wherewith our first Parents and in them their whole posterity were bound by Satan For albeit the first sinne found entrance into our nature by incogitancy and had its period or accomplishment in pride yet were not pride or incogitancy the only strings of that snare wherein Satan had taken us The bonds and ties by which hee tooke and holds us captive are mentioned by S. Iohn in his first Epistle 2. Chap. ver 15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world From these three heads or sources all the overflowing of ungodlinesse may be derived and these found entrance into this visible world through our first Parents folly and Satans subtilty For albeit the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life tooke their distinct specificall being or live-shape from the first sinne yet were the seeds of all these sinnes sowen by Satan in our first Parents soules and senses before the body of sinne with its members were framed or animated There was an extravagant desire of the eye an irregular appetite of the flesh by which the Serpent tolled on the first woman to eat the forbidden fruit and the eating of it did hatch this three-fold brood in kinde The woman saith Moses Gen. 3.6 saw through false spectacles of Satans making that the tree was good for food here was the embryon or seed of the lust of the flesh and that it was pleasant to the eye here were the first lineaments of the lust of the eye and a tree to bee desired to make one wise this was the inchoation of the pride of life And shee tooke of the fruit thereof and did eate and gave also to her husband and hee did eate and by their eating the former desire of forbidden food was turned into the lust of the flesh The curiosity of the eye was turned into the lust of the eye and the desire of knowledge or proper excellency was changed into the pride of life So that the truth of S. Iames his observation Chap. 1. ver 13 14. was remarkably experienced in the manner of our first Parents fall Let no man say when hee is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot bee tempted with evill neither tempteth be any man But every man is tempted when hee is drawen away of his owne lust and entised Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Now to dissolve these three temptations or cords of vanity wherewith our first Parents were taken captives the Sonne of God immediatly upon his Baptisme was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted 2. Our first Parents being placed in Paradise a place furnished with variety and plenty of food by too much indulgence unto their appetite or by incogitancie to bridle it by reason could not abstaine from that fruit which onely was forbidden them Power they had to have abstained but they did not use it when they had no necessity no urgent provocation to eate at all much lesse to eate of that fruit The Sonne of God made a man more subject to bodily harmes by long forbearance of meat than our first Parents were after forty dayes continuance in a vast and barren wildernesse wherein no food or fruit did grow could not in his hunger bee tempted to eate any food which the ordinary providence of God did not reach unto him Ingeus iedam necessitas Necessity as we say hath no law there is no fence against it Cogit ad turpia it makes men otherwise honest to doe many things which are not comely And for this reason the great tempter at the first bout assaults our Saviour with this fiery dart of necessity If thou be the Sonne of God command that these stones be made bread As if he had said Long fasting hath made it apparant that thou art a man subject to weaknesse and infirmity and if thou be withall the Sonne of God thou canst and a necessity is laid upon thee as man to provide thy selfe of food for without food man cannot live Yet this fiery dart though steeled and pointed with the tempting delight of manifesting his owne worth or excellencie is wholly diverted by that shield of Faith It is written Man shall not live by bread onely but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God So Moses had said unto Israel I fed thee with Manna to teach thee that man liveth not by bread but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live Israel then did live for a long time both by Manna and by the word of God on which without Manna they would not have relied Manna was as the body and the word of God spoken by Moses as the soule or spirit of that food by which they lived both Manna and that word of God make but an Emblem or type of the eternall Word of God who is the food of life Life it selfe and yet at this time as man was an hungred So then as hee was the Sonne of God hee was able of stones to make bread and as he was a man subject to infirmities hee had just occasion at this time to use his power Yet as man invested with the forme of a servant he could not be induced to use this power For as hee often professeth he came not to doe his owne will no not in things lawfull and most agreeable to nature but the will of him that sent him though that did enjoyne him to doe or suffer things most displeasant to nature This was the time wherein he was by his Father appointed to conquer the irregular appetite of the sense of taste and the lust of the flesh 3. Our first Parents being Gods Vicegerents here on earth Lords of all his visible creatures not therewith content by Satans inticements aspired to be like unto God higher than Angels than other powers or principalities The Sonne of God albeit hee were by nature Lord of men and Lord of Angels cannot be allured to exercise his command over them albeit they were commanded to attend him Satans pretence in his second assault was very faire and seemed to be countenanced by Scripture If thou bee the Sonne of God cast thy selfe downe for it is written Hee shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall beare thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Fitter occasion to any mans seeming could not be offered for the exquisite verification or exact fulfilling of this Prophecy than by this adventure to throw himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple But the Sonne of God who gave the Law being now made under the
to the preamble which our Saviour used before the full ingruence or paroxysme of his Agony Abba Father all things are possible to thee take away this Cup from mee c. No man doubts but that his Father was able to save him from dissolution of body and soule that is from death it selfe whether it had come by course of nature or by violence But from this death it is plaine he did not save him Of this cup or kinde of death he tasted to the full in the utmost extremity upon the Crosse How then is it true which S. Paul in the forecited place addeth that after hee offered up prayers with strong crying and teares hee was heard in that hee feared Or as others reade for his piety Whether reading we follow this or that the just importance of our Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thus much at least that hee was delivered from that which hee so much feared though with a pious feare for out of such a feare hee offered up his prayers with strong crying and teares The Cup then which hee so earnestly prayed might passe from him was not the cup of violent death simply considered nor as accompanied with all the indignities done unto him by the Jewes Romanes and others the very next day For what then did hee at this time so earnestly pray for speedy release or deliverance from the heavinesse of soule or anguish of spirit which now had suddenly seized upon him The very first draught of this Cup had cast him into a bloody sweat and had hee been enforced to have taken a second or third deepe draught of it or if his present anguish had been for some few houres continued hee had prevented the cruell tortures of the Crosse and the indignities done unto his person by the Jews or Roman Souldiers This was that Cup which Peter counselled him not to taste of for whose removall hee never prayed as being fully resolved to pledge the utmost extremity of their malice with a farre greater measure of patience And for this reason when Peter drew his sword for his rescous as he intended he checks him againe as he had done Matth. 16.23 Put up thy sword into the sheath the Cup which my Father gives mee shall I not drink it Ioh. 18.11 But that cup which he so earnestly did pray might passe from him did certainely vanish with his Agony and his Agony did endure no longer than he offered up his supplications and prayers about the space of an houre There remained no signe or symptome of it after the Traitor had delivered him up into his enemies hands Or if wee ponderate S. Lukes relation of his Agony aright his prayers were heard upon the first or second uttering of them Seeing ease or deliverance from the ingruence of paines is all that they pressed for the present desires it is all one whether the burthen bee lessened or his strength to beare it be increased His ease and comfort is either way the same Admit then the heavy burthen laid upon the Sonne of God in the dayes of his flesh had continued the same or perhaps increased from his first entring into the garden yet his prayers were heard in that an Angel was sent whether to strengthen him or to comfort him Luke 22.43 The word in the Originall is often used for such internall strength as men recover by some comfortable refection when they are faint for want of meat or by gathering their spirits after they have been dissipated or dejected by sudden feare or amazement It would perhaps be accompted impertinent to make inquiry what Angell it was which was sent to comfort or strengthen the Sonne of God in that extremity of his Agony Yet many of the Ancients and of moderne Interpreters not a few are of opinion that it was the same Angel which did annunciate his birth and conception and that was the Angel Gabriel Who though perhaps hee did not take his name from his foreseene deputation to his function yet did hee never brook it better in any former acts of his ministery then in the performance of this present service His name imports as much as the strength of God and at this time hee strengtheneth the man CHRIST JESUS who then was and now is the Sonne of God as truely God as man Now if he who was the Sonne of God did receive strength or comfort from an Angel it is no paradox or soloecisme to say that hee learned obedience by the things which he suffered or that these present sufferings were unknowen to him as man untill he felt them For no reason can be to my apprehension conceived why hee who was the Sonne of God might not be capable of some growth in knowledge experimentall especially as well as in bodily quantity or strength of body Concerning the nature and quality of those sufferings wherein hee was strengthened or comforted by an Angel as whether they were naturall or supernaturall or if supernaturall whether they were the very paines of Hell or such as wee should have suffered without his satisfaction cannot be inferred either from the unusuall forme of his prayers uttered with strong cries or from his gesture in the garden 9. Some there be who take his bloody sweat in that grievous Agony to be a symptome of infernall paines But from what grounds either in Philosophy or Divinity I know nor If the paines of Hell or hellish paines so some distinguish be procured by the fire of Hell bee that materiall or immateriall bloody sweat can bee no probable effect of the one or other fire Nor is such sweat any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or demonstrative signe of paines more grievous than may bee inflicted by agents or suffered by patients meerely naturall For however in colder Countries bloody sweats bee as rare in mens bodies as showres of blood in the aire yet as a good Philosopher hath long agoe observed to sweat blood is not unusuall to Italians yet usuall onely as I take it to men of that Climate in some peculiar diseases The most remarkable instance which I have read of bloody sweat in a man not opprest with any disease is of a Captaine an Italian if I mistake not who being surprized by the subtilty of his Enemy whom hee had trusted too farre upon a tryste of Parly and thereby inforced either to yeeld up the Fort which he had stoutly maintained or otherwise to be presently hanged the consideration of this perplexity wherewith through his owne folly hee had intangled himselfe did make such deepe impression into his generous spirits that it squeez'd blood out of his veines Our Saviour no doubt as man had a more full apprehension of all the malicious disgraces and cruel indignities which his enemies could put upon him than this Captaine had The measure of his bodily sufferings and personall wrongs were in number farre more and for quality farre more grievous than ever were intended to this Captaine or to
nature and will before it was sacrificed and whilst it was sacrificed was more obedient to his Fathers will than our first Parents senses or affections in their integrity were unto their reasonable soules When hee commeth into the world as our Apostle interprets the Psalmist he saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared or fitted for mee In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hadst no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to doe thy will O God This will of God accomplished through the sacrifice of his Sonne was that will of God by which we are sanctified and if sanctified then justified yet not justified without satisfaction before made Of the full meaning of this place and of the true reconciliation of the Seventy Interpreters whom the Apostle followes with the Psalmist or the Originall by Gods grace hereafter Thus much is pertinent to our present purpose that the body which the Sonne of God assumed to do that will of his Father which could not bee accomplished by any other sacrifices though numberlesse and endlesse was a body fitted for all kindes of calamities and crosses which are incident unto mortality a body more capable of paine or deeper impressions from the violent occurrences of all externalls which are naturall than any other mans body was or had been A body as it were moulded and organized of purpose to bee animated or actuated with the spirit of obedience and all manner of patience in suffering which can bee required in a faithfull servant Servants saith S. Peter bee obedient c. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully CHRIST JESUS who was the paterne of all obedience required in servants not onely whilest he was to deale with malicious unreasonable men but in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Agony when his heart within him was become like melting waxe through the vehemencie of that fiery triall did set the fairest copie of that obedience which S. Peter requires should bee taken out how rudely soever by every servant of God under his owne hand Even in this Agony when his mortall spirits did faint and languish the spirit of obedience was much stronger in him than the pulse of paine and sorow It did not intermit or abate when his paines and anguish did increase Being in Agony saith S. Luke hee prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 These words I referre if not to the third yet certainely to the second paroxysme of his Agony one or more of which fits did wring blood from his sacred body being otherwise full of health But most probable it is from S. Lukes relation Chap. 22. ver 44. that hee sweat blood both in the first and second fit and that in all the three hee delivered his supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kneeling or falling upon the ground The forme of his prayer and maner of deportment in it as was said before exhibite a true document or demonstrative argument that besides his Divine will hee had a will truely humane a reasonable will in that hee did desire or deprecate the removall or asswagement of his present sufferings with greater fervency of spirit and devotion than any sonnes of Adam could deprecate the paines of Hell if they should be beset with them or feele their approach And yet withall hee wholly submits his humane body soule and will unto his heavenly Fathers will who by his consent had free power to dispose of them in life and death as hee pleased Out of this fervent spirit of obedience consecrated unto Gods service by his most devout prayers he was delivered from the paines and terrors which he both feared and felt in the garden 5. As for his sacrifice upon the Crosse albeit we subduct the worth of it in it selfe considered which infinitely exceeds the worth of all other sacrifices it was most properly and most really the sacrifice of a broken heart or contrite spirit For after his naturall strength was spent and his bodily spirits diffused with his blood hee lastly offers up his immortall spirit his very soule unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost Luk. 23.46 The spirit of obedience did not expire with bodily spirits it did accompany his soule into Paradise it was not put off with the forme of a servant but cloathed upon with glory and immortality Shall wee yet doubt whether the sacrifice upon the Crosse being offered out of such unexpressible obedience were fully sufficient to make abundant satisfaction for all our disobediences albeit wee should subduct his obedience and patience in that grievous Agony in the garden 6. If any man bee disposed to move further doubt about this point the Apostles authority or rather his reason will put the point out of question Heb. 9.11 12 13 14. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the blood of goats and calues but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleane sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The forme and maner of his dispute in this passage as in most others throughout this Epistle is allegoricall but allegories in true Theologie alwayes include arguments of proportion and are as firme as any Geometricall or Mathematicall demonstration The termes of proportion in this argument are especially foure First sinnes meerely ceremoniall that is such errors and escapes as are evill because forbidden not evill in themselves The second the remedy appointed for such sinnes and that was the blood of bulls and goats c. The third sinnes properly so called that is all offences or trespasses against the Law of nature or against the Law of God Things not evill onely because forbidden but rather forbidden because evill in their owne nature The fourth terme is the antidote or preservative against such sinnes as in their nature poison our soules and this soveraigne preservative is onely the blood of Christ The Apostle takes it for granted that the sacrifice of bulls and goats were sufficient to make satisfaction for sinnes merely ceremoniall and the blood available so farre to sanctifie the parties offending against the Law of Ceremonies as that they might be admitted into the Congregation or stand recti in curia after the sacrifice was once offered Of this purification concerning the flesh by the blood of such sacrifices that which the Romanists say of the Sacraments of the new Testament might bee more
exclamation Whether he first said I am a thirst and then cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken mee Or first cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and then said I am athirst I will not dispute because I cannot determine The later of the two seemeth to mee more probable However neither his speech nor exclamation intimate any touch of impatience much lesse of despaire but onely a desire to give the world notice that this 22. Psalme was specially meant of him and that all which was meant of him concerning his humiliation or indignities done unto him upon the Crosse were now fulfilled and that there remained one or two sayings of the same or some other Psalmist to bee fulfilled before his death especially by receiving the vinegar For when hee had received it saith S Iohn he said Consummatum est It is finished as if he had said Now my sufferings and indignities are at an end Yet besides the bodily thirst wherewith hee was at the ninth houre more deepely touched then with hunger in the wildernesse there was a thirsty desire of his soule to be dissolved from the body and to be with his Father And in this his last extremity that other complaint of David was most exactly fulfilled I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soule thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Heare mee speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that goe downe into the pit I remember the dayes of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on all the works of thy hands Psalm 143.6 7. David was delivered from the pit which he feared but our Saviour was speedily heard for that he prayed which was that his body might goe unto the grave and his soule and spirit unto his Father And albeit S. Iohn instructeth us that after he had received the vinegar and said It is finished he gave up the Ghost Yet S. Matthew and S. Mark tell us that hee cried againe with a loud voice and so gave up the Ghost The articulation of this loud voice or cry is registred onely by S. Luke 23.46 And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice hee said Father into thine hands I commend my spirit And having said thus hee gave up the Ghost And in this cry or speech another Scripture or prayer of David was exactly fulfilled Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength Into thine hands I commend my Spirit Psalm 31.4 5. But how was this fulfilled in him Surely as the Prophet or the Holy Ghost by whom hee spake did meane it How then was it meant of him Not meerely Prophetically but typically of the Psalmist and more really and punctually of him The Psalmist in his owne person or as acting his owne part did commend his Spirit to God his Redeemer in hope to be redeemed from death or danger of body intended against him The Redeemer of Mankind using the same words desired bodily death or dissolution of body and soule commending his soule or spirit by a dying wish into his Fathers hands 9. The 143. Psalme as the inscription of the Septuagint informeth us was composed by David when his Sonne Absalom with his complices did pursue him and the sixth verse I stretch out my hands c. is signed with a Selah a note or character as I take it not of musick onely but of some greater mystery to be fulfilled The mysterie in this particular was this that as David after hee had in his owne person prayed for deliverance and was heard so was the Sonne of David instantly after hee had received the vinegar delivered from the torments of death or bodily paines When Iesus therefore had received the vinegar saith S. Iohn hee said It is finished and hee bowed his head and gave up the Ghost 19.30 If we consider either the 143. Psalme or the 31. as literally meant of David there is no intimation of any distraction of mind in him much lesse was there any inclination to any distraction discontent or distrust in JESUS the Sonne of GOD in whom whatsoever was commendably acted by David in his distresse was most punctually and exquisitely fulfilled of this our blessed Saviour in all his sufferings His memory was most fresh and his patience most remarkable when his mortall spirits were expiring 10. That ejaculation Psalm 31.6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit was saith Maldonat meant of Christ in another sense then it was of David rather fulfilled of Christ in a more exquisite sense then it had been verified of David David according to the literall and historicall sense being in distresse commends the tuition or safety of his soule unto God directing his prayer for speedy deliverance from that bodily danger wherewith hee was beset unto Adonai Iehova unto the Lord of truth or the Lord God his Redeemer Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength c. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord of truth Psal 31.4 5. The Lord God Redeemer of mankind directs his prayer unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit after hee had suffered all the disgraces paines and tortures whereof any mortall body was ever capable This delivery or surrender of his life and soule vivâ voce at the very moment or point of death into his Fathers hands did move the heathen Centurion to say Of a truth this man was the Son of God Mar. 15.39 When the Centurion saith S. Luke saw what was done he glorified God saying Certainely this was a righteous man Luk. 23.47 This is in effect the very same which S. Mark saith For in that the Centurion did acknowledge him for a righteous man he did necessarily in his heart acknowledge him to bee the Sonne of God because hee had so profest of himself That righteousnesse which the Centurion ascribeth unto him was the truth of his confession before Pilat when hee was examined upon this interrogatory Art thou then the Sonne of God now more fully proved and declared unto the world by the strange maner of his death 11. The confession of this heathen man was more Christian then the questions which some Schoolemen have moved upon the delivery of his soule vivâ voce into his Fathers hands For so some have questioned whether he were homicida sui or made away himself by actuall dissolution of his soule from his body before the violence and cruelty of the tortures whereto his Enemies put him could by course of nature work this divorce Surely if hee did any way prevent the death intended against him by the Jews or shortned his owne naturall life though but for a moment they had not been so true and proper murderers of him as the Apostle intimateth and we Christians beleeve they were For albeit Abimelech had received a deadly incurable wound by the
are all the works of God whether they be visible or invisible What shall wee say then that God did create any naked substances and leave it free for Angel or other his creatures to invest them with what accidents or qualities they pleased No if God had created any substances without accidents they should have been morally neither good nor bad For all other natures besides the incomprehensible Essence who onely essentially is and whose essence is goodnesse it selfe though they were made actually good yet their goodnesse was mutable it was but an accident or quality no essentiall property What shall we say then to the proposed objection that sinne if it bee any thing either visible or invisible must be of Gods making not the work of Satan seeing we acknowledge God to be the Maker of all things visible and invisible 11. The punctuall answer is That this universall God made all things visible and invisible must bee extended onely to those things which are properly said to bee made or created Now substances onely whether visible or invisible are the immediate and direct effects and proper object of creation Accidents had their beginning as appurtenances to their subjects by resultance onely That goodnesse which God approved in man did result from his nature not quà talis but as it was the immediate work of God it had no making or creation distinct from the creation of man He that moulds a bullet or makes a materiall sphere maketh both round and yet we cannot say that he makes rotundity or roundnesse by any work or action distinct from the making of the bullet or sphere Factâ sphaerâ simul sit rotunditas That which the Artificer intends is a sphere yet cannot he possibly make a sphere but rotunditie will by resultance arise with it or from it In like manner when God made man he made him after his owne Image and similitude this was the mould in which he was cast and being cast into this mould he could not but be good 12. The humane nature as framed by God was like a musicall instrument exactly made and exactly tuned both at once not first made and then tuned That body of earth into which the Almighty Creator first inspired the breath of life was not first a man in puris naturalibus and afterwards adorned or beautified with originall justice That spirit of life which God inspired into him did so tune and season the whole masse or substance that his reasonable soule or spirit did forthwith hold exact harmony with the Creators will His inferiour faculties or affections held exact consort with his reason All this was the work of God and with this harmony was God delighted yet this harmony though most exact was mutably exact The goodnesse or excellency of this sweet harmony in the humane nature became the object of Satans envy and the mutability of this excellencie became the subject of his temptations a subject capable of inticements unto evill The onely mark which Satan aimed at was to deface or dissolve this work of God and in stead of this sweet harmony to plant a perpetuall discord in the humane nature a discord an enmity betwixt the soule and spirit of man and his God a discord an enmity or civill warre betwixt mans conscience and his affections Satan then did deface or dissolve the work of God and the Sonne of God was manifested to dissolve his works in man and to destroy his power CHAP. V. Of the first sinne of Angels and man and wherein it did especially consist 1 WIth the nature of sinne in generall or according to that extent proposed in the beginning of the former book I meddle not in these present Commentaries but have reserved them to another work already begun in a Dialect more capable of such schoole nicities or disquisitions than our English is About the nature or specificall quality of the sinne of Lucifer so it hath pleased the Ancients to stile that prince of the collapsed Angels some question there is amongst Divines and the like about the quality or nature of our first Parents sinne as whether one or both of them were pride or infidelity But infidelity in its proper use and signification is rather a symptome or concomitant of many sinnes precedent than any one sinne a distrust of Gods mercy for pardoning sinnes committed It is to my capacity unconceivable how the first sinne of what creature soever should be infidelitie or how the first degree of infidelity could find entrance into man or Angel without some positive forerunning sin But if by infidelity those Divines whose expressions in this point I cannot approve meane no more than incogitancie or want of consideration wee shall accord upon the matter For without the omission of somewhat which they ought to have done neither man nor Angel could have sinned so positively and grosly as both of them did Both were bound to have made the goodnesse of their Creator in making them such glorious creatures as they were the choise and most constant object of their first thoughts and contemplations But through want of stirring up that grace of God which they received in their creation or by not exercising their abilities to reflect upon the goodnesse and greatnesse of their Creator they were surprized with a desire of proper excellency or of greater dignity than they were capable of By this meanes that sinne which was begun by incogitancy or want of reflection upon the true object of their blisse was accomplished in pride For pride naturally results in men from too much reflection upon their owne good parts And whilest they compare themselves with themselves as our Apostle speaketh they become unwise or which is worse whilest they compare their owne good parts with others meane parts whether such indeed or to their apprehension they slide without recovery into that soule sinne of hypocrisie All men by nature that is from the unweeded relikes of our first Parents pride are prone to overvalue themselves and to thirst after greater dignities than they deserve or are qualified for This pride or ambition in the Angels was presently seconded with envy as soule a vice as pride it selfe and its usuall compeere and companion against the new and last-made visible creature man and envy did as speedily bring forth that malitious practice against our first Parents which as was said before in probability did make their sinne more unpardonable than the sinne of our first Parents was 2. But admitting both their first positive sins to have been for nature or specificall qualitie desire of proper excellencie whose branches are pride and ambition this position admitted will beget a new question or disquisition to wit What manner of proper excellency or what degree of pride it was for which their just Creator did punish them Some are of opinion that the height of that proper excellency at which the Angels at least one Angel did aime was personall union with the Sonne of God or God
to the humane nature of Christ from the Godhead or Divine person of the Sonne rather all indignities and harmes which were done unto the man CHRIST JESUS by Satan and his instruments did redound unto the Sonne of God The humane nature was the onely subject of the wound and paine The Sonne of God was the onely subject if wee may so speake of the wrong the onely party or person wronged by Satan and his instruments but no way wronged by the Father much lesse by himselfe as having free power to put that part of our nature which he assumed unto what service soever his Father would require Concerning this last qualification of the Sonne of God I have nothing more to say in this Treatise save onely how it was foretold or foreshadowed The predictions that the Sonne of God or the Messias should become a servant are frequent in the old Testament and will here and there interpose themselves in some ensuing discussions of his undertakings for dissolving the works of Satan The next inquirie is how it was foreshadowed or typically foretold CHAP. IX Gods servant Job the most illustrious Type of the Sonne of God as hee was invested with the forme of a servant 1 THe forme of a servant which the Sonne of God did take upon him was foreshadowed by all those holy men Prophets or other which are by sacred Writers instiled the Servants of God A title not usually given to many Kings or Priests not once I take it by God himselfe unto Abraham though he were the greatest of holy men which were but men the father of the faithfull whether Kings Priests or Prophets the onely Prophet Priest or other which to my remembrance was instiled the friend of God Moses Aaron and David are sometimes instiled the servants of God by God himselfe Yet were these three respectively more illustrious types of the Sonne of God as he was to bee made King Priest and Prophet than of him as hee tooke the forme of a servant upon him Of CHRIST JESUS as hee was in a peculiar sort the servant of God Iob the most remarkable paterne of patience before this Son of God was manifested in the flesh is the most exact type or shadow not for his qualifications onely but in his undertakings Iobs conflicts with Satan and wrestlings with temptations are more expresly recorded and more emphatically exprest than any mans besides before the onely Sonne of God became the Sonne of man and servant to his heavenly Father Satan by speciall leave obtained from God but so obtained by God as challenger did combat or play his prizes with this servant of God at two the most prevalent weapons which his cunning and long experience upon all aduantages which the weaknesse of men from the fall of Adam did afford him could make choise of And these two weapons were hope of good things and feare of evills temporall which this great usurper did presume were at his disposall either by right of that conquest which hee had gotten over the first man or could obtaine by Gods permission to ensnare the first mans posterity The direct and full scope of all our hopes is felicitie and so is misery the period of all our feares Unto felicity three sorts of good things are required Bona animae bona fortunae bona corporis The endowments and contentments of the reasonable soule health with ability and lawfull contentments of the body competency of meanes or worldly substance which are subservient to both the former endowments and contentments of soule and body No misery can befall man but either from the want of some one or more of these three good things which are required to happinesse as the Philosophers conceived it or from their contraries All the evills which men naturally feare are either evills incident to the body as sicknesse paine torments death want or losse of goods or worldly substance losse of good name disgrace or ignominy imputation of folly which are no lesse grievous to the rationall part of man than paine or griefe are to the part sensitive more grievous by much to ingenuous men than losse of goods than want or penury For as an heathen Satyrist well observed Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se Quam quòd ridiculos homines facit The shrewdest turne that poverty can doe to any mortall creature is to expose him unto contempt or scorne By feare of all these three evills Satan driveth most men into his snare of servitude as many if not more as hee drawes into the same snare by hope of good things By every one of these three evills by the very least of them if we take them single hee had caught so many as hee thought sufficient to make up this generall induction That none could escape his snares or springes so hee might be permitted by God to take his opportunities for setting them 2. Iob was a man as happy as any man before him had been according to that scale of happinesse which Philosophers could hope for in this life or could make any probable ground of better hopes for the life to come There was a man saith the Text in the land of Vz whose name was Iob and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evill This is a fuller expression than any Philosopher could make of the principall part of happinesse that is of a minde richly endowed with all kinde of vertues moral and more than so with spirituall graces And there were borne unto him seven sons and three daughters these were more than bona corporis more than parts of his personall constitution which besides these was exceeding good His substance also was seven thousand sheepe and three thousand Camels and five hundred yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee Asses and a very great houshold or husbandry great store no doubt of servants which were part of his worldly substance so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East Here was a great measure of those things which Philosophers call bona fortunae goods of fortune or as we now say goodly meanes faire revenues Iob was a richer man for those times in respect of others than any man this day living is in respect of our times Yet this goodly Cedar in his full height was sound within and straight without unshaken by any blasts of former temptations untill the Lord himself appointed him to bee a Dueller with Satan The challenge made by Satan is very remarkable There was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them And the Lord said unto Satan whence commest thou Then Satan answered the Lord and said From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and downe in it And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and
leade him away to the water and ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound loe eighteene yeares be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day Luk. 13.14 15. This bodily disease was a work of Satan which the Sonne of God came to dissolve Satan had thus bound her to the end that hee might by these bonds draw her to some unlawfull practise for her ease as to ask counsell of some cunning woman or to adventure upon the pretended mysteries of some unhallowed Art Of diseases meerely naturall the cunning Tempter makes use or way by them for his temptations though he have no finger in the inflicting of them yet hee moveth such as are grievously afflicted with them to repine or murmure against God and all such repining or impatiency in sicknesse though occasioned by sicknesse meerely naturall is a work of Satan which the Sonne of God came to dissolve or prevent But how did hee dissolve or prevent them by taking them upon him Though Satan could lay these and the like bonds of bodily afflictions upon this woman and upon many others both men and women in Judea in these times could he therefore lay the like upon the body of the Sonne of God It is certaine he could not How then did the Sonne of God in bodily maladies or grievances either parallel Iob whom Satan had smitten or those miserable creatures whom he loosed from Satans bonds Hee did not parallel them at all in the matter of the disease or bodily grievance that could not breed in his body it could not be produced in it by Satan yet did hee parallel Iob and all the parties whom he cured though smitten or bound by Satan in the griefe or paine of the disease whose matter could not fasten upon him Hee which commands us by his Apostle to weepe with them that weepe did out of all question exhibite a more reall paterne of this precept than the Apostle could practice Yet saith the Apostle of himselfe and he said it without hypocrisie without boasting Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burne not Such was his care of all the Churches that every mans griefe was in some measure the Apostles griefe every mans infirmity did in some portion weaken him yet was it not foretold of this Apostle by any Prophet that he should beare our griefes or take our infirmities upon him This was the peculiar Character of the Sonne of God manifested in the flesh expresly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. ver 4. and the accomplishment of it related by S. Matthew Chap. 8. ver 16 17. The maner of his curing others of their sicknesses and infirmities was by taking them upon himselfe not in kinde but by sympathy As the eye takes the forme or shapes of objects visible without participation of the substance whence they flow so our Saviour tooke the griefe or paine of every disease which he cured without the matter or corruption which did breed griefe in the diseased patient In all mens griefes he was grieved in all their paines he was tormented Hee wept with those that wept and mourned with such as mourned Who did grone and he was not troubled in spirit who did sigh and hee was not sad in heart Hee tooke their sighes and sorrowes at a lower key than they themselves did which had matter of affliction or sorrow in them Yet doe wee not reade that hee sighed groned or often wept when hee cured others but the reason was because such as besought his helpe did not beseech him with sighes with teares or grones At the raising of Lazarus from the dead he wept and groaned what was the reason Not to prejudice the allegories and mysteries which some ancient Fathers have hence observerd the principall reason according to the literall sense why at this time he wept was because Mary and her comforters came to him with weeping eyes So saith the Text Ioh. 11.13 When Iesus saw her weepe and the Iewes also weepe which came with her hee groaned in the spirit and was troubled in himselfe and said Where have yee laid him They said unto him Lord come and see and Iesus wept Lazarus no doubt had sighed and groaned in his absence had wished his presence with these and other like expressions of sorrow and now that he finds Lazarus dead and Maries cheeks for his decease bedewed with teares hee sympathizeth with her in her present griefe and by tuning his heart to Lazarus his dying pangs or throbs he looseth him from the bonds of death and freeth Mary and her good friends from matter of griefe and sorrow by taking her sorrow upon him 2. And as the care of all the Churches which he had planted was not the least part of S. Pauls griefe and vexation so the sorrow which the Sonne of God did conceive for such as would not seeke unto him for helpe for such as did not sorrow for their sinnes was a great part of his sufferings Thus hee wept for Jerusalem whilest Jerusalem went mad with mirth and resolved to banquet al her guests at that great Passeover with his blood When he was come neere he beheld the Citie and wept over it saying If thou hadst knowne even thou in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes Luk. 19.42 These teares were shed in publique for the City and Nation but how many more hee shed in private or with what sighes hee deplored their estate that would not implore his helpe that would not feele their misery being bound by Satan as well in body as soule this I leave to the Readers consideration and conjecture Even when the full weight of bodily misery did seize upon him when he was bearing the Crosse unto the place wherein hee was crucified hee pitied Jerusalem more than hee would suffer others to pitie him Weepe not for mee yee daughters of Ierusalem but weepe for your selves Thus hee did more than beare our griefs for he was grieved at their miseries which did not grieve for themselves Nihil miserius misero non miserante seipsum But in all these sufferings by sympathy there was no violence they were not mingled with disgrace or scorne Albeit his cures were often slandered by the Scribes and Pharisees yet were they still magnified by the parties cured or by the people But when his houre was come the houre wherein hee was to enter combate with the enemy of mankinde hee was not one minute free from violence or indignity The greatest evills which can befall men in this mortall life are tortures of body indignities or disgrace and it is disputable whether a wise man would not rather chuse death it selfe than either lingring torture perpetuall disgrace or a foule indignity But wee need not dispute this question in the case of the Sonne of God disgrace and paine indignities and torture did not come single upon him one of them was anothers second whilst
the conflict betwixt the Serpent and the womans seed continued As it is the property of some biting Serpents to make way or entrance by their venemous teeth for the infusion of more deadly poison from some other parts of their body so this generation of Vipers which persecuted the Sonne of God used the civill power of Pilat and the Roman souldiers to open his veines and lance his flesh that their tongues might instill the poison of Aspes into his glorious stripes and bleeding wounds But with the bitter taunts and indignities offered unto him even whilest he was upon the Crosse I am not to meddle in particular they have proper seasons allotted for their memoriall It sufficeth therefore to observe that the obedience and patience of the Sonne of God in these most grievous sufferings were so absolute that wee must borrow the patience of Iob not in the second temptation by bodily grievance but in his first temptation by losse of goods or worldly substance for a scale to set it forth In all his sufferings in all that his enemies tongues or hands could doe or say unto him this servant of God did not sinne so much as in word but offered the sacrifice of prayers and supplications with the sacrifice of his soule and spirit for his persecutors 3. Yet admit Iobs patience in his bodily afflictions had been more perfect than in the first temptation it was for losse of bodily goods and his obedience most compleat both without mixture of impatiencie without staine of disobedience the full measure of both had not been equivalent to the least scantling of the obedience or patience of the Sonne of God made man for those acts though otherwise equall are alwayes best which are done ex officio Prayers or solemn services officiated by a Priest and justice awarded by a Magistrate are more acceptable unto God and more beneficiall unto men than if the same Act or Offices were more accurately performed by private men without a calling Now Iob and other holy men became pro modulo in some sort the servants of God by obedience It was the greater measure of their obedience which made their service more acceptable But the obedience of the Sonne of God made man did result or issue from the forme of a servant which hee voluntarily and on purpose tooke upon him that hee might in it and by it performe obedience more than sufficient for dissolving the force and strength of that disobedience and rebellion which the Devill had wrought in the Father of mankinde which with its curse became hereditary to his sinfull posterity The first Adam was created in the image of God not in respect of holinesse onely but in respect of soveraignty and dominion The second Adam though he were the Son of God was molded in the forme of a servant even from his first conception For as the Apostle saith he who was in the forme of God did empty or annull himselfe taking upon him the forme of a servant This was the terminus ad quem the intrinsecall terme of the Sonne of Gods first humiliation for as was said before the Sonne of God did not humble or empty himselfe onely in his manhood or according to his manhood after it was assumed but in the very assumption of the manhood thus moulded in the forme of a servant His humility as man was the humility of a servant it was not affected but a native branch of his present calling His obedience was not forced by constraint or feare it was more than a branch the very essence of his calling For he tooke upon him the forme of a servant it was not put upon him against his will as it was upon Iob. Nor was his obedience as man more excellent than any other mans had been in respect of its root or originall onely as being the formall effect of his calling that is of the forme of a servant which he tooke upon him but most compleat in respect of the end or finall effect For having annulled himself by taking upon him the forme of a servant hee further humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even to the death of the Crosse Other servants may with their earthly Masters consent be set free and supreme authority may in some cases command their Masters to set them free But the forme of a servant was so closely united or wedded unto the Sonne of God manifested in the flesh that it could not bee cut off or divorced from him save onely by death and by the death of the Crosse which was a servile death and the accomplishment of his service But in what peculiar acts was the obedience or exercise of the forme of a servant which the Sonne of God tooke upon him most conspicuous or more remarkable than they have been in other men 4. It is a great deale more usuall to our Saviour than to any Prophet to any sacred Writer or other Messenger of Gods will to tell his hearers that hee came not of himselfe but was sent that being sent he came not to doe his owne will but the will of him that sent him that hee spake nothing of himselfe but as his Father had appointed him so he spake and so he did What was the reason that hee that spake as never man spake and did those works which none besides could doe should so often use these or like speeches to his Auditors Sure his speeches unto this purpose are neither apologeticall nor preventive as if his authority had been more questionable or his practices more suspitious than the authority and practices of the Prophets and other holy men had been And what was it then that gave occasion to this peculiar forme of speech or made the use of it so familiar and frequent All his speeches to this purpose are but the characters or expressions of the forme of a servant which hee tooke upon him His whole course of life his undertakings and encounters with this stubborne people or with Satan and his instruments might have testified to any considerate unpartiall man that no man being left free to himselfe would have adventured upon them out of the deliberate choise of an humane or reasonable will Specially his last sufferings were such as no wise man how godly soever would have undergone unlesse they had been put upon him by authority supreme and irresistable We may further observe how the forme of a man and the forme of a servant which had layed quiet for three and thirty yeares without any Crisis of their difference did upon the approach of his death and passion begin to struggle but without all strife or hostile dissention as Esau and Iacob towards the time of their birth had done in their mothers wombe Even in the height of that triumphant and more than royall entertainment which the multitude made him at his entrance into Jerusalem as if hee had then come to take possession of the Crowne of his father David even whilest his
righteously who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree 2. By this unspeakeable obedience of the Son of God in vouchsafing to suffer for us with unimitable patience what hee had in no degree deserved wee who were by naturall condition slaves to Satan were fully redeemed unto the liberty of the sonnes of God Of what kinde soever his sufferings were such and so many they were and all so patiently sustained by him that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world as the ancient and our English Liturgie expresseth And that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for all the sinnes whether of disobedience or impatience in sufferings of all those men who are in any degree redeemed by him is not questioned by any Christian whether in truth or profession onely who grant that the Sonne of God did make any true and proper satisfaction for the sonnes of men Concerning the extent of mans redemption by the Sonne of God or for his full satisfaction for their sinnes wee shall if God give leave discourse hereafter But whether unto this full and perfect satisfaction which hee undertook to make for men if not universally as our Church teacheth yet as all reformed Churches agree indefinitely taken it were necessary requisite or expedient that the Sonne of God should in our nature undergoe the same penalties or sufferings in kinde which without his satisfaction for them all mankinde should have suffered is a question which of late yeares hath troubled even those reformed Churches which agree upon this generall that his satisfaction was most full and all-sufficient The heat of this contention is unto this day rather abated than extinguished Now the paines which all the sonnes of Adam and Adam himselfe without full satisfaction made by the Sonne of God should in justice have suffered were the paines of Hell perpetuall durance in that unquenchable fire which was of old prepared for the Devill and his Angels Whether this fire be it materiall or immateriall or more then equivalent perhaps unto materiall fire did seize upon the humane soule or body of the Son of God or upon both either in his Agony in the garden or upon the Crosse is the point or probleme now in question The affirmative part of this probleme hath been averred by some in their publike writings under the title of the Holy Cause so dignified for no other reason as I conceive but because it was in those daies maintained stiffly by such as deemed thēselves more holy than other men at least more Orthodoxall in points of sacred doctrine than their Fathers in Christ and by confession of their owne consciences more learned than themselves Others taking this for granted that Christ did suffer all the pains of the damned have been so farre overswaid with their adherence unto this doctrine as to misdeem that Article in the Apostles Creed concerning Christs descending into Hell or ad inferos to incline this way as if to beleeve Christ did descend into hell had been all one as if he had suffered the paines of hell in his Agony in the garden or upon the crosse But if this had been any part of the true meaning of that Article the Apostles or whosoever were the first Composers of the Apostolique Creed as we now have it in the Latin especially in the English would haue exprest thēselves in plainer termes For if by Hell in that Article the paines of Hell had been by them meant or intended they would not have said that the Son of God descended into hell but rather that hell had ascended up unto him whether in the garden or on the Crosse That the Son of God our Saviour Christ did truely descend into the nethermost Hell may with greater ease and more probability bee proved out of the Canonicall Scriptures as well of the old Testament as of the New than his suffring the pains of hell can be inferred from either Testament or from the Apostles Creed That Christ did after his death or dissolution of body and soule descend into hell such as maintain his suffering the very paines of Hell do generally deny But to omit this incongruous paradox or this preposterous expression of it that Christs descention into hell should intimate his suffering of Hell-paine before his death it shall suffice to examine the reasons which have been or may be brought that hee did or was to suffer such paines whensoever or in what place soever All the reasons which can bee alledged that hee did suffer such pains must either be drawen from the event or some experiments recorded in the new Testament or from some predictions in the Old or from a necessity or expediencie whether in justice in equity or out of his abundant love to mankinde that he was to suffer them 3. No necessity or expediency of such sufferings can bee as I conceive pretended but either for satisfying Gods justice or for his full and absolute conquest over Satan or for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things concerning God or a sweet comforter of all such as suffer whether in body or soule for his sake The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the former question that hee did suffer the very paines of Hell must bee proved or attempted from his speeches gesture or other experiments related by the Evangelists in their accurate descriptions of his Agony and sufferings upon the Crosse To begin then with the relation of his Agony That is related at large by S. Matthew and S. Luke which is scarce mentioned by S. Iohn whose speciall part in penning this sacred tragedie it was to remember that divine discourse with his Disciples being at his last Supper with them and his repaire to the garden beyond Cedron which he had so often frequented before that the opportunity of this place made Iudas of a secret thiefe an open Traytor 4. The maner circumstances of the Agony it self are most fully related by S. Luk. cap. 22. ver 39 c. And he came out and went as he was wont to the mount of Olives and his disciples also followed And when he was at the place he said unto thē Pray that ye enter not into temptation And he was withdrawn from thē about a stones cast and kneeled down prayed c. Not to dispute about the phrase here used by S. Lu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whether it imports some violent withdrawing by impulsion or some extraordinary instinct or whether in true construction it be no more than thus he did voluntarily withdraw himselfe questionlesse he was by the one meanes or other now led the second time to be tempted The temptation was grievous and more extraordinary then his former temptation in the wildernesse Thus much is intimated by that peremptory monition to his Apostles Pray that yee enter not into temptation partly from the maner of his
prayer for himselfe Father if thou bee willing remove this Cup from mee The question is what Cup this was whose removall hee desired It was a deadly cup as all agree but of what death naturall or supernaturall death of body onely or of soule Had the Cup which he so feared to drinke been onely a death naturall or such as other men had or may taste of his serious reiterated deprecation of it would in some mens collections argue lesse courage or resolutiō in him than many others though generous yet but meere men have exhibited either at the approch or onset of death or in the very conflict with deadly pangs or terrors Or if Peter at this time had not been amazed with heavinesse of spirit hee might thus have crowed over his Master dulce bellum inexpertis when I forewarned you to bee good unto your selfe and not to let these things come upon you all the thanks I had for my paines was this Get thee behinde mee Satan for thou savourest not the things which are of God but the things which bee of men And yet now thou prayest unto thy Father that these things which I advised thee to beware of may not fall upon thee Wherein then I beseech thee did I offend unlesse it were in foreseeing or foretelling that in time it would repent thee of thy forward resolution But admit this Cup whose removall hee now prayes for were more than either the feare or feeling of a naturall death though accompanied with more grievous symptomes than any man before him had either felt or feared was it possible that the horror of it should not bee duely apprehended by him from the time wherein he had resolved to suffer those things which Peter counselled him not to suffer If he were ignorant how dearely his future sufferings would cost him why did hee undertake to make satisfaction for our sinnes by them For to undertake any businesse of greater consequence out of ignorance or out of knowledge in part commendable without due and constant resolution how ever the successe fall out doth alwaies prejudice if not elevate the just esteeme of the undertakers discretion The undertaker in this great businesse of mans Redemption was the Sonne of God whose wisdome no man can too highly estimate whose undertaking for us all men besides himselfe doe esteeme too low Shall wee say then hee was not ignorant of any thing that should befall him yet ignorant of them as man or that hee was ignorant of them in part in part did foreknow them Surely as hee was God hee did know all things before they were before they could have any title to actuall being For infinite knowledge such is the knowledge of the Deity and of every Person in it can neither be ignorant or nescient of any thing whether future present or past or of any thing possible to have been or possible to be either for the present or future If the least degree of knowledge of any thing past present or future could accrue or result de novo unto the Divine nature either in it selfe or in any person in it whether ab extra from occurrences which happen in the revolution of time or from the supposed determination of his owne will from eternity we should hence be enforced to deny that the wisdome or knowledge of the Divine nature or of any Person in it were absolutely infinite For that unto which any thing can accrue or bee added is not truely infinite for the present or in it selfe can be no otherwise infinite than by succession or by addition of somewhat to it besides it selfe If it were true which some avouch that God doth not or rather cannot foreknow contingents future otherwise than by the determination of his owne will this supposed determination of his will being indeed but a fancy or transformation of his will to the similitude of ours doth make his knowledge absolutely infinite being of it selfe onely capable of true infinity by this addition 5. That God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost is of wisdome and knowledge truely infinite not by occurrences ab extra from the Creation but in himselfe I firmely beleeve As for the manner how hee doth know or foreknow things future contingents especially is a point which I could wish were not at all or more sparingly disputed as being assured that this point of all others now questioned cannot possibly be determined by any man or Angel unlesse he be every way as wise as God or somewhat wiser God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost I verily beleeve did more perfectly know the degrees and qualities of all the suffrings of our Saviour in the flesh than he himself as man did either know or foreknow them Yet did not the Divine nature or any Divine person as Divine know them by experience or painefull feeling as the man CHRIST JESUS did but by a knowledge as supereminent to the knowledge of sense or humane reason as the Divine nature is to the nature humane or as ubiquitary being or immensity is to circumscriptive or locall presence The Divine nature whether wee consider it in the Person of the Father Sonne or Holy Ghost could learne nothing which they knew not before by the sufferings of the Sonne yet the Son himselfe as man did learne obedience by the things which hee suffered in the flesh Whatsoever may be thought or said of other knowledge communicated to the man CHRIST JESUS by the vertue of the Personall union yet his sensible or experimentall knowledge as of pains and sorrow whether incident to body onely or to both body and soule was not from his cradle infinite was not so compleat at his baptisme as at his last Supper nor then so exact as in the garden or upon the Crosse it was A growth or increase in this kinde of knowledge is granted by such of the Schoolemen as did not know or consider what it was for the Sonne of God to be in the forme of a servant but tooke this to bee all one as to bee in the forme of a mortall man But such as duely consider his peculiar estate or condition whilest he was in the forme of a servant will easily conceive his voluntary renouncing that full measure of knowledge which hee now hath as man and his obedient submission of his manhood unto the feeling of our infirmities to haue been a necessary part or rather the very depth of that humiliation or exaninition of himselfe whereof the Apostle speakes For it is one speciall good quality of a servant not perfectly to know his errand not to be too inquisitive after the particular contents of it before hee be sent but to expect instructions from him that sent him though it be in an Ambassage 6. If wee take it then as granted that our Saviour as man did from his infancy most clearly foresee or distinctly know that hee was to redeeme mankinde by tasting the bitter cup of death for them it will not
hence follow that he should at all times know either the true quality or exact measure of the paines which hee was at the time appointed by his Father to suffer for accomplishing this great worke undertaken by him For of all things that can bee knowen by men the knowledge of paines either for quality or the distinct measure of them is least possible without experimentall knowledge or sensible feeling of them Many Physicians haue learnedly discourst of the severall sorts of feavers and calculated their degrees more mathematico as Mathematicians doe the quantity of figures or solid bodies or revolutions of the Heavens But the reall paines or languishments of hecticall pestilentiall or other feavers the most learned Physician in the world cannot distinctly know or calculate unlesse hee feele them Or in case by sensible experience he knew the nature or quality or severall degrees of every feaver he is not hereby enabled distinctly to apprehend the maladies which attend the Gout untill he feele them Or suppose he knew these maladies from the highest to the lowest degree this will not indoctrinate him to know the extremities of the Stone so perfectly and distinctly as his meanest Patient doth which hath sensible experience of it though in a middle degree Our Saviour long before his last resort unto the garden of Gethsemane was a man of sorows had plentifull experience of humane infirmities or bodily maladies For he had felt the griefe and paine of all the diseases which he had cured by most exact and perfect sympathy with the diseased His heart was tunable to every mans heart that did seriously impart his griefe of minde or affliction of body unto him Onely in laughter or bodily mirth hee held no consort for ought we reade with any man But the griefe and sorow which in the garden he suffered could not be knowen by sympathy The protopathy was in himselfe and no man not the Apostles themselves could so truely sympathize with him in this griefe as he had done with them or the meanest of their brethren in other grievances or afflictions For never was there on earth any sorow like unto the sorow wherewith the Lord had afflicted him in this day of his wrath Yet was his obedience more than equall to his sorow and this obedience he learned by his sufferings 7. But if in this houre or any other hee learned obedience this seemes to argue that he was either disobedient before or at lest wanted some degree or part of obedience For no man can be said to learne that lesson which he hath already most perfectly by heart To this wee say That how ever the Sonne of God or the man Christ Jesus did never want any degree or part of habituall or implanted obedience yet the measure of his actuall obedience was not at all times the same The obedience which the Apostle saith hee learned was obedience passive and all passive obedience doth properly consist in patient suffering such things as are enjoyned by lawfull authority or in submitting our wills and affections not our bodies onely unto the just designes of Superiours Our Saviour at all times wholly submitted his humane will unto his Fathers will had alwayes undertaken with alacrity whatsoever his Father had appointed him to undertake or undergoe but his Father had never called him to such hard service as in this houre was put upon him Now if obedience passive consist in patience of suffering it must needs increase as the hardnesse of the sufferings increase in case the hardest service bee borne with equall patience or undertaken with the same measure of submission unto his will which enjoines them that meaner services are Againe if the true measure of bodily paines or sorow of minde cannot otherwise be knowen than by experience the Sonne of God himselfe as man and in the forme of a servant was to learne obedience at lest some new degrees of it by gaining experience of unusuall paines and sufferings And such questionlesse were those anguishes whether of soule or body which he suffered in the garden That hee had often prayed before this time wee reade and no doubt had alwayes tendred his petitions to God as to his Father with such humility of spirit as became an obedient Sonne and faithfull servant as did best befit the Ideall paterne of all true obedience But we doe not reade nor have wee any occasion or hint to conjecture that at any time before this hee did so humble himselfe in prayer as at this time he did whether we respect the forme or tenour of his supplications or his voice or bodily gesture in the delivery of them All the circumstances of these his supplications are accurately recorded by the Evangelists He was withdrawen or did withdraw himselfe from his Apostles about a stones cast And yet in this distance his Apostles though drousie and heavie did heare him pray distinctly who had taught them and us to pray for our selves in secret so secretly as that none besides our heavenly Father might heare them As for his gesture or posture of body that at the first delivery of his prayer and supplications was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Luke Cap. 22. ver 41. Hee went forward saith S. Mark a little and fell on the ground and prayed Mark 14.35 So hee might doe and fall on his knees as S. Luke relates But S. Matthew addes he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me That he thrice used this forme or tenour of prayer whether at each time hee used the same posture of bodie or rather falling on his knees than on his face is not so cleare though most probably hee did so Now that which these three Evangelists doe intimate or imply in the accurate relations of these circumstances is more expresly recorded by S. Paul Heb. 5.7 to wit that in the dayes of his flesh hee offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares And no wonder if streames of teares gushed from his eyes when his whole body as S. Luke informes us did distill blood The full importance of this sacred passage of S. Paul Heb. 5. from the fourth verse to the ninth seeing it containes matter of deeper mysteries than most Interpreters which I have read have taken any great paines to sound must be part of the subject of another following Treatise concerning his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Thus much in the meane time I take as granted that the forecited seventh verse of the fifth Chapter to the Hebrews doth in speciall referre unto the supplications made by our Saviour in his Agonie and will be the best Comment I know upon the Evangelists for clearing that point now in question what Cup it was for whose removall hee thrice so earnestly prayed 8. Hee offered up these his prayers saith the Apostle unto him who was able to save him from death This is exactly parallel
our Creator more grievously than any man can wrong another Now in that our God and Creator is withall the eternall rule of justice or rather Justice it selfe it was requisite that satisfaction should bee made unto him in the fullest degree For one man for all men which had done this wrong to make satisfaction to infinite Majestie either in whole or in part was impossible Though all mankinde had been condemned to suffer uncessantly both in body and soule they might by this meanes have been continually making satisfaction but never have made it albeit their sufferings had been endlesse Therefore was this great work undertaken by the Son of God made man for us 2. Suppose then all this had been foreknown before our Saviour was incarnate ever since the fall of our first Parents and the sentence denounced against them it would have been a more grievous sinne in our first Parents or in any of their posterity than the sinne of the old Serpent in seducing them or us to yeeld to his suggestions to have besought God the Father that his onely Sonne should make satisfaction for us in the very same kind which we should have made but could never make that is by suffering the paines of Hell That the man Christ Jesus might suffer such paines as the damned shall doe was perhaps the desire of Satan that which the great Enemy of mankinde did most earnestly labour to effect And if thus he did but desire this was the greatest actuall sinne which either hee or his infernall associats ever had committed or can commit Whatsoever they might desire all that our heavenly Father could require of his onely Sonne after hee became our surety was to make full satisfaction for all our sinnes against his Deity or the eternall rule of justice But all this he knew might bee accomplished by his onely Sonne after a more excellent maner than either by exercising his wrath due unto us or by suffering Satan whose redemption his Sonne did no way undertake to wreake the utmost of his malice or foehood against mankinde upon him For my selfe amongst others I must confesse I could never understand the language of many professed Divines who would perswade us that the full vialls of Gods wrath due unto our sinnes were powred upon his Sonne Whatsoever their meaning be which I presume is much better than I can gather from their expressions the maner of speech to say no worse is very improper and to me unpleasant For how was it possible God the Father should bee wroth with him in whom alone he was alwayes well pleased But wrath or anger against any one are alwayes the effects of some displeasure precedent and no satisfaction can be made whilest displeasure is taken or wrath kindled against the party which seeks to make satisfaction or reconciliation Now the infliction or permission of Hell paines to bee inflicted upon any is the award not of Gods judgement but of his wrath and fury 3. If it be objected that our sinnes were infinite though not for number yet for quality because committed against an infinite Majestie and consequently that no satisfaction according to the exact rule of justice could bee made without punishment or penalties truely infinite the answere is as Orthodoxall as easie or common That the satisfaction made for us by the Sonne of God was more truely infinite than the sinnes of mankind were For it was absolutely infinite Non quia passus est infinita sed quia qui passus est erat infinitus The person or party who made satisfaction for us or party which undertooke the satisfaction was both in Majesty and in goodnesse as truely infinite as the Majesty and goodnesse whom we had offended and by whom exact satisfaction was required both of them were both wayes absolutely infinite J omit the weaknesse of such calculatory arguments as this Our sinnes were absolutely infinite because committed against an infinite Majesty as too well knowen to most students and often enough if not too often deciphered in other of my meditations For this being admitted all sinnes should bee equall because all are committed against the same infinite Majesty and goodnesse As for the true measure of our sinnes and ill deservings that must be taken from the measure of Gods displeasure against them and that is but equall to the severall degrees of our disobedience to his most holy Lawes and Commandements This then we verily beleeve that the full height and measure of all disobedience and rebellions against God was neither higher or greater than the obedience which his Sonne performed in our flesh or whilest hee stood in the condition of a servant that our heavenly Father was never so much displeased at all our disobediences as hee was well pleased with the obedience of his onely Sonne or with their obedience that are truely ingraffed in him and are made partakers of his obedience in his sufferings Both parts of this conclusion may with facility be evinced in the judgement of all men which have subscribed unto or doe admit the principles in Divinity whether Legall or Evangelicall 4. It was a maxime undoubted in the time of the Law that obedience was better than sacrifice the corrollary or consequence of which maxime doth amount to this point that obedience without sacrifice was alwayes better than sacrifice without obedience Yet such sacrifices as were appointed by God being offered out of the spirit of obedience were alwayes more acceptable than obedience alone Such sacrifices as were appointed by God himselfe unlesse they were offered in obedience and out of conformity to his Law were abominable The principall part of obedience which the Law required was the humble confession of the parties sinnes for whose sakes they were offered This confession was made over the heads of the beasts which were offered the parties offering them alwayes acknowledging either expresly by their tongues or implicitly in heart that they had better deserved a cruell death than the dumbe creatures which they sacrificed had done Briefly Legall sacrifices were then acceptable when their offerers put on such affections as David maketh expression of when he saw the people plagued for his sinnes or at lest when the punishment of their owne sinnes came suddenly upon them through his folly Loe I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheepe what have they done Yet even whilest the best of Gods people thus affected did offer the best kinde of Legall Sacrifices bullocks whilst their hornes and hoofes began to spread their sacrifice and obedience did but lovingly meet they were not mutually wedded or betrothed But whilest the Sonne of God did offer up himselfe for us upon the Crosse his sacrifice and obedience were more strictly united than man and wife than mans soule and body For betwixt these there is oft times dissention or reluctance so was there never betwixt Christs Divine person who was the offerer and the humane nature which was the offering His humane
probably said Conferebant gratiam ex opere operato The ceremoniall sinne was taken away by a ceremoniall offering From this knowen maxime concerning the law of Ceremonies or Legall sacrifices S. Paul takes his rise unto the high mysterie of the Gospel to wit that the offering which the Sonne of God did make upon the Crosse was more sufficient as well for making full satisfaction unto God for all sinnes committed against his Law as for purifying the conscience of offenders from dead works more effectuall to make men partakers of the true celestiall Sanctuary than the blood of beasts was for making them legally cleane Purification from sinne or sanctification alwayes presupposed full satisfaction for the sinnes committed To cleanse men from sins meerely ceremoniall or to sanctifie them according to the flesh the bloody sacrifice of bruit beasts was sufficient although they suffered no other paines than naturall albeit they felt no force or assault of any agents but meerely naturall much more is the blood of Christ of force sufficient not onely to make a full atonement for us but to cleanse us from all sinnes although he suffered no paines supernaturall although he had suffered no force or impression of any agents more than naturall All this is but a branch of our Apostles inference For albeit sinnes committed against the Morall Law of God doe in a maner infinitely exceed sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies onely yet are not the sinnes of the one kinde so much more hainous than the sinnes of the other as the blood of Christ doth for vertue exceed the blood of bulls and goats Nor is there that odds of difference betwixt sinnes Moral and sinnes Ceremonial which is between the Priests of the Law and the high Priest of our soules the Sonne of God And yet the maine ground of our Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the superexcellency of the high Priest of our soules or of the sacrifice which hee offered in comparison with legall Priests and their sacrifices but withall in the admirable union of our high Priest and his sacrifice For admit it as possible first that there might haue been some matter of sacrifice as pure and spotlesse as the body of our Saviour more pure and glorious than the Angelicall substances Secondly that this pure and spotlesse sacrifice had been offered by a Priest for dignity equall to the Sonne of God as by the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity yet his offering or service could not have been so acceptable unto God as our Saviours offering or service was because the infinite worth of the Priest or Person sacrificing could not in this case have conferred any worth or vertue truely infinite upon the sacrifice or offering made by him though as holy and glorious as any created substance can bee unlesse it had been so personally united to him that in offering it hee had offered himselfe as our Saviour did This is the maine stemme or rather the root of our Apostles emphaticall inference or surplus in the forecited place How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God 7. Answerable to this hypostaticall or personall union betweene our high Priest and his sacrifice was that union between his obedience to his Father and his mercy and compassion towards men Obedience mercy and sacrifice were so united in his offering as they never had been before his owne death was the internall effect of his mercy towards us and obedience to his Father the period of his humiliation of himselfe Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Crosse That we know was a cruell and servile death but no part of the second death not charged with the paines of Hell otherwise our Apostle would have mentioned them as the accomplishment of his obedience or of his service which without them did exceed the very abstract or paterne either of service or obedience Quid est servitus nisi obedientia animi fracti arbitrio carentis suo Servitude saith Tully is nothing else but the obedience of a broken or dejected minde utterly deprived of all power or right to dispose of it selfe or of its actions It is indeed dejection of minde a broken estate or basenesse of condition which make men willing to become servants unto others or inforceth them to resigne all their right and power unto their Masters will But it was no dejection of minde no want of any thing in heaven or earth but onely the abundance of mercy and compassion towards us miserable men which moved the Sonne of God to renounce this world before he came into it and to deprive himselfe of all that right and interest which every other man hath over his owne body and soule by voluntary resignation of his entire humane nature unto the sole disposing of his Father Other servants were obedient unto their Lords upon necessity or dejection of minde hee voluntarily became a servant to his Father that he might accomplish the office of a servant in the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit This was the internall effect of his service and obedience and this sacrifice thus offered was all-sufficient to make satisfaction for all the disobedience of men for the sinnes of ten thousand worlds of men CHAP. XIV That our Saviour in his Agony at least did suffer paines more than naturall though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes but for his Conquest over Satan 1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were as God himselfe is all-sufficient to these purposes may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall or of no other kinde than his Martyrs Apostles or Prophets have done God forbid Betweene paines naturall and the paines of Hell there is a meane to wit paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent and somewayes more than naturall in respect of the Patient and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden though not upon the Crosse Nor were these his sufferings superfluous though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or reconciliation unto God Most expedient they were if not necessary to other purposes As first for his absolute conquest over Satan Secondly for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Of his conflict with Satan in the garden a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow His Father exposed him to the second temptation as he had unto the first temptation in the wildernesse and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him onely over his soule or life hee had no power These were takē from him by the malice
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknowne sufferings Such I take it as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come in which the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible for this being granted the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste a draught of the second death unto which no man is subject before he die the first death nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living or after death This error it seemes hath surprized some otherwaies good Divines through incogitancie or want of skill in Philosophie For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy the nature quality or measure of paines must bee taken not so much from the force or violence of the Agent as from the condition or temper of the Patient Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead nor the same upon greene wood which it hath on dry Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body and of strong bones and another sickly crasie or wounded the paines though issuing from the equality of the blowes would be most unequall That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all might drive the other into the very pangs of death Goliath did looke as big did speake as roughly and every way behave himselfe as sternly against little David as hee had against Saul and the whole hoast of Israel Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible did make no such impression of terrour upon David as it had done upon Saul and the stoutest Champions in his hoast And the reason why it did not was because David was armed with the shield of faith and confidence in the Lord his God a secret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides But a farre greater then Goliath associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast both for number and strength than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make more maliciously bent against the whole race of Adam than the Philistines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham was now in field And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre greater than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us For if all mankinde from the East unto the West which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time or shall continue unto all future generations had been then mustred together all of us would have fled more swiftly and more confusedly from the sight or presence of this great Champion for the powers of darknesse than the hoast of Israel did from the Champion of the Philistines when hee bid a defiance unto them All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter been committed alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath No If wee stretch the similitude thus farre wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse whether in the garden or upon the Crosse was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath or Israel over the Philistines David was Master of the field sine sanguine sudore multo without blood or much sweat The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods people had suffered As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But all this and much more being granted will not inferre that he suffered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines poenas infernales aut poenas inferorum such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could against the promised womans seed that is the manhood of the Sonne of God yet seeing as the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne not imputed but inherent it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule in whom there was neither seed nor relique neither root or branch of sinne Or againe admit hell fire whether materiall or immateriall be of a more violent and malignant quality than any materiall fire which we know in what subject soever it bee seated is and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture which they are enabled or permitted to use yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body whereon this fire could feed no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish or such as the damned suffer For these are supernaturall or more than so not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them but in respect of the Subject which endures them Satan findes alwayes some thing in them which he armes against them some inherent internall corruption which hee exasperates to greater malignity than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him 4. In respect of Divine justice or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan and vanquish him by suffering evills even all the evills incident to our mortall nature There was no necessity no congruity that the Sonne of God should vanquish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments These properly taken or when they are suffered in
kind are the proper fruits and necessary effects of Satans victory over sinners the finall wages of sinnes unrepented of or not actually expiated by the blood of our Redeemer In all other tribulations distresses or persecutions which are not the wages of sinne We are as our Apostle saith Rom. 8.35 37. more then Conquerers through him that loved us if so we endure them with patience But how more than Conquerers in these which are in themselves evill distastfull to our nature Therefore more than Conquerers because these afflictions suffered with patience doe testifie our conformity to the Sonne of God in his most grievous sufferings and the dissolution of the works of Satan in us doth seale unto our soules a full Acquitance from hell paines from which questionlesse our high Priest was free in that great Combat with Satan and his infernall powers Otherwise he had not been full Conquerer over hell and the second death which is no other than the paines of Hell or hellish torments Nor could the sufferings of such torments bee any part of the Sonne of Gods qualification for dissolving those works of Satan which cannot be dissolved but by the exercise of his everlasting Priesthood which was the last end or finall cause of his sufferings or consecration by afflictions CHAP. XV. Christs suffering of the unknowen paines or of paines greater than ever any of his Martyrs or others in this life have suffered requisite for his qualification as hee was to become the high Priest of our soules 1 THe Sonne of God was to suffer all the afflictions which wee in this world can suffer in a farre higher degree than we can suffer them to bee more strongly tempted by all the meanes by which wee are tempted unto sinne whether by feare of evill or by hope of things good and pleasant unto nature that hee might even to our apprehension bee a more faithfull and mercifull high Priest in things concerning God than ever any before him had been or can be But Satan we know tempteth no man in this life unto sinne either with the feare or sufferings of any evill or vexations whereof our mortality can have no experience Hee labours to withdraw no man from Gods service by giving them any taste or touch of the paines prepared for the damned in the life to come Such as are in the deepest bonds of thraldome to him would quickly abandon his service if hee should tender them such a true symbole or earnest of their everlasting wages or such a momentany taste of Hell paines as the Spirit of God in this life exhibiteth to some of his children of their everlasting joyes And it is questionable whether our nature whilest mortall bee capable of such paines or whether the first touch or reall impression of them would not dissolve the link or bond betweene mans mortall body and his immortall soule in a moment For as flesh and blood cannot inherite the Kingdome of God but this mortall must put on immortalitie ere we can bee partakers of celestiall joyes so it is probable that our corruptible bodies must bee made in another kinde incorruptible before they can bee the proper Subjects or receptacles of Hell paines But though no man in this life be tempted to ill or withdrawen from the service of God by sufferance of such paines yet in as much as many are oft times tempted to despaire of Gods mercies by the unknowne terrors of Hell or representations of infernall forces there is no question but the Sonne of God not in his Divine wisdome onely by which he knoweth all things but even as man had a more distinct view of all the forces and terrors of Hell more full experience of their active force and attempts than any man in this life can have to the end that he might bee a faithfull Comforter of all such unto the worlds end as shall bee affrighted or attempted with them If wee consider then onely the attempt assault or active force by which Satan seeketh to withdraw us from God unto his service not the issue or impression which his attempts makes upon us sinfull men there was no kinde of temptation whereto the Sonne of God was not subject whereto he did not submit himselfe for our sakes that hee might have full experience or perfect notice as man of all the dangers whereunto wee are obnoxious By that which was done against the greene tree hee knoweth what will become of the drie if it bee exposed to the like fiery triall It was requisite that this great Captaine of Gods warfare with Satan and of our salvation should have a perfect view of all the forces which fight against us that hee might bee a faithfull Solicitor to his Almighty Father for aid and succour unto all that are beset with them unto all that offer up strong cries unto him as hee in the dayes of his flesh did unto his Father and was saved from that which hee feared 2. The greatest comfort which any poore distressed mortall man can expect or which our nature is capable of in oppression and distresse must issue from this maine fountaine of our Saviours Agony and bloody sweat of his Crosse and Passion For whatsoever hee suffered in those two bitter dayes he suffered if not for this end alone yet for this especially that hee might bee an All-sufficient Comforter unto all such as mourne as having sometimes had more than a fellow feeling of all our infirmities and vexations as one who had tasted deeper of the cup of sorow and death it selfe then any man before him had done or to the worlds end shall doe It would bee a great comfort to such as have suffered shipwrack to have an Admirall a Dispenser of Almes unto Seafaring men who had sometimes suffered shipwrack or after shipwrack had been wronged by his neighbours or natives And so it would bee to a man eaten out of his estate by usury or vexations in Law to have a Judge or Chancellor who had been both wayes more grievously wronged a just or upright man whose heart would melt with the fellow-feeling of his calamities Experience of bodily paines or grievous diseases inclineth the Chirurgion or Physician to bee more compassionate to their Patients and more tender of their well-fare than otherwise they would be And for these reasons ever since I tooke them into consideration and as often as I resume the meditations of our Saviours death I have ever wondred and still doe wonder at the peevishnesse or rather patheticall prophanesse of some men who scoffe at those sacred passages in our Liturgie By thy Agony and bloody sweat by thy Crosse and Passion c. Good Lord deliver us as if they had more alliance with spells or formes of conjuring than with the spirit of prayer or true devotion Certainely they could never have fallen into such irreverent and uncharitable quarells with the Church our Mother unlesse they had first fallen out and that fouly with Pater
scarlet Robe which yee sent unto us wee have received and wee are ready to make a stedfast peace with you yea and to write unto your Officers to confirme the immunities which wee have granted And whatsoever Covenants wee have made with you shall stand and the strong holds which you have builded shall be your owne As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day wee forgive it and the Crown tax also which yee owe us if there were any other tribute paid in Ierusalem it shall no more bee paid And looke who are meet among you to bee in our Court let them be inrolled and let there be peace betwixt us Thus the yoke of the Heathen was taken away from Israel in the hundred and seventieth yeare Then the people of Israel began to write in their Instruments and Contracts In the first yeare of Simon the high Priest the Governour and Leader of the Iews In those dayes Simon camped against Gaza and besieged it round about he made also an Engine of warre and set it by the City and battered a certaine Towre and tooke it And they that were in the Engine leapt into the City whereupon there was a great uprore in the City insomuch as the people of the City rent their clothes and climbed upon the walls with their wives and children and cryed with a loud voice beseeching Simon to grant them peace And they said Deale not with us according to our wickednesse but according to thy mercy So Simon was appeased towards them and fought no more against them but put them out of the City and cleansed the houses wherein the Idols were and so entred into it with songs and thanksgiving yea hee put all uncleannesse out of it and placed such men there as would keepe the Law and made it stronger than it was before and built therein a dwelling place for himselfe They also of the Towre of Ierusalem were kept so strait that they could neither come forth nor goe into the Countrey nor buy nor sell wherefore they were in great distresse for want of victualls and a great number of them perished through famine Then cried they to Simon beseeching him to bee at one with them which thing hee granted them and when hee had put them out from thence hee cleansed the Towre from pollutions And entred into it the three and twentieth day of the second moneth in the hundred seventieth and one yeare with thanksgiving and branches of Palm-trees and with Harpe and Cymbals and with Vials and hymnes and songs because there was destroyed a great Enemy out of Israel Hee ordained also that day should be kept every yeare with gladnesse Moreover the hill of the Temple that was by the Towre he made stronger than it was and there hee dwelt himselfe with his company Hee that will compare these and many other passages in this grave Writer with the ninth of the Prophet Zachariah will perceive there may bee good use of books not Canonicall for the right understanding of sacred Writings most Canonicall and that this booke though Apocryphal did not deserve to be left out in the new impressions or binding up of our Bibles But to returne unto the Prophecie of Zachariah 5. The manifest accomplishment of all the strange alterations foretold by him in this ninth Chapter might well occasion the Jews to expect the comming of their promised King shortly after And amongst all the signes which the times intercurrent betweene Alexanders conquest of Syria Tyre and Palestina and our SAVIOURS death did exhibit this to mee is most remarkable that after so many terrible blasts of Gods wrath thus overturning every Castle and strong hold about Jerusalem sweeping most Cities of their ancient Inhabitants as the whirle winde doth their streets of dust the Temple of Jerusalem should all this while hold up her head that Temple whose foundation and superstructions had been accused of sedition and rebellion whose demolition had been solemnly vowed by such Tyrants as had power given them over the City and strong holds of Jerusalem power to practice all kinde and maner of savage cruelties on the Citizens bodies and to expose their carkasses to the birds of the aire The consideration hereof doth plainly testifie such a powerfull arme and watchfull eye of the Almighty to defend his house as in the eight verse of this Chapter is literally charactered And I will encampe about my house because of the army because of him that passeth by and because of him that returneth and no oppressor shall passe through them any more for now have I seene with mine eyes Hee that could rightly spell the severall passages in the forementioned Authors and the disposition of Divine providence overruling the projects of Alexander and his Successors in all these warres according to the literall predictions of the Prophet Zachary and put them right together could not suspect that which Iosephus hath registred in the latter end of the eleventh Book of Jewish antiquities concerning Alexanders reconciliation to Iaddah the high Priest of the Jews and the extraordinary favours done unto that Nation which not long before had mightily offended him 6. But this prediction of Gods speciall providence in protecting his Temple against such as pretended mischiefe unto it was literally fulfilled not onely in the times of Alexander but in the attempts made against it by Nicanor Antiochus and other of his professed enemies though not fully to bee accomplished untill the glory of this Temple came For the Temple built by Zerubbabel sub auspiciis of Ieshue the high Priest did continue and flourish untill JESUS the high Priest of the Covenant into whose body the life and spirit of it was to be transfused did visit and cleanse it It must be granted that Herod the great did take downe the Temple built by Zerubbabel not with purpose to demolish it but to make it more glorious to humane view than Solomons Temple had been And this friendly dissolution of it with purpose to reedifie it did prefigure the dissolution of Christs body and soule and their reunition in glory and immortality And I could willingly yeeld my assent unto Rupertus and Ribera that the first verses of this Chapter were truely fulfilled in that victorious passage of the Gospel throughout the Cities of Syria and Palestina before mentioned So they or their followers would grant me that the swift victory of the Gospel was as well occasioned as portended by Alexanders speedy conquest of these Regions For God did plague these neighbour Nations before the desire of all Nations came unto this Temple that Jerusalem might take warning by them and repent her of her sinnes I have cut off their Nations their Towers are desolate I made their streets waste that none passeth by their Cities are destroyed so that there is no man that there is none inhabitant I said Surely thou Ierusalem wilt feare mee thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not bee cut off howsoever I punished
up the sea I make the rivers a wildernesse their fish stinketh because there is no water and dieth for thirst I clothe the heavens with blacknesse and I make sackcloth their covering Verse 1 2 3. c. But in the 4. verse hee altereth the person if not of the Speaker yet of him to whom he speakes The Lord God hath given to me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary He wakeneth morning by morning he wakeneth mine ears to heare as the learned This was the Prophets own comfort in particular and in this qualification he was a type or shadow of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who had thus qualified him And so no doubt hee was in that resolution which hee took upon him from the opening of the eare verse 4. before cited In both places it is remarkeable that he doth not instile the God of his strength and comfort by the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the Name of 4 letters onely but thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned the Lord God hath opened mine eare And this as was observed before was the peculiar title of God the second person in the Trinitie or God to be incarnate unto whom the Prophets his forerunners in all their anguishes and distresses did under this peculiar title direct their prayers as then seeing that this Lord God was to beare their sorrows and to be partaker of all their infirmities that he might be a faithfull Comforter and such an high Priest as our Apostle describes Hebr. 2. They intreated him by the foresight of his future sufferings as the faithfull now do beseech him to be compassionate towards them by the memory or experiēce of his afflictions past There is no incongruitie then to say that this prophecie of Isaiah was literally and respectively meant of himself as of the type but really fulfilled of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he praiseth not onely in the mysticall but also according to the most exquisite literall sense For however this Lord God had opened his eare yet the resolution which hee professed was greater then hee had occasion to put in practice at least with such undaunted patience as our Saviour did Yet doe we never reade that our Saviour in the daies of his humiliation or houre of his agony did direct his prayers unto GOD under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Lord and God but unto God as his Father And this is to mee a pregnant argument that not only the forecited place of Isaiah but many other hymnes or Psalmes especially in or after Davids time were literally meant of the Prophets which composed them especially in respect of this circumstance of the person or party to whom they prayed seeing our Saviour in his prayers to God did never use the same title they did The Prophet David himself had many and just occasions in his own person to conceive that excellent prayer Bow downe thy care O Lord and heare me for I am poore and needy c. Psal 86. Yet were the occasions and matter of this Psalme really accomplisht in the Sonne of David whom David here as in the 110. Psalme twice instileth his Lord and God as verse 12. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore And verse 15. And thou O Lord art a God full of pitty compassion gracious long suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth Moses had said the same in effect long before onely he doth not give the title of Lord nor intimate such a cleare distinction of the persons in the Trinitie as David in this 110. Psalme did For David as was observed before had a cleare prevision that albeit the Messias or promised seed was to be his Sonne yet was withall to be the Sonne of God therefore to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto whom he and other holy men did continually pray in their calamities and so much magnifie either for their comfort or strength to endure their grievances 7. But to returne to the forecited place of the Prophet Isaiah the words immediately following the forecited place verse 8. Hee is neere that justifieth me who will contend with me c. Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemne mee were literally and respectively meant not only of Christs forerunners but of his followers and are so applyed by our Apostle Romanes 8.30.31 If God be for us who can be against us And againe verse 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The Apostle in this had the same confidence in Christ the Lord and in his sufferings which the Prophet Isaiah had in the Lord his God to whom he directs his prayers And so may all others have that faithfully beleeve in him that is all such to whom their owne consciences can testifie such a true conformitie unto Christ in his sufferings as our Apostle Paul and the Prophets were conscious of in their Soules and Spirit And any other mark of Election besides this I know none nor will it be easie for the Reader whosoever he be to find any other in the day of tryall or temptation 8. The Evangelicall parallel to the Prophet Isaiahs prediction we have in part Luke 22.63 64. And the men that held Iesus mocked him and smote him and when they had blindfolded him they stroke him on the face and asked him saying Prophecie who is it that smote thee Thus they dealt with him in the high Priests Hall before his examination or sentence given against him And so again they used him at his examination Iohn 18.19 The high Priest asked Iesus of his Disciples and of his doctrine Iesus answered I spake openly to the world c. Why askest thou me Ask them which heard me what I have said unto them behold they know what I said And when hee had thus spoken one of the Officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palme of his hand saying Answerest thou the high Priest so Unto this indignity he replies with such meeknesse and patience as no Prophet in like case ever used onely thus If I have spoken evill beare witnesse of the evill but if well why smitest thou me To the like indignities done unto by him the Roman Souldiers by Herod he maketh no reply at all So that however the forecited words of the Prophet Isaiah and of the Psalmist Psalme 40. and the 86. might be respectively verified of themselves yet were they never exactly fulfilled save onely of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Lord to whom they direct their prayers None of them ever had a bodie so fitted or their
stand sure before thee much lesse wee silly vessells of clay Have mercy on us O Redeemer which art easie to bee intreated not that we be worthy of thy mercy but give thou this glory unto thine owne Name Suffer not that the Jews Turks and the rest of the Panims which either have not known thee or doe envy thy glory should continually triumph over us and say Where is their God where is their Redeemer where is their Saviour where is their Bridegroome that they thus boast on These opprobrious words upbraidings redound unto thee O Lord while by our evills men weigh and esteeme thy goodnesse they think wee be forsaken whom they see not amended Once when thou sleptst in the ship and a tempest suddenly arising threatned death to all in the ship thou awokest at the outcry of a few disciples and straightway at thine Almighty word the waters couched the winds fell the storme was suddenly turned into a great calme the dumbe waters know their makers voice Now in this farre greater tempest wherein not a few mens bodies be in danger but innumerable soules wee beseech thee at the cry of thy holy Church which is in danger of drowning that thou wilt awake So many thousands of men doe crie Lord save us we perish the tempest is past mans power yea we see that the indeavours of them that would help it doe turne cleane a contrary way It is thy word that must doe the deed Lord Jesu Onely say thou with a word of thy mouth Cease ô tempest and forthwith shall the desired calme appeare Thou wouldest have spared so many thousands of most wicked men if in the City of Sodom had been found but ten good men Now here be so many thousands of men which love the glory of thy Name which sigh for the beauty of thy house and wilt thou not at these mens prayers let goe thine anger and remember thine accustomed and old mercies Shalt thou not with thy heavenly policy turne our folly into thy glory Shalt thou not turne the wicked mens evills into thy Churches good For thy mercy is wont then most of all to succour when the thing is with us past remedie and neither the might nor wisedome of men can help it Thou alone bringest things that bee never so out of order into order againe which art the onely Author and maintainer of peace Thou framedst that old confusion which wee call Chaos wherein without order without fashion confusely lay the discordant seeds of things and with a wonderfull order the things that of nature fought together thou diddest ally and knit in a perpetuall band But how much greater confusion is this where is no charity no fidelity no bonds of love no reverence neither of lawes nor yet of rulers no agreement of opinions but as it were in a misordered quire every man singeth a contrary note Among the heavenly Planets is no dissention all foure Elements keep their place every one doe their office whereunto they bee appointed And wilt thou suffer thy Spouse for whose sake all things were made thus by continuall discords to perish go to wrack Shalt thou suffer the wicked spirits which bee authors and workers of discord to beare such a swinge in thy Kingdome unchecked Shalt thou suffer the strong Captaine of mischief whom thou once overthrewest againe to invade thy tents and to spoile thy souldiers When thou wert here a man conversant amongst men at thy voice fled the devills Send forth we beseech thee O Lord thy Spirit which may drive away out of the breasts of all them that professe thy Name the wicked spirits masters of riot of covetousnesse of vaine glory of carnall lust of mischief and of discord Create in us O our God and King a cleane heart and renew thy holy Spirit in our breasts pluck not from us thy holy Ghost Render unto us the joy of thy sauing health and with thy principall Spirit strengthen thy Spouse and the Herdmen thereof By this Spirit thou reconciledst the earthly to the heavenly by this thou didst frame and reduce so many tongues so many Nations so many sundry sorts of men into one body of a Church which body by the same Spirit is knit to thee their head This Spirit if thou wilt vouchsafe to renew in all mens hearts then shall also these forreigne miseries cease or if they cease not at least they shall turne to the profit and availe of them which love thee Stay this confusion set in order this horrible Chaos O Lord Jesu let thy Spirit stretch out it self upon these waters of evill wavering opinions And because thy Spirit which according to thy Prophets saying cōtaineth al things hath also the sciēce of speaking make that like as unto all them which bee of thy house is all one light one Baptisme one God one hope one Spirit so they may also have one voice one note and song professing one Catholique truth When thou diddest mount up to heaven triumphantly thou threwest out from above thy precious things thou gavest gifts amongst men thou dealtest sundry rewards of thy Spirit Renew againe from above thy old bountifulnesse give that thing to thy Church now fainting growing downward that thou gauest unto her shooting up at her first beginning Give unto Princes and Rulers the grace so to stand in awe of thee that they so may guide the Common-Weale as they should shortly render accompt unto thee that art the King of kings Give wisdome to bee alwayes assistant unto them that whatsoever is best to bee done they may espy it in their minde and pursue the same in their doings Give to the Bishops the gift of prophecy that they may declare and interpret holy Scripture not of their owne braine but of thine inspiring Give them the threefold charity which thou once demandedst of Peter what time thou didst betake unto him the charge of thy sheep Give to the Priests the love of sobernesse and of chastity Give to thy people a good will to follow thy Commandements and a readinesse to obey such persons as thou hast appointed over them So shall it come to passe if through thy gift thy Princes shall command that thou requirest if thy Pastors and Herdmen shall teach the same and thy people obey them both that the old dignity and tranquillity of the Church shal returne again with a goodly order unto the glory of thy Name Thou sparedst the Ninevites appointed to be destroied as soone as they converted to repentance and wilt thou despise thy house falling downe at thy feet which in stead of sackcloth hath sighes and in stead of ashes teares Thou promisedst forgivenesse to such as turne unto thee but this self thing is thy gift a man to turne with his whole heart unto thee to the intent all our goodnesse should redound unto thy glory Thou art the maker repaire the work that thou hast fashioned Thou art the Redeemer save that thou hast bought Thou art the