of the liuing sacrifices what needed the burning of the same after it was dead and senselesse obscurely to intimate if not falsely that the fire of affliction as you would haue it should consume the Messias God had therefore another meaning as I take it in commanding ech sacrifice after it was slaine to be offered to him by fire Forwhere of all creatures subiect to mans sight and sense fire was the fittest for the light heate force and motion thereof to designe vnto the people the brightnesse of Gods glorie the zeale of his holinesse the grace of his Spirit and seate of his habitation in the heauens God gaue the Iewes fire from heauen to burne perpetually on his Altar which did teach them with what cleannesse of hands and feruentnesse of heart the things which hee required should bee offered vnto him and did separate the sacrifices dedicated vnto God from all prophane abuse and humane vse and made them ascend towardes the place of his glorious presence that he might accept them with fauour and be pleased with them All which significations of heauenly fire were most perfectly accomplished in the sacrifice of Christ Iesus For neuer man nor Angel offered vnto God any seruice with like puritie and charitie as the Lord Iesus offered himselfe to his Fathers will and that his oblation did not onely clense his body from all corruption of mortalitie and infirmitie as appeared by his resurrection but pearced the heauens with admirable celeritie and efficacie and preuailed in the presence of God to bee a sweete smelling sauour for all the sonnes of God Some of these things you seeme to acknowledge As fire to signifie the Acceptation of Christs death in that it was a sacrifice of a sweete sauour ascending vp to God What reason then haue you that fire should note the wrath of God powred out on Christes soule and body before he died Shall one and the same fire in one and the same sacrifice import both gracious acceptance with God and terrible vengeance from God These be contraries in mine eyes whatsoeuer they be in yours That fire in sacrifices did shew Gods fauour and not his anger the sacrifices of Gedeon Salomon and Elias doe plainly prooue which God with fire from heauen consumed not in token of any displeasure against them or dislike of their offerings but in signe of very fauorable acceptations both of their persons and sacrifices Euen so at the first offerings of Aaron the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and there came a fire from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering vpon the Altar which when all the people saw they gaue a shout for ioy and fell on their faces This fire descending from God and consuming that sacrifice God commaunded to keepe burning for euer on his Altar and none might approch to him with any other fire in incense or offering in so much that when Nadab and Abihu the sonnes of Aaron tooke strange â—…ire to offer before the Lord and not of that which alwaies burned on the Altar God destroyed them with fire The fire then which consumed the sacrifices of the Iewes was miraculously deliuered them by God and ioyfully receaued of all the people and therefore did not argue to them any wrath or vengeance on their sacrifices but rather the fauour and good liking of God which the Scripture noteth by the sweete odour of the sacrifice As when Noah made his burnt offerings to ascend by fire the Scripture saith the Lord smelled a sauour of rest that is he shewed himselfe to be appeased and his anger to rest So when Aaron and his sonnes were to be consecrated Priests God said to Moses Thou shalt make to smell by fier that is thou shalt burne the whole Ram as a burnt offering it shall be to the Lord a sauour of rest that is a pleasing sacrifice And for that cause God willed the Iewes in their peace offerings whereby they gaue thanks for their safetie and prosperitie to vse fire and saith of it ISSHE this burning by fire or this sacrifice made by fire is a sauour of rest vnto the Lord. And so in incense which Saint Iohn resembleth to the prayers of the Saints fire was likewise required to teach them that their prayers went vp before God as the smoke of sweete odours and were accepted of him Then not affliction or indignation on the Sacrifice was declared by the fire which God commaunded to be vsed in all kinds of sacrifices but rather an ascending vp to the presence of God and an accepting thereof in the sight of God which is farre from your suffering of hell paines in the soule of Christ for which you bable so much in both your bookes But the Apostle sayth as the bodies of beasts were burnt without the campe so Christ suffered without the gate Were it granted that fire in Sacrifices did signifie probation or affliction which is no way proued you are no whit the neerer to your suffering of hell paines in the soule of Christ. For the bodies of beasts sayth the Apostle were burnt which can by no pretense of these wordes be stretched farder than the afflictions of Christes bodie when he was carried to be crucified without the gate And the chopping of the holocaust in pieces that it might the more conueniently be layed on the wood to burne maketh as slender proofe that Christes soule suffered the paines of hell notwithstanding your graue deuice that Christes soule was chopt in pieces and not his bodie which conceits of yours declare your follie but helpe not your cause Those Sacrifices whereof part was burnt by fire and the rest reserued for the Priest and sometimes for the owner that brought them to feast before the Lord had their bloud shed at the doore of the Tabernacle as well as the other and so resembled the death of Christ no lesse than the other though God would haue no part of the one to be eaten by the Priests or people as the other were but to be wholly consumed by fire because they were wholly reserued or dedicated vnto him And this the Apostle respecteth in that comparison which he maketh of the bodies of beasts burnt without the campe whereof the Priests that serued in the Tabernacle could not be partakers They were consumed by fire because the Priests should not eat thereof to foreshew as the Apostle noteth that such as were addicted to the seruice and ceremonies of the Law and the outward Temple could not be partakers of the trueth which is in Christ except they did leaue those elements of the Law which seemed so glorious in their eyes and followed Christ out of the gate bearing his reproch whose bloud was most holy and most sufficient to sanctifie the people though hee were cast out of the citie to suffer as a malefactour and wicked person Neither were the dead bodies of those beasts consumed by fire out
purged that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him by the remitting of all our sinnes and the restoring vs to the fauour of God and graunt these words that our sinnes were imputed to him that his righteousnesse might be imputed to vs which yet are not the Apostles words where is the proportion you so confidently speake of that as we are made his righteousnesse so he was made our sinne This comparison vnlimited it notorâ—…ously false and were it true it euerteth all your frame The full and euerlasting reward of his righteousnesse is allotted to vs. Was the wages of our sinnes so imposed on hiâ—… His righteousnesse is now imputed to vs because it shall be perfectly inherent in vs and is presently sealed vnto vs by the spirit of adoption whereby our harts are inherently sanctified Were our sinnes so imputed to him that they should afterward perfectly possesse him To vs God imputeth Christs righteousnesse without our consents and often without our knowledge as in children baptized Were out sinnes imputed to Christ without his vnderstanding or will In vs God hateth out sinnes and ioueth our persons for Christes sake To keepe this comparison will you say that God hated the righteousnesse of Christ and loued the sinne imputed to him for our sakes And were there not so many differences in the maner of Christes hauing our sinnes and our hauing his righteousnesse as there are yet are you no whit the nearer For as we no way deserue to be his righteousnesse so he no way deserued to be our sinne And though God forget all our sinnes and putteth them vtterly out of his sight when he washeth vs from them yet God did not wholly cast Christs righteousnesse out of his remembrance when he did punish him for our sinnes Christ therefore tooke our sinnes from vs and layed them on himselfe but he doth not take his righteousnesse from himselfe to giue it to vs but doth impart it to vs as hauing enough for himselfe and for vs because he is God as well as man So that all our sinnes were imputed to him to make vs iust yet all his righteousnesse is not imputed to vs to make him a finner as you would haue him but he bare the punishment of our sinnes which the Apostle calleth sinne that we might receiue the reward of his righteousnesse not in cogitation or computation only but in deed and execution For euen in this life where we aâ—…e continuall sinners we haue no righteousnesse but what is ioyned with the reall remission of our sinnes pardoned for Christes sake and with the grace of Gods spirit purifying our hearts by faith and inflaming them with the loue of Gods goodnesse and mercie towards vs. Our righteousnesse then in Christ hath more then imputation though imputation be also needfull it hath the seale of Gods spirit possessing our hearts and the inherent graces of faith and loue which God accepteth at our hands and thereby maketh vs partakers of Christes righteousnesse for that we beleeue in the name of his only Sonne Whereas you say the Fathers haue two good senses of the Apostles words Christ was made sinne for vs the one That God made Christ a sacrifice for sinne the other That God vsed him As he doth sinners what is there in both these which we acknowledge not Yea what is this later but the very same point which we vrge You admit both and yet vnderstand neither as you ought to doe If you acknowledge the death and bloud of Christ to be the true and onely sacrifice for sinne then must you acknowledge these three things in it that it was pleasing to God vndefiling the Priest and elensing the sinner If as well the oblation as the offerer were holie and acceptable to God why doe you defend that Christ was sinnefull and hatefull in his sufferings for sinne which was the sacrifice that he offered for sinne If it clensed the offender how could it deâ—…ile the sacrificer who was the Mediatour to God for abolishing sin you will haue one and the same sacrifice to be holie acceptable and auaileable for sinne and yet to be defiled hatefull and accursed with sinne you may call lighâ—… darknesse and good euill and thinke the prophet denouneeth no woe to you because your inuentions are priuiledged But to mine vnderstanding and I thinke to your Readers these plaine contrarieties of holy and defiled acceptable and hatefull righteous and sinnefull in one and the same sacrifice and sufferer at one and the same time will not stand together but you must be colted or cursed in your warbling conâ—…its It is nothing else in all this Question that we held but that God vsed Christ our Redeemer and Suertie As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth You neuer want an As to helpe you at need You heare the Fathers say for of their sense you speake that God permitted the wicked to reproch his Sonne and to put him to a shamefull and cruell death as if he had beene the vilest malefactor amongst the multitude thence you collect that God punished Christ As he doth sinners that is with the greatest and sorest torments of death and damnation that are in this life or in hell But this As doth rather plunge you into the mire then plucke you out of it and therefore you adde so farre as possibilitie admitteth Now how farre that is by whom shall we be tried by the Scriptures and Fathers or by your shallow conceits and fancies you haue beene told often enough that where the Scriptures make three kinds of death due to sinners and for sinne the death of the bodie the death of the soule and the second death which is the euerlasting torment of bodie and soule in hell fire and all the learned and Catholike Fathers hold the same confession the two last deaths spirituall and eternall are not onely impossibilities but horrible blasphemies to be ascribed to the person of Christ and to either of these you would not yet speake one word but by stealth Now you haue gotten hold of a double As saying that God vsed Christ As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth you thinke your selfe safe and out of this As you will frame vs new deaths of the soule a new Hell and all the same which the damned doe suffer in substance not in circumstance But we haue long looked for your proofes and till they come tie vp your As to serue you for another turne For this the Fathers are not silent if I were so ambitious as you in producing multitudes of men Only Cyprian and Athanasius and Austen shall content me in this Whether my care to teach nothing touching matters of Faith but what I see confirmed by the Scriptures and confessed by the writings of the Auncient Fathers may be called Ambition I leaue it to the Reader my paines haue beene the more therein which if any condemne I referre the Cause to him
sayth d 1. Tim. 5. I charge thee in the presence of God and of the Lord Iesus Christ and of the elect Angels that thou obserue these things without preiudice or partiaâ—…tie And againe we are made a e â—… Cor. 4. spectacle to the world to angels and to men And likewise s The woman ought to haue power on her head because of the Angels that is she ought to couer her head in signe of subiection to the power of the man because the Angels beholde this as all other actions of men either in the Church or in the world From this power to heare and see what is sayd and done on the face of the earth euen in the secret and darke places thereof the diuell is not excluded in that he is an Angel though fallen from heauen and cast vnto the earth yet an g Reuel 12. accuser and so a beholder of good whom he impugneth and of badde ouer whom he ruleth And what maruell that Angels who by their creation excell vs in power and might haue this incident to their condition when as men God opening their eyes can see things done in heauen and earth which naturally they can by no meanes see When Dothan was besieged by the Aramites to apprehend Elizeus and his seruant was afrayd at the sight of them the Prophet encouraging his seruant sayd h 2. Kings 5. Feare not for they that be with vs are moe then they that be with them and prayed God to open his seruants eyes which the Lord did and h 2. Kings 5. he looked and beholde the mountaine was full of â—…ierie charets and horses round about Elizeus i Mark 1. Assoone as Iohn was come out of the water where he baptized Iesus in Iordan Iohn saw the heauens cleaue asunder and the Holy Ghost descending on Christ like a Doue Steuen likewise not only had his face changed in the Councell k Acts 7. as the face of an Angell but looking stedfastly into heauen saw the glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God Which though the incredulous Iewes did no wayes beleeue but stopped their eares when they heard him so say and ranne vpon him all at once and cast him out of the citie and stoned him as a blasphemous liar yet can he be no Christian Christ might see what he would that doubteth whether Steuen saw this with his bodily eyes or no the Scripture being so resolute for it how impossible soeuer it be to our eyes This power to beholde things farre distant notwithstanding all impediments interiected not onely Christ had when he would as appeareth by his words to Nathaniel l Ioh. 1. v. 48. Before Philip called thee being vnder the figge tree I saw thee for which Nathaniel acknowledged him to be the Sonne of God but he promised his that they should see greater things m Vers. 50. Because I sayd to thee I saw thee vnder the figge tree beleeuest thou Thou shalt see greater things then these n Vers. 51. Verily verily I say vnto you henceforth you shall see the heauens open and the Angels of God ascending and descending vpon the Sonne of man Since then Christ could and o Luke 10. vers 18. did see Satan like lightning fall downe from heauen I make no doubt but he could open his owne eyes to see the remote parts of the earth when it pleased him though vsually he did it not by reason he needed it not for he knew all things and euen what was in man which the Angels doe not and therefore needed not any such vse of his eyes but when he saw his time which in this case he might like lest the dâ—…uell should despise him as hauing greater power and cleerer sight then Christ did or could shew himselfe to haue For which cause also Christ would stand on the pinnacle of the Temple without the diuels helpe to let him know that he wanted not power to doe greater things then the diuell vrged him vnto but onely that hee would take his owne time and do nothing at the diuels instigation or motion nor repugnant to the will and pleasure of God A third way the diuell had if Christ would permit it to set these things before our Sauiours eyes Satan is able not onely to assume what shapes he will and to transforme himselfe into an Angell of light but also to make specters and shewes of any thing in the aire and to deceiue the eyes of men when he is suffered by God so to do which not onely experience of all ages but the Scriptures themselues confirme wherein all p 2. Thess. 2. false woonders and signes are ascribed to the operation of Satan By this meanes Simon the Sorcerer so bewitched the whole citie of Samaria that q Acts 8. they all from the least to the greatest gaue heed vnto him and sayd This man is the great power of God The Sorcerers of Pharaoh r Exod 7. turned their rods into serpents and changed the riuers into r Exod 7. bloud and brought s Exod. 8. frogs vpon the land of Egypt as Moses and Aaron did and other miracles could the diuell haue done as we see by killing of Iobs t Iob. 1. sheepe and seruants with fire from heauen and the u Iob. 2. smiting of Iobs bodie with sore boiles had not the hand of the Almightie stopped him and thereby made the Sorcerers confesse that x Exod. 8. v 19 there was the finger of God It was therefore no hard thing for Satan to frame the appearances of kingdomes and cities and shew the similitudes of them from euery part of the earth since they are but the figures and semblances of things that we see with our eyes which Angels good and badde haue in their power when they are sent of God to do his will Howbeit Satan could not delude the eyes of Christ without his knowledge and leaue though Satan did not so thinke And therefore all these wayes being possible yet I thinke the second most agreeable to the words and see no cause why we should measure Christs sight when pleased him by mans reason when as he did so many things heere on earth aboue all humane power and reason For he often y Marke 4. walked on the sea and z Iohn 20. came and stood in the midst of his disciples when the doores were shut and made the ship that receiued him in the sea of Tiberias a Iohn 6. to be by and by at the land whither they went besides many thousand miracles which he wrought with his word and hand whiles he conuersed amongst men Of which if no Christian may make any question why flie you to imaginations or visions so long as Christ had power enough with his eyes to behold whatsoeuer Satan could shew him It was Satans act you will say to shew them and not Christes Satan as an angell might see