for the manhood of Christ to say my God my God why hast thou so long forsaken me without any publike signe or shew that thou louest and fauourest me whom this nation had so much wronged and blasphemed or is it of late become so shamefull a thing with you that Christ should complaine he was forsaken and left in the hands of his persuers without help or ease both old and new writers euen of the best learned that haue been in Christs Church haue thought it no shame for Christ in that very respect so to speake o Hieronym in Matth ca. 27. Maruaile not saith Ierom at Christes complaint of being forsaken when thou seest the scandall of his crosse p 〈◊〉 de fide li. 2. ca. 3. He speaketh as a man saith Ambrose which was no shame for him to doe because being in danger we thinke our selues forsaken of God The same wordes q 〈◊〉 in Mar. ca. 14. Bede r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Rabanus and r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Aquinas repeat and follow Theodoret saith Christ s 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 21. calleth that a dereliction which was a permission of the diuinity that the humanity should suffer Christe would endure saieth Austen this vnto death in the sight of his enemies that they might take him as one forsaken Lyra. u 〈◊〉 Mat. ca 27. Dixit 〈◊〉 derclictum a deo 〈◊〉 quia dimittebat cum in manibus occidentium Christ saith he was forsaken of God his father because he was left in the hands of those that slew him And so our new writers August epist. 120 x 〈◊〉 in Mat. ca. 27. Hic questus est se in manibus impiorum adomnem ipsorvm libidinem a patre derelictum Christ heere complained saith Bucer that he was forsaken of his father or left in the 〈◊〉 of the wicked to endure all their rage Bullinger y Bullingerus in Matth. ca. 27. Derelinquere siue deserere in 〈◊〉 est permittere To forsake or leaue in Christes wordes on the Crosse is to permit So that this was Christs meaning why doest thou suffer me to be thus afflicted why doest thou permit these things to mine enemies when wilt thou deliuer me Munster z Munsterus in Psalm 21. haec Christi verbanon impatientiam aliquam aut diffiden̄tiam prae se ferunt c these words of Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee shew no impatience or diffidence but declare that he was a true man and that he had truely suffered And what if as some learned Fathers conceaue Christ did not grieuously complaine in those wordes that he was forsaken but thereby led his enemies to looke and search in the Psalmes Prophets for the cause why the messias should be so forsaken deliuered into the hands of sinners as they saw he was a August epist. 120. Christ doth not say saith Austen my God my God why hast thou forsaken me sed causum commonuit requirendam cum addidit vt quid dereliquisti me id est propter quid quam ob causam but he admonished the cause to be searched when he added why hast thou forsaken me that is to what end and for what cause for truely there was a cause and that no small cause why God would not deliuer Christ from the handes of the Iewes but leaue him in the power of his persecutors till he died Leo likewise b Leo de Passione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. Therefore Christ cried with a loud voice why hast thou forsaken me that he might make it knowen to all for what cause he ought not to be deliuered nor defended sed saeuientium manibus derelinqui but to be left in the hands of his pursuers which was to be made the Sauiour of the world and the Redeemer of all men non per miseriam sed per misericordiam non amissione auxilij sed definitione moriendi not by any miserable necessitie but of mercie not for lacke of helpe but of purpose to die for vs Whether then Christs meaning in those wordes if we apply them to his owne person were to hasten the time of his death which he knew was at hand and should bring him case of his excessiue How many meanings 〈◊〉 words on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue paines or to mooue his father to demonstrate by those signes which followed what fauour and affection he bare to the person of his sonne though for our sakes he suffered him thus to be vsed or to teach his persecutors that there was a cause which they knew not why himselfe being their messias should die this death on the crosse or last whether his manhood conformed it selfe to the desires and grones of his church and members whom the Prophets teach in this wise to pray when they were oppressed with any great calamity or misery none of these waies I say are the wordes of Christ on the crosse chalengeable but they stand well with the piety patience confidence and expectance that were in Christ and haue better foundation in the sacred Scriptures then your paines of the damned or your second death to be then and there suffered in the soule of Christ. c Defenc. pag. 110. li. 7. The bare names againe of Austen Ambrose Ierom doe here likewise no good this is but a weake kind of reasoning for so learned a Diuine as you are I like better this kind of weakenesse in matters of faith to haue the consent of the learned and auncient fathers for that I teach then your kind of strength which is to be so stiffe in your priuate conceits that you will delude the Scriptures with your figures and deride the fathers as seely fooles not vnderstanding the first principles of Religion rather then you will forgoe the least of your fansies If you light on any Reader of the same mind let him know that the choice wil be hard for him to make whether all the fathers in Christes Church did erre in the chiefe grounds of their faith or he himselfe be out of the trueth If Christian Religion were not since Christes time before our age this is a greater forsaking of Christ then any was on the Crosse. For then hath God forgotten all his purposes and promises so often mentioned in the Prophets and confirmed to Christ if there were neuer Church of Christ since the Apostles death till our dayes And he that is of that humour it skilleth not greatly of what side he be for certainly he can be no member of Christs Church that reiecteth all persons places and ages before his birth as none of Christs I wish no wise nor sober Reader so farre to venture his soule If then to the Primatiue Church of Christ next after the Apostles we yeeld but ordinary knowledge of the Christian faith we may not take from so many learned fathers and Pastours as God hath for so many hundred yeares adorned his Church withall the common vnderstanding of their Catechisme and
content the Reader nor conclude the gaine-sayer I must haue leaue in larger maner as occasion serueth both to repell the Defenders bold presumptions and to confirme those things which I take to be safer Resolutions in Christian Religion The principall things which you would haue noted Sir Discourser are either defectiue in their diuisions or coincident in their partes or repugnant to your purpose All suffering of paines in man you say is from God either properly from his Iustice or from his holy loue either from himselfe alone or also from his instruments and inferiour meanes and that for sinne either inherent or imputed either as Correction or as punishment either immediatly or mediatly as anon we shall further see Not one of these foure partitions which you make the fortresse of your cause is sound and sufficient and the fift is the selfe-same with the second it onely varieth in words In these two diuisions all suffering of paines in man is from Gods Iustice or from his holy loue either as correction or as punishment you roue obscurely but absurdly at the ground the measure the purpose of all paines and punishments as they come from God on all men be they wicked or godly Christ himselfe not excepted either in this world or the next For the GROVND of them you say they proceed from Gods iustice properly or from his holy loue The MEASVRE and PVRPOSE of them you confound in saying either as correction or as punishment which you should distinguish From Gods iustice properly on men infected with sinne commeth nothing but punishment that is their due which the iust Iudge awardeth them From Gods loue of it selfe commeth nothing but grace and blisse for which cause he is the fountaine of Grace and father of Mercy to such as he loueth In the reprobate God hateth their sinnes and so their persons being the committers or inheriters of sinne still abiding In the elect Gods holinesse disliketh their sinnes as much as the others but their persons he loueth and fauoureth for Christ his sonne in whom they are chosen And though the full and due punishment of their sinne which is spirituall and eternall death be translated from them and abolished in Christ yet when men redeemed and freed from the heauie burden of their sinnes doe not earnestly repent them or eftsoones frequent them God for the conseruation of his holinesle and demonstration of his righteous iudgement to all the world doth sooner and sharper visit and punish with the corporall and temporall scourges of this life his owne children neglecting or resuming their sinnes than his enemies whom with longer patience he suffereth to heape vp wrath against the day of wrath A iudgement mercilesse therfore as S. Iames calleth it is and shall be to the wicked whereas in the godly mercy reioyceth against iudgement but not without iustice For iudgement which in God can neuer be without iustice since he is the righteous Iudge of the world must begin at the house of God and when we are iudged we are chastened with a mercifull iudgement that we should not be condemned with the world And though in the afflictions of the godly there be many things added of fauour as the measure which is tolerable not ouerwhelming their patience the purpose which is holy to recall them from the delight and custome of sinne and to perfit the graces of God in them the comfort which is great that God loueth their persons when he pursueth their sinnes the promise which is sure that if they suffer with Christ they shall reigne with Christ and such like yet the smart of Gods rod and sharpnesse of his whip wherewith he awaketh the negligent and tameth the vnruly proceed from his iust iudgement and commend his holinesse which hateth all sinne in whomsoeuer and declare his iustice to the whole world that he wincketh not either at the waiwardnesse or at the carelesnesse of his owne children The places in Scripture witnessing thus much are infinite and easie for euery childe to obserue and therefore one shall suffice for all To his Church God sayth by the mouth of Ieremie Though I vtterly destroy all the Nations where I haue scattred thee yet will I not vtterly destroy thee but I will correct thee by iudgement and not vtterly cut thee off I haue stricken thee with the wound of an enemie and with a cruell chastisement for the multitude of thine iniquities thy sinnes were increased Thy sorrow is incurable for the number of thine offences ‖ because ‖ thy sinnes were increased I haue done these things vnto thee ‖ But ‖ I will restore health to thee and heale thee of thy wounds The godly in this world doe suffer paines for their sinnes but these whatsoeuer they be yea though death it selfe are improperly called punishments they are chasticements of sinne This new Grammer doth best become your newe doctrine All paines for sinnes whatsoeuer suffered by any of the elect in this life are chasticements but in no wise you may indure to haue them called punishments except very improperly What is a chasticement properly but a punishment moderated with loue and mercy And since you be so precise that no paine suffered by any of Gods children may properly be called a punishment whence I pray you is the word punishment deriued not from the Latine word punire to punish and punio from Poena which our English tongue resembling the Latine calleth paine so that paine and punishment are wordes of one deriuation and so properly of one signification and by force of the wordes properly all paine for sinne is punishment for sinne And therefore in all mens iudgements sauing yours chasticement is a punishment tempered with fauor and not a paine excluding all punishment as you make it in your dissolute diuision Read either the text or notes of the Geneuian Translation of the Bible which you would seeme so much to follow or whose translation you will and see whether they doe not contradict your childish conceite that the Chasticement of Gods children is no punishment Moses was punished for their sakes and againe God doth not punish with the hart the Wiseman speaking vnto God with how great circumspection saith he wilt thou punish thine owne children And vpon those words of Ieremie O Lord correct me but with iudgement not in thine anger they of Geneua note He onely prayeth that God would PVNISH THEM with mercie which Esay calleth in measure ca. 27. for here by iudgement is ment not onely the PVNISHMENT but also the MERCIFVLL MODERATION of the same So that Chastisement noteth the measure of the punishment which God fauourably inflicteth on his children not according to their sinnes nor exceding their strength He hath not dealt with us saith Dauid after our sinnes nor rewarded vs according to our iniquities There hath no tentation taken you saith Paul but such as belongeth to men and God is faithfull
of the sword mans state and life on earth can not be maintained And therefore the politicke and penall lawes of Princes bee not derogatorie to Christes death nor iniuries to Christian men as the Libertines would haue them not because men haue more right to punish then God hath or their interest to punish could continue when Gods doth cease but for that it is expedient and needfull for vs so to bee gouerned in outward and earthly things till the time come when Christ will put downe all rule and all authoritie and power that God may be all in all Now if Christs death repeale not mans lawes how much lesse Gods irreuocable iudgements fastned to our nature and not hindering our saluation but renuing the memoriall of our sinne lest we should forget it or neglect it and teaching vs by tollerable and temporall paines what intollerable torments wee haue escaped by Gods mercies towards vs Wherefore Christ by his obedience vnto death hath shewed vs an example what to follow and thereby rather confirmed then reuersed his Fathers sentence for the time till he come to wipe all teares from our eyes and to restore vs to the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God which he hath presently purchased for vs though he will not presently execute it Lastly the death of Christ doeth not belong nor any benefite thereof but to such as repent and beleeue After his death Christ commanded repentance and remission of sinnes to be preached in his name among all nations and with all denounced He which will not beleeue shall be damned So that neither the incredulous nor the impenitent haue any part or pardon in Christes death and sufferings If then all the children of God would fully repent and perfectly beleeue surely all which they should suffer in this life I still except the naturall and as yet vnchangeable corruption of body and soule which abideth in them from their birth were onely trials of the graces and signes of their blessednesse Blessed are they saith our Sauiour that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heauen When you doe well and suffer taking it patiently this saith Peter is acceptable vnto God But what praise is it if when yee be buffeted for your faults you take it patiently Now how many thousands are there in Christs flocke which defect in faith and specially in true repentance Yea how rare are they that repent when and as they ought Then hath Gods iustice cause enough and enough to punish all that either shrinke in faith neglect his will or slacke repentance notwithstanding the generall freedome obtained and proclaimed by the death of Christ and out of this number very few Christians are exempted Wherefore to make men beleeue that God hath no iustice or regardeth not his iustice to punish them in this life after hee hath once engraffed them into Christ because Christ hath suffered all the punishment of their sinnes for them is but to deceiue them God is most faithfull in his promises if we could take assured hold of them but if wee fall from them by diffidence or disobedience God wanteth no iustice to aggrauate his hand according to our deserts though in mercie he spare vs euen when he striketh vs and intendeth our conuersion and not our destruction how sharpe soeuer his plagues be which would be farre sharper if his loue towardes vs in Christ Iesu did not ouer-rule his iust displeasure against our sinnes The case with Christ was cleane otherwise He needed no amendment but that which he suffered was right punishment Right and proper if you may be moderator shall be what please you What is RIGHT AND TRVE PVNISHMENT you neuer define but pretending sinceritie when you come to the issue you enclose your conceites with verie proper right and such like phrases and so take your leaue But declare if you can or will vouchsafe to make others partakers of your mysteries what is proper and right verie and true punishment You must define punishment either by the paine which is suffered or by the purpose of the punisher that is by the cause for which it is inflicted You stand not in this place on the paine imposed but rather on the purpose of the punisher or cause of the punishment For if you measure punishment by the same paines then tell vs why the miseries of this life as penurie sicknesse and death be punishments in the wicked and not in the godly since they be the same in both setting aside the purpose of the punisher which is different in both They are you say for correction and amendment in the godly not for destruction and vengeance as they are in the wicked Then the purpose of the punisher by your intention maketh the paine to be punishment which being referred to another end as in other patients is no punishment though it be the selfe same paine in both And thence you draw your conclusion that since the sufferings of Christ could not be for correction and amendment in him therefore his afflictions euery one SMALL AND GREAT were true and proper punishments and the effects of Gods very wrath for sinne lying vpon him Otherwise the bodily afflictions which Christ suffered were the selfe same which the godly often suffer and yet you auouch them in the faithfull to be no punishments because they serue for correction and amendment in them which hauing no place in Christ you conclude his sufferings great and small to be true right and proper punishments But Sir how prooue you this diuision that all the punishments you call them paines which God inflicteth in this life are either for correction or for vengeance properly so called there is neither sufficiencie nor pietie in this partition of yours thus applied to Christ. For in the wicked Gods purpose is onely to reuenge sinne and therefore in the end God allotteth them the iust and full punishment of sinne which is euerlasting damnation And in the meane season during the time of his patience he mitigateth his hand in respect of that which shall follow but giueth them no inward grace to repent whereby they are in all their afflictions hardned and ripened for sorer vengeance as still repining and murmuring at the hand of God but neuer misliking or leauing their sinnes In the elect when they are disobedient and impenitent God persueth their sinnes with corporall and temporall plagues that they may returne and flie vnto him for mercie to which ende he giueth them grace in the midst of their miseries to acknowledge their offences and by faith to take hold of his promises made to them in Christ Iesus and so vpon their submission and conuersion he receiueth them to fauour whose persons he alwayes loued in his onely Sonne though he hated and scourged their vncleannesse In Christ Iesus the case was cleane different from the one and the other You confesse there was nothing in him to be corrected
considerate Readers howsoeuer it may content you for the time But let vs heare the rest I answere it is not true which you say That Gods Law alloweth no Suertiâ—…s Vnderstanding here by Gods reuealed will and his most holy and gracious ordinance for vs. Though indeede this is not his Law properly but his Gospell You lacke here English as well as trueth except it be the Printers fault and not yours Vnderstanding here in your words hath nothing to follow it I thinke you would say Vnderstanding hâ—… by Gods Law Gods reuealed will c. I neuer made doubt whether the Gospell proposed the wonderfull loue mercie good will and fauour of God the Sonne towards vs in offering himselfe to make the purgation of our sinnes in his owne person and likewise the wisedome power iustice clemencie grace and goodnesse of the whole Trinitie in accepting that offer for our saluation but such I said was the infinite dignitie of the person being true God that he could by no Law be bound but onely ledde by his owne good will and pleasure as a voluntary and free Sauiour Which libertie the iustice of God so farre tendred and preserued in the humane nature of Christ that he could not in rigour exact death as a debt from a Suertie but receiue it as a voluntarie sacrifice from a willing and free Redeemer for which cause neither the desert of our punishment nor the filth of our sinnâ—…s nor the trueth of our curse could cleaue vnto him but his death was innocent and altogether vndeserued though he died iustly to God as well in â—…espect of vs for whom he suffered who deserued farre worse as in regard of his owne will and offer who refused not the smart of death thereby to breake thâ—… chaines of death and to deliuer vs from the power of darkenesse For the name of the law in generall how farre that word might be stretched I did not question since you spake directly of that law which accurseth and punisheth sinne as the Apostle doth alleaging in plaine words both the curse and punishment of Moses law Otherwise I knew the Apostles words in this verie Epistle Beare yee one anothers burden and so fulfill the law of Christ which is in libertie and loue to serue one an other as Christ did vs. No similitude you say can proue Christ in taking our person on him to be sinfull defiled hatefull and accursed I denie this saying vtterly I like your wit well that when you should go to proue your affirmatiues you fall to denie my negatiues This is a short way to shunne all paines and proofs for you to say what you list and when you denie the contrarie the matter is fully proued But Sir you forget that my assertion hath in it the plaine words of the Holy Ghost and the maine grounds of Christian religion that Christ as well in his nature and actions as in his sufferings and sacrifice was holie harmelesse seuered from sinners and vndefiled This you vtterly denie If you make no more bones in denying the words of God your Reader will as easily denie you to be a Christian whatsoeuer I do In his owne nature and in respect meerly thereof he suffered both at the Iewes hands and before God the iust for the vniust A faire gloze and full against the text When Christ died was it for himselfe or for vs that hee suffered He suffered not in any respect of or for himselfe no not before God and yet he suffered the iust for the vniust sayth Peter Which words Peter could not speake in respect of the Iewes who killed Christ for they tooke Christ to be most vniust and they had no meaning nor power to put him to death for the redemption of the world but Peter speaketh this of Christ who knowing himselfe to be iust and innocent in the sight of God was yet patient and willing when he suffered for the vniust By this example Peter often exhorteth the godly to follow Christes steppes and to suffer wrong patiently when they do well For that is more acceptable to God then when they are buffeted for their faults because they are blessed that suffer for righteousnesse sake as Christ did You turne the text cleane contrarie and would haue men beleeue that Christ was not only sinfull accursed and defiled with our sinnes but the greatest sinner and most vniust person that euer suffered as guiltie before God of all their sinnes for whom he died Yet this is not inherently but by imputation the Lord translating by his ordinance the sinne of men vpon him Afore we enter to speake farther of the filthinesse or guiltinesse of sinne inherent or imputed and the malediction on either I thinke it fit for the Reader to know what is conteined in those termes lest the Defender carie his conceits in a cloud as his meaning and maner is to do In sinne besides the auerting of the will from God by defection and hardning of the heart against God by rebellion the loue and affections of the soule which should be inflamed with sinceritie and puritie of Gods holinesse and goodnesse are wholly deiected and egerly fastened vpon base vile vaine and vncleane things and thereby the soule growing like to that which it loueth for loue causeth a societie and similitude with the things loued bâ—…ommeth base vile and vncleane in all her delights desires parts and powers Which impurenesse and pollution of the inward man when God beholdeth he reiecteth hateth and detesteth as well this corruption inherent in the soule as the deeds and acts of sinne past with vs but present still with him and accusing vs in his sight by the witnesse of our owne conscience which we can not auoid This when God setteth before the eyes of the wicked letting them see what they haue refused and what they haue embraced and how deformed and defiled they are in comparison of his beautie and sanctitie as also what they haue done against the light and leading of their owne conscience they fall ashamed of their vncleannesse and confounded with their guiltinesse finding the iust vengeance of God to hang ouer their heads with a desperate and most dreadfull expectation thereof These things are not doubted by any good Diuines and therefore it shall suffice shortly to touch some places teaching no lesse then I haue sayd To the vncleane and vnbeleeuing sayth Paul nothing is clâ—… but euen their mindes and consciences are defiled Of euill thoughts and deeds proceeding from the heart our Sauiour-generally pronounceth These are the things which defile a man S. Peter sayth of the wicked They are led with sensualitie as bruit beasts perishing in their corruption and are not onely spots and staines but after they had escaped from the filthinesse of the world turne againe as swine to wallowing in the mire This is the vncleannesse of sinne as well inherited from Adam as
by the infinite dignitie of his person able to support the one and abolish the other and that the rather because euerie part of Christes manhood was holie and vndefiled and so by the rule of Gods iustice no part of him could be pressed with spirituall and eternall death Which is a plaine proofe that the guilt of our sinnes tooke not hold on him For then as well spirituall as eternall death which both are due to sinne must haue fastned on Christ which we see to be false yea the death of the bodie could not wrest his soule from him but he must lay it downe of himselfe And if the desert of a corporall death did not binde him how should the guilt of eternall death be due to him which was the â—…ust wages of our sinne but no way due to his person since he did assume our sinnes to cleere vs from them and not to subiect himselfe to the guilt or filth of our sinne though he were content to make full satisfaction for them but not to defile himselfe with any pollution of them How could he be by God properly and truly punished and cursed for sinne but that he was sinfull hatefull Nay how could he either clense vs or reconcile vs to God if he were sinfull hatefull to God as well as we As we had Christ for our Redeemer because we weâ—…e hated of God for sin so if you bring Christ within the same danger displeasure with God he must haue another to mediate to God for him God respecteth not those whom he hateth nor heareth any that is sinful without some other to propiâ—…e for him And where you quote Scriptures to vphold your wicked follies and phrases they prooue the cleane contrarie The soule that sinneth the same shall dic saith God by Ezechiel But Christes soule did not die either by want of grace or losse of glorie which are the deaths proper to sinners Christes soule therefore by the verie place which you cite was not sinnefull Shail nâ—…t the Iudge of all the world doe right saide Abraham to God What right is there ment but that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked as Abrahams words before import Since then Christ was not destroâ—…ed either in soule or bodie but by death made conquerer of death and a Sauiour to all his what a venemous mouth haue you to match him with the wicked or to make thâ—…s destruction And heere the Reader may obserue how religiously you wrest the Scriptures to reproch the Sonne of God and where you can by no sufficient testimonie prooue Christ to haue beene sinnefull or hatefull to God as you dâ—…fend when he died for our sinnes you sort him with the reprobate and damned and then â—…ge the Scriptures against him that directly speake of them I wish you to leaue this lewd deuotion and not to thinke to shift off all this with a pretended imputation Our sinnes God did impute that is impose on Christ for â—…e bâ—…re them in his bodie on the â—…ee but this was right with God because Christ was both willing and able to beare them and an honour to the humane nature of Christ to be made l ord ouer all his enimies for the short affliction which he suffered at their hands and Sauiour of all beleeuers for the submission and obedience which he performed on the crosse in which Gods exceeding mercy towards vs and loue towards him did most manifestly appeare Did not God then hate our sinnes when he punished his owne Sonne for them If that ground of Christian religion could haue contented you that God throughly hated our sinnes which Christ assumed and yet so loued the person assuming them that the fauour he bare to the one ouer-rulâ—…d his anger due to the other and therefore after sharpe chastisement on the person least wee should thinke our transgressions to be lightly regarded with God and yet such as the sufferer willingly reâ—…ued to maintaine the iustice of his Father exalted him with infinite honour and gaue him all power in earth and heauen and made him onely Lord ouer all both men and Angels If this confession of true Religion had pleased you you neuer needed to haue defiled your pen with these sinfull hatefull and accursâ—…d termes But haâ—…ing itching eares and humorous heads you measure the greatest mysteries of our saluation by the similitude and proportion of humane reason and actions and thence deâ—…iue according to your fantasies that which Scriptures and Fathers doe vtterly disclaime It is written God sent his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flâ—…sh for sinne and condemned sinne in his flesh in which likenesse he stoode before God The Scripture teacheth that Christ was made like to his brethren in all things and did partake with them in flesh and bloud but the same Scripture addeth without sinne So that the likenesse of sinfull flesh excludeth all touch or taint of our sinne though it admit the likenesse of our flesh in Christ. And indeede betweene his and ours there was no difference saue the corruption of sinne which dwelleth in ours and did not in his You doe therefore learnedly collect out of the Apostles words that where he saith Christ was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh for that he had true flesh and no sinne you make Christ to be defiled and accursed with sinne for hauing the likenesse of our flesh But the Syriacke translation saith God condemned sinne in Christes flesh The condemning of sinne in the flesh of Christ was the cleansing and abolishing of sinne by the body of Christ which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destroying and taking away of sinne by the sacrifice of himâ—…elfe The text doth notsay that God condemned Christ for sinne but contrarie that God condemned sin that is pardoned the guilt weakned the power remooued the sting and abandoned the memoriall of all our sinnes for the obedience and patience which Christ shewed in his flesh So that it is you and not the Apostle nor the Syriacke translator which would faine bring Christ within the compasse of condemnation for sinne where they say quite otherwise that not hee but sinne was condemned that is destroyed in or by his flesh Chrysostome saith rightly Thou seest sinne euery where condemned not the flesh which was crouned and obtained iudgement against sinne And Austen taketh libertie to expound the Text against your Syriacke translation By the similitude of sinfull flesh saith he which was Christes God condemned sinne in the flesh of sinne which was ours God made him sinne for vs that we might be made the rightcousnesse of God in him Other men read the Scriptures to learne thence all thanks submission and seruice to the Sonne of God for his vnspeakeable loue and mercie towards vs in taking the burden of our sinnes and laying it on his owne shoulders You thresh and winnow the Scriptures to catch vp chaffe
flagitiorum maculas morte voluntaria suo innocente sanguine luisse atque eluisse It is euident that Christ admitted receaued and suffered of his owne good will the paines due to mans wickednesse but not due to him and with a voluntarie death and his owne innocent bloud did wash and clense the spots of our filthinesse And againe It is euident the Iewes had not in their power these things or times sed sua ipsum voluntate nulla vâ—… coactum harc mortem pro nostra salute oppetijsse but of his owne accord without anie câ—…action Christ died this death for our saluation Where also this is set downe as a true position that eligendae mortis optio penes ipsum fiâ—…t the election and direction of his death was left to his owne power and choise which the whole Church of Christ hath hitherto ascribed to the power and will loue and mercie of the Sonne of God reiecting your bands and obligations lately deuised to barre the freedome and abridge the power of the Sauiour of the worlde because you would tie him to the paines of hell You see not you will say how these Fathers make against you None otherwise but that they directly denie that which you affirme Christ you say though of good will he was at first content so to doe yet after became bound to the Law to pay our debts Now he that is bound must needs obey and so you lay on Christ not onely a necessity but also a dutie These Fathers with one consent disclaime al necessitie in the death of Christ and consequently they confesâ—…e he was free from all bands and debts but in loue and mercie as a free Redeemer he would giue himselfe for vs which was a farre greater price then we were woorth or could owe. And these multitudes of men as you call them though they be not of equall strength with the word of God which is the touchstone of all trueth yet doe they plainely prooue that you innouate the faith of Christes Church which in their seuerall ages they all beleeued and professed and for their faith they haue the manifest wordes of our Sauiour that none tooke his soule from him but he laid it downe of himselfe and the witnesse of the Apostle that Christ for loue gaue himselfe for vs which argueth that he was vrged thereto with no violence necessitie nor dutie much lesse was thereto bound and you for your deuice haue the curiositie of creditours the discredite of debtours of whom men require Suerties with bands because they trust not their words and promises much lesle their willes and dispositions But this iealousie in the Sonne of God is hainous blasphemie therfore there could be no cause to bind him as there could be no distrust of him since our miserie and his mercie were motiues enough to incline and continue his loue though we leaue him at his full libertie without all seruitude or necessirie Gods decree and his owne good will was that he should satisfie and pay none otherwise for vs then so as he did There can be no question but in creating condemning and redeeming man the Father the Sonne and the holie Ghost had one and the same will and decree yet except with the Arian heretickes you make an inequallitie of the persons in the most blessed Trinitie you can impose no seruice nor suffering on the Sonne of God by any decree but what must come from his owne good pleasure offer and perfourmance And that the Scriptures euerie where imply when they say Christ loued vs and gaue himselfe for vs that is he FIRST of loue towards vs OFFERED to serue and suffer in our places and AFTER of the same loue submitted himselfe to performe his purpose and promise of our saluation So that Gods decree was no iniunction nor ordinance that his Sonne should doe it but an ACCEPTATION of his Sonnes loue and mercie towards vs and an APPROEATION that it was a most sufficient recompence for all the transgressions of men And the Father is said to giue his Sonne for vs not that he loued vs better then he did his Sonne whom he infinitely loueth as himselfe and for whose sake onely he accepteth vs not that he vsed any authoritie or power ouer his Sonne to appoint him to this seruice but that knowing the strength and sufficiencie of his Sonne to be as his owne and seeing his loue and mercie towards vs which was common to him with the rest of the persons in that most glorious Trinitie the Father out of the same loue towards vs thought it fitter to accept the offer of his Sonne then that we should perish And therefore though the Father loued his Sonne as himselfe yet he was content his Sonne should beare our burden which we could not without euerlasting destruction and his Sonne could with exceeding honour and admiration of his mercie humilitie obedience and patience If you slide from the Godhead of Christ to his manhood to binde that because it was a Creature and not the Creator by diuiding the person of Christ you runne into the heresie of Nestorius condemned in the generall Counsell of â—…phesus and yet releiue not your selfe For the person and not this or that part of his nature must be the Redeemer since neither man could saue vs vnlesse he were also God nor God could die for vs vnlesse he were also man and so did sufâ—…er death in his humane nature So that the Suertie as you call him that vndertooke our saluation not onely from the beginning but before the world was precisely the person of the Sonne of God and not the humane nature of Christ and therefore you must either binde the Godhead of Christ as our Suertie or free his manhood from all bands Neither could any of Christs sufferings be of infinite price and merite for vs except we asâ—…ibe them to the voluntarie obedience of the person since the death of a iust man could not be the redemption of the worlde but the death of that person which was more woorth then all the world If then Christs sufferings take their force and value from the person they must likewise haue their freedome and election from the person Those sentences of your Authors Gregorie Austen and Ambrose if they be spoken simply seeme very harsh where they say that Christ could haue saued vs otherwaies then by suffering and dying for vs. For herein they oppose Gods absolute omnipotencie against his expresse and reuealed will which how it may be liked in Diuinitie I know not Yours is more harsh that reprooue them before you vnderstand them and chalenge that as false which is most apparantly true by the maine grounds of Christian Religion For if you auouch Gods power to extend no farder then his works as if God could doe no more then he hath done or will doe is a manifest denying of Gods omnipotencie which is larger then either his will or his
vs. In this sense all that the Scripture intendeth by wrath in God is most proper and naturall to God namely his holinesse abhorring sinne his iustice proportioning punishment to it and his power performing whatsoeuer his will and councell decreeth for the repressing or reuenging of sinne For which respect Zanchius a very moderate and considerate writer of our time and one whom amongst others the Discourser iudgeth no way inferior to the best of the Auncients setteth downe this for one of his Resolutions which he calleth a Thesis Ira eo sensu quo scripturae dant illam deo veré proprié ei attribuitur Anger in that sense in which the Scriptures giue it to God is truely and properly ascribed vnto him And his resolutions ensuing vpon the former are not onely that God is angry he meaneth truely and properly as his first Thesis affirmeth with all sinners as well elect as reprobate but that maior grauior est ira dei aduersus homines etiam electos propter peccata quam existimari possit ab ipsis hominibus The anger of God against his elect for sinne is greater and greeuouser then they can conceiue A second signification of proper may be that this wrath which the Scriptures attribute to God is proper to him and common to no creature els Men and deuils haue wrath but that is tumultuous or vitious and hath no communion with Gods wrath which is righteous and holy The Saints and Angels in heauen no doubt detest all iniquitie but they are no fit discerners esteemers nor rewarders of sinne The secrets of the heart they know not whose vncleannesse is open onely to the eies of God The waight of sinne they cannot truely balance he onely that is offended and cannot be deceiued rightly knoweth how farre euery sinne should displease and what euery sinne deserueth As they cannot fully ponder offences no more can they iustly proportion punishment to the demerits of euery sinner and least of all ordaine and arme meanes temporally to afflict or eternally to reuenge the bodies and soules of transgressors he onely that is all-wise all-holy all-iust and allmightie can throughly discerne perfectly dislike euenly reward and powerfully represse sinne by repentance or vengeance as seemeth best to him and therefote he onely is the righteous Iudge of the world and capable of that wrath which is proper to God A third meaning of Gods proper wrath may be this that as euery thing most rightly deserueth his name when it hath in 〈◊〉 permixtion of the contrary to alter his nature so Gods proper wrath may be that which is wholy and onely wrath without any temper of mercie or loue to diminish the heate and hight of wrath That is most properly light that hath no darkenesse trueth that hath no falshood good that hath no euill in it And since Gods iustice against the wicked admitteth neither loue to their persons nor mercie to their miseries that is also Gods proper wrath which is fully and wholy wrath without any fauour or pitie towards them that are the vessels of wrath appointed to destruction Of their damnation S. Iohn writeth The smoke of their torment shall ascend for euer and they shal haue no rest day nor night Wherby it is euident their iudgement shall be mercilesse their worme neuer dying and the fire neuer quenching And how can it be otherwise since they are both haters and hated of God Iacob haue I loued saith God and Esau haue I hated Thou hatest saith Dauid to God all those that worke wickednesse Yea the wrath of God saith Paul is reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men For as they regarded not to know God so God deliuered them vp into a reprobate minde to doe vnseemely things Neither is there any greater wrath in this life then for men to be left to the lustes of their owne hearts that they may be full of all vnrighteousnesse wickednesse maliciousnesse haters of God inuenters of euill voyde of all loue fidelitie and mercie and here receiue in themselues a meete reward of their errour to prepare them for eternall vengeance with diuels in the world to come This wrath of God against the wicked hath in it neither loue nor mercie but is wholy wrath proportioned to their desires which are sinnefull and their deserts which are hatefull before God and so they feele the iust and full recompence of their affected ignorance and wilfull disobedience Of this wrath the elect doe not taste they are freed from it in Christ their Redeemer and Sauiour by whose spirit their mindes are lightned and renued and their hearts perswaded to the obedience of faith and by whose death they are wholy deliuered from the wrath to come Of the two former they often taste specially when they neglect continuall and serious repentance to which free remission of sinnes is offered in the blood of Christ Iesus or when through the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit they are caried backe to the desires of their former corruption In which cases the Lord with sundry and sore afflictions letteth them sharpely feele what it is to prouoke the holinesse or abuse the goodnesse of so gracious a Father and neuer leaueth scourging them till they see and acknowledge their vnrulinesse and lament and leaue their vncleannesse taking hope and hold through faith of his mercies promised them in Christ Iesus If it can not be truely sayd of the elect that in this third sense which you vrge they taste of Gods proper wrath because of the loue which God beareth and sheweth them in Christ his sonne how much lesse may it be auouched of Christ himselfe that he suffered all Gods proper wrath on whom nothing was layed for our sinnes but with so great loue fauour and honour considering the cause which he vndertooke that God in each and all Christs sufferings declared him to be the best pleasing sacrifice and most sufficient recompense for sinne that heauen could yeeld or God would haue For whether wee looke to the choise of the person to the measure of his chastisement or to the reward of his labour wee shall see the exceeding and admirable loue and fauour of God towards him albeit the iustice of God kindled against our sinnes did not quit him from all paine yea that very chastisement by which he yeelded and learned obedience did not onely witnesse but also increase Gods loue towards him And where you Sir Discourser cast your eyes onely vpon Gods seuere and implacable iustice against sinne when you speake of Christes sufferings to serue your owne turne and to tole in hell-paines with some pretence of piety all the godly may perceiue and must confesse that God in satisfaction for sinne had greater regard of his holinesse despised by mans disobedience and of his glorie defaced by Satans triumph for our fall than of the rigor of his iustice prouoked by contempt of his commandement For
ourselues vnrâ—…ghteous and odious vnto him And yet in mercy towaâ—…ds â—…s and honor â—…wards his Sonne God would make him the Redeemer and Sauiour of the world not neglecting his Iustice nor forgetting his loue but so mixing them both together that his dislike of our sinnes might appeare in the punishment of them and his relenting from the rigor of his Iustice in fauour of his onely Sonne might magnifiâ—… his mercy satisfie his wrath and enlarge his glory and declare in most ample manner the submission compassion and peâ—…fection of his Sonne as only worthy to performe that worke which procured and receaue that honor which followed mans Redemption Christ then suffered from the hand of God but mediate that is GOD DELIVERED him into the hands of sinners who were Satans instruments with all eproach and wrâ—…nge to put him to a contumelious and grieuous death God by his â—…ecret wisdome and iustice decâ—…eeing appointing and ordering what he should suffer at theiâ—… hands Our sinnes â—…e bare in his body on the tree not that his soule was free from feare sorrow 〈◊〉 derision and temptation but that the wicked and malitious â—…ewes practised all kind of shamefull violence and cruell tortuâ—…es on him by Whipping Racking pricâ—…ing and wounding the tenderest parts of his body whereby his soule â—…elt extreame and intoleâ—…able paines In all which he saw the determinate counsell of God and receaued in the garden from his father this Iudgement for our sinnes that he should be 〈◊〉 dâ—…liuered into the hands of sinners For had he not humbly submitted himselfe to obey his fatheâ—…s will no power in earth could haue preuailed against him but as he had often fortold his Disciples what the Priestes Scribes and Gentils should doe vnto him so when the hower was come which was foreappointed of God to obey his fathers will he yeelded himselfe into their hands they persuing him to death of enuie and malice but God thus perfourming euen by their wicked hands what he had â—…oreshewed by his Prophets that Christ should suffer For they not knowing him â—…or the wordâ—… of the Prophets fulfilled them in condemning him yea they fulfilled all things which were written of him So that no man shall need to runne to the immediate hand of God nor to the paines of hell for the punishment of our sinnes in the person of Christ the Iewes FVLFILLED ALL THINGS that were written of him touching his sufferings and therewith Gods anger against our sinnes was appeased and God himselfe reconciled vnto vs. Esay speaking of the violence done by the Iewes to Christ sayeth he was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Thus the Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of all vs and he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree by those sufferings before and on the Crosse which the Scriptures expresly declare and describe And as for the immediate hand of God tormenting the soule of Christ with the selfe same paines which the damned now suffer in hell which is this deuisers maine drift when he maketh or offereth any proofe thereof out of the word of God I shall be ready to receiue it if I can not refute it till then I see no cause why euery wandring witte should imagine what monsters please him in mans redemption and obtrude them to the faithfull without any sentence or syllable of holy Scripture I haue no doubt but all the godly will be so wise as to suffer no man to raigne so much ouer their faith with fancies and figures vnwarranted by the Scriptures vnknowen to all the learned and ancient councels and Fathers vnheard of in the Church of Christ till our age wherein some men applaude more their owne inuentions then all humane or diuine instructions The feare of bodily sufferings you thinke could not be the cause that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood You straine the text of the Euangelist to draw it to your bent Saint Luke hath no such words that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood he sayth Christes sweat was like drops of blood trickling downe to the ground Theophylact a Greeke borne and no way ignorant of his mother tongue expresseth Christes sweat in the garden by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christes body or face DISTILLED with plentifull drops of sweat And albeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifie the congealed parts of that which is otherwise liquid and compacted pieces of that which els is poudered yet often it noteth that which is thickâ—… in comparison with thinner or eminent in respect of plainer Now Christes sweat might be thicke by reason it issued from the inmost parts of his bodie and was permixed with blood or els it might breake out with great and eminent drops as comming from him violently and abundantly and being coloured with blood and congealed with colde might trickle downe like DROPS or strings of blood vpon the ground Howsoeuer the Scripture saith not his sweate was clotted blood but like to congealed or cooled blood neither that such clots were strained out from him but that his sweate being thicked and cooled on his face fell from him like strings of blood But grant there could be no reason giuen of Christs bloodie sweat in the garden no more then there can be of the issuing first of blood and then of water out of his side when he was dead which S. Iohn doth exactly note as strange but yet true will you conclude what please you because many things in Christ both liuing and dying weâ—…e miraculous I bind no mans conscience to any probabilities for the cause of this sweate but onely to the expresse wordes and necessarie consequents of holy Scripture and yet I wish all men either to be sober and leaue that to God which he hath concealed from vs or if they will needes be gessing at the reason thereof for certaine knowledge they can haue none by no meanes to relinquish the plaine words or knowen groundes of holy Scripture to embrace a fansie of their owne begetting The learned and ancient Fathers haue deliuered diuers opinions of this sweate which thou mayest see Christian Reader in my Sermons and which we shall haue occasion anon to reexamine euery one of them being as I thinke more probable and more agreeable to Christian pietie then this Discoursers dreame of hell paines or Gods immediate hand at that present tormenting of the soule of Christ. And if we looke to the order and sequence of the Gospell we shall finde that feruent zeale extreamely heating the whole bodie melting the spirits thinning the blood opening the pores and so colouring and thicking the sweate of Christ might in most likelihood be the cause of that bloodie sweate Which S. Luke seemeth to insinuate when he saith that after Christ was comforted by an Angell from heauen and so recouered from his
life of all And that this is most perfect charitie I will cite our Sauiour himselfe for a witnesse where he saith greater loue hath no man then to lay downe his soule for his friends By all this Christ teacheth his Disciples to be so farre from shunning daungers and troubles for the saluation of men that the death of the flesh must not be refused for euen to that doth charitie stretch Fulgentius an other of the Fathers on whom you would faine fasten your error of Christs redeeming our soules by the death of his soule and our bodies by the death of his body not only noteth when and how Christ laid downe his soule for vs but why that phrase is applyed to Christs death and to all theirs that die willingly for loue not necessarily vpon constraint The whole man Christ laid downe his soule when his soule departed his flesh dying on the crosse And so againe Christ dying in the flesh laid downe his Soule and shewing the difference betwixt deliuering the body to death and giuing or laying downe the soule He saith Where loue is not the body is said to be deliuered but not the soule to be laid downe as the vessell of election plainly testifieth If I giue my body to be burnt and haue no loue it auayleth me nothing Here Paule declareth that without loue the body may be yeelded but not the soule laid downe For where he purposeth to signifie the purenesse of his loue he thus writeth to the Thessalonians Our goodwill was to bestow on you not onely the Gospell of God but euen our owne soules and to proue this an effect of his loue he addeth because yee were deare vnto vs. So that it is proued by manifest witnesse of Scripture that there wanteth loue where the body onely is layed downe to death but there is charitie where the soule is laid downe together with the body Beda Ponere ergo animam mori est Sic Apostolus Petrus Domino dixit animam pro te ponam id est pro te moriar carne To lay downe the Soule is to die So the Apostle Peter said to Christ I will lay downe my Soule for thee that is I will die in the flesh for thee A good sheepeheard saith Christ layeth downe his soule for his sheepe He did that he taught he performed that he commaunded he laid downe his Soule for his sheepe and shewed vs a way to contemne death which we must follow and a paterne after which we must be Printed which is first to extend our outward works of mercie towards his sheepe then if neede be to offer our death for them The later writers are all of the same mind and expound those words of our Sauiour the Sonne of man came to serue and to giue his soule a ransome for many and I lay downe my soule for my sheepe to haue none other sense then that he would die for vs as the Fathers before them did expound the same Erasmus in his paraphrase expressing our Sauiours meaning in both places saith in the person of Christ Therefore I came euen to serue the welfare of all in so much that I thinke it no burden to giue my life by the losse of one soule to redeeme many And againe Therefore my Father loueth me singularly as his Sonne because of mine owne accord I bestowed my life for the safetie of my Fathers flocke Bullinger likewise in the person of our Sauiour I came to serue the good of all and that which is farre greater I came into this world to giue my life for sinners And so I yeeld my selfe to death and euen to the death of the crosse that my sheepe beleeuing in me may liue by my death And alleadging and relying on Saint Austens words on the same place he addeth out of Austen To lay downe the soule is to die So Peter the Apostle said to his Master I will lay downe my soule for thee that is I will die for thee Attribute this to the flesh for when the soule goeth out of the flesh and the flesh remaineth without a soule then is a man said to lay downe his soule What saith the Euangelist Christ bowing his head gaue vp the Ghost this is to lay downe the soule Musculus Christ declareth what his ministerie is euen to redeeme mortall men and the chiefest degree of this ministerie is that he would giue his soule for them Then are we redeemed by the onely begotten Sonne of God and that dearely euen with his owne death For the Lord of heauen and earth humbled himselfe vnto death and that vnto a most shamefull death What was more vile or more abiect in the world then the death of the crosse And in the person of Christ Therefore my Father loueth me because I lay downe my soule that is because I die for my sheepe Caluine vpon those words of Christ I came to giue my soule a Redemption for many Therefore Christ mentioneth his death that he might withdraw his Disciples from a peruerse imagination of an earthly kingdome In the meane time the force and fruite of his death is aptly and rightly expressed whiles he affirmeth his life to be the price of our Redemption Whence it followeth that the price of our reconciliation with God is no where found but in the death of Christ and so It is no maruaile that Christ affirmeth himselfe to be therefore loued of his Father because he esteemeth our saluation dearer then his owne life He would by this arme his Disciples least seeing him soone after to be caried to death they should faint in hart as if he were oppressed by his enimies but rather acknowledge it to be the wonderfull prouidence of God that he should die to redeeme the flocke Gualter Christ saith he came to giue his soule to be the price of Redemption for many This passeth all offices that men may yeeld one to another For as him selfe saith no man hath greater loue then this to giue his soule for his friends But he vouchsafeth to die for his enimies And dying for vs he bestowed life on vs because his death was a ransome sufficient for the sinnes of the world And so A good sheepeheard saith Christ layeth downe his soule for his sheepe b As if he should haue said who can deny him to be a good sheepeheard that so much loueth his sheepe as not to refuse to redeeme their safetie with the losse of his owne life And because the Sonne of God hath exposed or yeelded his life for vs who can doubt but he hath satisfied abundantly for vs Vitus Theodorus Christ saith the sonne of man came to minister and to giue his life for the Redemption of all That surely is the chiefest and truest loue and seruice when a man serueth his enimies with body and life And likewise in the person of Christ. I alone am the good
the exceeding loue and admirable honor wherewith God accepted and aduanced the death of his Sonne for mans saluation seeme to any sober man verie wrath true vengeance or the proper punishment of sinne prouided and reserued for reprobate men and angels It was not for correction you say What then ergo for vengeance Who being in his right wits would so reason God afflicteth his Saints often times for probation for perfection for coronation as the Scriptures auouch and not for correction May a man thence conclude by your Logick that these afflictions of the Godly are true punishment and proper vengeance Your selfe most withstand it Why then since Christes afflictions had in them a cleere illustration of Gods wisdome power and loue towards man somewhat blemished and obscured in mans fall by Satans craft and a full recompence to his holinesse and iustice neglected and irritated by mans vnrighteousnesse besides the obedience sufficience and preualence of his Sonne thereby declared why should I say those afflictions of Christ great and small during his life and at his death seeme to any man that is well aduised the true wrath proper vengeance and right punishment that was prepared for sinners Yea since the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne must be common to sinfull men with the sinfull Angels in as much as they both sinned and shall both receaue the due wages of sinne how can the corporall afflictions of this life wherein the diuels can not partake with men be called the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne And who but you hearing our Sauiour pronounce that euerlasting fire is the full payment and proper punishment of wicked and accursed men and Angels would labour with such loose and lewd collections to bring Christ Iesus within the compasse of the full punishment and proper vengeance due to sinne Wherefore take backe your riotous and irreligious termes As they are not prooued by any Scripture so are they not to be suffered in Christian Religion because they are but cloudes to cloke the fantasticall frame of your new hell In the sharpnesse of the punishment exacted by God on the manhood of his owne Sonne for our sinnes though farre different from that which the wicked doe and shall feele and which the Scriptures call the wrath to come wherein the diuels shall haue their portion euen in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone God would haue vs learne how much he detesteth our sinnes how easie all the plagues which we suffer in this life are in respect of that we deserue how infinite the loue and mercy of God was towards vs to lay the burden which we could not haue borne on the shoulders of his onely Sonne who for his dignitie innocencie and euery way sufficiencie was able to quench that wrath that euerlastingly and intolerably would haue burnt against vs to our finall and perpetuall destruction of body and soule For if Gods owne Sonne though he did recompence our sinnes with his infinite humilitie obedience and sanctitie was yet pursued vnto death in most painefull and reprochfull manner for our sakes before we could be quited from the guilt and load of our sinnes had we appeared in the iust iudgement of God to receaue the reward of our manifold iniquities what could haue beene the end thereof but a most dreadfull damnation of body and soule to hell fire for euer with the desperate and damned spirits This God would haue vs obserue in the death of his Sonne though there be many other points of Gods wisedome power and loue towards Christ himselfe which the Scriptures inclose in the Crosse of Christ. That then Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes appeared in the Crosse of Christ I doe not deny speaking of wrath after the manner of the Sacred Scriptures But that any wrath or vengeance proper to the wicked was therein offered or executed on Christ or that he suffered the iust and full punishment allotted to others for sinne Saue that his sufferings were in his person the full price of our Redemption I meane a most sufficient satisfaction and recompence for all the sinnes of the world I find no mention made thereof in all the Scriptures nor see any iust cause or proofe thereof alleaged by you in all your writings For since you will not endure that any thing executed on the godly shall be truely called wrath it is euident that the wrath which you imagine Christ suffered must be proper to the wicked before it can be rightly called wrath because the godly feele no part of Gods wrath litle nor great as you suppose Now that Christ suffered the wrath of God prouided for the sinnes of the wicked only and no way common to the godly this is both a false and a wicked proposition of yours though you euery where vrge it you no where prooue it but boldly as your fashion is affirming it you thinke the world bound to embrace it I find by the Scriptures that the wrath which Christ suffered in Soule and Body differed from that which is proper to the wicked as well in the Nature and measure of the paines as in the purpose of the punisher and inward peace of the sufferer and in all the consequents of the paines themselues In this world the wicked find subtraction of all grace and fauour confusion and desperation in the world to come exclusion from glorie Malediction and damnation wholy and euerlastingly light on them none of which may be transferred to Christ without intolerable blasphemie Yet paine you thinke Christ suffered and more then paine the wicked and damned doe not suffer Were that true which is most false that the damned suffer no more then pain though indeed in hell cuery thing doth paine them yet all paines are not of the same nature and kind and no paines felt in this life come neere the paines of hell whereof this mortall life and flesh is not capable The paine of fire we see doth presently cut of this life and some diseases so much heate the body that they doe the like and yet the paine and force of this naturall fire or of any sicknesse is nothing comparable to the fury of hell fire for which the bodies of the wicked must be made immortall before they can endure it All aches and agues doe paine the body all feares and sorrowes afflict the soule and spirit of man Shall we thence conclude that all men at all times when they are pained or grieued suffer the paines of hell because it is paine which the damned doe suffer It is more then prophane abusing and deluding the terrible iudgements of God against sinne to suppose that all paines of body and soule are hell paines in nature and kind which you wrap vnder the fold of proper wrath and right punishment of sinne because they are paines Wherefore they must either be the selfe same paines that God in his iust and fierce wrath inflicted on the damned or you
The sufferings which he receiued in his body were all vniust and violent proceeding from others that wickedly persued and oppressed him though in all his afflictions he beheld with his minde and with his will obeyed the hand and Counsell of God thus by the malice and ignorance of his enemies fulfilling those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer So that Christes obedience and patience in all his persecutions came from the same inward powers and graces of his soule from which all his actions did though the wrongs and violences were first offered his body by the wicked In his inward affections and passions of feare griefe and sorrow his minde was the first apprehender of the causes that mooued them and his will the admitter of them But as in all his actions he was holy and iust so in all his affections and inward passions were they neuer so grieuous vnto him he was not only righteous and innocent but religious and patient and other passions of the soule in Christ the Scripture knoweth none As for your suffering of hell paines in the soule of Christ properly from the immediate hand of God it is a deuice proper and immediate to your selfe which you would faine bring in as an other and chiefe meane of our redemption besides that which the Scripture speaketh of Christes sufferings Wherein you must pardon me and all true beleeuers for not accepting your fansies as any parts of our faith We reade that God is the Father of mercies that he is the tormentor of soules in hell with his immediate hand wee doe not reade much lesse that hee â—…o tormented the soule of his Sonne in the time of his passion which is the maine plat of your new found hell The iudge shall say Depart from me yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the diuell and his Angels Which fire we confesse is created and established by the might power and hand of God as a meane to torment the damned both men and Angels according to their deserts but that this fire is nothing else but the immediate hand of God tormenting the wicked spirits in hell as it did the soule of his owne Sonne on the Crosse I take either of these assertions not to dissemble with you to bee a grosse and palpable error strange to the Scriptures and strange to the whole Church of God before these our dayes wherein some make it their glorie rather newly to inuent then rightly to beleeue what the Scriptures deliuer and the Church of Christ from the beginning receiued and reuerenced as principles of Christian truth and pietie The next point to wit that by your new found Rules you make Christes flesh needlesse to our redemption you graunt is an horrible heresie but you aske how it followeth vpon your words I did not charge you with maintaining purposely that wicked heresie but with reasoning so foolishly speaking so vnaduisedly that without your direct meaning that error was consequent to your words You would faine see how Truely it followeth stronger vpon your words then I would wish or you are ware For whatsoeuer was by Gods ordinance needfull to the worke of our redemption that made properly to our redemption But the sufferings of Christs soule by or from the body which you call by Simpathy did not make properly to our Redemption as you say ergo the sufferings of Christs Soule by or from his body were not needfull to the worke of our Redemption Now if the sufferings of Christs flesh were not needfull to our Redemption then was his flesh needelesse for our Redemption by your illation Which of these propositions can you auoyd but they are either plainly true as the Maior or fully yours as all the rest Our Redemption being no naturall thing but wholy depending on the counsell and will of God whatsoeuer God appointed as necessary for our Redemption that most properly made to our Redemption and things needlesse could not appertaine thereto but improperly Of all men you may not start from this force of the word PROPER For with you improper wrath is no wrath improper punishment is no punishment and therefore improper belonging to our Redemption is no belonging at all but needlesse to our Redemption And since Christs sufferings in his body by your assertion did not make properly to our Redemption it is euident they were needlesse to our Redemption and if the sufferings of his flesh were needlesse the flesh it selfe was needlesse to our Redemption euen by your owne Conclusions For Christ you say assumed not our Nature nor any part of it but onely to suffer in it properly and immediatly euen for the very purchasing our Redemption therebyOtherwise he had NO NEEDE to assume both but either the one part or the other You heare your owne Doctrine that except Christ suffered properly and immediatly in either part of our nature for the purchasing of our Redemption thereby he had NO NEEDE to assume both But Christ suffered not properly and immediatly in his flesh for the purchasing of our Redemption thereby if your words be true that bodily sufferings properly made not to our Redemption He had no neede therefore to assume flesh in which he suffered nothing that properly made to our Redemption Here are the Cart-ropes of your owne collections the sequels whereof if you deny you must recall your owne answers and arguments so peremptorily pronounced in your Treatise How false your Resolutions are and how dissonant from the sacred Scriptures will easily appeare to him that hath but halfe an eye For the sufferings of Christs body were not decreed by God to make no more to our Redemption then Christs hunger or his sleepe which are your Resemblances but they were directly intended by God himselfe in Christs incarnation and expresly foreshewed by the mouthes of his Prophets and necessarily to be borne in the body of Christ before we could be redeemed in respect of Gods will so setled and reuealed The Apostle to the Hebrewes going about to prooue that Christ was to offer his body and shed his bloud for our sanctification and Redemption layeth this for the ground Euery high Priest is ordained to offer gifts and Sacrifices Wherefore it was of NECESSITIE that this Man Christ should haue somewhat to offer For else he were not a Priest And concluding what must be offered Christ saith he being an high Priest of good things to come by his owne bloud entred in once into the holy place and found eternall Redemption for vs. Wherefore when Christ commeth into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering which are offered by the Law thou wouldest not but a body hast thou ordained me then said I Loe I come to doe thy will O God By the which will we are sanctified euen by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once The suffering of Christs body and shedding of his blood were
that doctrine to the people The iust and mercifull God did not so vse the iniurie of his will those are his words that to restore vs hee would only shew the power of his clemenâ—…ie but because it was a consequent that man committing sinne should be the seruant of sinne God so fitted the medicine to the sicke the pardon to the guiltie and redâ—…mption to the captures that the iust sentence of condemnation should be dissolued by tâ—…e iust worke of the 〈◊〉 For if only the Godhead should haue opposed it selfe for vs sinners not so much reason as power should conquer the diuell The Sonne of God therefore admitted wicked hands to be layed on him and what the rage of the persecutors offered with patient power he suffered This was that great mysterie of godlinesse that Christ was euer loaden with iniuries which if he should haue repelled with open power and manifest vertue he should haue exercised onely his diuine strength but not regarded our cause that were men For in all things which the madnesse of the people and Priests did reprochfully and 〈◊〉 vnto him our sinnes were wiped away and our offences purged The diuell himselfe did not vnderstand that his crueltie against Christ should ouerthrow his owne kingdome WHO SHOVLD NOT LOOSE THE RIGHT OF HIS FIRST FRAVD IF HE COVLD ABSTAINE FROM THE LORDS BLOVD But greedie with malice to hurt whiles he rusheâ—…h on Christ himselfe falleth whiles he taketh he is taken and persuing him that was mortall he lighted on him that was the Sauiour of the world Iesus Christ being lifted vp on the tree returned death vpon the Authour of death and strangled all the principalities and powers that were against him by obiecting his flesh that was possible giuing place in himselfe to the presumption of our ancient enemie who raging against mans nature that was subiect vnto him durst there exact his debt where he could finde no signe of sinne Therefore the generall and mortall hand-writing by which we were solde was torne and the contract of our captiuitie came into the power of the Redeemer The person of the Sonne tookâ—… vpon him properly the reparation of mankinde that whose maker he was he might be their restorer so directing his counsell to effect that to destroy the kingdome of the diuell he rather vsed the righteousnesse of reason then the power of his might For whiles the diuell raged on him whom he held by no law of sinne he lost the right of his wicked dominion I repeat the more to let the Reader see that the Fathers in this case doe not play with figures as this Discourser dreameth but they consonantly propose and vrge with earnest and euident words a great point of Christian pietie Gregorie teacheth the same lesson When Satan tooke Christes bodie to crucifie it he lost Christes elect from the right of his power And by Gods speech to Satan concerning Iob Beholde he is in thine hand but saue his life hee thus declaâ—…eth Gods Commission to Satan touching Christ Tâ—…ke thou power against his bodie and lose the right of thy wicked dominion ouer his â—…lect Damascene also noteth that one respect why Christ was made man was to stoppe the diuels murmuring if God should haue taken man out of his hands by the power of his Deitie Christ was made man sayth he that that which was conquered might conquer God was not vnable who is able to doe all things by his almightie power and force to take man from the Tyrant that helâ—… him but that would haue beene a cause of complaint to the Tyrant that had conquered man if he were forced by God Therefore God who pitied and loued vs willing to make man that was fallen the conqueror of Satan became man restoring the like by the like that is man by man And in this sayth Damascene appeareth Gods iustice that man being ouerthrowen he would haue none other besides man to conquer the Tyrant neither would he by violence take man from death but whom death had of old brought into bondâ—…ge by sinne eâ—…en him would the gracious and righteous God make conquer againe What reason then haue you to reuell at Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose in such sort as you doe that their names are of no waitht to warrant such a Doctrine as those words of theirs pretend Or what teach they different from the rest of the Fathers if their words be rightly taken and not wrested aside to your crooked conceiâ—…s That the bloud of Christ was so sufficient a price for vs that not onely the voluntarie sacrificing thereof throughly satisfied the displeased Iustice of God and obtained remission of all our sinnes but eâ—…en the wrongfull shedding thereof by Satans instigation wrought the subuersion of Satans power and right in all the â—…lect God by the rule of Iustice giuing vnto Christs manhoode the spoyle of Satans kingdome â—…or the patience which Christ shewed whiles Satan by the mouthes and hands of the wicked spoyled Christs humane nature of honor and life for the time what danger is there in this to the Christian Faith or what repugnancie to the sacred Scriptures THEREFORE VVILL I giue him his part in many things â—…aith God of Christs manhoode and he shall deuide THE SPOYLE of the mightie or with the mightie because he powred forth his Soule vnto death this the Apostle shâ—…weth was executed against the Diuels them selues Christ SPOYLED Principalities and Powers and made a shew of thâ—…m openly triumphing ouer them in his owne Person According as God threatned the Serpent vpon his first deceauing the woman I will put enmitie betweene thy seâ—…de and her seâ—…de he shall bruize thine head and thou shalt bruize his heele Where God expresseth plainly the Recompence that the seed of the woman should haue for suffering Satan to bruize his heâ—…le euen the bruizing of the Serpents head For nothing is more equall with God then to remâ—…ate the same measure to men and Angels that they mâ—…te to others It was therefore a thing most iust in the sight of God as he subiected Man to Satans power when by sinne he first conquered Man so he subiected Satan to the will and power of Christs manhoode when by righteousnesse Christ conquered the diuell And as Christ patiently endured to be wrongfully depriued of his life by the meanes and members of Satan so in requitall of that presumption and iniurie Christ powerfully and iustly depâ—…ed Satan of all his â—…ight and interest to the Elect for whose sakes Christ gaue his life This excludeth not the voluntarie seruice and sacrifice of Christs obedience vnto death wherewith the Iustice of God was satisfied and appeased but this sheweth that as God had chiefe regard of his owne Iustice and mercie towards man in giuing his owne Sonne to be the pacification of his wrath and propitiation of our sinnes so he dealt iustly with the diuell in causing the
admit the ransom which his own Sonne most willingly offered for vs when we were his Enemies or will conclude that Christ must iustly desâ—…e death because he did willingly die for vs You see now what I say to Christes death he died most iustly to God because most willingly for vs and yet most vndeseruedly because most innocently If Christ died not by Gods iustice then woe and thrice woe to vs for it can not be but Gods iustice must be executed If Gods iustice against vs were not satisfied by his Sonne and so appeased wo were it with vs but if any man be so madde headed that either the Sonne of God or himselfe must be euerlastingly damned for the full execution of Gods iustice against sinne then woe indeed to that hellish infidelitie and blessed for euer be Gods loue and mercie towards vs that accepted the death of his Sonne for our sinnes which Christ willingly offâ—…red as the price of our redemption when he could by no sentence of the law be thereto bound Therefore my Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my life for my sheepe None taketh it from me but I lay it downe of mine owne selfe And so the Prophet foretold of him If he will or shall lay downe his soule or life for sinne he shall see his seed prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands What if hanging on a tree were no necessarie part of the gâ—…erall curse it was neuerthelesse iust from God vpon him as well as his death Neither â—…th nor hanging nor any part of Christes punishment was iust from God as deserued by Christ either in respect of his nature or of his office but all was most iust with God euen on Christ in respect of Christs owne free willingnesse to reconcile vs to God with his death rather then we should perish And if both these were iust in Gods secret Counsell by reason of Christs good liking so to ransome man what is that to the sentence of the Law which Iudgeth euery man according to his works and punisheth only the transgressour out of which number Christ is excepted by the continuall Caueats of the holy Scriptures Still I meane iustly in respect of God alone And still I say iustly in respect of Christs willingnesse only which is nothing to the sentence of the Law For the law respecteth the euill desert of the Transgressour and not the good will of the Redeemer or Suretie You mislike that Christ should suffer iustly because he suffered willingly for vs which hindreth not at all Since that was most iust with God in his secret counsell whereto his Sonne was most willing I vtterlie misliked as the whole Church of Christ before me did that the Sonne of God should be thought to be bound to death who must be most free or deseruing death by the sentence of the Law punishing sinners because he was willing to beare our burden And if you looke well about you you shall find the second person in Trinitie vndertooke to ransome vs from our sinnes long before his manhood was borne euen from the foundation of the world and to lay any band vpon the Sonne of God besides his owne good will and pleasure aduise you whether it tendeth And since God would not haue the death of Christes manhood but as a sacrifice most freely willingly offered vnto him for sinne least there should appeare any constraint or necessitie layd on the person of Christ let the Reader iudge with what trueth you not onely bind the second person in Trinitie to be subiect to the sentence of the Law but taint the soule of Christ with the vncleannesse of our sinne because he suffered the punishment thereof in our steedes The voluntarie suertie beareth his penaltie iustly when he sustaineth that which the Debtour by Law should sustaine It is a penaltie to patience to heare you talke so vnwisely and vniustly of Iustice. Shall mercie and charitie in Christians that ease other mens shoulders or pay other mens debts be taken now with you for the iust desert of a penaltie How much lesse then may the loue and fauour of God redeeming vs with his owne blood and â—…aling vs with his owne stripâ—…s be called a â—…ust and well deserued punishment Mans law may exact the debt where the Suertie standeth bound to the â—…aw to see it satisfied From one freely offering to pay another mans debts the Law may iustly receiue it because he is willing but the Law cannot exact it because he is at libertie which is the true difference betwixt a Suertie bound and a free Ransommer and yet neither is guiltie of the prisoners offences You say no Law you are sure not Gods law alloweth a murderer or like offender to be shared and another that is willing to be hanged in his steede You haue all this while dallied with Gods iustice you now begin to play with Gods Law that where trueth faâ—…th you you may yet at least make some shew with wordes as all wranglers doe when they be driuen to the wall whereof the discreet Reader may take a sensible obseruation in this place You haue bene spuddling here and spending more then two leaues to prooâ—…e that Christ bare the true curse of the Law which was due to vs for sinne and that the Apostle speaking thereof Galat. 3. could haue none other meaning and therefore you resolued that Christ was hanged by the iust sentence of the Law which otherwise must light on vs if it were not laid on him What Law ment you all this while or what Law doth Paul dispute of in that place Not of that Law which accurieth and punisheth sinne That Law I said admitted no Suerties but reuenged the malefactours themselues and therefore by the sentence of that Law Christ could not be iustly accursed or hanged in our steedes Against this when you can say nothing you get you to the Gospell of Christ which proposeth glad tydings of our Redemption from the burden of our sinnes and from the curse of the Law by the most willing and innocent death of the Sonne of God for our sakes and by that Lawe you say Christ might and did die for vs as our Suertie I aske the indifferent Reader whether this be not a plaine running from the question and a resigning of all that you haue said before touching tâ—…e â—…es accursing of Christ as our Suertiâ—… For the Gospell I trust doth not pronounce Christ to be either accursed for our sinnes or defiled with our sinnes but shewed him to be the blessed Seede that bruized the Sâ—…pents head and the vndefiled and vnspotted Lambe that tooke away the sinne of the world with his most innocent and precious blood This shifting therefore which is so vsuall with you that as long as you can wrench a word you will not yeeld to the trueth will breake the necke of your cause in the end with all
increased by continuall transgressing which defileth the sinner and cleaueth to the soule till she be washed with the bloud and renewed by the spirit of Christ. The guiltinesse of sinne is double in regard either of the sinne committed or of the punishment prepared The witnesse of our conscience priuie to our doings when our cogitations accuse vs and our harts condemne vs this is the conuiction â—…hat God doth and will vse in Iudgement himselfe as greater then our harts not onely knowing but reuealing the things hid in Darkenesse and manifesting the Counsels of ech mans hart The guiltinesse of punishment noteth the iust deseruing thereof by vs or the fast binding of vs thereto by the rule of Iustice. If I bring not backe thy Sonne vnto thee said Iudah to Iacob his Father I will sinne vnto thee euery day not meaning he would euery day offer new offences to his Father but that he would be guiltie of that sinne for euer Whosoeuer shall eate this Bread saith Paul or drinke this Cup of the Lord vnworthily shall be guiltie of the Body and bloud of the Lord that is guiltie of sinning against the Body and bloud of the Lord. Now the workeman is worthie of his reward whether it be in good or euill and therefore punishment is the wages of sinne worthily deserued or certainly reserued for sinners by the Iudgement of God When the high Priest asked the Councel touching Christ behold ye heard his blasphemy what thinke ye They answered he is guiltie of death that is worthie to die and so they condemned him as WORTHIE to die Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is obliged and assured of punishment as he that blasphemeth against the holy Ghost shall neuer be pardoned but guiltie that is assured of euerlasting condemnation So likewise the true malediction of sinne is triple For as the true blessings of God haue three degrees First his loue which is the roote of all our happinesse then his grace which is the meane of hauing that which is fit for this life and of hoping for the rest and lastly his glorie which is the full fruition of the reward for his in the heauens so the true Curse of sinne which is the depriuation of all true blessing hath the same degrees I meane the losse of Gods loue which is his hatred and detestation of sinne the lacke of his grace to know like or imitate his goodnes in this life and lastly the repulse from his kingdome with the terrible iudgement and eternall miserie prouided for the wicked Come now to your Termes of sinfull defiled and accursed and see how well they agree to Christ. First if the holinesse of God were so great in his Person as to purge our vncleannesse much more was it able to resist our Corruption and to keepe him from being defiled with our sinnes from which he clensed vs. Againe if he were any way defiled with our sinnes he must needs offer Sacrifice first for himselfe and then for vs. But this is quite repugnant to the Apostles Doctrine who saith Christ needed not to offer vp any such Sacrifice for himselfe Thirdly if he were defiled by our sinnes his office must defile him his nature nor Actions could not That which was borne of the Virgine was HOLY his life was innocent and iust he did no sinne nor knew no sinne his office was more holy then either of these For these resisted sinne but his office clensed sinne Now to clense others from sinne required more holinesse then to keepe himselfe from sinne The one is the holinesse of the Creature the other of the Creator And how should the Priesthood defile him when the Sacrifice was holy and vndefiled Christ offered himselfe without spot to God saith the Apostle directly speaking of his Sacrifice And Peter calleth him the Lamb vnspotted and vndefiled which must be in respect of his Sacrifice For he was the Lamb of God which tooke away the sinnes of the world Else how could he be a Sacrifice of a sweete smelling sauour vnto God whose eyes are pure and can not behold wickednes if he were any way vncleane with his owne or with our sinnes and if our sinnes could then defile him or make him vnclean he is at this day sitting in the heauens defiled vncleane For we haue the very same coniunction with him now that we had then being members of his Body as then we were and he our head and he still presenteth vs to God as then he did and euen by the vertue of those sufferings which he sustained here on earth for vs. So that his mediation is now by the power of that Passion which he then endured and if his assuming Sinners into his Body or being the propitiation for our sinnes could then touch him with any vncleannesse he can not be free from it at this present But his Priesthood was holy then and vndefiled and so remaineth still both pure and perpetuall And if in the figuratiue Sacrifices of the Law neither the Pâ—…st nor the Sacrifice were defiled with the sinnes of the People but were sanctified and accepted when the one did offer the other was offered for sinne what ground of truth can it haue that the true most holy and acceptable Sacrifice for sinne which indeede purged the sinnes of the world should defile either the Person of Christ or his office or his action in that oblation Lastly since all pollution of Soule is inherent which you graunt was not in Christ how should he be defiled that had nothing in him but holinesse and righteousnesse which I trust are not defiled If Christ were not defiled with our sinnes then was he not sinfull One sinn defileth how much more then doth the fulnesse of sinne make Christ vncleane which is your deuotion to the Sonne of God I meane not inherently but by imputation You meane he was defiled and sinnefull not truely but falsely Did you speake of men who erre in their iudgements it might be borne but when you speake of God there is no imputation with him but in trueth vnlesse you will change the Apostles doctrine Let God be true and euery man a liar and say God must be a lyar afore you can speake trueth in this behalfe God doth impute righteousnesse to vs that be sinners by pardoning our offences and accepting vs for Christes sake when of our selues we are most vnwoorthie but vncleannesse he doth not impute where none is found because he giueth freely by mercy and condemneth iustly by desert The punishment of our sinnes Christ did willingly beare in his bodie the guilt of our sinnes he did not and that made his sufferings the more righteous as being without desert or guilt Did God then wrong his Sonne in afflicting him he laide the burden of our iniquities on the bodie of Christ who was willing to redeeme our danger with his owne death and
and yet none of them maketh Christ sinfull hatefull or defiled which is your vncleane doctrine We affirme sayth Austen that Christ had no sinne neither in soule nor flâ—…sh and yet in taking flesh after the likenâ—…sse of sinfull flesh by sinne he condemned sinne Which being somewhat obscurâ—…ly spoken by the Apostle may be two wayes opened either because the similitudes of things vse to be called by the names of the things themselues and in that respect the Apostle would call the similitude of sinfull flesh Sinne or els because the sacrifices for sinnes in the Law were called sinnes all which were the figures of Christs flesh the true and only sacrifice for sinne A third way is that the punishment of sinne is after a sort called sinne as being a consequent to sinne which S. Austen before testified and in that respect as well mortalitie as all other miseries and infirmitâ—…s that inuaded mans nature for sinne may be called sinne that is the effects of sinne The wrongfull and shamefull death of Christ Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact and others take to be the punishment of our sinnes in the flesh of Christ and in that regard they thinke Christ was made sinne that is punished as a sinner though he were innocent and righteous Him that was righteousnesse it selfe God made sinne that is he suffered him to be condemned as a sinner and to die as one accursed for accursed was he that hung on a tree Christ sayth Theodoret when he had fulfilled all righteousnesse and not admitted any blemish of sinne and yet as a sinner sustained the death of sinners he reproued the iniustice of sinne that deliuered his bodie to death no way deseruing it and dissolued both sinne and death Theophylact as his maner is followeth Chrysostome almost word for word The Sonne who knew no sinne and was righteousnesse it selfe the Father made to die for vs as if he had beene a sinner and malefactour S. Austen ioyneth with them Christ had the similitude of sinfull flesh because his flesh was mortall sinâ—… vllo omnino peccato but vtterly without any sinne that by sinne for similitude he might condemne the sinne that is in our flesh through true iniquitie True iniquitie in Christ there was none mortalitie there was Peccatum non suscepit sed poenam peccati suscepit Suscipiendâ—… sinâ—… culpâ—… poenam poenam saâ—…it culpam Christ tooke not our sinne vnto him he tooke the punishment of our sinne And taking the punishment without any fault he healed both the punishment and the fault I leaue the Reader to his choise which of these he will embrace or whether he will conioyne them all together for the one impugneth not the other they all impugne the Defenders false collections and lewd surmises out of these places that Christ when he is called sinne is intended by the Scriptures to be defiled with our sinnes and hatefull to God and accursed of him for our sinnes which the Church of Christ did neuer endure to heare Master Caluin warily enough sayth Vt personam nostram suscepit peccator erat maledictionis reus As Christ tooke vpon him our person he was a 〈◊〉 and guiltie of the curse I had rather you had commended Master Caluins wisdome to ioyne with the whole Church of God in giuing Christ his due then his warinesse in going a by-way without all the learned and Catholike fathers to hemme Christ within the guilt of our sinne and curse Master Caluin truely I honour for his great gifts and paines in the Church of God but I may not take him for the first founder of Christian religion and therefore where he dissenteth from the worthie Pillers of Christs Church in matters of Doctrine I dissent from him And I more commend his warinesse elsewhere and thinke it fit that when his speech soundeth somewhat hard or offensiue to the Godly it should be expounded by other places of his writings least you make him in so waightie points as these are very inconstant or very inconsiderate This therefore which you bring I interpret by none other then himselfe vsing the very same words of the very same matter in his Commentaries vpon the very next Epistle of Saint Paul before this which you quote You shall haue it in Latine because you shall see how he qualifieth these very words which you would presse to your aduantage PERSONAM nostram QVODAMMODO suscepit vt reus nostro nomine fieret tanquam peccator iudicaretur non proprijs sed alienis delictis quum purus foret ipse immunis ab omni culpa paenamque sâ—…biret nobis non sibi debitam Christ tooke vnto him our Person AFTER A SORT that he might be accused or Iudged in our Name and condemned as it were for a Sinner not for any of his owne offences but other mens since he himselfe was pure and FREE FROM ALL FAVLT or guilt and suffered the punishment due to vs not to him Take these mitigations from Master Caluins owne mouth and then your labour is lost in putting his words to the Racke and these are farre truer then your whirlegigges set running by the businesse of your Braine Christ was AFTER A SORT A SINNER Saith Caluine that is Christ presented the Persons and procured the cause of vs â—…at were sinners and was guiltie that is accused condemned or punished in our steedes Reâ—… doth not alwaies import an offender if you know what Latine meaneth it noteth one â—…uius res agitur whose cause is handled or brought into Iudgement whether he be guiltie or innocent And when it goeth farder then iudiciall inquisition it may be applied either to the fault which is conuinced or to the Iudgement which is decreed or to the punishment which is deserued or appointed And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke which the new Testament vseth for guiltie or worthie of or subiected to punishment is as much as fast held either by the Crime committed or by the sentence pronounced or by the punishment prepared and assured Thus you see Caluins words limited by himselfe make nothing for you and howsoeuer you rack the word Reus you may not thereby bring Christ to be defiled or hatefull with our sinnes except mercie humilitie and charitie by your learning defile the Sonne of God and make him hatefull to his Father Euen as by Gods true and reall imputation not by any iâ—…hesion we now in this life are iust holy and blamelesse before God so was he sinfull and defiled by Imputation not inherently This is neither the Apostles speech nor sense it is your soone-come and soone-gone gathering from the Apostles words The one is the cause of the other but the one is not in all points proportioned to the other God made him Sinne for vs that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Thus speaketh the Apostle Omit Christs Sacrifice for sinne whereby our sinnes were pardoned and
since Gods promises and his owne knowledge did assure him that hee was ordained and annointed of God to be the Sauiour of the world I omit that dereâ—…iction is one of the properties of the damned of which before you said there couâ—…d vâ—…terly be none of these in Christ. Now belike vpon some new inspiration from the father of lies you haue found that Christ suffered such a forsoking of God as the damned doâ—… With such mysteries of impietie and contrarietie you daâ—… be vp your new redemption by the paâ—…nes of hell and of the damned But the Apostle teacheth vs that as the sufferings of Christ abound in his members so their consolation aboâ—…ndeth through Christ. And if wee reioice in trouble knowing that suffering with him we shall raigne with him how could patience that breedeth hope in vs and maketh vs perfect exclude him from all comfort whom God did consumâ—…ate with affliction and made the Author of eternall salâ—…ation to all that obey him I adde vnto all this last of all your owne grant where you fully yeeld that Christ was our Suertie to the Law and that he did suffer iustly or in Gods iustice The vengeance of the Law say you once executed in our Suertie can no more in Gods iustice be exacted on vâ—… The name of a Suertie is not it that I mislike but your concluding from the similitude thereof that Christ was bound to suffer hell paines in our steed and was defilâ—…d and hatefull to God by our sinnes So much resemblance Christ had with a Suertie as suffering in our steedes and for our sakes to cleere and acquit vs by his sufferings but that he was thereto bound or therewith defiled these were the two points that I misliked to be drawne from the similitude of a Suertie and heerein I said the Scriptures rather make him a Mediatour and Redeemer them a Suertie I say the same still but that you doe not or will not perceaue it least you should want somewhat to quarrell with But I ouerthrow mine owne chiefe exception which I make that Christ was not our Suertie to the Law to pay our debts When I say Christ died for vs NOT AS A SVERTIE BOVND TO THE LAVV you put BOVND in your pocket to serue you an other banket against you be disposed where if you did loue trueth as well as you doe talke you would farely report though you did not fully vnderstand my words I said it was not written in the Scriptures that Christ was a Suertie to the Law to pay our debts If you haue found where it is so written shew the place and take the prize you will prooue it out of my words you say at least if you could and yet betweene my wordes and the Scriptures when you liste you can put difference enough But let vs see how you deduce it out of my words that Christ was bound to the Law to pay our debts for vs. That he did submit himselfe to the curse of the Law to discharge vs from all our debts to the Law I neuer denied the Apostle saith Christ redeemed vs from the curse of the Law being made a curse for vs that is in our steeds or to our vse The Question is whether he did this willingly freely and of his owne accord as I with the whole Church of Christ affirme he did or whether he were bound to the Law so to do which is your new found faith to defile Christ with our sinnes and to hang him iustly by the sentence of the Law You haue laboured a long while in vaine saying much and proouing nothing what now conclude you out of my words The vengeance of the Law was executed on him as our Suertie The vengeance of the Law due to vs was executed on him that of his owne fice-will put himselfe in our places by his suffering who was an innocent and the Sonne of God to ouerthrow the curse of the Law which we could neuer haue done but rather by our punishment haue confirmed it How prooue you now that he was bound thus to doe or that the Law did allow vs Suerties You haue my words make your best of them He was our Suertie May not a man as well freely when hee seeth his time discharge an others debts as if he were bound must euerie man that will shew mercy be thereto tied with bands was not the loue which the Sonne of God bare vnto vs as good an assurance as all the bands you haue brought in to make him a seruant vnder the Law that was Lord ouer the Law Those are not properly Suerties Amongst Banckrowts and Vsurers they are not but honest and able men do most desire such How much lesse then ought we to binde the Sonne of God as if his credite were crazed or haue him in suspition except he will enter an obligation to redeeme vs The debt can not now by Gods iustice be exacted on vs. And why because God in his mercie towards vs liked rather to accept the obedience of his Sonne for vs then to execute his vengeance on vs. Which since he did no way owe for himselfe being not onely a most innocent man but the most excellent Lord of heauen and earth his sufferings were in vaine if they preuailed not for vs. For vs then they were iust Farre woorse were well deserued by vs and reserued for vs if the Lord of glorie had not interposed himselfe but his willing admitting the punishment due to vs in his owne bodie did not make him guiltie of our sinnes nor woorthie of our punishment If Christes sufferings were iust in him how was he an innocent Because God is as well righteous in his fauour as in his anger and no lesse iust in sauing his elect then in condemning his enemies Wherefore Christes sufferings were not due to him by Gods reuenging iustice but in his righteous mercie towards vs he laid our burden on him who was well able to beare it and of his owne good will desired it And this suffering as an innocent with his vndeserued death to releeue others was more righteous and glorious in the sight of God by infinite degrees then if he had patiently suffered and deserued it It was therefore exceeding mercy in the Sonne to offer it and maruellous clemencie in the Father to accept it and in both most admirable loue to performe it which is neuer vniust with God And this though you for a shift call Law the Scriptures call grace by faith in Christ which is not of the Law nor by the Law that increaseth sinne and causeth anger For the Law was giuen by Moses but grace and trueth by Iesus Christ. But heereof I haue spoken enough before I may not repeat it for your pleasure Your Similitude of a Kings Sonne intreating for his Fathers Rebels is very weake and ouerthroweth if it were good a confessed point of Christs Redemption
from the furious rage of Satan and malice of wicked men Here are many mights rashly and falsly supposed of Christ but not a mite of Salt or truth in them Is it lawfull for you Sir Defender to dreame what you list of Christs sufferings and when you are required proofe thereof to say It might be so extraordinarily What absurdities and heresies may not thus be maintayned if euery addle braine shall frame to himselfe new Passions and strange Temptations in Christ and all on this ground forsooth it might be so Their eares must exceedingly itche that will leaue the writings of the Euangelists and Apostles and listen to your extraordinarie might be But what might be Might Christ vpon all this spirituall fury and subtilitie of Satan or concurrence and cooperation of the Iewes haue his Faith hope or loue of and in God faile or decrease could he mistrust or doubt that he might perish and neither saue himselfe noâ—… vs why Role you thus with Roperick Termes and frights of franticke men when you speake of Christs Temptations as if hell or Satan were to strong for the Spirit and grace of God in Christ or could seuer the vnion made with the mightie hand of God of Christs humane nature into one Person with his Diuine It may be your strange fansies doe often put you to such plunges but he that stedfastly beleeueth in the Sonne of God and knoweth the truth and force of his Masters words when ready to goe to his Passion he said to his Disciples d Iohn 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be bold or consident I haue ouercome the world will neuer doubt such dangers as you dreame of For in the world which Christ ouercame is the Prince thereof comprised euen the diuell whom before Christ pronounced to haue nothing that is no part nor place in him And to me that am assured the diuell could doe nothing against Christ but what Christ himselfe would and that the Sauiour of the world had power enough not onely to resist but also to represse the furâ—…e and subtilitie of Satan with his word or becke saue what him selfe would permit to let the diuell see his violence endured his asâ—…aults repelled his temptations reiected and his whole kingdome despised aud troden vnder foote these Tragicall Termes of yours are but blusterings of a busie Brayne and blastes of an vnstayed Tongue that would say somewhat and can not tell what and therefore hideth his â—…isformed fansies vnder the visard of strange and incomprehensible conceites e Defenc. pag. 85. li. 1. Here now we may see how vniustly you conclude that Satan could no other way assault Christ as an Instrument of Gods wrath but onely by executing torments on his Soule euen in such wise as he tormenteth damned Sâ—…ules in hell We see you haue opened your packe of strange wares and wastfull words and otherwise besides your owne liking you haue brought nothing for all this pelâ—…e and Trash that you haue vttered My words that are short but expressing the same which you with many circumductions fetch about to couer the presumption of your cause you much mislike and yet if you weigh them well you shall see they containe the very summe of your deuices To be tempted with suggestions of malediction reiection confusion desperation and damnation so they take no place noâ—… find no harbour in the hart of man can haue no such incomprehensible sorrowes nor hellish Torments as you talke of The Hart by Faith presently and throughly resisting quencheth all those fierie Darts of Satan as flaxe vnder foote And therefore you must either take from Christ present and perfect resistance by deâ—…reasing his faith and sâ—…aggering his hope or else you can neuer sinck him into such sorrowes as you suppose You giue him f Trea pa. 45. li. 25. a glorious conquest at the last but in the meane while you leauâ—… him not onely fearing and fainting but euen ouerwhelmed and all conâ—…ounded with these strange temptations and incomprehensible sorrowes which sometimes you say come from g Ibid li. 24. the immediate hand of God and sometimes from the diuels h Defenc pag. 15. â—…i â—…8 as Gods Instruments working the very effects of Gods wrath vpon him And these paines you say were not onely as sharpe as any are in hell but euen the same which the damned doe suffer Now wherein haue I wronged you except with too much sparing you What in saying you defend that Satan executed Torments on Christs Soule such as he doth on the demned Your words import no lesse The diuels you say were Gods Instruments to work on Christ the very effects of his wrath Now what are the effects of Gods wrath h Defenc pag. 15. â—…i â—…8 equall to all the paines of hell and i Pag. 12. li. â—…0 the same which are in â—…ell but the torments of the damned Soules in hell But you would haue Christ as well inwardly tempted as Tormented by the diuell and where you defend both I reported but one Pardon me that wrong I would haue hid your folly but you will not suffer me Howbeit I refuted the one and left the other as worthie none other answere then that where in the Scriptures the diuels confesse Christs word and presence did torment them you without Scripture haue found the diuels tormented Christ. k Defenc. pag. 85. li. 4. That can be say you no other way then by Satans verie possâ—…ssing of those soules Which grosse and infernall speculations of yours for trueths you can not make them I vtterly leaue to your owne discussing Are your fansies become so fine that what the Scriptures teach of Satans possessing mens soules or bodies must be grosse and your inuentions without wit or reason must be spruice What sayd I in any of these things which the plaine words or maine grounds of the Scripture do not confirme That the diuell can not worke but where he is Will you giue him more then an almighty power to worke where he is not or will you affoord him an omnipresence equall with God that he may be euery where to the end he may worke euery where as God doth Satan may torment the soule you will say and not possesse it The diuels that could not worke on swine but they must first l Matth. 8. enter them before they could make them runne headlong into the sea can they worke in men before they enter and possesse them The Cananite that intreated Christ to haue m Matth. 15. mercie on her daughter who was m Matth. 15. miserably vexed with a diuell receiued at length this answer n Mark â—… For this saying goe thy way â—…he diuell is gone out of thy daughter The father that brought his lunaticke sonne to Christ confessed o Mark 9. he had a dâ—…mbe spirit which did teare him and cast him often into the fire and into the water to destroy him and Christ confirmeth his words in
euery man his owne conscience in which of these twaine he is like vnto Christ. For they must be conformed to his sufferings before they shall be partakers of his glorie If then none shall raigne with Christ but such as haue suffered with Christ which must be hell paines as you defend I leaue it to each mans secret cogitation that shall light on this question how many thousands of good and godly men must giue ouer all hope of saluation since with sighs and sorrowes vnspeakable stirred in them by the holy Ghost for their offending and displeasing the goodnesse of God they are and ought dayly to be acquainted but with the true paines of hell death of the damned in this liâ—…e few Christians haue any communion And if any through distrust of Gods mercies and assault of their owne sinnes be terrified with desperation or dubitation let them assure themselues in either of those they be most vnlike vnto Christ whose faith stood euer fast and fully resolued of Gods fauour both towards his person and function which was the purgation of our sinnes and the reconciliation of God with man r Defenc. pag. 98. li. 28. The fift cause you say might be the Cup of Gods wrath tempered and made readie for the 〈◊〉 of men â—…hich you interpret to be eternall malediction You are no good Thâ—… fift cause conâ—…urring to Christs agonie reporter of my words in auouching that I interpret the Cup of Gods wrath tempered for the sinnes of men to be eternall malediction My words are s Sermo pa. 21. li 22. In this Cup are all maner of plagues punishments for sinne as well spirituall as corpor all eternall as temporall And before I came to declare what Christ might behold and by prayer decline in the mixture of this Cup I expresly forewarned that t Sermo pa. 21. li. 27. diucrse men haue diuersly expounded those words of Christ let this Cup passe from me u li. 36. and in this varietie of iudgements I meant to refuse none that any way agreed with the rules of truth So that I here repeate the opinions of others and onely shew in what sort and sense they must be restrained and referred before they can be concorded with the truth of the Scriptures But let vs heare what you impugne and how x Defenc. pag. 98. li. 30. You say Christ knowing what our sinnes deserued might intentiuely pray to haue that Cup passe from him which was prepared for vs. For vs whom meane you the elect or the reprobate what malediction the whole and absolute paines thereof onely or the eternitie of the continuance thereof also Wrangling is your best refuge when you know not otherwise how to right your selfe Is this so hard a question with you what was the desert and wages of our sinnes by Gods iustice had we not beene redeemed and saued from the wrath to come by Christ Iesus Is it so strange Diuinitie to separate nature from grace and iustice from mercie in the elect that they may discerne what they were and should haue been in them selues without the fauour of God in Christ who freed vs when we were seruants to sinne quickned vs when we were dead in sinne and saued vs when we were iustly wrapped in the same condemnation with others for sinne Doe not all these words Redemption Remission Reconciliation and Saluation in Christ prooue that of our selues and in our selues we were prisoners subiected to sinne and condemned as enemies to God without Christ in whom we are freed pardoned reconciled and saued Your eares are very curious that can not abide to heare what was deserued by our sinnes and prepared for our sins had God dealt with vs in iustice not in mercie for his Sonnes sake It is healthfull and needfull for vs to remember acknowledge what our naturall desert and condition was without Gods heauenly commiseration on vs and election of vs in Christ his Sonne y Defenc. pag. 9â—… li. 35. If you meane the Elect Christ knew that he must not onely see and contemplate but feele and suffer all the whole paines of that punishment which our sinnes deserued and this was prepared for himselfe our ransome payer and not for vs. Christ was not onely to suffer that which in his person should be sufficient in the righteous iudgement of God to appease his anger and purge our sinnes but he was farder to see and behold from what he deliuered vs euen from the wrath to come How should the price and â—…orce of his death be knowen vnto him if he were ignorant what dreadfull and terrible vengeance was reserued and prepared for sinne if he did not redeeme vs Wherefore he was not onely to feele that which should free vs but exactly to view know the rest that was due to our sinnes if he did not auert it And where you proclaime with open mouth that Christ must feele and suffer all the whole paines which our sinnes deserued it is a pestilent and euident impietie For either you must defend that our sinnes deserued not the losse of Gods kingdome and the perpetuall paines of hell fire in bodie and soule or else you must confesse that Christ suffered the same You spake euen now of strange maruailes in Diuinitie These monsters be past maruailes which you prooue onely by your selfe and by your owne surly conceite this was prepared for him and not for vs Was hell fire prepared for Christ he was ordained to be our Sauiour by the sacrifice of himselfe on the Crosse that by his death full of shame and paine he might redeeme the transgressions that were in the former Testament but that hell fire or euerlasting death which is the desert of our sinnes was prepared for him is a Doctrine fit for no man but for him that hath made a shipwracke of his faith to land his fansies on shore Damnation you will say was not prepared for vs but rather Saluation meane you without Christ or in Christ in Christ I haue no doubt but we were before all worlds appointed to be heires of Saluation when in our selues we should deserue farre otherwise But here shewing the meanes of mans redemption I speake of man not yet redeemed and therefore lâ—…ing as yet in the desert and danger of damnation iâ—… Christ did not deliuer him In which sense the Apostle not onely saith z Ephes. 2. We were by nature the children of wrath as well as others but a Rom. 5. by the offence of one death came on all men vnto condemnation Which speech the auncient Fathers doe euery where follow b August Epistoâ—…a 89. Qui per generationem illi condâ—…mnation obligati sunt per regenerationem ab eadem condemnatione soluuntur They which by birth are obliged or fast tied to that condemnation are by regeneration deliuered from that condemnation And so c Idem Epistola 105. merito namque peccati vniuersa massa damnata est By the
by dangers and doubts weighed and considered by the spirit of Christe I know no reason why you ascribe them meerely to the flesh As for the contrarieties which you would take hold of that Christ as a man did abhorre and feare death and yet not somuch as to fall into that agony or bloudy sweate for feare of his sufferings with such a slacke and shallow Reader as you are they may beare a shew of repugnancie but to any man that marketh or vnderstandeth what is said it accordeth full well that Christ might haue a naturall feare of death which is common to all the godly and yet no such perplexed feare for any sufferings of his as to sweate bloud for paine therof And this maketh more against you then you wil seeme to acknowledge For if Christ had no such afflicting feare in regard of his owne suffring or passion but only in respect of vs and our danger then certainly by the censure of Ambrose Ierom and Bede Christ suffered no paines of hell nor of the damned since they would bread another maner of agony then this life could endure And howsoeuer the view of death fast clasped with hell till Christ did breake the knotte thereof might seeme terrible to Christes humane consideration yet for somuch as he was secured from the one by the innocency vnity and dignity of his person though he submitted himselfe to the death of his body this feare was both righteous and religious and as farre from the paines of the damned as any sufferings of the soule in this life might be e Defenc. pag. 100. li. 10. He would not he could not so feare and be affrighted yea and piteously astonished with such sorrow oppressing him as to sweate drops of bloud onely for feare of his bodily death Neither would he pray at all much lesse so vehemently and so often times as he did against that which he perfectly knew was Gods will and his owne most willing purpose to vndergoe It is more then folly to mistake misplace and misapplie euerie thing after this sort as you doe and then to collect you know not what nor why from your owne vnwise and rash presumptions What if Christ had more cause of sorrow in the Garden then his bodily death ergo he felt the paines of the damned inflicted on his Soule by Gods immediate hand Tie this argument to the manger litter is fitter for it then an answere Such blockish and brutish sequences were the first morter that plastred your hell paines to Christs passion The worke of our redemption which Christ now vndertooke to haue pronounced and setled by the righteous iudgement of God and his Elect to be freed and pardoned of all their sinnes by the sufferings of his person The worke of our redemption was cause enough to prouoke Christs bloudy sweate and to be restored to Gods fauour by his mediation as also satan to be reiected from preuailing against them or so much as accusing them was a matter of the greatest moment in all Christian Religion What maruaile then if the manhood of Christ when it approched so waightie a worke as by prayer first to obtaine and confirme all this that after he might the more cheerefully and constantly accomplish his obedience vnto death What maruaile I say if the glory of Gods iudgement and power of his wrath the number of our sinnes and neglect of our owne state the sharpe and eger malice of satan made Christ with all possible feare of the great might and maiestie of the Iudge all passionate sorrow for the crimes and contempts of the prisoners all earnest and zealous intention of prayer against the impugner and impediment of mans deliuerance to agonize himselfe euen vnto a bloudie sweate If in our prayers the spirit of Christ stirre vp f Rom. 8. sighes vnspeakeable when we remember what danger we were in what sorrow cries and teares may we iustly thinke the fountaine of mercie and pietie would powre forth in our behalfe when our saluation was now in question before the Iudge of all the world and how burned that fire and flame of Christs loue and care for vs till he was comforted and assured from heauen that God would not by our wickednesse or vnworthinesse be stayed from performing his mercies towards vs in Christ his Sonne nor from accepting Christs obedience and sacrifice as the full ransome for all our transgressions notwithstanding all the resistance that sinne or satan could make in the righteous iudgement of God This you will say God long before had purposed and promised vnto his Sonne Christ was most earnestly to aske what God had faithfully promised to graunt And that made Christ the more earnestly pray for it since God had from the beginning determined as well to haue it asked by his Sonne as graunted by himselfe And therefore Christs supplications for vs in the daies of his flesh and at the hower of his passion now approching were as needefull as his sufferings forsomuch as pietie and charitie are perceiued rather by the Soule then by the flesh and God would neuer haue accepted the outward murdering of Christs body without the inward and acceptable sacrifice of his voluntarie obedience patience and loue euen vnto death which were the points that were chieflly pretious in Gods sight g Defenc pag. 100. li. 19. Or else Cyrill meaneth no more but that Christ naturally misliked and 〈◊〉 euen as all flesh doth all bodilie paine and death This we alway yeelde and it maketh nothing against vs. It maketh lesse for you that Christ had and lawfully might haue as you graunt a naturall misliking and shunning of all bodily paine and death and consequently knowing the sharpnesse of the paine that was prepared for him on the crosse might without breach of pietie or repugnance to Gods knowen will desire to haue that Cup passe from him if it were possible for man by Gods good pleasure to be otherwise redeemed and saued And this reseruation of Gods will in his prayer FATHER 〈◊〉 Luke â—…2 IF THOV VVILT take away this Cup from me which was the possibilitie ment by Christ and his present preferring Gods will before the instinct of nature liking ease in presently saying Neuerthelesse not my will but thy will be done doth exquisitely proue that Christ was not astonished in his prayer nor past remembrance of Gods knowen will as you dangerously surmise and no cause you should conclude he felt hell paines in this agonie because the Scripture concealeth the sense of his feruent supplication when after comfort receiued from heauen he fell into an agonie of most earnest and ardent prayer in which his sweate was like drops of bloud And therefore your foolish and wicked imagination that Christ in his agoniâ—… was so amazed that he knew not what he prayed nor discerned when he impugned the will of God is without all leading or likelihood of the word of God and grounded onely vpon your wilfull and hastie
not worth thankes except he suffered in hell amongst the diuels where indeede are the paines of the damned which you haue lately deriued to the earth vpon your authoritie shall this impietie also goe for good religion because the more Christ suffered for vs the more we are and ought to be beholding vnto him we shall doe well to thinke that we can neuer giue thankes sufficient for the least of his mercies and not take vpon vs to determine what recompence God must exact of his sonne for our sinnes except he will be vniust which is a most pestilent presumption and intrusion vpon the secret counsels and iudgements of God but rather learne to lament our owne vnworthinesse and wickednesse and not delight or dwell in sinne which God so hated and abhorred that nothing could appease his wrath against our vncleannesse but onely the death and bloud of his owne Sonne i Defenc. pag. 128. li. 2. Remember your owne wordes out of Austen that there is in some men INSIPIENS HONORIFICENTIA a fond intent of honoring Christ. If there be any such surely this is one point thereof which you maintaine You applie Fathers as you doe Scriptures and call S. Austen foole as well as all the rest of the learned and auncient pillars of Christs Church because they reject your hellish confusion by which you ouerwhelme all the powers of Christs soule and senses of his bodie rather then you will yeeld him vnderstanding and remembrance in his prayers S. Austen saith indeed of the Manichees that were loath to confesse Christ truely died a bodily death on the crosse for feare of bringing him within the curse of a corporall death since the death of mans bodie first proceeded from Gods curse against sinne and therefore defended that Christ seemed there to die in outward shew but indeede did not die on the crosse S. Austen I say affirmeth that they with a foolish pretence of honour vnto Christ denied the loue of Christ towards vs and the trueth of Christ who professed that he should and would lay downe his life a ransome for many What is this to the paines of the damned or to the death of the soule of which S. Austen saith k August epist. 99. who dare auouch it and yet ment not so foolishly to honour Christ as thereby to denie or impugne the trueth of Christian religion l Defenc. pag. 128. li. 5. Master Caluine a worthy minister of Christ and a pillar of the Church is bold and saith we confesse indeede such is the basenesse and follie of Christes crosse that proude men cannot away with it If master Caluine meane as the Apostle doth that the heathen not knowing the wisedome power of God in the crosse of Christ counted it meere folâ—…y for him that was God to become man and in the bodie of his flesh to endure so vile and shamefull a death I account him no Christian that is not of that mind with master Caluine but if he call them all proud that did not like his new deuice of Christs suffering hell on the crosse which you haue stretched and drawen to many degrees and points aboue master Caluine then let him looke whether it be pride to beleeue the plaine and faire doctrine of trueth deliuered in the Scriptures as all the Fathers of Christes Church did or for men to adde thereunto their owne deuices as you and some others haue done For my part as I loue and honour master Caluines name and like well his resolutions where he contented himselfe in the grounds of doctrine and discipline to ioyne with the auncient and primatiue Church of Christ so when he leaueth them vpon some liking of his priuate deuices I must leaue him I so honour him that I will not for loue to him dishonour all antiquitie as if Christ had neuer any Church nor faithfull or learned minister therein before master Caluine And were it worth the while I could easily shew many great and maine differences betwixt master Caluines conceit of hell suffered in the soule of Christ and yours but because it hath occasioned and hatched your amplified error of an other hell from the immediate hand of God I will not trouble my selfe nor the Reader with sifting or censuring that which I am not bound to beleeue no more then I am yours till it be proued by more substantiall grounds then master Caluins good liking of it m Defenc. pag. 128. li. 10. In another place where I shewed from the more to the lesse how Christ might haue for the sodaine the powers of his mind astonished and yet no decay in him of faith nor obedience nor patience Like as there is not in a man a sleepe or amazed with a blow on the head hereupon you aske me scoffingly was Christ a sleepe or in a swoune Your answere was indeed drawen from the lesse to the more that is from the lesser vanity and falsity to the greater and therefore my question which you call a skoffe was a sound refutation of such ignorant misapplying of things impertinent vncoherent For what if a man in his sleepe or in a swoune retaine habituall faith obedience and patience doth that prooue that Christ awaked and well aduised might pray he knew not what and yet haue actuall faith obedience and patience If a man should babble in his sleepe or grone in a swoune before he recouer sense or vnderstanding would you cal that faith or praier though the habite of faith were then in him no more doth that example prooue any actuall faith obedience or patience in Christ at the time of his often and earnest praiers in the garden if all that while you make him all confounded in all the powers of his soule and so astonished that he could not or did not remember his Fathers oft reuealed and oft repeated will nor his owne person nor office who came vnto this houre of purpose to performe his Fathers will And therefore you must get you some better patterns for the vse and acts of faith obedience and patience in Christes astonishment then sleeping or swouning or els ech Christian Reader will soone perceaue you to be worse then a sleep when you dreame of a n Defenc pag. 128. li. 26. farre greater astonishment in Christ at the time of praiers then is to be seâ—…ne in any man els that euer was or shall be And yet you defend there might be actuall faith obedience and patience in Christ because men in sleep or in a swoune retaine the habits or gifts of those vertues o Defenc. pag. 128. li. 21. As you grant that amazednesse and astonishment commeth naturally from sorowes and feares so I thinke in Christ both the one and the other was in the extreamest and most violent degree that might be Then must you also thinke that Christ had not the free vse of speach memory and vnderstanding nor of sense nor motion for the time that he was in that amazednesse For it