probably said Conferebant gratiam ex opere operato The ceremoniall sinne was taken away by a ceremoniall offering From this knowen maxime concerning the law of Ceremonies or Legall sacrifices S. Paul takes his rise unto the high mysterie of the Gospel to wit that the offering which the Sonne of God did make upon the Crosse was more sufficient as well for making full satisfaction unto God for all sinnes committed against his Law as for purifying the conscience of offenders from dead works more effectuall to make men partakers of the true celestiall Sanctuary than the blood of beasts was for making them legally cleane Purification from sinne or sanctification alwayes presupposed full satisfaction for the sinnes committed To cleanse men from sins meerely ceremoniall or to sanctifie them according to the flesh the bloody sacrifice of bruit beasts was sufficient although they suffered no other paines than naturall albeit they felt no force or assault of any agents but meerely naturall much more is the blood of Christ of force sufficient not onely to make a full atonement for us but to cleanse us from all sinnes although he suffered no paines supernaturall although he had suffered no force or impression of any agents more than naturall All this is but a branch of our Apostles inference For albeit sinnes committed against the Morall Law of God doe in a maner infinitely exceed sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies onely yet are not the sinnes of the one kinde so much more hainous than the sinnes of the other as the blood of Christ doth for vertue exceed the blood of bulls and goats Nor is there that odds of difference betwixt sinnes Moral and sinnes Ceremonial which is between the Priests of the Law and the high Priest of our soules the Sonne of God And yet the maine ground of our Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the superexcellency of the high Priest of our soules or of the sacrifice which hee offered in comparison with legall Priests and their sacrifices but withall in the admirable union of our high Priest and his sacrifice For admit it as possible first that there might haue been some matter of sacrifice as pure and spotlesse as the body of our Saviour more pure and glorious than the Angelicall substances Secondly that this pure and spotlesse sacrifice had been offered by a Priest for dignity equall to the Sonne of God as by the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity yet his offering or service could not have been so acceptable unto God as our Saviours offering or service was because the infinite worth of the Priest or Person sacrificing could not in this case have conferred any worth or vertue truely infinite upon the sacrifice or offering made by him though as holy and glorious as any created substance can bee unlesse it had been so personally united to him that in offering it hee had offered himselfe as our Saviour did This is the maine stemme or rather the root of our Apostles emphaticall inference or surplus in the forecited place How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God 7. Answerable to this hypostaticall or personall union betweene our high Priest and his sacrifice was that union between his obedience to his Father and his mercy and compassion towards men Obedience mercy and sacrifice were so united in his offering as they never had been before his owne death was the internall effect of his mercy towards us and obedience to his Father the period of his humiliation of himselfe Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Crosse That we know was a cruell and servile death but no part of the second death not charged with the paines of Hell otherwise our Apostle would have mentioned them as the accomplishment of his obedience or of his service which without them did exceed the very abstract or paterne either of service or obedience Quid est servitus nisi obedientia animi fracti arbitrio carentis suo Servitude saith Tully is nothing else but the obedience of a broken or dejected minde utterly deprived of all power or right to dispose of it selfe or of its actions It is indeed dejection of minde a broken estate or basenesse of condition which make men willing to become servants unto others or inforceth them to resigne all their right and power unto their Masters will But it was no dejection of minde no want of any thing in heaven or earth but onely the abundance of mercy and compassion towards us miserable men which moved the Sonne of God to renounce this world before he came into it and to deprive himselfe of all that right and interest which every other man hath over his owne body and soule by voluntary resignation of his entire humane nature unto the sole disposing of his Father Other servants were obedient unto their Lords upon necessity or dejection of minde hee voluntarily became a servant to his Father that he might accomplish the office of a servant in the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit This was the internall effect of his service and obedience and this sacrifice thus offered was all-sufficient to make satisfaction for all the disobedience of men for the sinnes of ten thousand worlds of men CHAP. XIV That our Saviour in his Agony at least did suffer paines more than naturall though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes but for his Conquest over Satan 1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were as God himselfe is all-sufficient to these purposes may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall or of no other kinde than his Martyrs Apostles or Prophets have done God forbid Betweene paines naturall and the paines of Hell there is a meane to wit paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent and somewayes more than naturall in respect of the Patient and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden though not upon the Crosse Nor were these his sufferings superfluous though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or reconciliation unto God Most expedient they were if not necessary to other purposes As first for his absolute conquest over Satan Secondly for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Of his conflict with Satan in the garden a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow His Father exposed him to the second temptation as he had unto the first temptation in the wildernesse and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him onely over his soule or life hee had no power These were takē from him by the malice
plot as malicious as cunning in Satan to dispossesse man of his present dignity and to throw him downe from this height of hope to hellish slavery to make him a creature more miserable than the earth water or other inferiour element harboured any Yet was his misery if wee found the very depth of it not commensurable to the excessive measure of his pride The ground or bottome of his pride was lower than the lowest part of the earth as low as nothing the height of it reached above the highest heavens Man who as St. Augustine saith was but terrae filius nihili nepos the sonne of the earth and nephew of nothing Man who if he had looked back to his late beginning might have said to the silly earth-worme Thou art my sister and to every creeping thing Thou art my brother became so forgetfull of his originall that hee sought by the suggestion of Satan to become like his Almighty Creator who out of the same earth had made him so much more excellent than all earthly or sublunary creatures as they were than nothing But let the first mans pride or Satans malice in hatching it and the rest of that sinfull brood receive all the degrees of aggravation which the invention of man can put upon them yet the medicine prepared by the Sonne of God will appeare more ample than the wound is wide and more soveraigne than it is dangerous Satans cunning in working mans fall doth no way equalize the wisdome of the Sonne of God in dissolving this work It is not probable as was observed before that Satan could so farre infatuate the first man as to make him affect to bee every way equall with his God but onely to be like or equall unto him in some prerogative as in the knowledge of good and evill and probable it is hee did desire that his immortality and soveraignty over other creatures might be the one independent and the other supreme Now these and all other branches of pride whereof wee can imagine the humane nature by the Serpents suggestion to be capable are more than countervailed every way over-reached by the first degree of the humiliation of the Sonne of God Hee was not onely like but equall to the Father not in some one or few but in all the prerogatives of the Divine nature Hee was saith the Apostle in the forme of God and therefore thought it no robbery to be equall with God Yet hee vouchsafed to become not like to man onely but truely man more then equall to other men in sorrows and sufferings 3. Whatsoever equality or similitude with God it was at which the first mans pride through incogitancy did aime it was not effected but affected onely by way of triall He could not out of a deliberate choise or setled resolution assure himselfe that hee should become such as hee desired to be But the Sonne of God who was truely God out of unerrable unchangeable infinite wisdome determined with himselfe to become truely man How man whilest man should become more than man truely God neither the wit of man nor the subtilty of the Serpent could have devised although by divine permission or grant they had been enabled to accomplish whatsoever to this purpose they could devise or imagine But the Wisdome and Sonne of God found out a way by which hee might still continue God and yet become as truely man as he was God a way by which the diversity of these two natures might still remaine unconfused without diversity of persons or parties Though mans ambition had reached so high as to aspire from that condition of being wherein God had estated him to bee absolutely equall with God yet his ambition had not been equall to that humiliation which the Son of God did not onely affect but attaine unto For although he became a man of the same nature that Adam was of or any man since hath been yet was he a man of a lower condition of as low condition as any earthly creature could be for as the Psalmist in his person complaines Psal 22.6 Hee became a worme and no man the reproach of men one whom the very abjects amongst men did think they might safely tread upon with scorne 4. For the Sonne of God to bee made man to be made a man of this low estate or condition whencesoever hee had taken his humane substance was a satisfaction all-sufficient to the justice of God for mans pride a dissolution most compleat of the first work that our first Parents suffered the Devill to work in our nature if we respect onely the substance of it But that no part of Satans work no bond or tie of circumstance wherewith hee had intangled our nature might remaine undissolved the Sonne of God was made of a woman and this was to secure the woman or weaker sex that hee came to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in them For as the Apostle saith The first woman was in the transgression not the man the man at lest not so deepe in the same transgression as the woman Shee alone for ought we reade committed the robbery in taking the forbidden fruit from off the tree her husband was the receipter onely And by swallowing it by the Serpents suggestions shee first conceived and brought forth death without her husbands consent or knowledge Her transgression was twofold Trust or confidence in the Serpents promise want of credence through pride to Gods threatnings To dissolve this work of the Devill so farre as it was peculiar to the woman the Sonne of God was conceived of a woman without the knowledge or consent of man Satan used the Serpent for his proxie to betroth himselfe unto our nature the holy Ghost by the ministery of an Angel winnes the blessed Virgins assent or accord to become the mother of the Sonne of God Seeing the first woman became the mother of sinne whilest shee remained a virgin though then a wife the Sonne of God would have a virgin for his mother yet a virgin wife a virgin affianced to a man And thus as the first woman being not begotten but made of man did accomplish Satans plot in working his fall and corrupting our nature so the Sonne of God being made man of a woman doth dissolve this work by purifying what she had corrupted and by repayring what the first man and woman had undone 5. There is a tradition concerning the Messias conception and his mothers father'd upon an ancient Jewish Rabbin by Petrus Galatinus but as I conjecture rather a Commentary upon his owne fancie or some Monkish Legendary whom hee was pleased to grace The abstract of this Legend with his Cōment upon it is thus There was one special part of Adams bodily substance priviledged from the contagion of the first sin and this propagated by one speciall line unto posterity untill it came to the mother of the Messias who from the vertue of this preserved portion of Adams nature was conceived
of men and by the death of the Crosse not by the immediate power of Satan That the conflict in the garden was extraordinary that in this houre the decretorie battle betwixt the old Serpent and the womans seed was to be fought at least the brunt of it the letter of the Scripture is to my apprehension very plaine As first from that speech of our Saviours after his Maundy Ioh. 15.13 Hereafter I will not talke much with you for the Prince of this world commeth with greater violence surely than at any time before had been permitted him to use For our Saviour uttered these words immediatly after Satan had entred into Iudas at which time his Commission to enter the lists with the holy seed of the woman was first to bee put in execution It hath alwayes seemed to me a mystery or secret whereof no reason can bee given in nature how Satan gaines greater power of doing mischiefes and harmes to men by secret compact with others of their owne nature as with Witches or other of his owne worshippers than is permitted him to use by his owne immediate power or strength Iudas though hee was no Witch yet was hee a worshipper of Satan one who had made Mammon his God for whose service he had resolved to betray his Master into the hands of his enemies It is pregnant againe frō that saying of our Saviour immediatly upon the cessation or intermission of his Agony and bloody sweat that Satans assaults were at this time extraordinary When I was dayly with you in the Temple you stretched out no hand against mee sed haec est hora vestra potestas tenebrarum But this is your houre and the houre appointed for the powers of darknesse to try their strength against mee But after they could get no advantage of him by grapling with him in the garden being not able to move him to the least signification of any impatience or overture of discontent as Satan had done Iob in his second temptation they leave him unto the malice of his mortall Enemies being assured they should get advantage enough over their soules and prevalently tempt them to cruelty and hatred towards this holy One more than naturall The houre of his terrible combat with Satan was but newly expiring when thus he spake to the chiefe Priests and Elders And howbeit this word houre sometimes imports more than an houre as wee say by the clock some larger indefinite time or season yet that in the forecited place it is to bee taken for a just houre and no more many circumstances of the Text perswade mee this especially when hee saith to his Disciples Could yee not watch with mee one houre As if he had said Of all the time that I have been with you this was the onely houre wherein your watchfulnesse and attendance on me had been on your parts most requisite and to me most acceptable And the effect of his petition as S. Mark expresseth it was thus that if it were possible the houre might passe from him This was the houre wherein hee tasted the bitter cup whose present bitternesse upon his prayer was if not altogether taken away yet asswaged and the houre it selfe wherein hee was to tast of it perhaps shortned 2. This conflict with Satan and the issue of it our Saviour apprehended at his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem immediatly after his future glorification was avouched by a voice from heaven three dayes before hee entred into his Agony Now is my soule troubled and what shall I say Father save mee from this houre but for this cause came I unto this houre Father glorifie thy Name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it againe c. Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lift up from the earth will draw all men unto me Ioh. 12.27 28 c. In what sense or how farre the world at this time was judged exhibits plentifull matter of controverse Divinity not immediatly emergent from the positive points of Divinity now in hand And for this cause I must request the ingenuous Reader for the present to take a matter which before was proposed into deeper consideration The point is briefly this Our first Parents in the selfe same fact by which they became rebellious ipso jure committing high treason against their God and Creator did subject themselves and their posterity unto the tyrannicall dominion of Satan His vassailes and slaves all of vs were by right most soveraigne amongst the sonnes of men by right of conquest in Duel Now albeit the Conquerer was a Traytor and rebell against God although he did first commit or at least accomplish this his rebellion and treason by withdrawing our first Parents from that allegiance and obedience which by law of nature they and wee ought perpetually to have borne unto our Maker Yet so observant of all rules of equity and just forme of proceedings was he who is goodnesse equity and justice it selfe that unto Satan the professed Rebell against him and implacable Enemy towards man he did vouchsafe the benefit of the Law of Armes or Duel Now seeing Satan being not Omnipotent but of power force and subtilty limited had thus subdued our first Parents whom their Creator had endowed with freedome and power sufficient to dispose of their actions for the future good of themselves and their posterity his gracious goodnesse would not take us out of this Rebels hands by the Omnipotent power or irresistible force of his Godhead Man being conquered by his sometimes fellow creature was in the wisdome of Divine equity to bee rescued from this bondage by a Creature by a man of the same nature and substance subject to all the infirmities sinne excepted to which wee are subject as taking his substance from that man whom Satan had conquered As Satan did not appeare in his owne shape or likenesse when hee subdued our first Parents for so no question they would have been more wary to have closed with him but disguised in the similitude of a Serpent which was a creature more subtill than all the beasts of the field yet a creature every way farre inferiour to man So the Sonne of God did not enter this combat with Satan in the glory and strength of his Godhead but in his Godhead as it were disguised or clothed upon with the true nature and substance of man and of a man whom Satan upon triall before had knowen to be throughly subject to the infirmities of mortality Otherwise hee had more wit than to have entered the lists with him in the second conflict 3. How much dearer this conflict with Satan cost our Saviour than Iobs second temptation cost him hee onely knowes and this knowledge hee learned by patience and obedience in suffering these paines of what kind soever they were The ancient Greek Liturgies expresse them best by
triumph 2. Some goe a great way further and would perswade us that the people or multitude being sory that they had so sleighted our Saviours presence or invitations in the last feast of Tabernacles Iohn 7. to which this solemnity of carying branches was at the least originally proper did seeke to redeeme their former neglect and regaine the opportunity of tendring their allegiance unto him not as hee was the Sonne of David onely but as the God of their Fathers who had brought them out of Aegypt into the land of Canaan and redeemed them from Babilonish captivity to honour him with solemne feasts and other services in Jerusalem But that the multitude either all or most or any should have a more distinct explicite apprehension of his Deity or of the great mystery of salvation which hee was now to accomplish then his Disciples and Followers had is very improbable That his very Disciples though Actors in this businesse had no such distinct apprehension of the great mystery imported by this solemnity is unquestionable For S. Iohn upon a distinct review of all the circumstances of this Solemnitie whether congratulatory or precatory or both tells us These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Iesus was glorified then remembred they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things unto him Chap. 12.16 3. Amongst the things which are written of him this was one that he should be acknowledged and publickely proclaimed for the Sonne of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the often promised and long expected Messias and Redeemer of the whole world And all this was acknowledged and proclaimed by the multitude as well by the forme of prayer which they used as by their reall congratulations First that the word Hosanna was uttered by way of prayer by the multitude is cleare from that passage in the Psalmist whereunto the word Hosanna with the matters of fact which did accompany it doe referre For so it is agreed upon by all sides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalme 118.25 is a solemne and formall prayer Save now I beseech thee O Lord O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperitie to wit unto the Sonne of David and unto his people by him And thus farre at least the apprehension or intention of the people when they cried Hosanna to the Son of David did reach For they thought this was the day which the Lord had made and did therefore rejoyce and were glad in it as in the day of their long expected redemption from the hands of all their enemies As they heard these things he added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdome of God should immediately appeare Luke 19.11 This prenotion that the kingdome of God was now to be manifested did facilitate the assent or obedience as well of the owner of the Asse and the Colt whereon hee rode to Jerusalem as of the Master of the family wherein he did eate his Passeover unto the intimation or direction of our great Lord and Master The one story concerning their present obedience we have Matt. 21.5 The other more at large Luke 22.7 to the 14. Nor did they erre in taking this to be the day of their Redemption but in the confused notion of the enemies from which they were to bee redeemed They expected onely a deliverance from the tyranny of the Romans and other hostile Nations over whom they hoped the Sonne of David should exercise royall and temporall Jurisdiction And it is no wonder if the multitude whether of inhabitants of Jerusalem or strangers which went out to meet him and congratulate his approach did apprehend no more then thus seeing the two Disciples which accompanied him toward Emaus upon the day of his resurrection had no better a notion of the redemption promised then this though even this notion did fleet or vanish after they had seene him put to death Wee trusted that it had been hee which should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.21 This argues that their former trust was for the present extinguished till he by opening the Scriptures unto them did revive and kindle it 4. Againe when they cry Hosanna to the Son of David in the Highest not from heaven this no way argues that their salutation should not be formally precatory especially if Maldonats observation be without exception that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be equivalent according to the Hebrew dialect unto ab excelsis from the highest Heavens However taking the word Hosanna as in its primary signification forasmuch as the Lord send help or grant salvation and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the native Greek in the highest the naturall meaning or literall expression of the congratulation will amount to this that God would bee pleased to ratifie their petitions for prosperity of the Sonne of David in heaven not doubting but that God so doing his blessings upon him and them might bee established here on earth For so they further expresse themselves in the Psalmists words Blessed bee the King that commeth in the Name of the Lord Peace in heaven and glory in the highest Luk. 19.38 But though Maldonat with other judicious Commentators doe clearely evince this forme of congratulation Hosanna to be precatory yet was Maldonat more to blame then such as thinke it onely to have been congratulatory when hee avoucheth that this solemnity of carying branches of Palms and Olives had no speciall reference to the feast of Tabernacles and more to blame when hee thinketh that the feast of Tabernacles had nihil commune cum Christo no type or figure of this solemnity or that this solemnity did include no Emblematicall acknowledgement or testification that CHRIST JESUS was as truely the Sonne of God as of David as well Davids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord as his Sonne CHAP. XX. At what time and upon what occasions the 118. Psalme was composed And at what solemne Feast especially used 1 FOr giving such as it may concerne more full satisfaction in the points late handled and for setting forth the sweet harmony betwixt the Propheticall song and the peoples acclamations and cry at this great and last solemne Festivity the best method I can conjecture would bee to make diligent enquiry at what time and upon what occasions the 118. Psalme was first written and at what solemne Feast it was principally used Mollerus a man of commendable paines in this particular search and one who had read very many telleth us that the major part of learned Interpreters whom hee had perused are of opinion that this Psalme was composed by David himselfe upon occasions of his victory over his enemies and freedome from disturbance or danger from the house of Saul upon the death of Ishbosheth And for strengthening this conjecture hee referreth us to the 2. of Sam. 6. And Coppen a most Ingenuous and exact Examiner of such Commentators as he had read seemeth rather
any man to death Iohn 18.31 How true or pertinent this answer was I will not here dispute But thus they answered as the same Evangelist there tells us that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled signifying what death he should die and by whom This saying or prophecy of our Saviour to which St. Iohn refers is punctually set downe by S. Matthew 20.17 18 Iesus going up to Ierusalem took the twelve Disciples apart in the way and said unto them Behold we goe up to Ierusalem and the Sonne of man shall be betrayed unto the chief Priests and unto the Scribes and they shall condemne him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucifie him Unto this death of the crosse they brought him by their importunate and subtill sollicitations of Pilat to proceed against him upon another capital crime then they by their pretended law had condemned him for For they pronounc'd him as worthy and guilty of death by their law for blasphemy whereas now before Pilat they frame a new accusation against him for rebellion against Caesar because he profest himself to be King of the Jews as in truth he was for royall pitty and compassion towards them but without any purpose to move the people to take armes or to exercise any royall authority over them or any others upon earth because his kingdome was not of this world 2 Whilest the high Priest and Elders sate as Judges in their owne Councell-house they suborn'd false witnesses against him but whilest they accuse him before Pilat they themselves become the most malicious and falsest witnesses that ever were produced or offered themselves voluntarily to testifie in open Court against any living man in a cause criminall or capitall All these malicious practices against him were clearly foretold by the Psalmist his forerunner in the like sufferings and in particular I take it by David himselfe Psalme 35. False witnesses did arise they laid to my charge things that I knew not They rewarded me evill for good to the spoyling of my soule But as for mee when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloth I humbled my soule with fasting and my prayer returned into mine owne bosome I behaved my selfe as though he had beene my friend or brother I bowed downe heavily as one that mourneth for his mother But in mine adversity they rejoyced c. ver 11 12 13. c. Thus did the Composers of this Psalme and of some others to the like effect complaine every man respectively in their owne persons and upon just occasions And however they did not in their murmuring complaints yet in the causes or occasions of the sufferings they did really prefigure juster occasions more grievous matter of complaint on the behalf of their expected Redeemer And he must have uttered the like complaints in a farre higher straine if he had beene but a meere man not armed with patience or long suffering truly divine The indignities done unto him by Pilat and the Roman Souldiers by Herod and his men of warre were perspicuously foretold by David Psal 2. Why do the Heathens rage and the people imagina vaine thing This parallel between the prophecy of David and the historicall events answering to it not the Apostles onely but other inferiour Disciples did unanimously acknowledge upon the deliverance of Peter and Iohn and the rest of the Apostles from such violence intended against them by the Rulers and Elders of the Jews as had been practised by them upon our Saviour for working of a miracle in his name When they had further threatned them they let them goe finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified God for that which was done For the man was above forty yeares old on whom this miracle of healing was shewne And being let goe they went to their owne company and reported all that the chief Priests and Elders had said unto them And when they heard that they lift up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of thy Servant David hast said Why do the heathens rage and the people imagin vaine things The Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his Christ For of a truth against thy holy childe JESUS whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilat with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsaile determined before to be done Acts 4.21 22. c. 3. All of our Saviours Persecutors whether Jews or Gentiles per dicta facta malè ominata did reade their own doome and the doome of all such unto the worlds end as shall continue the course that they begun The Roman Souldiers clothing him in a purple robe by putting a crown of thornes upon his head and by crying All haile unto the King of the Jews did act that part in jest or comicall merriment which they must one day act in earnest and more then tragicall sorrow For he had sworne it long before That all knees should bow unto him and in that day they which crowned him with thornes shall see him crowned with Majesty and glory Herod in sending him back to Pilat in a white or candid robe did beare witnesse of his innocency and integrity and withall of Herod his fathers scarlet sinnes in putting so many poore Innocents to a bloudy death upon the notice of his Nativitie And as for Pilat and the Roman state by whose authority he was scourged with rods here on earth hee whose seat is in the heavens did even then laugh them to scorne and since hath broken the whole race of Roman Caesars with a rod of iron and dasht them and their Monarchie to pieces like a Potters vessell What more shall be done against these cruell Actors or Abetters of their cruell practices against this King of Kings I leave it wholly with all submission to his sole determination But that the Indignities done unto him by the Jews by the Roman or other heathen Governors and the visible revenge which hath since befalne them were punctually foretold by David Psalme 2. the testimony before cited Acts 4. is a proofe most authentick and most concludent 4. Yet of all the sufferings which he suffered under Pontius Pilat besides the indignities done unto him in the extremities of his paines upon the Crosse at which Pilat was not present the rejection of him by the Jews when this heathen Governor out of a good nature or well meaning policy had proposed him with an infamous theef or murderer was far the worst and doth deserve the indignation of all that loved him And this circumstance is prest home to them by S. Peter Acts 3.13 14. The God of Abraham and of Isack and of Jaacob the God of our Fathers
〈◊〉 in the forme of God the originall implyeth the very essence or nature of God As much as wee are taught to beleeve in the Nicene or Athanasius Creed where it is said Hee was of one substance with the Father c. He was so in the forme of God or so truely God that he thought it no robbery no usurpation of any dignity which was not his owne by right of nature to account himselfe equall with God It was no robbery so to account himselfe because hee knew himselfe so to be Yet saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did as it were empty himselfe or sequester this his greatnesse and became lesse or lower than the sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by taking upon him the essentiall state or condition of a servant being first made substantially man that hee might be for a time essentially and formally a servant For though every man be not a servant yet every servant must be a man Now the Son of God being thus found in the forme and garbe of a man and in the formall condition of a servant He humbled himselfe yet lower and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse And that was a kind of death unto which by the Roman Laws whereunto he yeelded obedience none but slaves or malefactors of servile condition were lyable And how ever many of this state or condition were put unto this ignominious death yet none besides the man Christ Iesus did ever suffer it out of obedience or willingly but for want of power to resist or eschew it Had it beene in the power of the most abject slaves that ever did suffer it to have called in but half so many Roman soldiers to their rescue as Christ Iesus could have commanded of celestiall Angels they would have sould their lives at a dearer rate than the Emperors did which were slain in battaile or mutiny 3. But the man CHRIST JESUS who was also the true Sonne of God and who in that hee was the wisedome of God did better know the horror or paines of a lingring death before he had experience of it as man than any creature man or Angell can doe when HE was afflicted and tormented yet he opened not his mouth but was brought unto his Crosse like a Lambe unto the slaughter and as a sheepe before his shearer is dumbe so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 This far exceeded all obedience of any man whether free borne or a slave His patience in all his sufferings did farre exceed the patience of dumb creatures of Lambs themselves of wormes or meaner sensible passives For none of them doth dye a violent death without striving or reluctance without endeavour to annoy such as afflict or torment them Whereas this Lamb of God to shew himselfe to be the mirrour of patience and obedience did pray for his persecutors after the pangs of death more then naturall had seized upon him after he had been buffetted spit upon scourged and every way most disgracefully abused whilst hee endured the lingring and cruell torments of the Crosse exasperated with bitter scoffes and revilings of his unrelenting persecutors uncessantly pouring vinegar in stead of oyle into his wounds gave not the least signification of discontent either by word or gesture towards God or man unlesse some haply will put a sinister interpretation upon that exclamation when he was ready to dye My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But of the purport of this exclamation by Gods assistance in its due time and place In the interim without prejudice to any mans person or authority I rest perswaded that this speech beareth no character of discontent much lesse of despaire To conclude this point As there never was any sorrow like to his sorrow in his sufferings so was there no obedience nor ever shall be any obedience like to his from the beginning to the end of his sufferings This did farther exceed all his sorrows than his sorrowes did the paines and sorrowes of other men CHAP. 2. That the dignity from which the Sonne of God had descended and unto which the Sonne of man was to be exalted were testifyed by many signs and documents during the time of his humiliation 1. VNto this admirable lowlinesse of obedience God awarded a correspondent degree of exaltation For so the Apostle inferreth in the words immediately following Philip. 2.9 c. Wherefore or for this cause God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father The same Apostle Rom. 14.9 tells us To this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living As man he was made Lord from his resurrection but as the Sonne of God and a distinct person from his Father he was Lord from eternity as to omit other places before cited our Apostles inference in the 14. of the Romanes ver 10.11 will make cleare to any Christian that can take it into due consideration We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ How is this proved or whence had our Apostle himself this revelation From the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 45. ver 10. For there it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse unto God Christ then not as man but as God was that Lord in whose name the Prophet speaketh this As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me 2. Had this Lord the onely Sonne of God taken our nature upon him though adorned even from the first moment of its assumption with such majestie and glory as now it is yet the assumption of it would have beene an humiliation of the Sonne of God not physicall but rather as I said civill or ad modum civilis humiliationis an incomparable and unparalleld affabilitie an incomprehensible loving kindnesse But for this Lord to be incarnate for us of a Virgin to take our nature upon him charged with mortality and infirmities to surcharge our ordinary humane conditions with the extraordinary estate of a servant to burden this hard servitude with paine and torture with disgrace and ignominies more than servitude humane is capable of This was that unexpressible humiliation and incomprehensible loving kindnesse towards us miserable men which our Apostle so emphatically setteth forth for our patterne in submitting our wills to his most holy will as he did his unto his Fathers And our Lord himself requireth that we should be humble as he is humble not according to the measure of his humiliation for that is as impossible for us as to be as perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect or as holy as he is holy Yet must we be truely holy as our
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
as it reacheth to the first moment of time or to the first beginning of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible which have beginning of being From this utmost extent of the word beginning S. Iohn in the beginning or entrance into his Gospel strongly inferrs that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word by whom all things were made was truely God without beginning or end of dayes because he was in the beginning that is had a true and reall existence when all things whether visible or invisible which were created by him did but begin to be But the beginning mentioned by the same Apostle in the forecited place 1. Iohn 3.8 may not be stretched so farre as to make it pitch upon the first beginning of time or of all things made or created First it is neither certaine nor probable that any of the Angelicall substances were created or begun to bee before all other creatures Secondly it cannot be certainely knowne whether the blessed Angels which keepe their station and the collapsed Angels were all created in the same instant or if it were certaine or granted that some of them were created before others though all of the same day yet could there be no certainty or probability that the collapsed Angel which is become a Devill or prince of Devils who S. Iohn saith sinned from the beginning was created before all other Angels or with the first that were created Most probable it is in my opinion that the Angels were all created in the fourth evening and morning together with the Sunne and Moone and the Starres of the Firmament two dayes before man was created Thus much those words of God unto Iob Chap. 38. ver 4. seeme to import Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the world c. or when the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy If by the sonnes of God in this place the Angels be meant then Lucifer by which name we commonly describe the Devill was then the sonne of God an Angel of light and did with the whole hoast of heaven praise laud and magnifie his Creatour whensoever hee was created God created him righteous and just 2. Now albeit he was the first of all Gods visible creatures that became evill though sinne it selfe did take its beginning from him yet undoubtedly he had a perfect being before sinne did begin to be in him hee did not he could not sin in the same point of duration in which hee was created Some therefore for this reason referre the beginning mentioned in S. Iohn to the beginning of sinne as if his meaning in their construction were thus Satan sinneth perpetually from the beginning of sinne which had its first beginning in him But though this be true yet if wee stretch the beginning of our Apostle thus farre it will not close so well with his collection or inferences For the Devill in the same place is instiled a sinner from the beginning especially if not onely with reference to those works which the Sonne of God was to dissolve or destroy But the Sonne of God did not manifest himselfe on purpose to dissolve the works which the Devill had wrought in himselfe or in the collapsed Angels his associats but the works onely which they had wrought in man For this cause saith the Apostle He tooke not on him the nature of Angels but hee tooke on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 As the Devill is a liar and father of lies since the beginning so he was a sinner not onely in himselfe but the beginner or begetter of sinne in man And since he first begot sinne in him he sinneth still as a worker or foster-father of sinnes in mans posterity 3. Whether our first Parents did sinne upon the same day whereon they were created is to me uncertaine and for this reason I will not dispute either upon the improbabilities or probabilities of the affirmative opinion which is maintained by many of whose opinion I had rather make some good use than move any controversie about it Most certaine it is that the old Serpent and his associats were sinners themselves before they seduced our first Parents to that first and hainous sinne of mankind Whether one or more of them had possessed the visible Serpent which Moses saith was subtiler then all the beasts of the field as the fittest instrument or organ for accomplishing their designe against poore innocent man his ruine was projected before hee or they could accomplish it Most probable againe it is that they had grievously sinned against their God and Creator if not before yet at least from the Creation or first beginning of man whose estate they envied yet whether they were irreversibly cast out of Gods gratious presence before the accomplishment of this their project against man is not so certaine More probable to me it is that the accomplishment of this wicked project which they could not hope to effect but by slandering their Creator did make up the measure of their former sinnes unto an unpardonable height unto an height more unpardonable then the sinne against the holy Ghost is in men during this life For wee reade not of any curse or wofull Sentence pronounced much lesse peremptorily denounced against the old Serpent and his associats untill God had convented this visible Serpent and the woman whom he had beguiled But the curse denounced against that visible Serpent did fall upon the whole Legion of uncleane spirits which had possessed it or used it as their instrument though perhaps possessed but by one 4. In this seduction of our first Parents if not before the Devill committed sinne no lesse then rebellion or high treason against his maker In this alone if not otherwise he proudly sought to be like God in that he made man of a servant or sonne of God to become his slave or vassall He was of Iulius Caesars minde or rather Iulius Caesar of his and more affected ro be Lord Paramount over earth and the visible creatures in it then inferiour or Compeere to any Celestiall creature And no marvell or matter of wonderment it is if this combination of rebellion against God and of envie against man by God appointed the supreme Lord of all visible creatures did make the breach of Satans allegiance to his Creator so irreconcileable that the true and onely Sonne of God would not vouchsafe to become his Lord Redeemer as hee is of men whom hee seduced But whether S. Iohns meaning in the forecited place be that the Devill sinneth from the beginning of sinne in man or from the beginning of sinne in himselfe From the one or from the other beginning hee still continueth to sin against God and man without end or intermission 5. But is sinne in man in deed and truth the work of Satan If truely and properly it bee a work it is something or more then something as being the work of him who doth not
busie himselfe about small matters It must be a thing either visible or invisible and if it bee comprehended under either part of this division why are wee taught to beleeve that God the Father Almighty is the Maker not onely of heaven and earth but of all things visible and invisible in them If all things were made by him what could be left for Satan to work or make The apparance of this difficulty moved that acute and learned Father S. Austin sometime to say that sinne was nothing and oftentimes to allot it a cause deficient onely denying it any true positive efficient And many good Writers since his time in our dayes especially overswaid with this Fathers bare authority will have sinnes of what kinde soever to be privations onely no positive entities But they consider not that the selfe same difficulties besides other greater more inevitable inconveniences will presse them no lesse who make sinne to bee a meere privation or to have a cause deficient onely than they doe others who acknowledge it to have a positive efficient cause and a being more then meerly privation 6. What then bee the speciall inconveniencies wherewith their opinions are charged which make sinne either nothing or but a meere privation First wee account it a folly in man a folly incident to no man but an Heautontimorymenon to bee angry or chasing hot for nothing Hence seeing the Almighty Judge doth never punish either man or Devill but for sinne we shall cast a foule aspersion on his wisdome and Justice by maintaining sinne to bee nothing But fewer in our times there be though some I have heard out of the Pulpit which under pretence of St. Augustins authority make sinne to bee meere nothing But many there bee who hold it to be a meere privation which is a meane betweene meere nothing and a positive entitie Yet admitting not granting the nature of sinne to consist formally in privation meere privations for the most part have causes truely efficient fewer causes merely deficient if there can bee any causality in deficiencie Blindnesse deafenesse dumbnesse are privations and yet more men lose the sense of hearing sight or feeling in some particular members by violent blowes or by oppression of raging humours than by meere defect or decaying of spirits And where one man drops into his grave for meere age as ripe apples doe from the trees they grow on to the ground without blasts of winde or shaking a thousand die a violent or untimely death by true and positive efficient causes either externall or internall 7. That which either hath deceived or emboldned many Divines to allot sinne a being onely privative is a Philosophicall or metaphysicall Maxime most true in it selfe or in its proper sphere but most impertinently applied to the point now in question The Maxime is Omne ens quà ens est bonum Every entity in that it hath a being is good Most true if wee speake of transcendentall goodnesse or bonum entis for every thing which hath a true being is accompanied with a goodnesse entitative But the question amongst Divines is or should be about moral goodnesse or that goodnesse which is opposed to malum culpae that evill which wee call sinne Now if every positive entitie or nature were necessarily good according to this notion of goodnesse every intelligent rationall creature should be as impeccable as his Creator and wee should truely sinne if to speake untruly bee a sinne when wee say the Devill is a knave or any man dishonest For if every nature or entity as such were morally good it were impossible any nature or positive entity should bee evill qualified should be laden with sinne that is with that evill which is opposed to goodnesse moral or to holinesse whether this evill be a meere privation or positive entitie For in as much as the sight or visive facultie is the property of the eye or in as much as this proposition is true Oculus quà oculus videt this conclusion is most necessary when the eye hath lost the sight or visive facultie it is no more an eye unlesse in such an equivocall sense as wee say a picture hath eyes though not so properly If a man cannot see as we say stime but with one eye we account it no solecisme to say hee hath lost the other The case in the former instances is more cleare If Satan or man were morally good because they have a positive entity or nature neither of them could possibly be morally evill neither of them sinfull creatures albeit wee should grant sinne to bee as meere a privation as blindnesse is 8. It is a maxime in true Logick that is in the faculty or science of reasoning absolutely true and therefore true in Divinity also for truth is but one and it is her property not to contradict her selfe though examined in severall subjects Quicquid convenit subjecto quà tale non potest abesse sine subjecti interitu No naturall property can cease to bee or perish but together with the subject which supports it Whence if that Angel which is now the Devill had been truely good quà Angelus or if goodnesse moral had belonged unto him as he was a positive entitie or rationall creature hee had ceased to be either a rationall creature or any thing else when hee lost his goodnesse 9. Of sinnes of omission it is most true that they finde place in our nature rather by deficiency than efficiency and yet even this deficiencie for the most part is occasioned by some formall positive act or habit For this cause it is questioned among Schoolemen Whether there is or can bee any sinne of meere omission that is not occasioned by the commission of some other sinfull acts precedent or linked with some such act present To deny all sinnes of meere emission in nature already corrupted would bee more probable than in the first sinne whether of man or Angel Neither of them could possibly have committed sinne or done that which they ought not to have done without some precedent omission of that which they ought to have done But of this elswhere more at large and somewhat of it briefly in the next Chapter 10. Sure I am that the work which Satan wrought in our first Parents and in our nature had a cause truely efficient hath a being more than meerely privative For it was a work so really great and so cunningly contrived that the strength and wisdome of the Sonne of God was required as being onely all-sufficient to dissolve or destroy it and is it possible that any so great a work could be wrought by deficiencie or a defective worker Not Satan onely but his instruments are as positive as industrious efficients as effectuall workers of iniquity as the best man which ever lived the man CHRIST JESUS onely excepted was or is of righteousnesse But it is true againe that neither Satan nor his instruments can produce or make any substances or subjects these
Law submits himselfe unto that legall precept Thou stalt not tempt the Lord thy God and with this Scripture retorts Satans attempted blow upon himselfe But what temptation of God had it been in the Sonne of God to have throwen himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple to have given proofe that hee had been that just man over whom God had given his Angels charge Some there bee who reply that Satan did alledge this Scripture impertinently imperfectly For the Psalmist saith He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes Now the wayes of men are not in the aire but upon the earth This interpretation I neither much dislike nor altogether approve because our Saviour doth not taxe Satan for his impertinent or imperfect allegation of the former Scripture Nor doe I see any reason why flying in the aire might not be one of the wayes of the Sonne of God made man as well as walking upon the Sea in a tempest if so it had pleased him or his heavenly Father by whose appointment or disposing hee did doe or suffer all things Now it was his Fathers will that by his walking on the water he should manifest himselfe to be the Sonne of God able to command either winde or water It was likewise his Fathers will that at this time as man hee should conquer the pride of life or that deepely implanted desire in all men of proper excellency or advancing themselves before due time By this free resignation of his authority over the Angels hee makes satisfaction for our first Parents pride in seeking to advance themselves above the Angels 4. Againe Paradise did affoord our first Parents as full satisfaction for the delight of the eye as it did for food and yet desire of that food which they needed not found entrance into their hearts or fancies by their eyes But the Sonne of God being made the Sonne of man having neither place to lay his head nor any prospect for the present to please his eye had all the kingdomes of the earth and their glory represented unto him with proffer of their sale or donation rather onely upon condition that hee would doe that homage unto this great Prince of the world which many Princes doe to Kings or Emperours or Emperours themselves had done to Popes or Prelates The pretence was faire and the temptation the strongest of all the three For what man who is but meere man would not adventure upon any practice for the gaining the Kingdome or Monarchy which their Ancestors had foolishly lost Now Adam was Lord and Monarch of this visible world untill hee suffered himselfe to bee conquered by Satan who did remaine de facto if not by right of conquest the Prince of it and Lord of men untill the Sonne of God made man did throw him out of possession But that houre of his was nor yet come so farre was hee from affecting the kingdomes of this world that hee was yet acting the part of a servant in it but a servant to his father onely not to men or Princes in this world Of how meane a condition soever he were as man yet he disdained to worship men or Angels though but with civill worship for any preferment and therefore dismisses this great Usurper thus with indignation Avoid Satan Satan it seemes had a prenotion or suspition that Christ was that Just and holy man whom the Psalmist describes Psal 91. Or such a Sonne of God as they were which appeared before the Lord when he was permitted to tempt Iob. That hee was the onely Sonne of God or equall with God was more than hee then knew 5. These three temptations wherein our Saviour foiled Satan are parallel'd to the first temptation of Iob which was losse of worldly substance more generally all the evills which the Sonne of God did suffer in our flesh or whilest he was conversant with men in the forme of a servant did beare Analogie to the Evills which Iob did suffer but for particulars more in number and more grievous there was no evill that comes ab extra which hee suffered not in greater measure than Iob did any As for losse of goods or worldly substance Iob made no reckoning the Sonne of God though heire of all things did not vouchsafe so much as to grace these by being owner or possessor of them He renounced the world and all things in the world before he came into it he would not be intangled or medle with them that he might please him who had chosen him to be his souldier his onely champion in this great conflict with the Prince of darknesse But to parallel Iobs other temptations with our Saviours CHAP. XI A parallel between Jobs second temptation and the Sonne of Gods sufferings in our flesh before the houre of his Agony or his Crosse 1 IOb was smitten with sores from the crowne of his head to the soles of his feet his disease was more than naturall at least incurable for he was thus smitten by Satan But was the Sonne of God thus smitten durum est affirmare Satan had no power thus immediatly to smite him For bodily diseases wee doe not reade of any that did take possession of his sacred body wee reade that he cured all maner of diseases but never stood in need of the Physicians helpe for himselfe No disease did breed in his body being free from sinne and being anointed to cure all he did not hee could not take any by contagion But though hee cured all manner of diseases or all the diseased which were brought unto him yet we doe not reade that he cured all in Judea which were diseased For so none should have died in that land during the time of his three yeares pilgrimage through it from his baptisme to his death Albeit hee cured many of diseases naturall yet not all that were naturally diseased though weake or sicke unto death For he was not manifested to dissolve or destroy the works of nature albeit he gave profe by many experiments that he was able to destroy or divert the whole course of nature But wee reade That JESUS of NAZARETH being anointed by the Holy Ghost went about from his baptisme to his death doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Deuill Acts 10.38 And many were so oppressed which were not possessed Many diseases which to us would have seemed naturall or casually bred were as immediatly procured by Satan as Iobs plagues were and in these bonds of bodily affliction Satan had held them longer than he held Iob. Such was that womans disease whose cure being wrought by the Physician of our soules upon the Sabbath day the Ruler of the Synagogue did maligne as an ungodly work but the Sonne of Gods reply doth justifie as well the truth of our assertion as the lawfulnesse of his practice Hypocrite doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his Oxe or his Asse from the stall and
them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings Zephaniah 3.6 7. That this Prophecy unto what other times soever it be concludently appliable doth in speciall referre unto the calamities brought upon the Nations by Alexander the great is apparent from Zephan 2.4 5. But to returne to the literall meaning of the Prophecie now in handling that as I take it is as if the Prophet had spoken in more words to Jerusalem thus Thine eyes in the generations following shall behold the flourishing pride of sundry Nations each endeavouring to overtop others in height of glory and temporall state each driving to keepe others under by humane policie and strength of warre And whilst the sight of their mutuall Conquests shall possesse thy thoughts thou wilt bee ready in the pride of thy heart to say Jerusalem and Judah one day shall have their turne and in that day shall the sonnes of Iacob the seed of Abraham and David bee like the Monarchs of Greece or Persia farre exalted above the Kings of other Nations every one able to beare Armes glistring with his golden shield and leading the Princes of the Heathen as prisoners bound in chaines and their Nobles in fetters of iron The beauty and riches of their costly Temples shall deck the Chariots of my children which their captives shall draw in triumph But thou shouldest remember that the promised Prince of peace of benignity and Justice should not bee sought amongst the tumultuous hosts of warre Or canst thou hope that the desire of all Nations should bee thy Leader or Generall to destroy themselves It is glory and honour enough for thee glory and honour greater than the greatest Conquerer on earth could ever compasse that the King of kings and Lord of lords shall be anointed and proclaimed King upon the hill of Sion that the inviolable decrees of everlasting peace shall bee given to all the Nations under heaven from thy Courts And therefore whilst horses and Chariots or other glorious preparations of warre shall present themselves to thy view suffer them to passe as they come and rest assured that thy King of whose comming thou hast often beene admonished by the Prophets is not amongst them The maner of his comming unto thee so thou wilt mark it bodes farre better tidings to thee and all the Nations besides than can accompany the prosperous successe of warres or any victory which is stained with blood What King of Judah or Israel did ever levy an Army though in just defence of their Countrey and people on so faire termes that no poore amongst them were pinched with taxes for the supply What victory did they ever obtaine so good cheape that many of their children were not inforced to sit downe with losse many wounded others maymed and some alwayes slaine But loe now I bring thee unusuall matter of exultation and uncouth joy For behold thy King commeth unto thee whensoever he commeth attended with justice for his guide and salvation for his traine Hee shall execute judgement without oppression hee shall save thee so thou wilt be saved without destroying any able and ready to make thy lame to goe to give life to the dead without hazard either of life or limb to any who rests within thy territories Such shall bee the maner of his comming and such his presence that the silliest wretch amongst thy children may think himselfe more happy than any King of Judah or Israel which was before him so hee will conforme himselfe to his garb or demeanor For hee commeth unto thee poore and lowly riding upon an Asse and a Colt the foole of an Asse to weane thee from the vaine hopes of the Heathen from which the Prophets have so often dehorted thy forefathers Some put their trust in horses some in chariots but thy confidence must bee in the Lord thy God who will alwayes bee thy King to defend thee to protect thee and strengthen thee through his weaknesse For by the weaknesse of his appearance he will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Ierusalem and the battell bow shall bee cut off and hee shall speake peace unto the heathen His Dominion shall bee from Sea to Sea and from the River to the ends of the Earth Zach. 9.10 The mark whereat the Prophet Zachariah in this place aimes is the very same with that which the Prophet Haggai his coaevall had set up a little before him Neither of them as I take it conscious of the others predictions Yet now bee strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Ieshua sonne of Iosedech the high Priest and bee strong all the people of the Land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts according to the word that I covenanted with you when yee came out of Egypt so my spirit remaineth among you feare yee not For thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land And I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The glory of this later house shall bee greater than the former saith the Lord of Hosts And in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts Haggai 2.4 5 c. And the Prophet Zachariah had touched before on the same string Chap 2. ver 10. Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Sion for loe I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord. And many Nations shall bee joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent mee unto thee c. Every branch of these forecited Prophecies were exactly fulfilled according to their plaine literall sense in our Saviours triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem and visitation of the second Temple which by the bounty of Herod the great and of many other Nations was made even to secular eyes more beautifull and glorious than the Temple of Solomon was The extraordinary contributions of severall Nations and Princes of the Roman Empire for the beautifying of this second Temple and Herods speciall care in the right imployment of his owne and others expences upon this glorious worke might have taught the Jews had they not been blinde to expect that the desire of all Nation their promised King was speedily to come unto it yet not to come in such pomp specially of warre as they expected but in such humility and meeknesse of spirit as the Prophet Zachariah in the ninth Chapter and tenth verse hath expressed And so it had been foretold in the building of Zerubbabels Temple Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Who art thou O great mountaine before
the other Evangelists as unto S. Luke they make their expressions in the plurall It is a generall rule worthy of every Commentators actuall consideration that albeit every Evangelist relate nothing but the truth yet no one of them relates the whole truth concerning our Saviours life and actions his death and passion nor doe they alwayes observe the order and method of all circumstances or occurrences as will appeare hereafter The maner of our Saviours comming to Jerusalem might bee and no doubt was more distinctly represented to the Disciples senses than it had been to the Prophet Zachariahs spirit For lumen propheticum erat aliqualiter aenigmaticum the light of prophecy was not alwayes distinctly evident but indefinitely And this might bee the reason why the Prophet foretells that our Saviour should come riding both upon the Asse and the Colt when as three Evangelists mention onely the Colt And albeit S. Matthew mention both yet it may bee replied that hee historically in that passage avoucheth nothing of his owne observation but onely relateth the Prophets words which hee saw now fulfilled although our Saviour had rid onely upon the Asse or upon the Colt 3. But however the Prophets words in themselves considered or compared onely with the historicall narrations of their fulfilling as they are extant by S. Mark S. Luke and S. Iohn may admit the presumed Synecdoche or plurall expression in steed of the singular ye◠to my understanding or observation none of these three Evangelists affirmative for Christs riding upon the Colt or foale of the Asse is so exclusive as S. Matthews relation of the same story is inclusive Nor is S. Ieroms Maldonat's or others inference from the expression of these three Evangelists so concludent that hee rode upon the Colt alone as the inference which may bee drawen from S. Matthews relation that he rode upon both Yee shall finde an Asse tied and a Colt with her loose them and bring them unto me And if any man shall say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway hee will send them Hee further addes All this was done that is might bee fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Tell yee the daughter c. All the other three Evangelists affirmatives wil not inferre this negative that our Saviour did not ride upon the Asse at all The historicall literall or legall tenour of our Saviours Commission directed or given to his two Disciples whom hee authorized to take them imply that hee had instant use of both though more speciall or permanent use of the Colt or foale And the execution of this Commission necessarily inferres as much And the Disciples went and did as Iesus had commanded them And brought the Asse and the Colt and put on them their clothes and they set him thereon or as the Originall hath it upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 21.6 7. His dismission of the Damme upon some short triall and longer use of the young one as sundry of the Ancient with good Moderne Interpreters observe did admirably prefigure the instant rejection of the Jews and the speedy admission of the Gentiles here promised The Gentile though never accustomed to the yoke of Mosaicall Lawes by whose rites the anointing and consecration the comming of this great King was foreshadowed did beyond expectation willingly submit himselfe unto the Gospel or Kingdome of heaven here on earth as the yong Colt which never had been backt before this time did gently beare our Saviour notwithstanding all the noise and cry which had been made by the promiscuous multitude When as the Jew resembled or typified by the old Asse which had been used to the yoke and saddle became as it is probable shee did resty and skittish ready to kick and spurn and endeavouring to throw her Rider And in type or prognostick of this mysticall truth it is not improbable that our Saviour relinquisht the Asse after hee had assayed her and tooke her Colt and rode on him into Jerusalem though no man had sat upon him before 4. However the fulfilling of the later part of this Prophecy whether it was fulfilled by Synecdoche or in the plaine literall and legall construction of the Prophets words was most cleare and evident unto the Apostles and Disciples senses But whether the former part of this Prophecie concerning the titles of this King was so clearely fulfilled admitteth some question which cannot be determined without further discussion of the grammaticall sense or Propheticall importance of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The best and choisest Translations vary much partly about the signification partly about the pointing of these words And no Interpreter which I have read though I have consulted many doth give mee any tolerable satisfaction for their Emphaticall or Propheticall importance save one or two I shall for this reason crave pardon with humble submission of my opinion unto the judgement of the learned to proffer more variety of Translations and Interpretations then I have been accustomed unto the Readers choise The vulgar Latin renders it thus Ecce Rex tuus veniet tibi justus salvator ipse pauper c. Behold thy King commeth a just King and a Saviour hee is poore c. referring the Hebrew pronoune to pauper Iunius accords in part with the vulgar Iustus salute praeditus with whom our later English accords save onely that it referres the pronoune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto justus salvator hee is just and having salvation whereas Iunius altogether omits the expression of it and the vulgar referres it to that which followeth hee is poore he is lowly or meek The Translator of the Kings Bible referres it unto justus Iustus ille salvator that Iust and Saviour Arius Montanus in his Interlineary referres the same pronoune unto the first clause Iustus c. But whereas others reade Salvator ille hee hath it Salvatus ipse So doth our former English hee is just and saved himselfe But Cramerus the Lutheran ut Hunnii discipulum agnoscas chargeth that Translation which our former English followes as his Master Hunnius had Calvin in many others with Judaizing at least for giving advantage to the captious Jew For what argument can it be either of glory to a great King or of joy unto Subjects to foretell that he himselfe should bee servatus or salvatus This expression implies danger unto himselfe more directly then saving health unto others it supposeth perill or hazard antecedent but doth not necessarily argue victory for the consequent And yet the words in the Originall are formally passive But Cramerus with some others would out of the grammaticall rudiments which they had learned instruct us that Verbs of this forme or conjugation sometimes admit a signification meerely active otherwhiles neither meerely active or passive but reciprocall as the Septuagint renders this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saving himselfe So doth our later English in the
importance of the word Ecce in this place as in many others is the present exhibition of that which was promised or portended The mystery foreshadowed or portended by the anniversary sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb by the daily morning and evening sacrifices by those sacrifices of the Atonement whose blood was brought by the high Priest unto the Sanctuary was in brief this that all these rites or solemnities should expire upon the death or sacrifice of the true Lamb of God and thus much and more is sealed unto us by that speech of our Saviour a little before his death Consummatum est All is finished Iohn 19.30 Now the rending of the vaile immediately after our Saviour had commended his Spirit into his Fathers hands did betoken that now and not before the entrance or passage into that most holy place which was prefigured by the materiall Sanctum Sanctorum was set open not to Priests onely but to all true beleevers That the coelestiall Sanctuary whether that be coelum empyr aeum the seat of our future blisse or some other place was now instantly to be hallowed or consecrated by the blood of the high Priest himself as the terrene Tabernacle or Sanctuary was by the legal high Priest with the blood of bullocks or goats c. 5. Whithersoever the soule of this our high Priest went that day wherein he offered the sacrifice of himself as whether into the nethermost hell or into the place where the soules of the righteous men did rest there is or should be no question among good Christians but that he was that evening in Paradise For so had he promised unto the penitent Malefactor who was crucified with him with an asseveration equivalent to an oath Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise As for those sophisticall Novelists to say no worse who thus mispoint the words of his promise Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit sometimes hereafter as at the generall resurrection of the just though not this very day they declare themselves to be in this particular as in most others more unfit to interpret sacred Oracles then Apes to be principall Actors in stately dolefull Tragedies For our Lord and Saviour did most graciously grant this poore soule more then he durst petition for and with better expedition then he could hope for to wit a present estate of blessednesse whereas he requested onely to be remembred with some mercy or favour without indenting any point of time after our Saviour had entred into his Kingdome And his entrance into that Kingdome was not upon the same day wherein he suffered nor within forty dayes after The Kingdom of heaven was not set open to any beleevers not to Abraham himself upon our Saviours passion or resurrection whether that Kingdome import the same place wherein Abraham before that time was or some other For it is one thing to say that the soules of righteous men deceased were in heaven before our Saviour ascended thither another to say they were in the Kingdome of heaven or Citizens of that Kingdome which upon the day of our Saviours victory over death was not erected And he who denyeth the souls of the Patriarchs to be partakers of the Kingdome of heaven before our Saviours death cannot be concluded to grant that they were either in Limbo or in any other region under the earth or under the stars 6. But to waive further dispute about this point for the present Our Saviours soule upon the same day wherein he dyed was in paradise and so was the soule of the penitent Malefactor yet not at the same instant perhaps not within the compasse of the same houre wherein our Saviours soule went thither in what region soever whether of heaven or earth this paradise was seated For it is evident out of the Evangelicall histories that our Saviour did surrender his soule into his fathers hand before either of them who were crucified with him did expire For as was before recited out of S. Matthew 27.50 immediatly upon the ninth houre our Saviour yeelded up the Ghost This testimony alone or this at least with the like Mark 15.37 had been sufficient to prove the Article of our Saviours death But for the more full satisfaction of all posterity as well of Jews as of Gentiles God would have the death of his onely Sonne to be remarkably recorded by the solemn testimony of the Roman Centurion taken upon examination before Pilat And now when the even was come that I take it was betwixt five and six of the clock because it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsailer who also waited for the Kingdome of God came and went in boldly to Pilat and craved the body of JESUS And Pilat marvailed if he were already dead and calling unto him the Centurion he asked him whether he had been any while dead And when he knew it of the Centurion he gave the body to Joseph Mark 15.42 43 c. That our Saviour died before the other which were crucified with him is more apparant from the parallel testimony of S. Iohn 19.31 32 c. The Iews therefore because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the crosse on the Sabbath day for that Sabbath day was an high day besought Pilat that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away Then came the Souldiers and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucifyed with him But when they came to JESUS and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs 7. And thus we may observe that aswell the malignant Jews as Christs Disciples of the Jewish Nation and the Roman Souldiers though unwittingly did strangely combine for the accomplishment of divers prophecies or prefigurations concerning the death of the Sonne of God Had hee not died before the other two which were crucified with him his legs had been broken with theirs and his body had not been interr'd before the setting of the Sunne as is probable from Pilats demand to the Centurion whether he had been any while dead before he would give Ioseph leave to bury his body Now if his body had not been interr'd before the Sun-set or at least before the starrs appeared the mystery prefigured by the imprisonment of Ionas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the whale could not by any Synecdoche have been exactly fulfilled by his blessed rest in the grave but of this hereafter Again if the breaking of his legs had not been prevented by his dying before the other two which were crucifyed with him the harmony betwixt the manner of his death and the death of the Paschal Lamb could not have been so exact for no bone of it
reverentia nulla opinionum consensio sed quasi in perturbatissimo choro unusquisque diversum canit In coelestibus planetis nulla est dissensio elementa suas sedes tenent unumquodque constitutum sibi officium facit sponsam suam cujus causa omnia facta sunt continua sic dissensione perire labefactari permittis Malósne spiritus seditionis authores atque administros in ditione tua sine ulla reprehensione ita regnare permittes potentemnè illum iniquitatis ducem quem semel dejeceras castra invadere milites tuos spoliare sines Cum hic in hominibus versabaris vocem tuam fugiebant daemones Emitte quaesumus Domine Spiritum tuum qui è pectoribus omnium nomen tuum profitentium malos spiritus magistros intemperantiae avaritiae vanae gloriae libidinum scelerum discordiae abigat Crea in nobis Rex Deus noster cor mundum Spiritum sanctum tuum in pectoribus nostris renova nec Spiritum sanctum tuum auferas à nobis Restitue nobis fructum salutaris sanitatis tuae Spiritu principali corrobora Sponsam Pastoresque ejus Hoc Spiritu reconciliasti coelestia terrestribus hoc formasti ac reduxisti tot linguas tot nationes tam diversa hominum genera in unum corpus Ecclesiae quod corpus eodem Spiritu copulatur capiti Hunc Spiritum si in omnium hominum cordibus renovare digneris tum externae hae quoque miseriae cessabunt aut si non cessaverint ad fructum saltem utilitatemque diligentium te traducentur Siste hanc Domine Iesu confusionem hoc horribile Chaos in ordinem adducito expande Spiritum tuum super aquas malè fluctuantium opinionū Et quia Spiritus tuus qui juxta Prophetae sententiam continet omnia scientiam etiam habet vocis effice ut quemadmodum omnibus qui in domo tua sunt unum lumen unus Baptismus unus Deus una spes unus Spiritus sic unā quoque habeant vocē unam cantilenā unū sonū unā catholicam veritatē profitentes Cum in coelum gloriosè ascendisti demisisti de caelo res preciosissimas dedisti dona hominibus varia munera spiritus divisisti renova Domine de Coelo veterem bonitatem da nunc Ecclesiae labefactatae inclinatae quod illi emergenti exorienti initio dederas Da Principibus Magistratibusque gratiam timoris tui ut ita Rempublicam suam gubernent quasi statim tibi Regi Regum rationem reddituri Da sapientiam semper assistricem illis ut quodcunque optimum factu fuerit animo provideant factis persequantur Da Episcopis tuis donum prophetiae ut sanctas Scripturas non ex suis ingeniis sed tua inspiratione declarent interpretentur Da triplicem illis charitatem quam à Petro requirebas quando illius curae oves tuas commisisti Da Sacerdotibus tuis temperantiae castitatisque amorem Da populo tuo studium sequendi mandata tua promptitudinem obediendi iis quos tu super illos constituisti Ita fiet ut si largitate tua principes ea imperent quae tu praecipis pastores eadem doceant populus utrisque pareat veteris Ecclesiae dignitas tranquillitasque cum ordinis conservatione ad gloriam Nominis tui restorescat Ninivitis pepercisti morti addictis statim ut ad poenitentiam conversi fuerant domum tuam inclinantem jam corruentem despicies quae vice sacci gemitus vice cinerum lachrymas profundit promisisti remissionem conversis ad te at hoc donum tuum est ut quis cum toto corde suo ad te convertatur ut omnis bonitas nostra ad gloriam tuam redundet Tu factor es refice opus tuum quod formasti Tu Redemptor es serva quod emisti Tu Servator es ne sinas perire qui tibi innituntur Tu Dominus es possessor vendica possessionem tuam Tu caput es opem fer membris Tu Rex es da nobis legum tuarum reverentiam Tu princeps pacis es aspira nobis fraternam charitatem Tu Deus miserere supplicum tuorum sis ut beatus Paulus loquitur omnia in omnibus ut universus Ecclesiae tuae chorus consentientibus animis vocibus consonantibus gratias de misericordia inventa agant Patri Filio Spiritui sancto qui pro perfectissimo concordiae exemplo personarum proprietate distinguuntur conjunctione naturae adunantur quibus laus gloria ad omnem aeternitatē Amen LOrd JESUS CHRIST which of thine Almightinesse madest all Creatures both visible and invisible which of thy godly wisdome governest and settest all things in most goodly order which of thine unspeakable goodnes keepest defendest furtherest all things which of thy deep mercy restorest the decaied renewest the fallen raisest the dead vouchsafe we pray thee at last to cast downe thy countenance upon thy welbeloved Spouse the Church but let it be that amiable and mercifull Countenance wherewith thou pacifiest all things in heaven in earth and whatsoever is above heaven and under the earth vouchsafe to cast upon us those tender and pitifull eyes with which thou diddest once behold Peter that great Shepherd of thy Church and forthwith he remembred himself and repented with which eyes thou once diddest view the scattered multitude and wert moved with compassion that for lack of a good Shepherd they wandred as sheep dispersed straied asunder Thou seest O good Shepheard what sundry sorts of Wolves have broken into thy sheep-cotes of whom every one crieth Here is Christ here is Christ so that if it were possible the very perfect persons should be brought into error Thou seest with what winds with what waves with what stormes thy silly ship is tossed thy ship wherein thy little flock is in perill to be drowned And what is now left but that it utterly sink and wee all perish Of this tempest and storme we may thank our own wickednesse and sinfull living we espie it well and confesse it we espy thy righteousnesse and wee bewaile our unrighteousnesse but wee appeale to thy mercy which according to the Psalme of thy Prophet surmounteth all thy works wee have now suffred much punishment being soussed with so many warres consumed with such losses of goods scourged with so many sorts of diseases and pestilences shaken with so many flouds feared with so many strange sights from heaven and yet appeare there no where any haven or Port unto us being thus tired and forlorne among so strange evills but still every day more grievous punishmēts and more seeme to hang over our heads We complaine not of thy sharpnesse most tender Saviour but we espy here also thy mercy forasmuch as much grieuouser plagues we have deserved But O most mercifull Jesu we beseech thee that thou wilt not consider ne weigh what is due for our deservings but rather what becommeth thy mercy without which neither the Angels in heaven can
them and mystically of Lucifer But they sinne no lesse for the act which say in their hearts or presuppose in their implicit thoughts altissimus est similimus mihi the most high God hath determined nothing concerning men or Angel otherwise than wee would have done if we had been in his place They preposterously usurpe the same power which God in his first Creation did justly exercise who though not expresly yet by inevitable consequence and by implicit thoughts make a God after their own image and similitude A God not according to the relikes of that image wherein hee made our first Parents but after the corruptions or defacements of it through partiality envy pride and hatred towards their fellow creatures But of the originall of transforming the Divine nature into the similitude of mans corrupted nature I have elswhere long agoe delivered my minde at large And I would to God some as I conjecture offended with what I there observed without any reference or respect either to their persons or their studies had not verified the truth of my observations in a larger measure than I then did conceived they could have been really ratified or exemplified by the meditation or practice of any rationall man This transformation of the Divine nature which is in some sort or degree common to most men is in the least degree of it one of those works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came into the world to dissolve by doctrine by example and exercise of his power But what bee the rest of those works besides this All I take it may be reduced to these generall heads First the actuall sinnes of our first Parents Secondly the remainder or effects of this sinne whether in our first Parents or in their posteritie to wit that more than habituall or hereditary corruption which we call sinne originall Thirdly sins adventitious or acquired that is such vitious acts or habits as doe not necessarily issue from that sinne which descends unto us from our first Parents but are voluntarily produced in particular men by their abuse of that portion of freewill which was left in our first Parents and in their posterity and that was a true freedome of will though not to doe well or ill yet at lest inter mala to doe lesse or greater evill or to doe this or that particular ill or worse Originall sinne is rather in us ad modum habitus than an habit properly so called All other habituall sinnes or vices are not acquired but by many unnecessitated vicious acts But to distinguish betweene vice and sinne or betweene vicious habits and sinfull habits is to my capacity a work or attempt rather of the same nature as if one should goe about to divide a point into two portions or a mathematicall line into two parallels 6. Nor are these sinnes enumerated nor sinne it self formally taken the onely works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came to destroy but these sinnes with their symptomes and resultances For the Devill sinneth from the beginning in continuall tempting men to sinne although his temptations doe not alwayes take effect He sinneth likewise in accusing men before their Creator or solliciting greater vengeance than their sinnes in favourable construction deserve Now that neither his temptations nor accusations do alwayes finde that successe which hee intends this is meerely from the mercy and loving kindnesse of our Creator in sending his Sonne to dissolve the works of Satan The generall symptome or resultance of all sinne originall or actuall is servitude or slavery unto Satan and the wages of this servitude is death not this hereditary servitude onely but death which is the wages of it is the work of Satan Yet a work which the Sonne of God doth not utterly destroy untill the generall resurrection of the dead Nor shall it then bee destroyed in any in whom the bonds of the servitude and slavery unto sinne have not been by the same Sonne of God dissolved whilest they lived on earth Hee was first manifested in the flesh and forme of a servant to pay the ransome of our sinnes and to untie the bonds and fetters of sinne in generall Hee was manifested in his resurrection to dissolve or breake the raigne of sinne within every one of us For as the Apostle speaks He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification And he shall lastly bee manifested or appeare in glory utterly to destroy sinne and death CHRIST saith the Apostle was once offered to beare the sinnes of many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.28 SECTION 2. Of the more speciall qualifications and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works which the Devill had wrought in our first Parents and in our nature and for cancelling the bond of mankindes servitude unto Satan CHAP. VI. Of the peculiar qualifications of the Sonne of God for dissolving the first actuall sinne of our first Parents and the reliques of it whether in them or in us their sinfull posterity 1. THe qualifications or undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving or remitting such actuall sinnes as doe not necessarily issue from our first Parents and for bringing them and us unto greater glory than they affected doe challenge their place or proper seat in the Treatise designed to his exaltation after death and his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Wee are now to prosecute the points proposed in the title of this Section and in the first place such points as were proposed in the title of this Chapter 2. The rule is universally true in works naturall civill and supernaturall but true with some speciall allowances Vnum quodque eodem modo dissolvitur quo constituitur Though the constitution and dissolution of the same work include two contrary motions yet the manner or method by which both are wrought is usually the same onely the order is inverted And wee should the better know how man 's first transgression was dissolved by Sonne of God if wee first knew how it was wrought by Satan or wherein the sinne it selfe did properly consist Infidelity or disobedience it could not bee for these are symptomes of sinnes already hatched Whatsoever else it was the first transgression was pride or ambitious desire of independent immortality Now the Sonne of God begun his work where Satan ended his dissoluing this sinne of pride by his unspeakable humility And to take away the guilt of mans disobedience or infidelity which were the symptomes or resultances of his intemperate desires the Sonne of God did humble himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse reposing himselfe in all his sufferings upon God The first man was the onely Favourite which the King of kings had here on earth the onely creature whom hee had placed as a Prince in Paradise a seat more than royall or monarchicall with hopes of advancement unto heaven it selfe It was a