and pleasant Secondly the improvement of our feare of things distastfull to nature as of death disgrace or torture Now that the Sonne of God might thus beate him at his owne weapons it was necessary that he should first take upon him the forme or essentiall condition of a servant for without this first voluntarily undertaken by him the rule of justice could not possibly have suffered him to have suffered so much as he did for our redemption Wherein then did the state or condition of a servant which he tooke upon him formally consist Or when did he first become a servant from the first moment of his birth or conception 2. I cannot brooke their opinion who think our Saviour was by birth a legall servant as being filius ancillae the sonne of an handmaid or bond-woman This grosse heresie hath been well refuted by some late Schoolemen whose names I now remember not nor the names of the Authors or abettors of this opinion The mother of the Sonne of God was indeed ancilla an handmaid but to him onely whose service is perfect freedome So the Psalmist in the person of the Sonne of God to be manifested in our flesh or as his type directs his prayer Psal 116.16 O Lord truely I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid CHRIST as all Christians grant was the Sonne of Gods Handmaid after such a manner and in such a sense as never any man besides him was For hee was the promised womans seed and the sonne of a woman in such a sort as hee was not the sonne of any man Againe hee was the servant of God after such a peculiar manner as neither man or woman had been or ever shall be But how doth this peculiar service of his fit our servitude unto sinne Even as the medicine doth the disease or as the plaister doth the wound for which it is prepared In the Sonne of God made man there were two distinct wills the one truely Divine the other truely humane To deny this distinction of wills in Christ were to revive the heresie of the Monothelites so called because they held but one will in Christ to wit the Divine An errour into which they haply fell as many since their time have done into a worse by not distinguishing betweene voluntas and arbitrium Our Saviour CHRIST whilest hee lived here on earth had a reasonable will of the same nature or quality our will is of sinne excepted And by this will he could not but desire his owne particular good as health welfare and other lawfull contentments of the humane nature which are requisite to true joy or happinesse But in as much as the Sonne of God from the beginning of mans servitude unto Satan became our Surety to make satisfaction for our sins did in the fulnesse of time take our nature upon him hee did wholly submit his reasonable will all his affections and desires unto the will of his heavenly Father And in this renouncing of the arbitrament of his will and in the entire submission of it unto the will of his Father did that forme of a servant whereof our Apostle speakes formally consist For unto the essentiall definition or constitution of a servant these two onely concurre First the use of reason for fooles infants or reasonlesse creatures cannot bee servants Secondly Carentia arbitrii proprii want of right or arbitrary power to dispose of their bodily actions or employments according to the desire or lawfull choise of their reasonable will So then the generall definition or abstract forme of a servant is univocally the same 1 in legall servants 2 in servants to sin and 3 in the Sonne of God during the time of his humiliation here on earth or whilest hee became hostage for our Redemption But the service of these three sorts of servants is in the concrete most different And the difference ariseth from the matter or subject in which they are respectively deprived of proper right or arbitrary power to dispose of themselves or of their actions A legall servant wants power to dispose of his employments or bodily actions in matters temporary concerning this life Servants to sin such all the sonnes of Adam are by nature want power to dispose of their actions or course of life in matters morall spirituall or such as concerne their consciences All and every one of us have a desire to be happy and yet all of us until we be freed by the Son of God from this naturall servitude are by the prince of darknesse usually diverted from this strait way which leads to happinesse unto the crooked by-paths which tend to death and inextricable misery The Sonne of God although according to his humane nature hee had a reasonable will and desire of happinesse which could never in any particular become exorbitant or diverted from that which is most holy and just yet even hee in the dayes of his humiliation wanted power to reape the wages of righteousnesse or fruits of holinesse Though joy and comfort was as pleasant to him as to any man besides though compleat happinesse was due unto him as hee was a most just and righteous man personally united to the Son of God yet having taken upon him the forme of a servant hee did with unspeakeable patience and obedience beare all the griefes and sorrows which Satan and his instruments by divine permission could invent against him and cheerefully undergoe the heaviest burden which his heavenly Father was pleased to lay upon him for our redemption 3. From this peculiar condition of a servant which the Sonne of God did voluntarily take upon him that maine objection which some moderne Arrians or Photinians make against the absolute satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer for our sinnes may easily bee answered or rather will dissolve it selfe God say these men could not without tyrannicall injustice require full satisfaction for the misdemeanors of all wicked and naughty men from one most just and holy man To slay the righteous with the wicked that
bee farre from thee O Lord was the saying of Abraham to God Gen. 18.25 But farther surely it is and alwayes hath been from the Judge of all the world who is the eternall living rule of justice it selfe to put the innocent and righteous to the lingring and cruell tortures of an ignominious death for redeeming wicked and cruell men from deserved death or to purchase not the impunity onely but the advancement of willfull rebelle by the severe punishment of his deare and onely obedient Sonne This objection as was in the former Treatise intimated would pierce deepe if wee were disarmed of those Christian principles which these moderne heretiques have cast aside to wit the plurality of persons in the Trinitie and the Onenesse of person in the Sonne of God CHRIST JESUS God and man even whilest he was invested with the forme of a servant We beleeve and confesse as they doe there is but one God and yet in this God wee acknowledge as they doe not unum alium one person of the Father another of the Sonne another of the holy Ghost such a distinction of capacities that the Father not the Sonne exacts satisfaction for mans violation of the eternall and indispensable rule of equity and justice that God the Sonne not God the Father did become mans surety and undertake to make full satisfaction for all his sinnes 4. Now he that will make satisfaction to another must have somewhat to give of his owne so his owne as it is not the others to whom it is given What then had the Sonne of God to give by way of satisfaction unto God the Father or to the holy Ghost which was so his owne as it was not theirs Onely that part of our nature which hee tooke from the substance of his mother into the unitie of his Divine person In all other parts of our nature over all other parts of this universe God the Father and God the Holy Ghost had the same interest or right of dominion with the Sonne Now this part or our nature being thus assumed into the unitie of the Second Person The Sonne of God and the Sonne of the blessed Virgin doe not differ as party and party There is unum aliud one nature of the Godhead another of the manhood non unus alius not one person of the Godhead another of the manhood The Divine nature in the person of the Sonne is the onely party which undertooke our redemption the humane nature assumed into the unity of his Person was but his qualification an appendance or appurtenance no true part of his Person And as heretofore hath been observed albeit the flesh of the man Christ Jesus was Caro humana non divina flesh of the same nature and substance with our flesh yet were his flesh and blood more truely the flesh and blood of the Sonne of God than of the man CHRIST JESUS the humane body more truely and properly his owne than our bodies are ours Now our flesh and bodily parts are said to bee our owne not so much because they are parts of our nature as because they are appurtenances of our persons or because wee have a peculiar personall right or power so to dispose of them as to make them no parts of our nature Wee accompt it no unnaturall part in wise men to cut off any rotten or putrified member rather than suffer the whole body besides utterly to perish In some certaine cases publicke Societies or Communities of men none of which have the like peculiar authority over the meanest free private member as every owner of a body naturall hath over his teeth his toes his fingers or other lesse principall part necessary for some uses onely not for the preservation of the whole have by publique consent designed sometimes some principall members of the Communitie sometimes members lesse principall not condemned of any crime as sacrifices for redeeming others from present danger or for securing posterity from servitude or oppression And when outrages have been committed by great Armies the Authors or principall Incentives of the mutinie being unknowne or not convicted by legall proofe the expiation hath usually been made by decimation Every tenth man hath by wholesome discipline of warre been punished according to the demerits of the crime committed But albeit every tenth man since Adam had been by him and his successors consent devoted to death or lingring torture farre worse than death their execution could have made no expiatiō no satisfaction unto God for the transgressions of the whole Community The attempt of the medicine would have increased the malignity of the universall disease Yea albeit the Son of God could have been by man intreated to practice this cure which is used by private wise men for preservation of their naturall bodies or by great Commanders for preuenting mutinies or losse of Armies all this had not been sufficient to have redeemed the world or the whole Community of men from utter ruine and destruction or which is worse then both from everlasting servitude unto Satan Men by art or rather Artists by the guidance of Gods providence have found out remedies against venemous diseases by medicinall confections of venemous ingredients The poysonous bitings of the Scorpion are usually cured by the oile of Scorpions and of the flesh of some Serpents Physicians make soveraigne antidotes for preventing poison or for curing venemous diseases But the venome which the old Serpent had diffused not through the veines onely but through the whole nature of man was not curable by this course of physick The old Serpent was to be destroyed but not to become any ingredient in this Catholique medicine whereby the humane nature was to be cured That by the wisdome of God was taken out of the nature and substance wounded not from the substance which did wound or sting But this part of the nature wounded which was to bee the medicine for the rest was first to bee perfectly cured and throughly purified by personall unition to the Sonne of God And being thus purified and cleansed from all spot of sinne it was disfigured and mangled that the blood of it might bee as a balsamum and quintessence to heale the wounds and sores of our corruption If it were the will and pleasure of the Sonne of God to submit his most holy body unto the good will and pleasure of his most holy Father if with his consent and approbation it were bruised and mangled here was no wrong done to any man but on Gods part rather a document of his unspeakable love unto mankinde Love unexpressible on God the Fathers part that would suffer his onely Sonne to take upon him the true forme of a servant and undergoe such hard service for us Love unexpressible on God the Sonnes behalfe that did so willingly expose his humane body to paine and torture for our redemption Here was no wrong at all either to the Sonne of God from God the Father or