which hee bare our sinnes to the strength of his patience and so both his paines and his patience farre exceeded all mens The rather for that Christes sense did not faile him by degrees as ours doth when the paines of death are extreamest which driue our soules from our bodies but hee did in most perfect sense feele the sting and bitternesse of paine to the last breath by reason he was of his owne accord at an instant appointed by his Father to breathe out his owne soule and so did to the great admiration of the Centurion that obserued it and consequently hee retained firmnesse of voice and exactnesse of sense all the while his paines were at sharpest The soule is punished in this life by her vnderstanding will affections and senses according as their obiects directed and strengthened by God make violent and vehement impressions the torment of hell-fire being the iudgement of another world Neither is God the tormenter of soules in hell with his immediate hand but by his wisdome and power hath ordained euerlasting fire as an externall Agent aboue nature to take vengeance of damned men and diuels according to their deserts No Scripture doth teach That God with his immediate hand tormented the soule of his Sonne on the Crosse or in the Garden notwithstanding Christes soule was full of feare and sorow in the Garden and of griefe and paine on the Crosse all which outward and inward passions ne did ne could peruert Christs will nor oppresse his power but they must all be voluntarie that they might all be meritorious and the more Christs power was to admit them when he would as he would and because he would the more his obedience was to the will and hand of God who forced nothing on Christ against his will but by that which was offered and suffered tried the obedience of his Sonne and accepted all from him as a most willing Sacrifice The wrath of God punishing our sinnes in the person of Christ was neither such as the Damned in hell nor as the Reprobate in earth doe suffer but rather common to the members of Christ who must drinke of this Cuppe haue fellowship with his afflictions and be conformed to his death though they neuer feele the true paines of hell nor haue their soules tormented by Gods immediate hand Neither was it any other wrath than such as might stand with Gods loue towards his Sonne who did not hate him for our sakes but loued vs for his and was Fatherly tempered to the strength of Christes manhood and graciously ouerruled and quenched by the fauour that God bare to the person of his Sonne And therefore the termes of meere and proper wrath if they meane proper to the damned are false and impious in Christes sufferings which neither in maner measure nor purpose did agree with the torments of the damned The true and full satisfaction for our sinnes must not be deriued from the singularitie and infinitie of Christes paines longer and greater than which the damned and diuels doe euery one suffer but from the dignitie of the person who being the only and eternall Sonne of God that made vs humbled himselfe in our stead and in our nature to restore vs and offered recompense for our sinnes which was his submission and obedience vnto the death of the Crosse more pleasing to God than our condemnation to hell could haue beene for in this ballance betweene the wrath of God against our sinnes and the loue of God towards his Sonne neither was his iustice neglected nor his loue ouer swayed but a sweet and wise temper of both was prouided for the manhood of his Sonne first to suffer with patience and then to raigne with glorie that all the sonnes of God might be the more willing and readie by his example to obey the will and abide the hand of God before they did enter into his Kingdome The Scriptures witnessing that the Sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit this might not want in Christes Sacrifice for sinne but he approching the presence of God with and for our offences lawfully might and exceedingly did feare the greatnesse and iustnesse of Gods anger against our iniquities and as deeply sorrowed that Gods holinesse was so carelesly despised and highly displeased with our manifolde iniquities Which inward sacrifices of feare and sorrow for vs and our sinnes in the person of the Mediatour were no lesse acceptable to God than the simple suffering of paine Since Gods power is despised where it is not duely feared and sinne is iustified where the displeasing of God is not thorowly sorrowed in presenting vs and our cause to God Christ was to yeeld for vs and in our behalfe that infinite submission and feare to the power of God prouoked and contrition and sorrow to the holinesse of God offended which we could neuer haue done And without these to offer to beare the burden of our sinnes was to make light account of our sinne against God and of Gods wrath against our sinne which was farre from the Sonne of God There might therefore in Christes sacrifice for sinne not without iust cause appeare exceeding feare and sorrow yet both religious and measured by the rules of obedience and humilitie though passing grieuous to the soule of Christ. Neither were these submissions and afflictions of Christs soule answerable to his perfection and our transgression if they did not reach to the highest degree of feare and sorrow that mans nature in Christ was capable of without distrust of Gods fauour or dislike of his iustice Christ did not pray in the Garden contrarie to his Fathers knowen will but made an expresse and speciall reseruation thereof euen in the first part of his prayer Neither was he amazed and confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie as these Presumers teach but he prayed with faith and suffered with obedience both which require perfect vnderstanding will and memorie Manie things might concurre to increase Christes sorrow in the Garden as the reiection of the Iewes for spilling his bloud the dispersion of his Church all flying and forsaking him the continuall rage of Satan against his weake and fearefull members Christ now in his temptations and afflictions beholding theirs with great compassion and griefe of heart which is it that Hilarie saith Et tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est Christ sorrowed for vs and prayed for vs. An Agonie is properly a vehement contention of minde to preuaile in that we vndertake rightly weighing and striuing to remoue the difficulties and impediments obiected to hinder the euent Christes bloudie sweat if it were naturall must proceed rather from zeale and intention of minde than from feare and sorow which coole the bloud and quench the spirits whereas the spirits must be mightilie kindled and the bloud much heated and thinned before it can issue forth by sweat And since by the words of Saint Luke Christ fell into an
seeming that either your eyes were not open when you reade that place of Tertullian or your wits so weake that you could not vnderstand your Authour Tertullian in that booke speaketh not one word of the sleeping or not sleeping of the soule till iudgement hee directeth his whole discourse against such as denied the resurrection of the flesh and therfore held the soule alone after this life should euer lastingly be rewarded or punished without the societie of her bodie To reprooue that heresie which is the ouerthrowe of all Christianitie Tertullian diuideth his Treatise into two principle parts the reasons inducing and the promises in the Scriptures assuring the resurrection of the bodie The reasons inducing it he recalleth to three chiefe stemmes For where the Heretikes to discredite the resurrection of the flesh opposed the 1 basenes of the flesh vnworthy to rise 2 the distruction of the flesh by fire water deuouring rotting and such like as impossible to be restored 3 the dulnesse of the flesh as hauing neither will wisedome or sense of it selfe but being onely the vessell of the soule and so subiect to no punishment in that it is guiltie of no sinne Tertullian to surprise them in their owne principles produceth the number of honours that God hath done to mans flesh in this life the examples of Gods power reuiuing things dead and restoring things perished and the rule of Gods iustice which must not acquit the bodie that is partner with the soule in all her actions The first part he concludeth in these words To summe that I haue said the flâ—…sh which God framed with his owne hands after his image which hee quickned with his breath after the similitude of his life fulnesse which he aduanced to possesse vse and gouerne all his workes which he adorned with his Sacraments and disciplines whose cleannes he loueth whose correction he approoueth whose suffering he holdeth precious shall it not rise againe that so many waies belongeth to God The second part he bindeth vp in this wise All things returne to the state which they lost all begin when they cease and therefore are ended that they may be renued Nothing perisheth but to be kept This whole course of things in heauen and earth is a witnesse of the Resurrection of the dead God did first worke it before he did write it he declared his power before he spake the word He sent nature to teach thee that thou mightst the more easily beleeue prophesie being first the Disciple of Nature and not doubt that God could raise the flesh whom thou knowest to restore all things And if all things rise againe to man for whom they were made and not to man except to his flesh what an absurditie is it that the flesh should vtterly perish for whose sake and to whose vse nothing perisheth Before he entreth the third part he maketh this preface Exorsi sumus ab AVTHORITATE carnis de hinc prosecuti de POTENTIA dei velim etiam de CAVSA requiras quia subest dicere si caro capax restitui si diuinitas idonea restituendi sed caâ—…sa restitutionis prâ—…sse debebit We began with the ESTIMATION of the flesh whether that being perished were meete to be restored we then handled the POVVER of God whether that be so great as vseth to repaire things decayed Now if both those bee admitted I would haue you require the CAVSE whether there be any so waightie as to make the resurrection of the flesh necessarie and euery way answerable to reason for that wee may say though the flesh be fit to be restored and God able to restore it yet there ought to be a cause why it should bee restored The cause of resurrection Tertullian persueth plainely pithily purposely in three whole Chapters expresly and directly teaching that the whole man must bee iudged to wit both body and soule because the whole man liued and ioyned in euery action This is the whole cause saith he yea the necessitie of the resurrection most agreeable to God the appointing of iudgement For that which must bee iudged must be raised The iudgement of God we affirme must be beleeued to bee full and perfect as it is finall and euer after perpetuall and therefore the fulnesse and perfection of iudgement not to be without the representing of the WHOLE MAN Now the whole man consisteth in the mixture of two substances and so must bee presented to iudgement in both since the whole must be iudged Such then as he liâ—…d such must he be iudged because he must bee iudged for his doings whiles he liued Descending then to shew that the Soule and body ioyned in all things good and bad here on earth and taxing his aduersaries the heretickes as absurd for diuiding the body from the Soule in the actions of this life hee thus chalengeth them in the very next words Age iam scindant aduersary nostri carnis animaeque contextum priùs in vitae administratione vt it a audeant scindere illud etiam in vitae remuneratione Negent operarum societatem vt meritò possint etiam mercedem negare Non sit particeps in sententia caro si non fuerit in causa Goe on then let our aduersaries first seuer the ioynture of body and Soule in the administration of this life that so they may dare to part the same in the Remuneration of this life Let them denie the fellowship of actions that they may iustly deâ—…e the reward thereof Let not the flesh bee partner in the sentence of iudgement if it were not companion in the cause or desert But so farre is it that the Soule alone did passe this life that we doe not exempt thoughts though sole and not brought to effect from the communion of the flesh For in the flesh and with the flesh and by the flesh is that done of the Soule which is done in the hart This part of the flesh as the chiefe castle of the Soule the Lord taxeth when he reproueth thoughts saying Why thinke you euill in your harts And againe He that beholdeth a woman to desire her hath committed adulterie in his hart So that thought without deed or effect is the act of the flesh Neuer is the Soule without the flesh so long as she is in the flesh She doth euery thing with the flesh without which she is not Looke then whether thoughts also be administred by the flesh which are outwardly perceiued by the flesh Let the soule reuolue any thing with her selfe the countenance maketh shew thereof Let them deny the fellowship of facts when they cannot deny the fellowship of thoughts betweene the Body and the Soule Thus stand Tertullians words I aske now the simplest Reader that is whether the ancient writer ernestly pursue his maine and coherent matter against his Aduersaries the Heretikes or whether he alleadge their reasons against himselfe The Discourser could not see the wood for trees but like a
v. 17. 18. God willing saith the Apostle more abundantly to shew the stablenesse of his counsell bound himselfe with an othe that by two immutable things his promise and his othe wherein it is impossible that God should lie we might haue strong comfort So that howsoeuer you in your irreligious sophistrie doe say God Omnipotent may inflict damnation vpon men for others If you meane vpon his Elect such as Moses and Paul were whose examples and words you would seeme to follow you defend an open and exact Impossibilitie Note and heresie speaking of damnation as the Scriptures doe and as you doe in this place where you say those holy men Moses and Paul x Defenc. pag. 96. li. 5. Earnestly and constantly wished Gods eternall wrath might come vpon themselues that the Iewes might scape it Will you flie from the elect to the reprobate and say that God may inflict damnation on them for other mens sinnes Then are you cleane gone from your examples of Moses and Paul for they were no reprobates and as farre from all regard of Gods Iustice who eternally condemneth no man but for sinne permanent and inherent as in all the reprobate For though God doe saue without merite for his mercies sake yet he condemneth no man eternally but for sinne and that either committed or inherited y Genes 18. Be it farre from thee saith Abraham to God to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be euen as the wicked be it farre from thee Shall not the Iudge of the world doe iudgement If it be simply impossible for Gods elect to perish as our Sauiour witnesseth what hainous and horrrible falsitie and impietie is it to say The Sonne of God might be damned for sinners And though you shift sides and say z Defenc pag. 96. li. 29. Much rather then maâ—… God doe this to Christ yet if you hold either to your former examples whence you deduce this or to your words in this very sentence whence you draw this comparison you must say much rather then may God inflict damnation and his eternall wrath on Christ which whether it may not rightly be called one of your hellish mysteries I leaue to all Christian men to iudge Such wicked obseruations when you make from so weake and false foundations the Reader may soone see what a notable Diuine you are and how likely to teach the truth that pretend Gods power against his will for the vtter ruine os all Religion Christ you say was ordained for that purpose Christ was not ordained to be damned for vs. What to be damned for others or rather to beare the chastisment of our peace that we might be healed with his stripes The Prophet Esay saith he was wounded for our transgressions and bruized for our iniquities But you are the first supplanter of all Patriarkes and Prophets that say Christ was damned for our sinnes You will come in with your temporall and substantiall damnation to which you subiect the Soule of Christ But Sir if you beleeue and teach the same truth which the holy Ghost doth in the word of God Why swarue you so much from the words and grounds of the Sacred Scriptures Why doth nothing please you in mans Redemption but hell and damnation inflicted on Christ where you neuer learned any such lesson out of the Prophets or Apostles And here your abused and vnaduised examples which you pretend for this purpose import no such thing but rather the cleane contrarie For if it were not possible for Moses and Paul euerlastingly to perish because they were elected in Christ how infinitely more impossible was it that Christ should perish in whom all are elected And how Christ could perish but either by the dissolution of his person or else by the ioynt condemnation of the second person in the most glorious Trinitie to the fire of hell I doe not see since these are such blasphemies as hell neuer hatched the like a Defenc. pag. 96. li. 31. That which there you mention is the ordinarie and common rule The Soule that sinneth it shall die but in Christ this was extraordinarie and singular that the iust died for the vniâ—…st The wordes which I cited are sufficient to reprooue the first of your foure notable obseruations as starke false For there God sweareth by himselfe that the b Ezech. 18. Soule which sinneth that shall die and consequently the Sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the Father neither shall the Father beare the iniquitie of the Sonne much lesse shall Moses and Paul beare the iniquitie of the whole people as you dreame they might And so much Gods answere to Moses importeth * Exod. 32. whosoeuer hath sinned against me I will wipe him and none other out of my Booke As for Christ since he was God as well as man his person could not be tied to the Lawes and Rules appointed for men but what he himselfe would admit in his owne person to that by willing obedience he submitted himselfe namely in his Manhood to die the death of the Crosse for our sinnes according to the Scriptures but not to be damned for vs nor to die the death of the Soule mentioned in the Scriptures to whose Doctrine we must stand and not to your deuices when we speake of Gods iudgements against sinne or of the purgation of our Soules Wherefore that God himselfe by his owne body would be the Price of our Redemption was indeed a thing proper and singular to the person of Christ wherein neither Moses nor Paul could be partakers with him or examples of him and therefore your fitting their prayers to his Passion to make your hel paines thereby possible is a thing far fet no way pertinent to this purpose c Defenc. pag. 96. li 22. I take it plaine enough that these sinned not in their desire and I suppose you take it so too in that you alleadge them and ground your Reasons of comparison vpon them They sinned not because their desires were conditionall submitted to Gods good pleasure with reseruation of their dueties otherwise if they thought that possible which they desired as you doe by their destruction who were the chosen vessels of mercie to excuse the reprobate from damnation deserued by obstinacie and infidelitie they not only erred from the truth but sinned in praying to haue their wils take place before and against the will of God But Moses in loue to Gods glory and care for his charge desired to be partaker of such temporall vengeance as should befall the whole people of God and Pauls words that are potentiall must be conditionall otherwise he needed not to haue said I could wish but I doe wish The which because he doth not but onely shew his desire were it possible and pleasing to God therefore he may be well excused from sinne though you condemne this in him and that in Moses as a d Defenc. pag. 95.
of his sufferings You would seeme skilfull after your vnlearned maner in the soules-suffering Is there any suffring more proper to the soule then feare sorow from her owne cogitations apprehensions affections from the immediate hand of God you thinke is more proper That in some cases may be possible though in Christes you can prooue no such thing but that is most proper which the soule neuer wanteth and hath of her owne nature And therefore so farre is it from being exempted from the sacrifice of sinne that in vs there is none other sacrifice for sinne but repentance which is all one with godly sorow bringing with it c 2. Cor. 7. ver 11. câ—…re fâ—…are desire zeale and such like effects of true detestation of sinne as the Apostle describeth Repentance for himselfe Christ could haue none because Inward and 〈◊〉 sorow for â—…ur 〈◊〉 must be â—…ound in Christes sacrifice for them he neuer sinned but as our transgressions displeased the holinesse and prouoked the wrath of God against vs so when our Lord and Sauiour came to make full satisfaction for our sinnes he did not onely appease the iustice of God by enduring his hand but contented the holinesse of God by inward and infinite sorow for our sakes and sinnes which we were not able to yeeld vnto God To haue accepted the punishment which Gods iustice awarded and to haue neglected the offence and displeasure which gods holinesse conceaued against sinne had beene not to pacifie but to prouoke God in not regarding the cause which mooued him to take vengeance on sinne It is therefore most agreeable to the rules of pietie that the inward sorow for our sinnes which the sonne of God impressed on his humane soule when he prepared himselfe to make purgation of them did no lesse affect and afflict him then the outward paines receaued in his body and why you should exclude this from his agonie there is no reason but that you are most in loue with that which hath least proofe or likeliehood to be the cause of this agonie This being exactly noted by Hilarie Ambrose Cyrill and other auncient and learned Fathers I did rightly to obserue it how lightly soeuer your insolent conceit esteemeth it d 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 li. 10. Igitur cum tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est non possunt non omnia propter nos gesta esse intelligi cum omnia pro nobis quibus timebatur orata sunt Since then both Christes sorow was concerning vs and his praier for vs all the rest must needes be vnderstood for our sakes for so much as all his praiers were powred forth for vs for whom he feared So Ambrose e Ambros. de fide ad Gratianum li. 2. c. 3. mihi compatitur mihi tristis est mihi dolet Ergo pro me et in 〈◊〉 doluit qui prose nihilhabuit quod doleret Doles igitur Domine Iesu non tua sed mea vulnera non tuam mortem sed meam infirmitatem Christ is affected for me he is heauie for me he soroweth for me He sorroweth then in me and for me who had nothing in himselfe to sorrow for Thou sorrowedst Lord Iesu not for thine owne woundes but for mine not for thine owne death but for my weakenesse And Cyrill f Cyril de recta fide ad Reginas li. 2. ca de Sanctâ—…fication 〈◊〉 Christi That Christ might make our praiers acceptable to God himselfe beginneth the matter euen opening his fathers eares to the nature of man and making them most readie to the praiers of such as were in any perâ—…ll for his cause Therefore in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a second root or first fruits of mankinde we were praying with strong cries and not without teares that the power of death might be abolished and the life restored or strengthened which was at first bestowed on our nature And Bede g Bedâ—… in Lucâ—… câ—… 22. If Christ were sorowfull to vs that is for our sakes it must needs be that he was comforted by the Angell for vs and to our vse For what should he aske with that agonie for himselfe who here on earth gaue heauenly things with power Then neither Christes sorow in the Garden nor his prayer with that agonie after he was comforted by the Angell were for himselfe or his owne sufferings much lesse for hell paines deuised and inflicted by you on the soule of Christ but his extreame sorrow and affectionate prayer might well be for our sinnes whose cause he vndertooke and for our sakes whose persons he then presented vnto God with most vehement contention of spirit and of all the powers of soule and body h Defenc. pag. 98. li. 12. Neither in respect of these your supposed causes could Christ say Saue me from this houre nor Let this cuppe passe from me as in respect of his infinite paines he might The houre and cuppe which Christ speaketh of are by himselfe referred not to any paines What cup Christ dranke of suffered in the Garden as you pretend much lesse to the paines of hell inflicted by Gods immediate hand on Christes soule as you would haue it but to the time and maner of his sufferings from the hands of the Iewes Of the houre after all his prayers ended in the Garden and his last returne to his Disciples he sayth i Mar. 14. v. 41 Sleepe hence forth and take your rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the houre is come beholde the Sonne of man is giuen into the hands of sinners Here is that houre that Christ so much spake of euen the time that he should be deliuered into the handes of sinners to suffer a cruell and shamefull death at their hands And so he told them that came to take him k Luc. 22. v. 53 This is your verie houre and the power of darkenesse And this he called the Cuppe which his father gaue him to drinke For when Peter drew his sword to defend his Master from the hands of the Iewes Iesus said vnto him l Ioh. 18. v. 11. put vp thy sword into thy sheath shall I not drinke of the cuppe which my Father hath giuen me Peter neither did nor coulde hinder the cuppe which you imagine Christ dranke in the garden from the immediate hand of God he ment plainly to resist the Iewes that they should not apprehend Christ. That enterprise of Peter when Christ would represse and submit himselfe to his fathers will and counsell for his death he said as we saw before shall I not drinke of the cup which my Father hath giuen me So that the Scriptures mention the houre cup of Christs suffering on the Crosse from the rage of the people malice of the rulers of your inuisible cuppe containing the death of the damned they say nothing m Defenc. pag. 98. li. 16. His holy and righteous affections were at all houres and seasons in him
others whom we loue or to perceiue or desire any good which is lost lacking or likely to be taken from vs or from others whom we regard So that not only sympathie with and from the bodie and vehement and strong affections of zeale loue compassion pitie and care which you recken do paine the soule but the eyes and eares vpon a thousand occasions when the bodie is not touched bring feare and griefe to the heart yea the vnderstanding remembrance conscience and will which you vtterly forget doe oftener offend and afflict the soule euen of the gody than either the bodie or the affections do And in the world to come which you purposely skip to make way for your new hell besides the losse of glory sting of conscience and shame of sinne the Scriptures assure vs that vtter darkenesse ruthfullwailing horror of diuels torment of fire despaire of case shalâ—… afflict the bodies and soules of the damned with intolerable and eternall anguish as when we come to speake thereof we shall more largely proue A third errour in you is that you make your second kinde of the soules suffering paine which is by sympathie and communion with and from the bodie not to be proper to man but common to vs with beasts wherein you bewray either your vnderstanding not to be great or your intent to be vilde For though beasts haue bodies and senses as men haue and the paine of their bodies pierceth and affecteth the sensitiue parts powers of life in them yet haue they no soules I trust which can be affected the paine of their bodies as men haue I hope you be not so deepe in your distillation of hell that you will bestow soules on beasts to make them liable to your new-found paines of hell but in men their immortall spirits are and shall be afflicted by their bodies and senses both heere and in hell when the full punishment of their sinnes commeth to be layed vpon them How long will you vexe my soule saith Iob. The â—…on entred into his soule sayth the Psalmist of Iosephs fetters All is vanitie and affliction of the spirit sayth the Preacher A sword shall pierce thy soule sayth Simeon to Marie Then for the soule or spirit of man to be vexed afflicted pierced and pained by and from the bodie is proper to man and no way common to vs with beasts which haue no soules and that kinde of suffering paine which is without the bodie is not proper to the soule by reason it is common to men with diuels who haue no bodies and yet suffer paine aswell by their vnderstanding and will as by externall meanes appointed of God to punish the damned both soules and diuels Wherefore your termes of the soules proper and immediate suffering which before I called vnsalted and vnsetled and you say are easie to be vnderstood and necessarily to be vsed in this question as you now haue declared and deliuered them are false and absurd For no kinde of suffering paine is proper to the soule of man but onely that which is with the bodie or by the bodie the other kinde of suffering paine by vnderstanding and will and by hell-fire being common to men with diuels which haue no bodies and are no soules no more than soules in heauen are Angels S. Austen truely sayth Angelos habere animas nusquam me legisse in diuinis eloquijs canonicisque recolo That Angels haue soules I do not remember I haue any where read in the diuine and canonicall Scriptures Since then diuels haue neither bodies nor soules though they be spirits and beasts though they haue bodies yet haue they no soules to be pained by their bodies it is euident that the piercing and afflicting of the spirit and soule of man by the bodie and from the bodie is the onely kinde of suffering which is proper to the soule of man the spirituall affliction of the soule by her vnderstanding and will and by the torment of perpetuall and eternall fire being common to men with the reprobate Angels To the immediate suffering of the soule in hell which is another of your new-found fancies I will immediatly come if first I touch an errour or two in your former words to let the Reader see that you are vnlike to lay sure grounds in faith when you know not the plaine rules of Nature A third kinde of painfull suffering you say the soule hath namely her veheâ—…ent and strong affections are painfull whether they be good or euill as zeale loue c. I pray you Sir how come zeale and specially loue when they be good to be painfull affections in your Calender S. Iohn sayth There is no feare in loue and giueth this reason for feare hath painfulnesse presupposing it for a prinple that loue hath no paine which is most true because we delight in that which we loue and so loue hauing no paine in it but delight it hath consequently no feare by reason feare hath paine which loue hath not But if it be strong you will say it paineth the soule If loue bring delight the stronger the loue that is good the greater the delight and so the strength of loue doth not increase but exclude all paine Which is also S. Iohns rule Perfect loue casteth out feare which is the least impression of paine that may be And where loue that is good is strongest and most feruent as namely in heauen there is no place for paine and in earth when we are commanded to loue the Lord ‖ our ‖ God with all ‖ our ‖ heart with all ‖ our ‖ soule with all ‖ our ‖ strength and ‖ our ‖ neighbour as ‖ our ‖ selues must we be whollie delighted or partlie grieued with God and our neighbour The like is to be sayd for zeale which is nothing but the heat or feruencie of loue Accidentally they may turne vs to paine when our godly zeale and loue are hindred or crossed by the wicked But the thing that grieueth vs in those cases is not our loue but the leaudnesse of the wicked despising or wronging that which we zealously loue And so may all vertues paine vs. What iust man is not displeased with iniustice What liberall minde is not moued at auarice What valiant heart is not grieued with cowardice The like we shall finde in all other vertues euen an inward offence at their contraries and yet no wise man will say that vertues are paines and punishments of the soule Of compassion and pitie among the rest you say accidentally they may be punishments when they grow so strong that they grieue the soule As though there could be any compassion or pitie which doth not grieue the soule What is pity but sorow at the sight of another mans miserie and what is compassion but a vehement passion or griefe of the heart for his miserie whom we deerely loue so that there can be neither compassion nor pitie
the wages thereof to be finall depriuation of all grace and glorie and eternall damnation of bodie and soule to hell-fire how can she but quake and tremble at the very cogitation and remembrance of her owne guiltinesse and of the greatnesse of his power and iustnesse of his anger And therefore the godlie presently fall vpon the consideration hereof to condemne and detest all their sinnes and with broken and contrite harts to lament their vnrighteousnesse and to afflict their spirits with earnest and inward sorrow till by faith and repentance they find comfort in the mercies of God through Christ Iesus For want of which the wicked often in this life and speciallie at the houre of death sincke vnder the burden of their sinnes and plunged into the depth of desperation are possessed with an horrible fright and terror of the torments prepared for them in another world they feeling here on earth in their soules the remorse of sinne and sting of conscience but not able to rise vnto true repentance and hope of saluation by reason of their continuall contempt of grace whiles it was offered them which then is taken from them After this life appeare the terrible iudgements of God against sinne which the wicked so much feare and the faithful so much shun the speciall maner and meanes whereof as farre as the Scriptures deliuer them I will deferre till I come to the particular handling of them though I haue often proposed them and in part proued them but whether the words of the Scripture expressing them be allegories that is figuratiue shadowes or plaine speeches that question is not yet debated which I reserue till I haue ended the immediate suffering of the soule as this Discourser calleth it Of these sixe meanes besides the immediate hand of God to inflict paine on the soule for the punishment of sinne it pleaseth you Sir Discourser to skip foure and the other two in effect to denie Affections you say are neither punishments nor corrections at all properly in themselues and suffering by sympathie from and with the bodie is common as you auouch to vs with beasts and is no proper humane suffering because in your iudgement your first kinde of suffering from the immediate hand of God alone is the proper humane suffering which for that cause your selfe call the soules proper and immediate suffering But what if in all this you speake not one true word what if the affections that be euill be properlie punishments of sinne what if the soules suffering from and with the bodie be the true and proper humane suffering what if God vse not his immediate hand in tormenting soules but hauing ordained and appointed meanes by his wisedome and power committeth sinfull soules to be punished by those instruments and meanes which he with his hand hath prepared and in his word expressed Do you not shew your selfe a deepe Diuine that prooue points of faith by open falsities and heape vp errours by the dozens binding them with your bare word and obtruding them to the world as oracles lately slipt from heauen but go to the parts and first to the affections which you affirme are no punishments whether they be good or euill The affections of the soule that be good as the loue of God the zeale of his glorie and hope of his mercie and trueth are the speciall gifts and graces of Gods spirit and so farre from paining the soule that they breed exceeding comfort and ioy in the Holieghost The affections that are eâ—…ill are not onely the rage and reward of sinne but inflict as great anguish as may be felt in this life Concupiscence which is the root and nurse of all euill affections in vs be they sensitiue or intellectiue what is it but the inordinate and intemperate desire and loue of our owne willes and pleasures despising and hating whatsoeuer resisteth or hindereth our deuices or delights yea though it be the will and hand of God himselfe this corruption of the soule by sinne which is now naturall in vs all whence came it but from and for the punishment of the first mans sinne what is it but the verie poison of sinne and whether tendeth it but to withstand and refuse all grace that men reiecting God and reiected of God may runne headlong to the finall and eternall vengeance of their sinne It is no small punishment of sinne for men to be left to the desires of their owne hearts and to be giuen ouer to vile affections which the Apostle calleth the reward of their error and euen the fulnesse of all vnrighteousnesse which make men the seruants of sinne whiles they wait on lusts and diuers pleasures which fight against the soule by leading it captiue vnto the law of sinne which is in the members And if you doubt whether they paine the soule or no looke but on their names or their effects and you shall soone be out of doubt Anger disdaine despaire dislike detestation feare sorrow ragâ—… furie for earthly things can these be so much as conceiued or named without euident impression or mention of paine yea the fairest of our affections and those which at first flarter vs most as loue desire and pleasure I speake still of euill and vnlawfull do they not quicklie faile sowerlie leaue and sharplie vexe with their remembrance and repentance the greatest seekers and owners of them In all these worldlie desires and delights S. Austens rule is generallie true Quod sine illiciente amore non habuit sine vrente dolore non perdet He that kept them not without alluring loue loseth them with afflicting griefe As for the intellectiue passions of the soule which are the trembling at Gods wrath the feare of his power and despaire of his fauour besides the shame of sinne griefe of heart and horror of hell what torments they breed in the condemned consciences of the wicked the godly may partly iudge by that which they sometimes taste notwithstanding their present recourse to the mercies and promises of God in Christ. So that euill affections aswell intellectiue as sensitiue be punishments of sinne and painfull to the soule howsoeuer your cogitations Sir Discourser be otherwise humored Concerning the soules suffering from and with the bodie which you say is common to vs with beasts if the soule do not consider for what cause at whose hand and to what end she suffereth as also how she may be freed and what thanks is due to her deliuerer she may be well likened to the Horse and Mule in whom is no vnderstanding but the brutish dulnesse of some earthly minded men doth not make this kind of suffering not to be properly humane which God from the beginning did and doth vse to all his seruants and saints his owne sonne not excepted and whereby God worketh in all his children correction probation perfection preparation to glorie which are things most proper to men and no way communicable vnto beasts God
Whereupon Pilat maruailed that Christ was so soone dead And the Lord himselfe said None taketh my soule from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I haue power to lay it downe and power to take it againe To which it pertaineth that is written he bowing downe his head gaue vp his spirit for other men first dye and then their heads hang but Christ first laid downe his head and then voluntarily rendered his soule to his Father Many moe might be brought of all ages and places confessing the same but if these suffice not what may be enough I doe not know To decline the Scriptures and Fathers that make against him the Discourser hath deuised two shifts very like the rest of of his tenents that is void of all truth and iudgement I deny not saith he but Christ might shew some strange vnusuall thing apparantly to the beholders in vttering his last voice which might very much mooue the beholders and hâ—…arers Adde hereunto that experience sheweth as Phisitians say how some diseases in the body bring death presently after most strong and violent crying Namely in some excessiue torments as of the stone Things reported and expressed in the Scriptures touching the strange and wonderfull manner of Christs death you deny and dreame of things there no way mentioned to coulour your matter and cosin your Reader That Christ did render his soule into his Fathers hands when as yet neither speech sense memory nor motion began to faile is diligently obserued by the Euangelists and was greatly marueyled at by the Centurion which saw the manner of his death As also that he breathed out his soule of his owne accord when he had spoken those words without any former or other degrees or pangs of death appearing in him is likewise witnessed by the Scriptures and constantly auouched by all the Fathers Saint Luke saith and speaking these words he breat hed out his soule Saint Mathew and crying with a loud voice he dismissed his spirit Saint Marke and sending a strong voice from him he blew out his Soule This did he of his owne accord and power None taking his soule from him as in death they doe ours but declaring himselfe by laying of his soule when he would and as he would to be Lord and master of life and death This is fit for all Christians to confesse least they dishonor the death of Christ by depriuing his person of that power and glory which he openly shewed in the eyes eares of all his persecutors This you shift of and instced thereof imagine some strange and VNVSVALI accident in the manner of Christs death which neither the Scriptures report nor you can expresse wherein you shew your selfe forward to inuent what is not written and backward to beleeue what is written which is the trade of such men as meane to make a shipwracke of their faith That a man may dye crying as Christ did you haue found at length if not from Diuines at least from Phisitians for I perccaue you haue sought all sorts of helps both farre and neere to vphold your fansies Pâ—…rchaunce Phisitians may tell you when a painefull disease possesseth the parts which are no fountaines of life or sense a man may cry till sense and strength begin to faile and so hasten his death by the violent spending of his spirits but that a man may by any course of nature retaine perfect memorie sense motion and speach to the very act of breathing out his soule I assure my selfe no wise Phisitian will affirme And if any more humorous then learned will wade so farre without his Art he must vnderstand that his word may not ouersway the Rules of Diuinitie and Principles of nature For what are the powers and faculties whereby the soule is conioyned with the body but life sense and motion so long then as they last the soule by nature neither doth nor can forsake the body But when sense and motion first outward and then inward are oppressed and ouerwhelmed then life also perisheth and the soule may no longer abide in her body the vnion by which she was fastened vnto it being wholy dissolued Wherefore death which is the priuation of life by Gods ordinance for the punishment of sinne by degrees surpriseth and in the end quencheth all sense and motion and so forceth the soule to forsake her seate which by Gods appointment is violently parted from hir body whether she will or no but neuer till the effects oflife which are sense and motion be first decayed and abolished A sowne is the suddainest ouerwhelming of the powers of life which any natural experience doth teach vs and yet therewith though outward sense and motion doe faile at an instant and the inward be very weake and almost insensible the soule doth not presently depart but stayeth a time till all sense and motion without and within except the partie be recouered be vtterly extinguished Wherefore in all men by necessitie of nature the powers and parts of life decav in some sooner in some later before they die and therefore in Christ on the Crosse it was MIRACVLOVS and aboue nature that hauing full perfect outward and inward sense speech and motion he did in a moment when he would and as he would render his soule into the hands of his Father without any farder decayes or other degrees of death precedent then the very act of breathing out his soule which left his body presently and perfectly dead Thou hast gentle Reader the causes and prooses that mooued me to obserue the manâ—…r of Christes death to bee different from ours which whether they be consonant to the Scriptures and rightly conceiued by those learned and ancient Fathers which I haue named vnto thee I leaue to thy discrecte iudgement assuring thee there is nothing to hinder the maine consent of so many old and new writers in a matter of so great consequence but onely the headdinesse of this discourser who vpon a bare pretence of one peece of Scripture not well vnderstood and worse applied thinketh he may worke wonders and conclude all these graue and sound Expositours to be so ignorant of the sense of that place and so vnable to reach to the depth of those words Christ was LIKE VS IN ALL things that with one accord they would affirme a sine fable a Paradoxe in Nature and contrarie to Scripture Howbeit it is no newes with this man to defend that Christ was distempered ouerwhelmed and all confounded both in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body He boldly auoucheth it was so with Christ before his death in the Garden and on the Crosse and therefore hee presumeth it might much more befall him at his death But let him keepe these secrets to himselfe I doubt not Christian Reader but thou wilt be well aduised before thou put the Sauiour of the world and the Sonne of God out of his wits or senses to make way for
babie mistaketh the full and continuall text and proofes of Tertullian for his Aduersaries words though Tertullian himselfe expresly auouch the contrarie His Aduersaries reasons if you would faine know Sir Discourser you may reade them in the next Chapter as like yours as if the one had hatched the other Dicent carnem nihil sapientem nihil sentientem per semetipsam non velle non nolle de suo habentem vice potiâ—…s vasculi apparere animae vt instrumentum non vt ministerium Itaque animae soliâ—… iudicium prâ—…idere qualiter vsa sit vasculo carnis vasculum veró ipsum non esse sententâ—… obnoxiâ—…m These Hereticks will say that the flesh hauing neither vnderstanding nor sense of it selfe and neither will nor nill of his owne is added to the Soule as a VESSELL and INSTRVMENT not as a SERVANT And therefore the Soule alone must answâ—…re in iudgement how she hath vsed her vessell but the vessell it selfe is in no danger of â—…entence Is not this the very roote of your reason when you say the body sinneth not at all no not in grâ—…sse facts except as it is the instrument Otherwise the body sinneth not at all And if the Body be free from sinne then certainly it is frâ—…e from condemnation For neither part of man is condemned but for sinne And Tertullians inference is as good against you as it was against those Hereticks which denied there was any cause â—…or the flesh to rise againe to iudgement Iam ergo innocens caro ex parte qua non reputabuâ—…tur illi operae malae nihil prohibet innocentiae nomine saluam eam â—…ieri Then surely the flâ—…sh is innocent in as much as euill works shall not be imputed to it and there is no let why the flâ—…sh should not be saued in respect of his innocencie though the Soule be damned Wherefore you must bring the Body within the communion of sinne or cl ere it in iustice from all condemnation and so frustrate the cause of resurrection The last is the error which Tertullian so much impugned the first is the thing which Tertullian and I aâ—…rme and you would seeme to withstand as exceeding â—…urtfull and vntrue Howbeit your â—…nder shifts auoide not Tertullians proofes much lesse doth your rash censure preiudice his assertion that was common to him with the best learned in Christs Church as I haue shewed The difference betwixt an instrument and a seruant Tertullian forgetteth not Euery vessell or instrument is altogether of another matter from the sâ—…bstance of man But the flâ—…sh that was at sirst sowed in the wombe framed and borne together with the Soule Etiam in omni operatione misâ—…tur illi is ioyned with the samâ—… in euery action The Body is called by the name of a vessell for that it receaueth and holdâ—…th the Soule but it is also mâ—…n by communion of nature who hath the flesh in his operations nâ—…t aâ—… an â—…nstrument but as a seruant The Apostle knowing this that the flesh doth nothing oâ—… it selâ—… which is not imputed to the soule notwithstanding determineth the flesh to be sinfull leâ—…st it shâ—…uld â—…e thoâ—…ght to be free from iudgement in that it is lead by the Soule Otherwise not so much aâ—…â—…eproofe could agree to the flesh being voide of fault But Tâ—…rtullian afterward renounceth you say all this same If you spake of your selfe I would easily admit that you would faulter in your words and for want of iudgement oâ—… truth vnsay that which before you said but Tertullian in this place is farre from it He ratifieth that which he affirmed from the beginning it is onely your bluntneâ—… that rightly conceaue him not as you doe nothing else For he doth not exclude the body from the communion of ech sinne to which he fastned it before but he noteth that as the Soule when she sinneth with her Body beginneth with desire thoâ—…ght and â—…ill of her owne BEFORE the Body yâ—…eldeth seruice and assistance to accomplish the sinne so it is not repugnant to iustice that after this life the Soule should BEâ—…IN to suffer BEFORE the Body be restored to her This is not my imagination of Tertullians speech it is his owne explication and restriction to the wordes which you bring Idâ—…irco pro quo modo egit pro eo patâ—…ur apud Inferos prior degusâ—…ns â—…dicium sicut prior induxit admissum Therefore the Soule suffereth in hell after the â—…me manner wâ—…ich she obserued in sinne first tasâ—…ng iudgement as she first induced the sinne â—…uery child seeth that PRIOR in Tertullians words applied to the Soule must haue relation to POSTERIOR intended to the flesh and consequently that ech sinne must be common to both yet so that the soule first beginneth it by thought will and desire and the bodie followeth with subiection and seruice This distinction or distribution between the soule the body but still IN THE SAME SINNES Tertullian obserued before when he sayd Etsi anima est quae agit impellit in omnia carnis oâ—…equium est Though the soule be that which leadeth and vrgeth to euerie thing yet the flâ—…sh â—…s it which yeâ—…ldeth seruice And againe Animae imperium carni obsequium distribuâ—…s We assigne the rule and direction in good and euill to the soule the seruice or attendance to the flesh So sayth he in the words which you bring though mistranslated and misapplied Quantum ad agendum de suo sufficit tantum ad patiendum How muâ—…h the soule brought of her oâ—…ne towards the action so much she bringeth towards the suâ—…fering and notas you translate for asmuch as it sufficeth by it selfe to doe someâ—…hat Where you commit two faults to make the words sound somewhat to your sense the first in rendering Quantum how much very doubtfully as if it were 〈◊〉 forasmuch as the â—…econd in Englishing de suo by it selfe of purpose to exclude the concurrence of the bodie which Tertullians de suo doth not For in a ioynt action that is common to manie men may bring some things de suo of their owne and yet that barreth not the others to bring likewise de suo some things also of tâ—…eir oâ—…ne The like course you keepe in the rest for where Tertullian sayth Ad agendum autem 〈◊〉 de suo sâ—…fficit hâ—…bet enim de suo solummodo â—…ogitare velle cupere disponere ad perâ—…ndum autem operam carnis expectat To do ought the soule of her owne is not sufâ—… for of her owne she hath only thought will desire and disposition but to performe any thing sâ—…e expecteth or needeth the helpe of the flesh You forget that minùs in Latine is a negâ—…iue and heere standeth to the Verbe which you make a comparatiue and put to the Gerund and so where Tertullian sayth the soule is not sufficient of her owne to do any thing he meaneth perfectly or fully by which words he after expoundeth
Fâ—…st the dislike of God refusing them the sting of sinne defiling them the sting of death excluding them from all ioy and peace râ—…st and ease of soule and bodie for euer Applie this to Christ and his members and we shall presently finde by the rules of our Christian faith how farre they agree to either No true curse can be ascribed to Christ which shall seuer him from God without apparent impietie for neither the fauour of Gods fauour towards his manhood nor the fulnesse of grace and trueth in his soule nor the stedfast and most assured expectation of euerlasting ioy and glorie set before him euen in his greatest afflictions and temptations may be doubted of by any that will retaine the name of a Christian besides the perpetuall and personall vnion of his manhood with his Godhead to which was consequent such a communion with God and fruition of God as no elect man or angell euer had or can haue Wherefore you must either defend that the true curse of God did not seuer him from God but that one and the same nature in him might be truely blessed and yet truly accursed of God at one and the same time which are monsters meet for your doctrine or els you must wholly forbeare to affâ—…rme any true curse of Christ that shal separaâ—…e him from God and what other true curses you will attribute to him I would gladly heare The like though in farre lesse measure I yeeld to the membeâ—…s of Christ for since they were before all worlds beloued elected and blessed with all spirituall blessings in Christ and the foundation of God standeth sure hauing this Seale the Lord knoweth who are his yea the gifts and calling of God are without repâ—…ntance And the Apostle is fully perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels â—…r principalities nor things present nor things future nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus but that whom God did predestinate those he called and whom he called those he iustified and whom he iustified those he glorified I see no true curse no not sinne it selfe that can fasten on Christes members to their destruction but howsoeuer by nature tâ—…ey were the children of Gods wrath as well as others yet by grace they are saued and all things shall woâ—… for the best to them that loue God and are loued of him They may want theâ—…e gâ—…ft and graces for a time and so not feele the fruits of Gods election and vocâ—…tion but with God they are truely blessed because they are surely setled in hiâ—… fauour and fore-appointed to be heires of Saluation though they lie censâ—…ed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a while in the masse of Adams condemnation The loue and 〈◊〉 then of God is the originall of all true blessing and since that is vnmoueaâ—…le towards the â—…lect how much soeuer they be sometimes plunged by sinne and Satan into feares and doubts of their saluation all that is to humble them and not to destroy them and with God who is trueth it selfe they are truely blessed as being adopted in Christ though in mans iudgement and euen to themselues they seeme neuer so much accursed What curses you aske then may be on the godlie Gods loue which is the ground of all true blessing can not varie towards them it is euerlasting and immutable like himselfe All other blessings saue this they may want for a season in this world as before they are lightned and called to the knowledge of God they haue no blessing in them more then the very Reprobate haue After they are engrassed in Christ they may be tosâ—…ed and turmoyled with the very same eâ—…ernall and corporall plagues and punishments that the wicked are and often times with greater and thaâ—…-per but then they are supported with inward grace and comfort which others are not and when by ignorance feare or infirmitie they fall they shall not perish Where then in the Curses of God inflicted on the wicked in this world and the next three things must be marked their Dâ—…PRIVANCE of his blesâ—…ings of all sorts their COHERENCE together and CONTINVANCE for euer the godly communicate with the wicked in some part of the first that is they may be sequestred from such externall and corporall blessings as this life requireth but of spirituall they can not vtterly be depâ—…ued because they must be regenerated and renued in the inward man to the Image of God and sealed by the holy spirit of promise that they may be partakers of Christ here in this world in whom they haue Redemption euen the Remission of sinnes according to the riches of his grace In the rest they may not communicate with the wicked For where the Curses of God doe FOLLOVV one another vpon the Reprobate and abide for euer in the highest degree from this the godly are wholy free as DELIVERED by the mercies of God in Christ from this present euill world and from the wrath to come If then we be saued from these things by Christ how much more must Christ him selfe be saued from them before he could saue others So that Christ as I said at first by submitting him selfe to a part of the curse of the Law which depriueth vs of all earthly and bodily blessings and of life it selfe quenched the whole Curse of the Law and by his shamefull wrongfull and painefull death quited vs from euerlasting death which was the iust reward of our sinnes You say if by the Resurrection of Christ the Nature of death were changed then till Christ was risen death was a punishment to the faithfull themselues I wonder what meaning there is in this Argument As well you may say that none were saued till Christ was risen Wonder then at your owne conceits reasons and Authorities For if the nature of Death were changed as you suppose it was since it was first inflicted on Adam I asked you how and when before the change you doe not doubt but it was a punishment you must graunt to the godly for Christ neuer changed the Nature of Death to the wicked Then if the change were made by Christs dying and rising from the dead how thinke you doth it not follow vpon this confession that death BEFORE it was changed in the godly by Christs Resurrection was a punishment euen to the godly And to this end you bring the Catechisme in this very Section Death which BEFORE was a punishment is now by Christ become a vantage If death were neuer but a vantage to the godly euen when it was first inflicted then the change that you dreame to be made of death in the Godly is but a fansie If NOVV it be so which BEFORE it was not then BEFORE what else could it be to the godly but a punishment of sinne My Resolution was and is that Christ was first promised by Gods
disputation that manie here vndertake whether this wish were lawfull or vnlawfull If Paul refâ—…ained thus to wish because it was neither lawfull nor possible actually to obtaine it how senselesse and truethlesse are your foure obseruations grounded vpon the possibilitie and pietie of this wish whereas all men of any iudgement or vnderstanding conclude the cleane contrarie but such is your cariage that except you may crosse the resolutions of all men you thinke your selfe no bodie Be famous therefore in your follie that bring impossibilities and impieties for the chiefe foundation of your late sprung faith your Reader I trust will require some better proofe before he giue you allowance in matters of such moment as these be m Defenc. pag. 97. li. 1. Thirdly that extraordinarily there is greater loue among meere men then only to die bodily one for another though vsually and ordinarily a greater cannot be found among men which is it that Christ meaneth but how much more then may the loue of Christ toward his elect be farre greater contrarie to your assertion pag 107. 108. Your doctrine is all extraordinarie The Defendâ—…r sayth the Scriptures â—…re ordinarily true that is sometimes false that no ordinarie rules of the Scriptures can stand with it Howbeit in this you chalenge Christ and not mee who saith n Iohn 15. No man hath greater loue then to lay downe his life for his friend That is ordinarily true you say but extraordinarily false Then extraordinarily by your supposition Christ sometimes speaketh an vntrueth though it be not ordinarie with him so to doe which honor you yeeld to the rest of the Scriptures For when you can not otherwise auoid them those you answeare are the o Defenc. pag. 96. li. 32. ordinarie and common rules of the Scripture But your doctrine consisteth of extraordinarie Rules which are no where found but in your owne braine You haue heard Chrysostome Photius and Zanchius auouch who are the chiefe commenders of the exposition which you would seeme to follow that Paul neither did nor might preferre the loue of his Countriemen before his owne saluation and communion with Christ but that his principall respect in this wish was his loue to the glorie of Christ which he more esteemed then his owne soule So that nothing did hinder Paul to preferre Gods glory before the safety of his owne soule and yet Christes rule to stand true that no man hath greater loue then to lay downe his life for his friend Neither was it the death of the Soule that Paul wished since he would by no meanes as these old and new writers obserue be seuered from the loue and fauour of Christ but from the ioy and honour that is laid vp for the saints of God Peter Martyr is of the same opinion with them p Pet. Martyr in ca. 9. epist. ad Romanos Neither doth Paul in this place say he wished to be separated from the loue of God nullo enim modo voluisset ab illo amando desistere for by no meanes would Paul haue ceased from louing God only he wisheth to be excluded from the blessednesse and fruition of God And this euerie one of vs ought to be willing vnto euen lesse to regard his owne eternall happinesse then the glorie of God Now he that still loueth god and is beloued of him by no meanes can suffer the death or curse of the soule mentioned in the Scriptures q 1. Cor. 16. if any man loue not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema maranAtha that is accursed in the highest degree then could not the same curse befall him that loued Christ dearer then his owne soule but the words of our Sauiour must needes be verified in him r Maâ—…th 10. he that looseth his soule for my sake shall find or saue it So that neither of your suppositions are true either that Paul preferred the loue of men before the safety of his owne soule or that for their sakes he was content to die the death of the soule mentioned in the Scriptures which is a separation as well from the loue and trueth of God as from the glorie and felicitie of God And your comparison for which you intend all this and wherewith you would crosse my assertion is most vntrue that Christes loue to his elect led him to die the death of the soule or to forgoe the fauour and fellowship of God for their sakes For the coniunction of Christs manhoode to his Godhead being personall was farre greater and nearer then the knitting of Paul or Moses vnto God and if that vnion were broken all the workes and sufferings of Christs manhoode were no way able to bring vs to God Christ could not be content to be separated from God for vs. Wherefore it were a thing extreamly impious in the manhood of Christ and no lesse dangerous to our saluation for him to be content to be vtterly seuered from the vnion and communion of the diuine nature with which he was personally ioined and though your imagination of Moses and Paul be false enough and altogether impossible yet to dreame the like of Christ is the higth of all impietie Neither doth that diminish his loue to vs since there was no need thereof for vs his other suffrings being sufficient in the iust and exact iudgement of God and the loue that led the second person in Trinitie to lay aside for the time the full and perfect fruition of his glorie and equalitie with God his Father and in our flesh to emptie and humble himselfe not only to the infirmities of our nature and miseries of our life but euen to the shame and paine of our death on the Crosse farre exceeded all the loues that men or Angels could shew vnto vs. For there is more distance betweene the glorie and Maiesty of God and the sense and shame of our miserie and mortality then betwixt the saluation or damnation of men or Angels Wherefore Christs loue to vs may not be diminished or made inferiour to the loue of creatures though he were not damned for our sakes since that ineuitablely and irreuocablely would haue fastned vs to a greater condemnation and no way saued vs whereas now his vnspeakable fellowship with God hath recalled vs all from the damnation due to vs to be partakers of the loue and grace that eternally and infinitely he possessed with God s Defenc. pag. 97. li. 6. Fourthly we see here these holy men without feeling any paines inflicted by Gods wrath but only through an earnest and mighty compassion of loue had their minds drawen so wholy to thinke on this speciall thing aboue their reach that during the time they turne not themselues to any other cogitation t li. 17. This you acknowledge may be in men and yet you will not scoffe at them as cast into a Traunce by it nor reproche them with infernall confusion How much lesse ought you so to deale with Christ.
the time though it were after restored with greater glory This I did not put for the cause of his agonie as you idlely amplifie but noted it as a respect that might worthily lead Christ to dislike or abhorre death in respect of his perfection and communion with God aboue all men and Angels saue for the will of his father and the good of man which ouerruled this dislike in him g Defenc pag. 105 li 22. You say excellent well but by your practise in all matters so farre as I see you neuer meane to obserue it in Gods cause let Gods booke teach vs what to beleeue and what to professe shew me then where you read in Gods word any or all these to be effectuall causes of this strange 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 my part I shall neuer beleeue you If I did professe to bind mens faiths to these causes of Christes agonie as you doe to your new redemption by the paines of the damned I would shew you where I redde them in the word of God or els I would leaue â—…ch beleeuer to his libertie but I forwarned all men that the Scriptures directly and particularly speaking nothing of the causes of Christes agonie the safest rule that I could find or they could follow was not to depart from any knowen and receaued grounds of Religion and principles of pietie for the causes thereof For since the Scriptures keep silence and our Sauiour himselfe would not shew it to all his Disciples but chose three from the rest to goe with him and tooke the darke time of the night and left those three whose eies were so heauie that they could not forâ—…eare sleepe about a stones cast before he would pray because he would not haue thâ—…m 〈◊〉 to all that he said or did in that place I see no reason why any man should be ouer curious in searching that which the word of God hath not precisely reuealed specially seeing no demonstratiue cause can be giuen of secret affections and voluntarie actions such as these were in Christ. And your audacious and presumptuous boldnesse is the more chalengeable for that you not onely take vpon you to giue the right and exact cause therof out of your owne braine but you light on such a cause as hath no foundation in any part of the Scripture nor any coherence with the maine positions of the Christian faith vnfalliblely deliuered in the word of God Wherfore I haue not transgressed my directions when I teach what iust and waighty respects of feare sorow zeale our Lord Sauior had in the worke of our redemption which might be the causes of that earnest prayer agonie and withall shewed the iudgements and opinions of diuers ancient and learned Fathers concerning the same but you as insolent in your conclusions as in your conceits take vpon you to specifie the full and true cause thereof for which you haue no shew of Scriptures nor touch of reason And such is the cause which you yeeld that thereby you crosse the chiefe streames of faith and trueth most currant in the sacred Scriptures and with all learned and religious antiquitie The same rule then binding you which bindeth me shew you what Prophet Euangelist or Apostle euer taught or thought the paines of the damned to be inflicted on Christes soule in the Garden by Gods immediate hand and that without the paines of hell we could not be 〈◊〉 or els my not beleeuing you will not excuse your enterprise you must answere to God and to all the faithfull for innouating the very roots and branches of their redemption by the bloud and death of Christ Iesus which you auouch to be vnsufficient for the ransome of our sinnes except your hell be thereto added when the Holy Ghost who should best know the trueth being the spirit of trueth hath expressed no such thing in all the Scriptures h Defenc pag. 105. li. 32. Your sixt and last maine cause is that Christ by this his bloudie sweate and 〈◊〉 praiers did nothing but voluntarily performe that bloudie offering and Priesthood 〈◊〉 in the Law This we simply grant If you should truely repeat and conceiue any part The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agonie of my writings you should put your selfe to more paines than you are willing to take iustly to refute it Wherefore your course is either to misrecite or to misconstrue all that you bring In the oblations of the Law which prefigured the death of Christ I obserued that not only the Sacrifice was slaine by the shedding of bloud but that the person of the Priest was sanctified as well as the sinner presented by the Priest to God with earnest and humble prayer to make atonement for the trespasse And since the trueth must haue some resemblance with the figure Christ might in the Garden performe some points requisite to his Priesthood as the sanctifying of himselfe with his owne bloud and presenting his bodie to be the redemption and remission of our sinnes with most instant and intentiue prayer for the transgressours This if you simply graunt as in wordes you say you doe tell vs now which way you will conclude Christes suffering of hell paines in the Garden from his bloudie sweat It hindereth not our assertion Much lesse doeth it further it but yet if there might be a cause of Christes voluntarie sprinckling himselfe with his owne bloud and dedicating it to Gods pleasure for mans redemption besides and without your hellish torments you will come shorter than you recken to make good your conclusion i Defenc. pag. 106. The Scriptures which you cite prooue indeed that Christ now executed his office of Priesthood but will you diuide and exempt his death on the Crosse from his Priesthood Who besides your selfe restraineth Christes euerlasting Priesthood either to the garden or to the crosse But it was one thing for Christ with feruent and submissiue prayer to present and submit his bodie which was his Sacrifice to the will of his Father as he did in the garden and another thing to receiue and admit the violent and wicked hands of the Iewes executing their rage on his bodie with all reproch and crueltie as he did on the crosse Now what had his Priesthood to do with the paines of hell since he was to present and performe the bloudie sacrifice of his bodie prefigured in the Law which he did in the garden and on the crosse And forsomuch as you grant that Christes bloudy sweat and his vehement prayers in the garden were pertinents to his Priesthood prefigured in the Law which indeed is k Hebr. 5. confirmed by the Apostle as you can shew no figure of suffering hell paines or the second death in the sacrifices of the Law no more doth either of these performed in the garden concerne any secret death of the soule which Christ there suffered from the immediate hand of God l Defenc. pag. 106. li. 14. Why say you not aswell that his death
line or letter of holy Scripture q Defenc pag. 109. li. 7. Againe your owne rule is which I like well that no figure is to be admitted in Scriptures where there is no ill nor hurtfull sense following litterally But I haâ—…e shewed a little before a plaine easie and Christian sense hereof taking it litterally The rule is most needfull to preserue the right sense of the Scripture For if euery man may elude with figures that which liketh not his humour we shall haue little truth left in the word of God But euen by that rule your sense of Christs complaint is quite ouerthrowen because your exposition plainly fastneth desperation for the time to the Soule of Christ. For all hope hath ioy and comfort in it r Rom. 12. Reioycing in hope saith the Apostle If then Christ neuer forsaken of hope and comfort Christ for that season of his Passion were all comfortlesse as you pretend and had no sense nor feeling of any comfort or ioy he had no hope for hope bringeth ioy and comfort And what is no hope but despaire that therefore the litterall sense of these words neither is nor can be true taking dereliction for the inward forsaking of Gods grace and spirit as well the Scriptures as the Fathers whom I haue produced doe with one voice confirme Saint Austen may serue to shew the reason that led him and the rest so to thinke s August in Psal. 43. Ille caput nostrum vocem de cruce non dixit suam sed nostram non enim vnquam dereliquit eum Deus sed propter nos dixit hoc Deus Deus meus vt quid me dereliquisti Christ our head vttered not his owne words but ours For God neuer at any time forsooke him But for vs he said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me t Defenc. pag. 109. li. 19. Finally this first sense is contrarie to your second and third following also to your fift and sixt senses If either of these be taken as the true meaning of this place it cannot possibly stand with the rest I did not professe to discusse the likeliest sense of those words It sufficed me to let you see the weaknesse of your cause in deriuing your hell paines from Christs complaint on the crosse by this that twelue auncient and learned Fathers did diuersly sift and examine those words and yet none of them euer lighted on your second death or on the forsaking which you labour to establish in the soule of Christ. Now if the words doe tolerably beare so many interpretations what assurance had you thence to conclude your hellish confusion which you imagine in the Sauiour of the world yea graunt the expositions were contrarie which indeed are somewhat different according as the word of dereliction is applied and intended that maketh the more against you and hindereth not me For still I vrge the words which you stand on do necessarily inferre no such sense as you would fasten to them The thing that I presse is this that there are many other senses of these words approoued and preferred by the consent of the best writers old and new and yours of all others as it hath no consent of Christs Church ne was euer heard of before our age so hath it no foundation in the Sacred Scriptures You would disgrace the Fathers as iuuentors of strange and new senses but you little remember all this while that of all others yours is the latest absurdest and least likely sense of that complaint And yet if you wrest it to the lowest step of dereliction that this life knoweth or the Scripture here 〈◊〉 it may amount to desperation but neuer to reall and actuall damnation u Defenc. pag. 109. li. 23. Your second sense what is it euen this that Christs humane Nature was left helplesse to the rage of the Iewes which is a kind of forsaking This seemeth to come neerest indeede to your liking but as I said thiâ—… is directly contrarie to your first sense and to the rest following They that giue diuerse senses of any places in Scripture doe not meane they The second sense of Christes complaint on the crosse shall be wholy like or the same for then they were not diuerse but according to the varietie of significations and circumstances offered by the words they varie their expositions So here if we take dereliction for losse of grace then that sense of the word could not agree to Christ but to the reprobate without Christ or to the rest before they be engraffed into Christ and consequently me in Christs words must signifie my Members that were one body with him If we take it for lacke of helpe in time of trouble then it might well agree vnto the person of Christ who was forsaken that is left in his affliction and not deliuered from it till he died that we might euer after be restored and reconciled to the fauour of God Which commeth neerest to my liking I neuer acquainted you the places which you quote prooue no such thing they onely shew that this exposition hath sufficient foundation in other places of Scripture where the word forsaking is vsed to the like intent Howbeit there is no cause that I or you should mislike this exposition and the trifles which you obiect against it will confirme as much x Defenc. pag. 109. li. 29. There is surely no reason nor shew of Reason that Christ should here so mournfully and so â—…ncomfortably complaine that God had forsaken him if it were onely but for such distresses as the godly also doe equally suffer at the hands of euill men Had you but perused the places by which you conclude my liking of this Exposition you should haue seene Reason and reason enough for Christ to be thus affected in his extreame miseries as well as his Church is in the like or lesse Had the Church of God no reason to say in the Prophet Esay y Esa. 49. The Lord hath forsaken me or did God want reason in his answere when he said z Esa. 54. ver 7. for a while I forsooke thee for a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee If then God had Reason to say to his Church a Ibid. ver 6. the Lord hath called thee a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit could Christ want reason in his intolerable paines on the Crosse to complaine that he was now a long time left in them without helpe or ease as for the equall sufferings of the godly at the hands of men on which you would take aduantage I haue shewed the difference before When paines in others grow sharpest then sense decaieth and'death approcheth in the paines whereof men cannot expresse how much nature misliketh and abhorreth the paine In Christ it was otherwise his bodie being in exquisite paines on euery side and in euery part from Christs patience was at the highest proof before he complained on the
the Garden and complained on the Crosse as if he were forsaken which things they thought vnfit for him that was God The Fathers to repell their heresie and to open this obscuritie insist plainly on these points that the Mediatour must be God as well as man and that the Godhead of Christ incarnate was impassible and could not suffer any violence or change but his manhood might and did suffer somethings in soule as feare and sorow and somethings in bodie as paines and death But generally when they speake of death they neuer intend as you doc the death of Christes soule as well as of his bodie but they meane plainly the death of the Crosse described by the Euangelists which is farre from the second death or the death of the damned c Defenc. pag. 111. li. 36. The very same doth Hilarie also where he sayth that this in Christ was Corporis vox The outcrie of his bodie he plainly meaneth it of his whole manhood the opposition being betweene it and his Godhead as the Scripture often doth If your authoritie be such that you may take bodie for soule and life for death where you will you may soone make a shew that the Fathers intend nothing against your doctrine but if you must proue it as well as say it then is it the most riotous and most ridiculous course that can be to take one contrarie for another for so you may proue darknesse to be light vice to be vertue falshood to be trueth and infidelitie to be faith What the Fathers taught touching the death of Christes soule when we come to the place we shall plainly see by their owne asserting and not by your peruerting in the meane time you were best bring stronger proofes than these that you will take the bodie for the soule if you meane to conclude any thing out of the Fathers for your croslegged doctrine d Trea. pag. 9. The Scripture often doth the like you say as you haue shewed in your Treatise There you haue childishly abused a number of Scriptures and yet no way prooued that any where the bodie signifieth the soule or standeth for the soule That the soule is a consequent to the bodie and the bodie likewise a consequent to the soule wheresoeuer The sâ—…ule is a câ—…nsequent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but no part of it the Scripture speaketh of men liuing heere on earth is a sure and safe rule because no man heere liueth that doeth not consist of soule and bodie yet that is no proofe that what is attributed to the bodie must be verified of the soule much lesse that the one must be taken for the other Looke but to your owne examples where bodie is named e Rom. 6. Let not sinne reigne in your mortall bodies sayth the Apostle If here you will comprehend the soule vnder the name of the bodie you must grant in exact words that the soule is mortall which is an open heresie destroying the summe and effect of the Christian faith Againe f 1. Cor. 6. Euery sinne that a man doth is without the body but the fornicato-sinneth against his owne bodie If in this place the bodie conclude the soule then euery sinne saue fornication is without soule and body and consequently no sinne which is a doctrine a man would thinke meet for no Diuine The third instance which you bring hath not so grosse sequels but as plaine falshoods g Hebr. 10. Sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldest not but a bodie hâ—…st thou ordained me whereof the sacrifices offered by the Law were h Ibid. vers 1. shadowes Now did the bodies of beasts slaine or their bloud shed prefigure the Soule of Christ or the death of his bodie These be the places on which you build your vnsound obseruation that the Scripture doth often take the bodie for the soule which are so sensibly false that they need no Refuter But we reason of death which seuereth the soule from the bodie and therein to say the bodie must be taken for the soule is a very sincke of sottish absurdities and falsities For what can be more repugnant to trueth and sense than to take a dead bodie for a liuing soule and when they are so farre seuered by nature to say they must agree in name and the one be called the other Peruse now the Fathers which you would faine wrest to your purpose and see whether they doe not flatly contradict your deuice that the body in their speaches must be taken for the whole man and so the death of Christes body for the death as well of soule as of the body Epiphanius is the first that you would frustrate with your deuices and the first that shall conuince your falshood He saith the manhood of Christ spake these words Now seeing the deity together with the soule moouing to forsake his sacred body What death call you that where the soule moueth and forsaketh the body then in that complaint of Christs the thing forsaken was his body alone by the iudgement of Epiphanius and the deity i Epiph. contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 69. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with the soule did mooue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to forsake that sacred body Which way doth this prooue the soule or the whole manhood of Christ to be forsaken when Epiphanius expresly saith the deity with the soule did mooue to forsake the body Hilarie is the next whom you would infect with your fansie but finding no words in him meet for your matter you are forced shamefully to misconster the body for the soule and the death of the one for the death of the other which is all the hold you haue in Hilarie though you lustily would beare out the rest with the copy of your countenance Notwithstanding Hilarie doth not only preuent but also refute your mistaking For in plaine words he saith k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. Querela derelicti morientis infirmit as est traditio spirit us morientis excessio est The complaint of Christ that he was forsaken was the infirmity of one dying the yeelding vp his spirit was his departure hence when he died And againe Tradens spiritum mortuus est Christ died by deliuering vp his spirit Sepultus est Christus quia mortuus est mortuus autem est quia moriturus locutus est Deus Deus meus quare me dereliquisti Christ was buried because he was dead and ready to die he said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that Christes death when he spake those words was not past nor present but then to come as Hilarie noteth by the future tence and was the deliuering vp of his spirit into his fathers hands I trust you dare not defend that Christ in or after the deliuering vp of his spirit suffered the paines of hell or the second death and yet saith Hilarie those words Christ spake of his death that was to come Tertullian is the last whose words though
110. li. 28. exceeding generall and constant ioy and had as Dauid foreprophesied of him i 34. constant and continuall ioy in God was there no feeling of all this triumph and ioy so exceeding constant and continuall May a man be so franticke as to confesse that Christ felt all this and yet to say he had no comfortable feeling This may be called the death of the soule To him that calleth light darknesse good euill faith feare ioy discomfort this may seeme death which by all the rules of the sacred Scriptures is called the life of the soule heere on earth but by no man that vnderstandeth or careth what he sayth can this be called or defended to be the death of the soule k Defenc. pag. 113. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it is life to the soule to feele and to enioy the glory of God Psal 16. 21. so it is death to feele the want and absence thereof vtterly Hauing abused the Fathers at your pleasure you offer now the like if not worse to the Scriptures The sixteenth Psalme vers 11 not 21 as you quote it sheweth vs that there is a way to life reuealed here on earth but the fulnesse of ioy is in Gods presence when we shall behold his face as the Angels doe in heauen The way to life is grace wherewith Christ was replenished from his mothers wombe and in greater measure then all his members For he had the fullnesse thereof in this life where the perfectest men haue but a measure thereof and we l Iohn 1. all haue receaued of his fulnesse The plenty of pleasure which is at Gods right hand is euerlasting glory both of soule and body into which Christ entred after his Resurrection How doth this prooue that Christs soule was dead during the time of his Paâ—…sion if a man would seeke out a place to confirme the contrarie he cannot light on a better For these words pertaining directly to Christ on the crosse conclude that euen in the midst of his sufferings m Psal 16. v. 11 the waies of life were made knowen to him by God and that after his rising againe God would Replenish him with the ioy of his countenance which was euerlasting glory in the heauens The one he possessed the other was promised more then which the soule of man cannot enioy in this life Now except this be your rage rather then your reason that all mens soules are dead till they come to behold God face to face in the heauens I see not what you can hence collect touching the death of Christs soule The contrarie may be soundly concluded out of this place For the wayes of life were made knowen to him here on earth and by him to all men liuing since he prosessed himselfe to be the n Iohn 14. Way and the Truth and the Life and the promises of God to him as farre exceeded all honour and glory reserued for men as it was possible for the head to excell his members o Defenc pag. 113 li. 1â—… This heauenly life Christ tasted a while in his transsiguration this death he felt besides his bodily death on the Crosse. If Christ neuer tasted an heauenly life but in his transfiguration then all the time of his conuersing heere on earth he felt your hellish death and not in his passion only but what madnesse is this to affirme either of Christ or of his members that their soules are dead till they come to behold Gods face in the glory of his Kingdome If these be your best proofes for the death of Christs soule 〈◊〉 heed you be not estrâ—…nged from the life of God through the ignorant wilfullnesse or your heart that thus confound heauen and earth life and death to maintaine your fansies against both Fathers and Scriptures But of the death of Christs soule we shall haue better occasion afterward to speake when we come to handle it at large where I will by Gods grace let the Reader see how resolutely and absolutely the Fathers ioyning with the Scriptures repell the death of Christs soule as a pestilent point of false doctrine vnlesse we take it as a figuratiue kind of speach which is nothing to the principles of our faith nor to the true price of our Redemption since we must not conuert the truth of Christ to figures and phrases p Defenc pag. 11. li 〈◊〉 Your fourth exposition for any thing I see may be granted for it seemeth to be the same in effect that we hold If the fourth exposition be granted then two of your chiefe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the 〈◊〉 grounds on which you raise your hell paines suffered in the soule of Christ vtterly sincke For then Christ spake these words of his members not of his owne person and it was no such dolefull and vncomfortable mourning and 〈◊〉 his owne soule as you suppose but a praier full of power fauour and grace whereby the sonne of God auerted from vs the separation that was betwixt God vs and made peace in heauen and earth reconciling man to God that before was forsaken of him q Pag. 113 li. 2â—… Was it remooued from vs then surely it was laid on some body els Now that must needes be vpon himselfe You fall to rouing in steed of reasoning Euerlasting death and hell fire it selfe were remooued from vs. On whom then were they laid Desperation confusion reiection were likewise remooued from vs. Were they therefore laid on Christ 〈◊〉 of sinne and corruption in the graue shal be likewise remooued from vs. Were these also laid on Christes person or did he suffer the very same that we should keepe such reasons for your hellish mysteries they haue no force in true religion nor I think with any sober or well aduised reasoner The punishments of this life imposed on all mankind Christ suffered for vs and by them freed vs from euerlasting damnation and destruction which were the due wages of our sinnes He therefore paied a price for vs which was the shedding of his bloud vnto death on the Crosse and by that ransomed vs from the captiuitie and miserie that otherwise were appointed for sinne r Defenc. pag. 113. li. 30. Where you obiect Athanasius that he could not be forsaken of his Father who was alwaies in his Father it is meerely wrested Athanasius speaketh against Arius also that Christs deity could not be for saken of his Father and so was not inferiour to his Father What talke you of wresting that neuer yet conceaued any Fathers words rightly no more then you doe that of Athanasius which I brought You catch at a piece and runne your way as though you were cleerely acquited but returne to the text and looke on the rest with shame enough Who was he that spake those words Why hast thou forsaken me I trust he was the sonne of God though now incarnate who before his incarnation was equall with his father in the forme of God Els Peter was
Christ this agonie and from his feare he was deliuered To say as you do that it was eternall death and euâ—…rlasting malediction which Christ here thus wofully and distressefully feared is the strangest speech in Diutnity that euer I heard You cunningly dissemble as your maner is that Pag. 22. which you quote I professed to refuse no mans opinion that s Seâ—…m pag. 22. li. 2. agreed any way with the rules of trueth and thereupon layed downe three things which Christ might 〈◊〉 in the Cup of Gods wrath and by his prayer accordingly decline them to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corporall 〈◊〉 aboue his strength and the separation of his soule from hiâ—… bodâ—…e by deâ—…th The feare of eternall death which is vrged by some of good learning and euen by the Catechisme on which you would seeme to stand so much if we admiâ—…ted in Christ himselfe I sayd must be taken for a Religious dislike and shunning of hell t Sermo pag. 23. li. 4. not for any distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe which we could not imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith and these we might not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant Where then I alleage so many reasons Pa. 23. u li. 32. guarding Christs person most sufficiently froâ—… all danger and doâ—…bt of eternall death thence you collect that I auouch Christ thus â—…ofully and distressefully feared euerlasting damnation which is a strange and 〈◊〉 falsehood though familiar with you as if without such grosse stuffe you could not 〈◊〉 out your pamphlet The Catechisme we heard before saying that Christ was Aeternae mortis horrore persusus wholly touched with the horror of 〈◊〉 death M. Caluin sayth as much x Caluin in li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Vnde eum oportuit cum Infâ—…rorum copiâ—…s 〈◊〉 mortis horrore quâ—…si consertis manibus luctari Wherefore Christ was to wrestle hâ—…nd in 〈◊〉 with all the power of hâ—…ll and with the horrour of ETERNALL death Others might be brought in like sort but these suffice to discharge me that I did not imagine these things of mine owne head but found them in men of good learning and iudgement which yet I did not receiue except we did expound their words to import in Christ a religious feare declining euerlasting death in himâ—…elfe or affectionately sorowing when he consideâ—…ed what was due to vs for ouâ—… sinnes Wherefore if you make so strangâ—… of these words stirre against your authorized Catechisme and Master Caluin who first vsed them y Defenc. pâ—…g 130. li. 20. You cannot helpe your selfe in making Christes â—…eare of this death to be onely a religious feare and a feare for others these imaginations I haue remoued before Then you perceiue well enough in what sense I admit their words but to aduantage your selfe you dispence with a slaunderous lie Your remoouing is like the roling of paper to make pipes withall you play still on one string and that so much out of tune that euery man is wearie with hearing it besides your selfe z li. 29. These affections you say were not likelie in him at all much lesse to be the causes of such effects As though Christ had none other causes of sorow but onely this And what vnlikelihood that these should be in Christ at this season sauing that your fansie leadeth you to what you list These are not feare properly they ought rather to be called a religious care and pittâ—…e which differ greatly from the nature of feare properly taken Did I professe that Christ feared euerlasting death properly did I not rather excuse or qualifie the vehemencie of their wordes who put in Christ an horror of eternall death you reason now against the Catechisme which you make shew to maintaine and not against me For other feare of euerlasting death in Christ then improper I acknowledge none You thinke the nature of enlabeia will not admit any proper feare Then doe you conuince your selfe to be a notable deluder and abuser of the trueth For you are not ignorant what I say but you peruert it of purpose to miscarie your Reader and countenance your cause a li. 38. What say you did Christ doubt eternall damnation and therefore feared it you lacke a woodden dagger to become your part better haue I any such wordes or sense I shew the generall signification of â—…labeia to be b Conclus pa. 305. li. 25. a carefull and diligent regard to beware or decline that which we mislike or doubt and that as well in priuate and publike affaires as in Religion and you applie this as if I had sayd Christ feared and doubted eternall damnation Whereas I neither mention eternall damnation in all that section nor so much as name Christ within fourtie lines of those wordes which shew how largely enlabeia is taken You speake so darkly that I know not how to take you You double so continually that I cannot tell what to make of you I haue in the same page 305. whence you tooke these wordes distinctly shewed what parts of Gods wrath Christ might be said to feare or suffer and in what sense and yet you complaine of darknesse when you shun the light and watch for a word applied to another purpose pretending you must needes stumble at that straw And therefore neuer come in with any after close what my meaning may be if my wordes be not plaine reprooue them if they be refute them except you receiue them This you say commeth neerest to the signification of the Greeke word I graunt it doth touching eulabeia but in Maâ—…ke the word doth import properly feare and that in extremitie It is happie yet that when you cannot chuse you will graunt that which is fully prooued to your face In your vnlearned Treatise you would needs make as vnlearned an obseruation that c Treatis pag. 74. li. 22. this very word not onely in other Authors but in the Scripture is vsed for a perplexed feare And when your ignorance is conuinced for enlabâ—…ia is not onely lesse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is feare in the Greeke tongue but contrarie to it because it is the d De placitis Philoso li. 7. in zenone declining of euill with reason and circumspection as Diogenes Laertius writeth you graunt that which you cannot gainesay With as much skill you auouch that ekthambeiâ—…thai doth import properly feare and that in extremitie whereas properly it noteth admiration at any strange or suddaine sight Whether feare be ioyned with it or no which sometime is according to the cause and circumstance of the place e Defenc. pag. 131. li. 8. My reason that Eulabeia heere signifieth feare properly yea a perplexed feare and not onely a religious deuotion as you say is grounded not so much on the nature of the word as on the circumstances of the place and the other wordes of the text Christ did as
the death of the soule and so neglecting what you should prooue you vainly push against that which I doe not vphold And yet if we admit these cries and teares to be powred forth not for himselfe but for vs then might he most wofully bewaile our deserued destruction which was no lesse then euerlasting damnation of body and soule if he did not ransome and release vs from it To his fathers will Christ submitted himselfe in the garden but what he disliked in that cup which he named and how much thereof he tasted is knowen neither to you nor to me nor to any man liuing That it was very sharp we may iustly collect by his naturall dislike thereof but what degrees or sorts of paines were adherent to his passion is not for you or me to determine What he might suffer with piety patience and obedience to his father is aboue mans reach to define but the second death or the death of the soule if we follow the leading of the Scriptures and not fall to deuising a new hell and a new death of the soule to support our fansies are things that by no colour of Scripture can be confirmed howsoeuer you straine and stretch the word of God to find them there e Defenc. pag. 137. li. 28. And yet it was I grant the death of the soule or the second death that is simply the 〈◊〉 thereof Gods withdrawing himselfe from him in the paines and torments thereof Your grant is the ground of your doctrine besides that which you haue nothing els to beare the burden of your deuices But what a iest is this when you should iustly prooue and fully conclude your assertions to fall to granting of them whereas your graunt with me and with any man that is wise is not worth a grey goose quill Howbeit these are the best buttresses of your cause euen your owne violent conceits that force the Scriptures to your liking But Sir remember you are neither Prophet nor Apostle and so your granting of these nouelties may shew your owne gyddinesse it cannot preiudice the true and vndoubted rules of the Christian faith Hence it followeth inâ—…incibly that Christ indeed suffered sith thus he feared more then the meere bodily death euen the death of the soule For he could not I say thus feare but he must needes know that it was to come or might come vnto him If he but knew that it might come vnto him then it certainly did come vnto him at one time or another in his passion before he left the world Here is the prime and pride of your obseruations out of this place of the Apostle to the Hebrewes and except a man were out of his witts he would not reuell in this sort with such waterish and witlesse resumptions Palpable vntrueths you call inuincible certainties and trifles wherewith children will not be deceiued you obtrude to the whole Church of Christ as fortresses of their faith Christ feared ergo he suffered more then a bodily death ergo the death of the soule What he knew might come that certainly did come These be such bables that boyes in the street will deride them and yet you conceaue and propose them as Sapientiall and soueraigne collections But he that wilfully wandreth thinketh no way straighter then that he traceth and dreamers are often delighted with empty shadowes now if we take your owne translation the Apostle telleth vs that Christ was heard in that he feared ergo he did not suffer it and though it might come yet because he was freed from it certainly it came not and many things might come more then the death of the body and yet not the death of the soule If then you haue no stronger meanes to conclude the death of Christs soule then these the simplest Reader will soone perceiue that your reasons be as frigent as your humours be feruent and though there be fire in your mind yet there is water in your mouth for you truly conceaue or iustly conclude nothing f Defenc. pag. 138. li. 3. Sec. to the Hebrewes Christ abolished through death him that had the power of death that is the Diuell and so deliuered all them which for feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage Heere I see no reason in the world but that the Apostle by the often repeating of death and by the naturall referring of it in one place as it were to the other doth vnderstand and signifie one and the same death altogether But it is the death of the soule which the Diuell hath power and execution of also the death of the soule sinnefull men were held in feare of all their life long It followeth then I suppose that euen through the death of the soule Christ abolished the Diuell and deliuered his children I know not whether your eies be open or your braines sound that you see nothing but what pleaseth your selfe And what if they be either so dimme or so dull that you see not the truth is that a reason that your ignorance or wilfulnesse must be the loadstone of our creed with such peeuish and priuate presumption would you preuaile against Scriptures Fathers and the whole church of Christ that what you doe not or will not see we must relinquish as false and erroneous to let you see if you be not blinded with preferring your fansies before the trueth of Christ that this is a lazie loose and lewd argument which heere you make take your owne maior or first proposition that Christ suffered the selfe same death which he abolished whereof the Diuell had power and execution and whereof we were in feare being not redeemed all our life long and set this for the second proposition or assumption but it is most euident that the Diuell had power and execution of eternall death and to the feare of euerlasting Destruction were we subiect all the time of our life before we were deliuered by Christ ergo Christ suffered eternall death and damnation in hell For he abolished that from the faithfull and thereof the Diuell had power and execution as also we were in feare and danger of that without the Redeemer What say you to this conclusion grounded on your owne collection and proposition see you the falsenesse and wickednesse thereof and yet if your assertion be true that Christ must redeeme vs with the same kind of death whereof we were in feare and bondage without him and abolish the Diuell with that verie death whereof he had power and execution the one is as strong as the other But who besides you would warble thus in so waighty matters True it is that the name of death compriseth all the kinds of death I meane of bodie of soule of both for euer and this chaine of death is inseparable and ineuitable where Christ doth not breake it By the malice of the diuell perswading sinne which is the losse of grace and death of the soule in this life came into the
these and such like actions and passions with the bodie For the force to doe and since to feele is from the soule and so in the death of the bodie the soule is partaker with the bodie not to lie dead and senselesse as the bodie doth but to feele the paine of death and suffer the separation from the bodie 〈◊〉 the effects of death appeare in the bodie But that the soule doth die when the whole compound of bodie and soule dieth is no consequent neither in Philosophie nor Diuinitie z Defenc. pag. 137. li. 20. The text heere speaketh as I iudge of the whole and intire sufferings of Christ. The text heere speaketh of death bereauing life which was after re-â—…stored when Christes bodie was againe quickned by the power of his spirit the rest of Christes sufferings during the whole time of his life are not comprised in the name of death otherwise Peter must haue sayd Christ was alwayes dead since his affections 〈◊〉 with circumcision if not before which is no part of Peters speach nor meaning yea rather it is repugnant to both since Peter saith Christ a 1. Peter 3. suffered once fâ—…r sinnes when he was put to death and not euer and alwayes whiles he liued on â—…arth b Defenc pag. 137. li. 35. Against this obseruation what pretended you some Scriptures palpably abused first Matthew where Christ speaketh of his Disciples that their spirit their inward regenerate man was ready to watch bâ—…t their flesh their corrupt Nature was weake and sluggish 〈◊〉 is this to Christs flesh and spirit If my authoritie were as good as yours and my learning as great I could say as you doe I iudge it so but if I shew not better reason for me to aâ—…firme those wordes Christ ment of himselfe then you doe or can that he ment them not of himselfe I am content your consistorian seeming shall goe before my laborious proouing my vse is not to relie too much on mine owne iudgement as you doe though I thanke God I can examine both your and other mens interpretations but when I finde a thing maturely and rightly considered and concoâ—…ded by the learned and auncient Fathers in matters of faith or exposition of the Scriptures I goe not easily from them Tertullian saith c Tertullianus de suga in persecutione Christ himselfe professed his soule was 〈◊〉 vnto death his flesh weake that he might shew to thee there were in himselfe both the substaâ—…ces of man by the propertie of heauinesse in the soule and weakenesse in the flesh Athanasius likewise d Athanasius de Passione Cruâ—…e 〈◊〉 A little afore his death Christ cried the spirit was willing but the flesâ—… weakâ—… that our aduersarie the diuell encountring him as a man might feele his diuine power Theophilus Alexandrinus e 〈◊〉 epistola Paschali prima contra Appollinaristas If Christ tooke onely the flesh of man and not the soule of man why in his Passion did he say the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake Ambrose f Ambros. ls 4. in 〈◊〉 ca. 4. If Christes body had beene spirituall he would not haue said the spirit is prompt but the flesh is weake Heare the voice of either in Christ as well of weake flesh as of a readie spirit The auncient writer among the works of Saint Austen g De Salutaribus documentis ca. 64. The trueth it selfe our Lord Iesus Christ saith of himselfe the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake Cyrill h Cyrill Thesauri li. 10. ca. 3. Though Christ abhorred death as a man yet as a man he refused not to doe the will of his Father and his owne as God and therefore he said the spirit is prompt but the flesh is weake Vigilius i Vigilius contra 〈◊〉 li. 5. ca. 4. What is that wherein he suffered and tried weakenesse but mans nature whereof he said at the time of his passion the spirit is prompt but the flesh weake tasting of which infirmitie he learned to helpe the weake Seuerianus k Seuerianus contra Nonatum citatur a 〈◊〉 contra 〈◊〉 hem My soule saith Christ is he auic vnto death And interpreting to what his Passions pertained the spirit saith he is ready but the flesh weake Remigius l 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 26. 〈◊〉 a Tho. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In these words Christ sheweth that he tooke true flesh of the Virgine and that he had a true soule Wherefore he now saith that his spirit is ready to suffer but that his weake flesh feareth the paine of his Passion Euthymius m 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 My God my God said Christ why hast thou for saken me that is why hast thou left me in this feare knowing my spirit is ready but my flesh weake What thinke you had I no more reason to say as I saide then you haue to denie it where also you may note that all these learned Fathers refuse your lame obseruation as well as I doe and so you had neede seeke some better authoritie then your owne or perhaps some one that 〈◊〉 you with this rule seruing to none other end but to helpe forward your hell fansie n 〈◊〉 pag. 139. li. 1. Thinke you that Christs soule was willing to suffer as God had appointed but that his flesh resisted veâ—…ily so you seeme heere to vnderstand and it is as likely as your applying of flesh and spirit to Christ in your pag. 104. Put on your visard before you take in hand to controle the iudgement of so many Fathers Your pride is greater then your wit in this and most things that passe your pen. Is it such newes to you for me or for them to say that Christes flesh was weake that is not so ready to suffer as was his soule seeth your mastership no difference betwixt weakenesse and resistance specially when in comparison of the readinesse of the spirit the flesh is said to be weaker that is lesse ready to suffer then the soule doth not the Apostle applie the same word vnto Christ when he saith Christ was o 2. Cor. 13. crucified through weakenesse and long before the Prophet said of Christ p Esa. 53. He is a man full of sorrowes and one that hath experience in infirmites So that your cholor was kindled without cause when you strooke such an heat with my saying that Christs flesh was weake the Prophet foretold he should be a man full of sorrowes and well acquainted with infirmities The vntrue conceit which you challenge in the 104. Page of my Sermons touching Christes flesh where I sayd it must haue force to cleanse and quicken when you impugâ—…e I will defend in the meane time it may serue I savd nothing but what our Saâ—…iour sayd before me q Iob. 6. vers 56. 54. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him he hath eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last
day If you could take any hold I doubt not the sharpenesse of your teeth but your foolish conceits are caried like clouds in the aire they rest not before they vanish r Defenc pag. 139. li. 5. Then Luke where both spirit and flesh are not intended of Christ as our obseruation requireth but only the flesh Your obseruation is made to fitte S. Peters words to your fansie For there are not many places in Scripture where spirit and flesh are expressed and intended of the two natures of Christ though in other places some words adioyned doe prooue him to be God as well as man In that of S. Luke Christ doth not denie himselfe to be a diuine spirit for then he were no God since God is a s Iohn 4. spirit nor to haue an humane spirit for then he were no man but that which they saw with their eies he affirmed was flesh and bloud and not any apparition in the shape of a man And the words following t Luke 24. as ye see me to haue containe and note the other part of his humane nature which was his soule and spirit and consequently inferre that he was a man and had an humane spirit though compassed with flesh and bones as we haue u Defenc. pag. 139. li. 7. Then the Romans where I affirme that flesh signifieth the whole manhood of Christ according to the which he came from Dauid euen as well as Salomon or Nathan did who were Dauids sonnes in their intire and perfect nature Whether Christs body without a soule which was but a Carcasse be alwaies in the Scriptures intended by the name of Christs flesh this is not the question there is but one place in the new Testament where Christs flesh importeth his dead body as when Peter saith Christes x Acts 2. flesh saw no corruption but whether whatsoeuer is attributed to Christs flesh with comparison or mention of his diuine nature doe properly agree as well to his soule as to his body this is the thing in question betwixt you and me That the man Christ was borne of the Virgin and died on the Crosse there is no doubt but that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid and circumcised crucified as well as his body this is your error and for this you haue no shew in the word of God and therefore you seeke by rules of your owne making to draw it in by the heeles when you cannot by the head It is but a shift to saue your selfe when you tell your Reader that Christs whole manhood came from Dauid as well as Salomon or Nathan did The point is whether Christes soule were made of the seed of Dauid as well as his body was That I denie and haue the Apostle for my warrant that men are only the y Heb. 12. Fathers of our bodies and God is the immediate Father of our spirits Which if it be true in all men then Salomon and Nathan were the sonnes of Dauid not because their soules were made of the seed of Dauid but only their bodies and yet since they drew as much from their father as children by Gods ordinance do or may do therefore were they the sonnes of Dauid In Christ it is most sure which the Apostle saith that according to the flâ—…sh he was made of the seed of Dauid This by no meanes can be verified of his soule howsoeuer you would slubber it vp by calling his whole manhood the sonne of Dauid which I doe not denie Not that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid as was his body that is an open and an odious error but that his flesh made of the seed of Dauid which was the Virgins body was also quickened with a soule from God in due time that came not out of Dauids loines Euen so the whole man in Christ died on the Crosse not that his soule was depriued of life or left dead as was his body but that the coniunction of soule and body which maketh the whole man was dissolued by death his flesh lying in the graue without corruption and his soule remaining in the hands of God to which it was commended z Defenc. pag. 139. So likewise Christ was kinne to the lewes according to his whole humanity as well as Paul was When you can shew kindred in spirits as well as in flesh that is deriued from parents then say that Paul and Christ were kin to the Iewes according to their whole humanity till you proue that howsoeuer vse of speach may be endured which must be interpreted according to the truth you can neuer conclude there is consanguinity betweene soules as there is betweene bodies And spight of your heart if you will not maintaine vntrueths to vphold your credit as your maner is the Apostle teacheth you how to vnderstand those words that as we haue fathers of our bodies from whom our spirits come not but immediatly from God so kindred and consanguinity which commeth by the parents goeth by flesh and bloud receiued from them and not by soules infused from God S. Iohn leadeth you to the same rule that men are borne of bloud and of the will of the flesh and so by flesh and bloud commeth kindred God giuing soules to quicken their bodies Wherefore the Scriptures when they expresse kindred they note it by flesh and bone As when Laban said to Iacob Thou art my a Gene. 29. bone and my flesh So Iudah of Ioseph b Gene. 37. he is our brother and our flesh So Abimelech to his mothers brethren c Iudic. 9. I am your bone and your flesh And vsualy where kindred is claimed or yeelded the Scriptures expresse it by d 2. Sam. 5. 19 flesh and bones as Adam said to Eue e Gen. 2. This now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh So that howsoeuer you dreame or talke of the consanguinity of soules it is like the rest of your nouelties which haue no handfast but in your head and the exception taken by me will stand good doe you and your adherents what you can that in these attributes to the manhood of Christ you shall neuer prooue they properly pertaine to both parts but to the whole conioyned or to one part seuerally respected f Defenc. pag. 139. li. 21. Further that which you bring out of the Corinthians compared with this in Peter doth most cleerely open and confirme the same He was crucified touching his infirmitie but liueth by the power of God His soule had infirmities of suffering in it aswell as his bodie therefore his soule also is vnderstood here that it was crucified and died that is according to the condition thereof You proue not what you promise but pronounce what you please which if any man will suffer you to doe we shall soone haue a new Church a new Faith and all things new Afore you pretended rules at least though void of reason and trueth now you
bend against all rules of learning Logicke Grammar and Diuinitie For I pray you in Grammar what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here vsed by the Apostle Are the parts heere noted that were crucified and raised to life or the cause from which first death was suffered and after life was recouered by our Sauiour A man would thinke that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were by or through weaknesse euen as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by or through the power of God Christ then was crucified not by the immediate hand of God but by the Iewes who could not crucifie his soule as they did his bodie If you know not who crucified Christ reade the Gospell afresh or hearken to S. Peter who sayd to the Iewes g Act. 2. Iesus of Nazaret haue ye taken by the hands of the wicked and crucified and slaine and proclaimed openly to the Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel h Act. 4. Be it knowen to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazaret whom ye haue crucified whom God raised againe from the dead by him this Creeple standeth whole before you The Iewes then i 1. Cor. 2. crucified the Lord of glorie who could not kill the soule but onely the bodie Therefore they crucified onely his bodie and other crucifiers of Christ the Scripture nameth none How come you then against all learning and trueth to collect that Christs soule was crucified k Defenc. pag. 139. li. 25. His infirmitie the text heere nameth metonimically vnderstanding in Christ that in which his infirmities were When the plaine text will not serue your turne you fasten what you list with figures to it and then by as good Logicke you change a part into the whole and conclude like a Doter in Diuinitie for you skorne all degrees as you doe all rules of Schoole that Christs soule was nailed to the crosse for that is crucifying and died as well as his body These be woonderous leapes in my small vnderstanding and such as few men but you could light on so readily In stâ—…d of the Apostles speech that Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through infirmitie or by reason of infirmitie voluntarily imbraced whiles he submitted himselfe to his Fathers will to clap in this conclusion that Christ was crucified and died as well in soule as in body Had you liued in former ages what heresies could not you haue deduced from the text it selfe if not by Grammaticall or Logicall inference yet by metonymicall and metaphoricall excurrence Sampsons riddle was out of the strong came sweetnesse and we may say out of the weake commeth bitternesse l Defenc. pag. 139. li. 37. Other reasons also I noted seruing well heereunto but I omit to rehearse them againe For it seemeth your selfe agreeth with vs in them holding expresly that the spirit heere in Peter is the Deitie of Christ according to Austins iudgement Now this being granted and acknowledged how can it be likely but that the other opposite part of the flesh must needes import his whole and entire Manhood m Pag. 140. li. 11. Now this being so then it followeth by the text that Christ in his Passion was done to death both in soule and body Your other reasons tended after your maner to shew that spirit in Peters words did not signifie the soule of Christ to which I said nothing because I therein agreed with you Where then you conclude ouer-hastily that therefore it signifieth the Deitie of the second person in Trinitie the text enforceth no such thing as that the second person in Trinitie did in the daies of Noe preach by his owne Godhead and not by his spirit n Gene. 6. The Lorde said my spirit shall not alway strine with man his daies shall be 120. yeeres Which whether we take to be the wordes of the Father or the Sonne by the spirit there is ment the holy Ghost which proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne and is called the spirit of them both and did by the tongue of Noe the Preacher of righteousnesse witnesse the iudgement of God to come by the floud vpon the wicked and disobedient world By this power of his which is his spirit God quickned the humane flesh of Christ when it was crucified and dead in the graue and by the same spirit shall he restore and quicken all the bodies of the faithfull after they be turned to dust And although I haue no doubt but the workes of the Trinitie towards all creatures are vndeuided and the power of the Father is the power of the Sonne yet when the Scriptures doe testifie that Christes humane flesh was quickned by the spirit we must vnderstand the holy Ghost God the Father raising his Sonne and the Sonne raising himselfe by the spirit of sanctification which is the power of the Father and of the Sonne So speaketh the Apostle to the Romanes o Rom. 1. Christ made of the seede of Dauid as touching the flesh and declared to be the Sonne of God with power through the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection from the dead Where his flesh made of the seede of Dauid prooueth him to be a true man and the mightie declaration of him to be the Sonne of God sheweth his Diuine nature and glorie which most appeared by the woonderfull works and gifts of the spirit of sanctification powred out on all his after he was once riâ—…en from the dead Least you thinke this my deuice to defeate your obseruation heare what the learned and auncient Fathers say thereof Chrysostome vpon those wordes of Paule Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God with power through the spirit of sanctification p Chrysoâ—…t in epistolam ad Romanos ho-â—…l 1. The fourth argument of Christs Diuinitie is drawen saith he from the spirit which he gaue to those that beleeued in him and by which he sanctified them all Wherefore Paule saith through the spirit of sanctification For onely God was able to giue those kindes of giftes Ierom. Through the spirit of sanctification Paul q Hieron in ca. 1. epistola ad Romanos noteth heere the holie Ghost the Creator Ambrose Paul r Ambros inca primum 〈◊〉 ad Romanos calling Christ the Sonne of God sheweth God to be his father and adding the spirit of sanctification noteth the mistery of the Trinity Augustine that Paul saith s August in expositio inchoata epistolae ad Rom. Through the spirit of sanctification he meaneth because they receaued the gift of the spirit after Christs resurrection Theodoret the Apostle heere teacheth t Theodoretus in ca. 1. epist. ad Rom. that he who was called the Sonne of Dauid according to the flesh was declared to be the sonne of God by the power which was shewed from the holy Ghost after our Lord Iesus was risen from the dead Oecumenius u Oecumenius in
he suffered in the flesh But of the fathers iudgement in this case more shal be said afterward g Defenc. pag. 139. li. 12. Heere you obiect thus I note all the attributes of the bodie common to the soule Nay for sooth that I doe not Forsooth the ground of your conclusion inferreth so much what euer your meaning is or may be For this you vrge that wheresoeuer the flesh of Christ is taken for the whole manhood of Christ the thing affirmed of Christs flesh must be common to soule and bodie and thence you conclude that since Christ suffered death in his flesh by Saint Peters wordes he must by the Scriptures â—…e sayd to haue died as well in the soule as in the bodie You regard no more but death to bee common to both which of all others is not common to both because they are seured by death but vpon this collection it followeth if your rule bee not false that since through out the Scrtptures where mention is made of Christes liuing flesh or of his actions or passions the whole manhood of Christ is there vnderstoode then consequently all those thinges so affirmed of Christ must be common to both the parts of Christs humane nature that is as well to his soule as to his bodie To pretend your meaning against your speach when you see how absurd your saying is is a childish vanitie if your obseruation and illation be true this that I obiect followeth if those be not true then faile you of your first purpose that death must be common to both parts of Christes manhood Besides the falsitie of your collection appeareth by this that when things are attributed to Christ liuing which are proper to the soule or bodie and yet are ascribed to Christs person this kind of speach is figuratiue either because the whole is taken fot a part or because either part hath some concurrence or reference to the actions and passions auouched of Christ. But thence you may not inferre that all such things most properly agree to either part in Christ that is such palpable ignorance that you seeme not to conceiue what a man is or whereof he consisteth For so you may concâ—…ude that the soule eateth drinketh sleepeth sitteth falleth and such like as well as the bodie because these things are affirmed of the person that is of the whole man though indeed performed by meanes of the bodie More follie it is to vrge the same in death which seuereth the soule from the bodie and so leaueth nothing common to bodie and soule but the generall attributes of a Creature as to be locall finite and such like For where death is the priuation of life and the soule is the life of her bodie what reason or sense can it haue because man dieth to say the losse of life must be common to the soule which is the cause of life as well as to the bodie which is but the vessell or vehicle of life True it is the soule by death is driuen to depart from her bodie but so long as she is present there is life and she must first be gone before death which is the lacke of life can seaze on the bodie To draw this consequent then from reason that the soule must die when man dieth is the part of him that vnderstandeth not what reason meaneth except by the dying of the soule he note the departing of the soule from the bodie in which sense the Scriptures sometimes applie the name of death to the soule as wee shall afterwardes see h Defenc. pag. 140. li. 14. This attribute of dying vnderstood in such sort and manner as the bodie properly dieth that is to become without life and sense I make not common to the soule The whole man consisting of bodie and soule is most properly said to die that is to be dissolued the soule departing from the bodie the bodie is properly said to bee dead that is to bee void of life and sense and if we say the bodie dieth as speach is often guided rather by vse then by rule we meane the bodie beginneth to lacke sense and life and to bee possessed by death And though the soule cannot be void of life and sense in such sort as the bodie is because she is the life of the bodie yet when the soule is dead shee is vtterly void of her life which is God and hath no more sense or feeling of him then the bodie lying dead hath of the soule How then doth it follow that because Christ died in the flesh or in his manhood that his soule must be dead after her manner of dying as well as his bodie after his sort of death where the whole dieth either part you will say must die But Peter doth not say Christ died in his whole manhood that is your lame and blind conceit but that Christ died in the flesh And yet the whole manhood may die and not both parts because the whole is a thing conioyned of parts and so dissolued where they are seuered though both parts doe not die the whole you meane for euery part Your meaning is not the matter but Peters words are the thing that I stand on Now what doe they inferre when he saith Christ died in the flesh you say the whole and euery part thereof because the spirit heere opposite to the flesh importeth the whole dietie and therefore the flesh must comprise the whole humanitie This is that bold and false obseruation that hath deceiued you and your leaders For besides all other exceptions hâ—…eretofore taken which are enough the words of Paul in the same case which is also one of your examples Christ was i Rom. 1. made of the seed of Dauid according to the flesh do they inferre that Christes whole manhood and euery part thereof as well soule as bodie was made of the seede of Dauid If you and your instructors see the falsenesse of this collection with what face vrge you so earnestly the same illation from Peters words but your wills not Peters words are the foundation of your faith and so you can make a shew to wrangle you little care for trueth or substance k Defenc pag. 140. li 25. This if you do not acknowledge the shame of absurditie and contrarietie which in your fansie you accuse me of that Christs soule died and died not will sit neerer to you than to me Is this enough to say the word You may soone write if you make it suffâ—…cient to say what you list but your absurdities and contrarieties are not so easily declined as you would sleightly ouerslippe them Looke backe to your former footing and see how shamefully you shun your owne assertions Examining the place of Peter after your learned maner and labouring as you thought with impregnable force to prooue when Peter â—…yth Christmas mortified in the flâ—…sh but qnickened in or by the spirit that the spirit could not there be taken for Christs humane soule
towards a trueth but this is cleane kam to that you said before Your former speach was these paines doe alwayes accompanie the wicked and now you turne the cake in the pan as if that side were not burnt and tell vs they are alwayes wicked whom those paines doe accompanie ordinarily Forsooth this is not How handsomly the defender shifteth hands that you said before and if you be ashamed of your follie and falsehood I am not against repentance But it were plaine dealing to confesse the fault and not to bring in an ape for an owle and say it is the same Creature And yet forsooth whether this position be true or not is without the compasse of your skill For first what is ordinarie with you once a weeke once a moneth or once in seuen yeeres you haue gotten a word that you may winde at your will and limite as you like best and yet without all proofe you resolue that these paines doe ordinarily accompanie the wicked experience I trust you will take none vpon you for then by your owne rule you must be alwayes wicked to sift other mens souls what paines they feele though they be wicked I win you haue no way but by report or conâ—…ecture which are both vncertaine Warrant in the word you haue none that such paines doe alwayes or ordinarily accompany the wicked the contrarie may rather be thence collected For when the wicked shall say q 1. Thess. 5. Peace and safetie then shall suddaine destruction come vpon them Peace and safetie in the paines of hell I suppose they haue nor cause nor will to say In Peace then safety not in the pains of the damned are many if not most of the wicked till destruction come vpon them which is not alwaies nor ordinary since they can be destroyed but once and vntill that time their ease and abundance make them forget God r Defenc. pag. 141. li. 18. Againe you pretend to haue much against me where I say the feeling of the sorrwes of Gods wrath due to sinne in a broken and contrite heart is indeede the onely true and perfectly accepted sacrifie to God True so I said and againe I say it What see you annsse in it Then vnhappie men are the godlâ—…e say you which are at any time free from the paines of the damned to what purpose is this I speake of Christs sacrifice Thus your triumphs before the victorie come to nothing but blasts of vanitie If I mistooke your meaning you are the more beholding to me the sense which you now expresse is worse then that I charged you with and yet I tooke your words as they lay which because they were namely applied neither to Christ nor to vs by you I pressed you with the lesser absurditie of the twaine Why your words might not be referred to the faithfull I saw no cause Dauid confessing that the s Psal. 51. v. 17. sacrifices of God he meaneth esteemed and required of God are a troubled spirit and a contrite and broken heart causeth the sacrifice of righteousnesse to be accepted I strained your words no farder then Dauids but sayd you miâ—…construed the wordes of the holy Ghost if you tooke a broken and contrite heart repenting his former sinnes for the paines of hell suffered in the soule You now say you ment this of Christ that his broken and contrite heart feeling the most vehement paines of the damned was the onely true and perfectly accepted sacrifice to God and aske me what I see amisse in this I will soone tell you Where I would haue charged you with a single error against the Godly by reason your wordes are indistinct and doubtfull you loade your selfe with a double iniurie against God and his Sonne For first the sacrifice of Christes bodie by which we are sanctified as saith the Apostle is excluded from being a true and perfectly accepted sacrifice if the paines of hell in his soule be onely the true sacrifice Secondly a false sacrifice deuised by your selfe and neuer offered by Christ is obtruded by you vnto God as the onely true sacrifice which he must perfectly accept and so where before you blazed an vntrueth you be now come to bolster it vp with impietie For where no Scripture doth witnesse that Christ suffered any such sorrowes and paines of hell as you surmise you now openly professe that all sorrowes and sacrifices besides this were neither true nor acceptable vnto God and that this your deuice surpasâ—…eth all the merits and obedience of Christ whatsoeuer t Defenc. pag. 141. li. 30. Where Austen seemeth to denie that Christes soule might die he denieth that Christ suffered any paines of damation locally in hell after his death as it seemeth some held about his time whom heere he laboureth to confute If your ignorance were not euery where patent some man perhaps would stumble at your report but you are growen to such a trade of outfacing that almost you can doe nothing else That any such opinion was held in Austens time as you talke of and that he laboured there to confute the same is a maske of your making to hide your owne blemishes Austen refelleth that as a fable in exact words when he saith Quis audeat dicere who dare say so Now if some had so held he must haue said some doe say so but who dare say so is as much as no man dareth say so If no man durst so to say then no man was so wicked or irreligious in Austens time as to dare say that Christs soule died which now is become the greatest pillar of your pater noster As for suffering in hell locally it is a fiction of yours fastened to S. Austen he hath no such words and therefore no such meaning u Defenc. pag 141. li. 37. He had no necessary cause â—…o speake of the second sense thereof how the soule may be sayd to suffer death extraordinarily for sinne imputed onely neither doth he speake against that in Christ. S. Austen a man would thinke had cause to know how we wâ—…re râ—…d by Christ and surely if he were ignorant thereof you would not iudge him worthy to be a Curate in your Conuenticles but shew that he who taught so much and wrote so much as his works declare euer spake word of your new-found redemption by the paines of hell suffered in the soule of Christ or by the second death Against it he often speaketh when he so soundly and sincerely collecteth out of the Scriptures that Christ died for vs the death of the body onely and not the death of the soule And this how could it be a true or tolerable assertion if the Scriptures did auouch or the church in his time had professed the death of Christs soule to be the chiefest part of our redemption for sinne and reconciliation to God Wherefore neuer dreame he had no necessarie cause to speake of your sense if your sense had beene a part
conceits with rounder words then to any learned or sober writer I would willingly giue That the graue then by which death is meant hath in it or bringeth with it a lacke or losse of all earthly things and that common to good and bad this as it is not denied so is it no special signification of Sheol as you out of your new found notes obserue but the generall consequent of Sheol or the graue in all men iust or wicked as also corruption returning to dust is from whence they were taken To the wicked that wedde their soules to these earthly vanities and neglect God his promises the Prophets often threaten Sheol that is the place and state where all these thinges shal want or perish to them but with the sheol of their bodies which is the graue is ioyned the sheol of their souls which is hell though they not regarding or not beleeuing the later are most often threatned with the former which they euery day saw before their eies so was likeâ—…st to moue them most To the godly the remembrance of Shâ—…ol was somtimes grieuous either because it was ioyned with an vntimely death to theÌ„selues or with the dishonour of Gods name or with the danger of his Church or signification of his dislike of their liues and courses which circumstances haue often troubled the Saints at the sight or foreshew of death These things you stampe and straine with your distempered and vnlearned fansies and then you produce a meere priuation which you call a destruction of the whole man in Sheol Now what if Iob called the graue an house appointed for euery man liuing or said the graue must be an habitation to him as well as to others doth he meane that the whole man bodie and soule shall dwell in the graue or â—…ome to corruption as is presently added I shal say to corruption thou art my Father to the worme Thou art my mother my sister Are you so good a Carpenter that with a meere priuation you can make an habitation and to furnish your house bring soules from heauen or the whole man to dwell with corruption and wormes A seely reason like the rest you interpose That seeing Iob speaketh of Shâ—…ol as his continuall habitation to the worldes end it can not be went onely of the graue for his bodie which endured but a very short time and had no being at all after it was turned to verie earth and wormes Much lesse may it be ment of his soule that turneth neither to earth nor wormes and least of all of his whole person since in the whole euery part is coÌ„tained if it be true of neither part how can it be verified of the whole but such is your folly that with your idle fansies you call the maine grounds of Christian faith in question and offer doubt how God can raise his Saints out of their graues when as their bodies being long before turned to earth and ashes haue no being at all Sir if you speake in earnest these be wicked quarrels and shew that you woulde faine shake heauen and earth to vphold your new found Sheol Otherwise all the godly know that God hath their ashes in sight before him and will not mistake one earth for another though their dust were scattered ouer all the world And so long as he that will raise them by his mightie power hath in so certaine number and measure the whole and euery the least dust that came of their bodies they lie in their graues till the time of resurrection and their maker will not misse an haire of their head nor a mote of their ashes which if it be strange to you dispute against him that created heauen and earth of nothing and not against me that beleeue the resurrection of mens bodies and flesh many thousand yeeres after they be turned to dust and as you wickedly surmise haue no being at all after they are turned to earth and wormes In greatest reason this is that which Iacob meaneth when he saith he will goe downe mourning to his Sonne in Sheol His body he thought was deuoured and digested in the belâ—…es of wilde beasts Therefore he will goe to the soule of his sonne in sheól to enioy the society of his deere Soâ—…e It is no maruell you be so stiffe-necked in rules of Discipline when you â—…e thus â—…ad-headed in points of doctrine I pray you Sir where did Iacob thinâ—… that â—…osephs soule was after death or that his owne should be in hell in Abrahams bosoâ—… or in some place lately deuised by your selfe to containe iust mens soules Or are soules by your Diuinitie without all place that the father might enioy the socieâ—…e of his deare sonnes soule and yet in no place you may doe well to declare vs these doubts for I assure you vnlesse you plead dottage these discourses will amount to plaine impietie In hell there is no great enioying one of an other I trow In heauen you meane it not for then you must confesse heauen to be Sheól which you say you neuer thought In the graue I hope soules doe not lodge then must you find vs a place whither Iacob would descend to enioy the society of his deere sonnes soule Will you call it a meere priuation and destruction which are the graffes that you haue newly planted you must first tell vs what ioy there is in priuation and destruction Next whether this priuation and destruction be any where and so in some place or no where and so a right creature of yours as being a priuation of all witte and trueth Thirdly if Iosephs soule were neither in ioy nor rest what comfort Iacob could take to finde his deere sonnes soule in such a plight And lastly whether the Patrâ—…arks had no promises of rest and receit with God after this life but that they were to seeke for the soules of their parents and children in your priuatiue Sheol which is neither hell heauen nor Abrahams bosome For if it be one of these then is it not onely positiue but also locall that is somewhere and hath a state and condition agreeable to the mercies of God and the desire of the Saints But why persue I your follies so farre as if they were not peeuish pangues of your vnsetled braines Iacobs words without your iests are plaine enough to ech good Christian in saying he would goe mourning to sheâ—…l that is to his graue assuring himselfe after death to haue his soule receaued into that place of rest into which he did not doubt but the soule of his innocent childe was formerly admitted by the goodnesse of his God And if any man like Rabbi Selomoes exposition that êl in this place may signifie ouer or for as it often doth then Iacobs wordes are more easie that he will descend to Sheol mourning for his sonne Howbeit Iacob knew well enough that Iosephs bodie though deuourâ—…d and digested in the
other but a bodily death then Christ descended onely to the graue but if the desert of our sinne tied vs as guiltie to the torments of hell then Christ by Ruffinus confession so farre descended how farre we were by Gods iustice deiected that is to the place of condemnation for sinne And therefore Ruffinus doth not onely knit these speaches together in the person of Christ as expounding one the other Eduxisti de Inferno animam meam de abysso terrae â—…erum adduxisti me thou hast brought my soule from Infernus and hast brought me backe againe from the deepe of the earth But of the diuell he saith Qui mortis habebat imperium disruptis Inferni claustris velut de profundo tractus traditur he that had Rule of death was drawen as it were out of the deepe the cloysters of Infernus being broken open The place where the diuell was and whence he was drawen when he was spoyled and triumphed by Christ was not the separation of the Soule from the Body which the diuel hath not but it was the deepe of hell which here is called Infernus So that it is certaine by all the Fathers generally First that Hades and Sheol are taken for the state of death common to the Soules of good and bad Secondly Christ went not into hell the place of the damned as you hold but to the habitation of the blessed deceased If I haue not conuinced both these collections to be false by the manifest Testimonies of the Fathers for out of them you gather these obseruations then I desire no mans consent to any thing that I haue sayd but if you grosly mistake and misuse all the Fathers names and speeches then I trust the Reader will better consider what credit is to be giuen to your certainties and giue me leaue to be shorter in slipping ouer your idle presumptuous vaine crafts and false collections which are almost all that is behinde A taste whereof if he will take let him heare these bragges of yours following Thus your vaine boasting of all the Fathers is but a bubble So that if you consent as you say to be tried by all the Fathers Greeke and Latine they quite ouerthrow you notwithstanding your great words If your vaine and shamelesse boasting were not by this time well knowen I would giue some fresh assault to these bulwarks of falsitie and insolenâ—… but the proofs being euident and precedent which I leaue to the Readers indifferent iudgement I will ouerskip this and a great deale more of the same kind as the bubbles or your vanitie and if ought be said to any purpose I will refute that otherwâ—…e I will bestow no more paper and incke on your wandring and wilde conceits Only Austen doubtingly and waueringly differeth from all the rest for thus he saith I confesse I haue not yet found that Inferi are named where the iust mens soules are at peace You might haue done well to haue learned of Austen this sober and modest course not by vaunting and outfacing but by plaine and faire confessing to shew the ground of your opinion as Austen doth of his Wherein he differeth not from all the rest as you confidently yet most iniuriously report of him but in this hee exactly and resolutely consenteth with them all Tertullians errour still excepted that after Christs resurrection Deinceps boni fideles prorsus Inferos nesciunt Good Christians dying come not to Inferi at all And as for the former opinion that the godly deceased before Christes death went ad Inferos to places below in the earth though not to torments which is the stone that still you stumble at and make it the very heart of all your defence deceitfully applying that to the time since Christes resurrection which the Fathers euer intended and expressed to pertaine to the time before Christes comming S. Austen though he yeeld so farre to former writers as to say If it may seeme tâ—… be beleeued without absurditie yet he euery where professeth he could finde no such vse of the word Inferi in any place of the sacred Scriptures and that Abrahams bosome where the Saints did rest before Christs death was a part or skirt of hell he vtterly refuseth that as no way consonant to the wordes of Christ in the Gospell And therefore when he proposeth the other opinion with a condition if it may be beleeued without absurditie euen there he retaineth his owne resolution that Abrahams bosome was in locis à tormentis impiorum remotissimis in places most remote from the torments of the wicked and to beleeue otherwise were an absurditie as he concludeth in his 99. Epistle Against Austin you obiect First that surely the auncients named the places for all deceased good and badde Inferos as they named the world where both wicked and good doe liue Superos Secondly that Austen if hee had well marked it might haue found euen this which he saith he found not in the Latin translation of the Scripture What man is there that shall deliuer his soule from the hand of inferi that is death Where the soule being takeâ—… properly for the soule then Inferi is found applied to iust mens soules deceased as well as to the wicked which Augustine might haue obserued Were you masking this might make mirth but being in earnest it is more then idle What if Arnobius in respect of hell being in the earth beneath vs call vs that liue on earth superos those aboue is that a proofe that the godly deceased are called inferi who knoweth not that infra supra are differences of place which in diuers respects may be diuersly varied To those that are in heauen we are Inferi that is beneath them and in that reference to heauen which is aboue vs Augustine himselfe doubteth not to call the earth Infernum Ad hoc infernum missus est filius Dei nascendo ad illud inferius moriendo To this earth below was the Sonne of God sent when he was borne to that other place beneath vs when he died But if no speciall comparison of place bee expressed then Superi Inferi the Saints aboue and the spirits beneath are generally so called in regard of vs who dwell on earth and speake on earth are by position of place in the middest that is lower then the highest and higher then the lowest And because vnder vs there are none liuing but those in hell therefore Inferi whom the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are spirits vnder the earth whether men or diuels As for that other obiection out of the Psalmes it is not onely a bubble soone blowen away but a bable not worth the bringing The translation of Tremelius and Iunius to whom you most appeale for these matters hath eripiat seipsum à sepulchro shall he saue himselfe from the graue that is can hee keepe himselfe that he shall not die and where you
take hold on the word soule as if that must be either in the graue which is absurd or in the hand of Inferi which is that you would haue your hastie head doth not perceiue that take the word SOVLE which way you will either for the life of man which is an vsuall speech in the Scriptures or for the soule properly neither of them doth steede you a rush For no man can preserue his life from the graue that he shall not die neither can any man withstand the hand or power of death that it shall not seuer the soule from the bodie since that is the ordinance of God against all men Saint Austen giueth you a third sense taking the soule there for the soule separate from the bodie which is more then euer you would be able to prooue and yet that maketh nothing to your purpose The rest of the faithfull saith he shall rise from the dead and liue for euer and not see death and yet can they not deliuer their owne soules from the handes of hell He which deliuered his owne soule from the hands of hell he hath deliuered the soules of his faithfull they cannot deliuer themselues This S. Austen could obserue though he regarded none of your vaine supposals And where you say Austen himselfe elsewhere graunteth the iust in peace might bee in infernus after death You might haue obserued the difference betwixt a condition and a position which you doe not and therefore you wrong him the more in saying that he graunteth any such thing He saith Si non absurde credi videtur if it seeme to be beleeued without an absurditie not affirming it might be beleeued without an absur ditie but respecting it with a conditionall least he should shew himselfe ouer peremptorie in condemning others that were of that opinion Otherwise his owne assertion and conclusion are earnest enough Non vtique sinus ille Abrahae aliqua pars inferorum esse credenda est The bosome of Abraham is not to be beleeued to be any part of inferi In his ipsis tanti Magistri verbis satis vt opinor apparet non esse quandam partem quasi membrum inferorum tantae illius felicitatis sinum In these very wordes of so great a teacher as Christ it appeareth sufficiently as I thinke that the bosome of so great felicitie is not any part or member of hell In Christs descent to hell Saint Austen is more resolute Of that he pronounceth Satis constat it is cleare enough Yea he putteth more waight vnto it and saith For neither can the Prophesie be contradicted which sayd thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell nor Peters words by which he affirmeth Christ loosed the sorrowes of hell wherein it was not possible he should be held And so concludeth who then but an infidell will denie Christ was in hell And againe Euidentia testimonia insernum commemorant dolores Euident testimonies of the Scriptures mention both hell and the paines thereof These be no coniecturall inclinations they bee iudiciall assertions whatsoeuer you say to the contrarie Fulgentius denieth not inferos to the godly deceased nor that Christ was locally only with them in inferis So that in saying he was where the wicked are tormented he meaneth that in respect of the common place which in the whole he calleth infernum Heere is a hole where through your wit is wholy runne and not your wit alone but your religion learning and conscience are runne after Plainer wordes then those of Fulgentius I neither doe nor can speake any Christus illuc vsque descendit quousque homo separatus à Deo peccati merito cecidisset id est ad infernum vbi solebat anima peccatoris torqueri Christ descended euen thither whither man seuered from God by desert of sinne was fallen that is to infernus where the soule of a sinner vseth to bee tormented What doth your wisedome answere to this He meaneth that in respect of the common place which in the whole hee calleth infâ—…rnum Is there any one place common to the Saints in heauen and to the damned in hell You haue learned belike of Parmenides the riddle-maker that all is one and because the world is but one that heauen and hell make one common place Whether fell man I pray you by the desert of sinne to heauen or to hell not to heauen I hope for then man sinning should approch to Gods Throne who Fulgentius saith was seuered from God to hell then he fell ergo Christ descended to hell by Fulgentius assertion and that place where the soules of sinners are wont to be tormenmented he calleth Infernum which if you can prooue to bee heauen you shall doe greater wonders then M. Hugh Broughton can doe For he maketh but a great ditch betwixt heauen and hell You fill vp that ditch of M. Broughtons digging and say both hell and heauen are one place common to Saints and Diuels For Infernus is the singular number and by the rules of Grammer if any rules will hold you must note but one place in which if both the blessed and the damned are then heauen and hell are both but one place Againe you farre passe M. Broughtons skill in that he saith they are much deceaued who thinke hell to be below in the earth though Saint Paul distribute all reasonable creatures subiected to Christs kingdome into things in heauen on earth and vnder the earth You change the whole site of the world and say heauen is below For where insernus is deriued from infra which is below if heauen bee called infernus then surely heauen is below and then must the Apostle recall his error in saying seeke the things which are aboue where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God he should haue sayd by your doctrine seeke the things which are below where the soules of the wicked are tormented for that is heauen with you But if at your next exercise you should pray for your Auditorie to come to infernus where the wicked are punished I winne they would thinke you more madde then M. Broughton is Howbe it with this one answere you giue the lie aswell to Prophets as Apostles For where Dauid saith to God Thou hast brought my soule out of infernus that cannot be by your rules since heauen and hell make but one place and the earth being in the midst of them must needes be one place with both extreames and haue the same name with both So that Dauids soule wheresoeuer it was was not out of Infernus Againe where he saith in the person of Christ Thou wilt not leaue my soule in infernus that is false by your doctrine who teach that Christ and all his Saints deceased are yet in a common place with the damned the whole being called Infernus And where before you were very angry That I said you made ascending to be descending and
on this place maketh an exact difference betwixt death and Hades for that Hades containeth soules and deadbodies where the Latin in both places hath death and no more The Latin Fathers you will say doe all follow the old Latin translator and he placeth the word sting last as you do There is no one place in the new Testament that hath receiued more varietie of translating and ordering then this Tertullian citeth it thrice in one booke after this sort Vbi est mors aculeus tuus vbi est mors aculeus Where is thy sting ó death Where is thy strife ô death reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strife for victorie Cyprian citeth it in the same order and words as Tertullian doth Ambrose returneth neerer to the Greeke and saith vbiest mors stimulus tuus vbi est mors victoria tua ô death where is thy sting ô death where is thy victorie euen as the interpreter of Ireneaus doth though he inuert that order in an other place and follow the Septuagint which Ierom and other of the Latin Fathers also doe And least you should thinke as you doe that the old translator who very scrupulously keepeth the word Infernum for Hades through out the Bible did heere translate it by death you shall see that Eusebius lighted on a Greeke copie where the word Thanatos death was twice repeated and the parts changed as they stand in the Latine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ô death where is thy victorie ô death where is thy sting Elsewhere the same Author keepeth the word death twice but altereth the order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ô death where is thy sting ô death where is thy victorie In this diuersitie of reading and relating the Apostles wordes it is eche mans duetie not to runne which way he will though perhaps he may bring some one president for his purpose but to hold that for the true and Authenticke text to which most copies and writers agree And therefore since your exposition of hades death to be Synonymas dependeth vpon your priuate changing the order of the apostles words I see no need to make any answere to it specially when as the Latin translator might and no doubt did light on such a copie as Eusebius did which had the word Thanatos death twice in that place Otherwise it could not be that he who was ouer diligent in all other places would be so negligent in this A farder answere to the frame of your wordes as you haue placed them if any man for his satisfaction would receiue the name of death which compriseth both temporall and eternall death and by sinne gaâ—… the victorie of our first parents but that the elect by Christ haue againe recouered the victorie ouer all sorts of death giueth answeare enough For sinne which the Apostle heere calleth the sting of death did not onely sting Adam and his ofspring with the death of the body but also with the death of the soule the wages of sinne being death in all parts of man and in all places of his abode and therefore sinne of his owne nature and force till it be pardoned by Christ is the sting no lesse of hell as in all the wicked then of bodily death as in all the Saints And heere by the way the Reader may obserue that for aduantage you are content to make bodily death in the Saints the sting of sinne which I trust is as much as the punishment of sinne since it stingeth vnto death The graue of the wicked is not to be named or reckned hell properly Whom doth the Apostle make to speake in that place the godly who haue the victorie ouer sinne hell and death or the wicked ouer whom those three get the conquest since the wicked doe not rise from death to life as the Saints doe but their bodides rising out of one pit fall into a farre worse which is the bottomlesse pit of eternall death damnation Hades is aduersary to the resurrection But hell heere would not be aduersary to the resurrection Therefore hades heere is not hell no not to the wicked Doth the Apostle dispute heere of the resurrection of the wicked to death euerlasting or of the Saints to celestiall blisse and glory though it be true that the bodies of the reprobate shall rise vp from the earth where they rested and be cast with their soules into euerlasting fire yet the Apostle heere debateth and prooueth the raising vp of Christs members to beare the image of the heauenly Adam and to haue death swallowed vp in victory Looke on the Apostles reasons and comparisons in this whole chapter and if any one of them naturall or theologicall agree to the resurrection of the wicked then let the Reader thinke you haue some vnderstanding of this place which now is vtterly none If Christ be not risen your faith is in vaine saith Paul and you are yet in your sinnes As in Adam all died so in Christ all shal be quickened euery one in his order Christs as the first fruits then those that are Christs at his comming There is one glory of the Sunne another of the Moone and another of the Starres So also shal be the resurrection of the dead The body is sowen in corruption dishonor and weakenesse it shall rise in incorruption in glory in power When this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortalitie then shal be performed that which is written Death is swallowed vp in victory and the Saints shall haue iust cause to say ô death where is thy sting ô hades hell where is thy victory Thanks be to God which hath giuen vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. How farre are these things from all communion of the wicked though hell at that day shal be increased and aduanced as you call it with the bodies of all the wicked yet may the godly Saints of whom the Apostle speaketh most iustly reioice against hell and death as being now swallowed vp in victory that is vtterly defeated of all force to kill the body any more or to stay the soule any longer by meanes of death from her crowne of glory For the victory which God will giue vs through Christ our Lord against hell and death is not yet full till our soules and bodies be brought to eternall blisse And were it possible which is not that the soules of the Saints could for euer enioie the rest and blisse which now they haue without their bodies euen in this want of one halfe Satan should still haue some victory ouer them that is ouer their bodies though not ouer their soules Wherefore the victory is then full when both parts of man are freed from all things that hinder their heauenly inheritance And this the best interpreters confesse Peter Martyr Interim videas ordine quodam nostros iâ—…micos
their Creede yet retained the sense and meaning of them in that they were perswaded this was the law of humane necessitie without Christ that as mens bodies were buried so their soules descended to hell which descent Christ refused not to restore men as Hilarie and others auouch This you say was Ruffines owne meaning who going about to proue by the Scripture that Christ descended to Infernum sheweth that he meaneth his death hereby his buriall I suppose few men will trust you hauing tried you false so often Ruffine going about to prooue by the Scripture of the old Testament that euery part of Christes passion and his resurrection was fore-shewed in the law and the Prophets plainely distinguisheth his death buriall and descent to Hell For Christs death he saith spiritum post haec scribitur reddidisse after this it is written that hee gaue vp the Ghost This was fore spoken by the Prophet saying into thy handes I commend my spirit Sepultus quoque perhibetur He is then said to be buried For which he alleageth a place of Ieremie and addeth Euidentissima haec Sepulturae eius indicia propheticis vocibus designata sunt accipe tamen alia These most manifest signes of his buriall are expressed in the Prophets speeches and yet thou shalt haue other Where he alleageth three other places of Scripture how fitly to his purpose I need not pronounce Then commeth he to Christes descent to hell and saith Sed quód in Infernum descendit euidenter praenunciatur in Psalmis That also he descended to hell is evidently fore told in the Psalmes Now whether his places bee aptly cited or no is not to the question though you make that your whole aduantage For first they be as aptly cited as the rest Next they haue euery one of them somewhat more in Rusfines apprehension then of Christes buriall For hee standeth not onely on those wordes the dust and corruption of death but hee fastneth most on the words of descending and bringing downe in limum profundi to the mire of the deepe Which things though you flurt at as waighing light in your eyes it is certaine he intended thereby more then the graue as is euident by his owne wordes For citing the place of Peter thus In which spirit Christ descended to preach to the spirits inclosed in prison which were incredulous in the dayes of Noe he addeth in quo quid operis egerâ—…m in Inferno declaratur in which it is declared what Christ did in hell In the graue I trust Christ did nothing In Paradise he did not preach to those that were in prison disobedient in the dayes of Noe. Since then this end of Christs descent to hell is expressed by Ruffinus and this could not bee done either in the graue where nothing can be done or in heauen where these disobedients were not in prison It is cleere that Ruffinus had no such meaning as you make him by Christes descent to intend no more but his death and buriall He holdeth indeed that Christ went downe to Infernum that is to Limbus patrum as an opinion then common among them and worthie as he thought to be beleeued If hee ment this as you now confesse then he ment more by Christes descending to Infernum then Christes death and buriall And so by your owne mouth you are conuinced of a lie fathered on Ruffinus against both his words meaning And yet I find no such expresse mention or description of Limbus in Ruffines words as you would seeme to impose vpon him He mentioneth Christs conquest ouer hell quód Inferna sibi Regna 〈◊〉 that Christ would subiect the Infernali kingdome to himselfe qui mortis habebat Imperium disruptis Inferni claustris velut de profundo tractus he that had the rule of death was drawen as it were from the deepe the cloisters of hell being broken open He saith also Animabus de Inferni captiuit ate reuocatis the soules being reuoked from the captiuitie of hell but whom he thereby meaneth he expressed before with the Apostles words when he said qui simul consuscitauit nos simulque sedere fecit in caelestibus Christ raised vs vp together with himselfe and made vs sit in heauenly places with him So that if you and your friends when you prate so much against all or the most of the auncient fathers as vpholding Limbus would bethinke your selues that most of them speake indifferently as well of the liuing and yet vnborne as of the dead before Christes time when they say that soules were deliuered out of the bondage and captiuitie of hell and Satan you should doe them lesse wrong and lesse deceaue your selues then now you doe And for those fathers that indeede were of this opinion that before Christes resurrection Abrahams bosome was vnder the earth you shall doe well to thinke and speake more reuerently of them considering what master Bullingere a learned and graue Diuine resolued euen of that point Sinus Abrahae aliud non est quam portus salutis vbi autem fuerat quondaÌ„ hic locus an apud superos an apud inferos nolo pronunciare imo malo ignorare quam temere definire quodliteris sacris expressum non habeo In his vt curiosus esse nolo ita nihil desinio cum nemine super hac re contendere volo Satis mihi est intelligere fateri veteres sanctos in refrigerio loco vtique certo non in tormentis ante ascensionem Domini fuisse vt maximé ignorem vbi ille locus fuerit The bosome of Abraham is nothing els but an entrance or port of saluation Where this place formerly was whether aboue in some part of the heauens or below vnder the earth I will not pronounce Yea I had rather be ignorant thereof then roshly to define that which I find not expressed in the Scriptures In these things as I will not be curious so doe I determine nothing neither will I contend with any man about this matter It shall suffice me to vnderstand and confesse that the godly of the old Testament were in a certaine place of rest not in terments before the oscension of Christ though I know not where that place was That it was no part nor member of hell we haue S. Austins firme resolution grounding himselfe on the words which our Sauiour in the Gospell ascribeth to Abraham Betweene you and vs there is a great gulfe setlâ—…d But whether it were vnder the earth till Christs resurrection of that some fathers doubted wherein we may not be reprochfull to them though we dissent from them since the Scriptures as this great Diuine thinketh expresly decide not the question Ignatius you thinke is cleerely yours likewise one Thaddeus by Eusebius report one of the 70. disciples which the Euangelist Luke speakes of Also Athanasius Creed Ignatiâ—… saying Christ desâ—…ended to hades alone but rose againe with many meaneth euidently
paines passe the patience of Men and Angels 450 The true paines of hell are not felt in this life 451. 462 The true paines of hell are proper to the place 454. 455 The true paines of hell are aboue and against nature 464. 465 We must not reâ—…oyce in suffering helâ—… paines 441 A broken spirit is not the paines of hell 516 Christ brought vs backe from hell 607 No place for soules vnder earth but hell 614 It is not against the faith that Christs Soul should conquere hell 622 Christ must rise conquerer of death and hell 628 The Iewes were promised their Messias should conquere hell 628 All the names of hell prooue it to be in the earth 632 Hell is in the earth yet some diuels in the aire 633 Why the heauens are compared with hell in the Scriptures 634 Our victorie against death and hell not full till the last day 637 638 Christ â—…th the keyes of death and of hell 642. 643 Nothing but persons cast into hell 645 The Defender maketh three hells in steede of one 645 Christs spoâ—…ling of hell precedent to his resurrection 673 Hereticke alwaies vrged the same places that the Defender doth 425 What the Holocaust did signifie 111. 112 What â—…ire might note in the Holocaust 116 I. IMmediate What suffering is Immediate from â—… God 27. 32 God is not the Immediate and principall inflicter of hâ—…ll paines 2â—… 29 Christs soule was not tormented with Gods Immed aâ—…e hand 34 God can punish the soule by meanes without his Immediate hand 219 God the author of all Christs afflictions but not by his Immediate hand 298. 299 God is the principall agent in all our sufferings but not with his Immediate hand 302 How 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Infers concurre in signification  What place Tertullia taketh Inferi to be 585. 586 Inferi are places and persons vnder the earth 5â—…7 Inferi are not now the place and state of good and bad deceased 588 Saint Austin taketh Inferi for hel and not for the state of the dead 198. 590 The soules of the godly are not in Inferi 602 Infernus with the latin fathers is more theÌ„ death 603 Inferi not found in the Scriptures in any good sense â—…04 Inferi no place for the godly after Christes resurrection 605 Infernus is not the place nor state of all soules deceased 606 Christ did not suffer paines truely Infinite 161 Christs Infirmitie was voluntarie 407 Christs Infirmitie was power 416 How all the kingdomes of the earth might bee shewed vnto Christ in an Instant 308. 309 Irenaeus did write in Greeke 584 Where Irenaeus thought Christs soule was after death 583. 584 The rule of Iustice suffereth the stronger to beare the burden of the weaker 292 Gods Iustice in subiecting Satans kingdome to Christs manhood 230 Gods Iustice might punish Christs bodie but not Christs soule with death 337 The Iudgement of God to which Christ submitted himselfe for our redemption 348 Gods Iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Angels 348 In this Iudgement God required of Christ satisfaction for the sinnes of men 349 K K 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 625 Christ hath the Keyes of death and of hell 642. 643 Kindred goeth by blood and not by the soule 509 Our naturall Knowledge commeth by sense 196 The meanes of mans Knowledge 199 Our loue and ioy doe follow our Knowledge 462 L LEo maketh Christs words on the Crosse an instruction no lamentation 432 How Christ was like vs in all things sinne excepted 86. 324 Christ not like vs in any sinfull affections 322 How Christ was like vs in his sufferings 323 Christ not like vs in any want of grace or touch of sinne 326 To what lower parts of the earth Christ descended 554 What is ment by the lower parts of the earth 555 The lower earth is all one with the lower Sheol 556 The lower Shcol signifieth hell and not the graue 557. 558 The lower earth Ezechiel vseth for hell 561 The lower parts of the earth are hell 562 M MArtyrs and Malefactors haue a stronge conflict with death though we perceaue it noâ—… 389 The glory of Martyrs were not great if their paines were not great 390. 391 Martyrs find ioy and ease after death but not in death 301 Why Christ feared more then Martyrs doe 395 Christs senses might not be ouerwhelmed as Martyrs are 396 The manner of breathing out Christs Soule was miraculous 87. 88. 89. 90 The Fathers obserue that it was miraculous 91. 92. 93 So doe the new writers 94 Moses praier for the people examined 359 The purpose of Moses praier for the people 360 How Moses in his praier is excused from sin 365 Moses face did shine when he know it not 461 Moses was not amazed in his prayer 368 N THe name of nature in the graces of God and ioyes of heauen is a vaine distinction 461 There was no necessitie in our redemption but Christs will power and libertie 283 284. 285 The Fathers disclaime all necessitie in the death of Christ. 285 No necessitie in the death of Christ 286 Christs feare and agony came not from necessitie but from his humilitie and feruencie 339 Neither necessitie nor infirmitie could oppresse Christ. 405 New wâ—…iters teach the sufferings of Christs Soule without the paines of hell 536 New writers teach Christs descent to hell 546. 547 New writers obserue Christs manner of dying to haue beene miraculous 94 O OLeuians coniectures for his sense of Christs descent to Hades are but weake 631 P. PAines of this life Christ did beare but not of hell 217. 218 Christes Paines might be vnknowen and yet not the paines of hell 161 In outward Paines men perceiue and acknowledge Gods hand vpon them 170 Paines proper to the soule are not by and by the paines of hell 214 All Christs Paines were holy 215 More required in our ransome then onely Paines 216 We cannot iudge of other mens Paines 328. Excessiâ—…e Paine bringeth death 447 How Christ was in Paradise the day of his death 549 The Parable of the strong man bound and spoyled â—…74 Christes Patience was greater then any mans whatsoeuer his paines were 394 How Christs patience exceeded all mens 395 Christs patience at the highest before he complained on the crosse 418 Saâ—…nt Paul 1. Cor. 15. keepeth the true sense of the Prophet Osee. 641 Pauls wish for the Iewes considered 360 The time was when Paul so wished Ibid. If Paul spake of the time when he wrote his words were conditionall Ibid. What Paul meant when he wished to be separated from Christ for the Iewes 361. 362 How the Grecians expound Pauls words 361 How Paul in his wish was excused from sinne 365 Paul wished if it were possible or lawfull 366 Paul was not amazed in his prayer 368 The true sense of Pauls and Moses words Rom. 10. 567 568. Positiue punishment now in hell 214 No Positiue thing common to good and bad after death 581 Christ suffered not
departed from the bodie it rested not idle but descended ad inferos vnto hell And surely the one and the other societic both of godly soules and of the damned found the presence of Christes soule For the soules of the faithfull were cheered with great comfort and gaue God thanks sor deliuering them by the hand of this Mediatour and performing that which so long before he had promised Other soules also adiudged to euerlasting damnation animae Christi aduentum persenserunt perceiued the comming of Christes soule Zanchius shewing the different interpretations of those words of the Apostle Christ spoiled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in himselfe that is in his owne person sayth Other Interpreters hold that these enemies were vâ—…nquished and conquered on the crosse by Christ but the triumph was pâ—…rformed when Christ in his soule entred the kingdome of Hell as a glorious victorer For so they interpret the Article He descended into Hell And because the word deigmatizein doth signifie to carie one in an open shew as the Romans were woont in the eyes of men to leade their enemies once ouerthrowen with their hanâ—…s bound behinde them to their perpetuall shame and the soule of Christ separated from his bodie might really doe this to the diuels bringing them out of their infernall kingdome and carying them along the aire in the sight of all the Angels and blessed soules therefore nothing hindereth vs to interpret that which Paul heere writeth as the words sound euen of a reall triumph ouer the diuels in the sight of God onlie and of the blessed spirits specially since the Fathers for the most part so expound them ex nostris non pauci neque vulgares and of our Expositors not a few and those no meane men Aretius in his Problemes purposely treating of Christes descent to hell first alleageth that Tota Ecclesia vbique terrarum hodie illum Articulum agnoscit diuer sum à sepultura recitat the whole Church throughout the world at this date acknowledgeth that article and reciteth it as different from Christs buriall And to that obiection that some Creeds had not this clause he answereth The Church finding the descent of Christ to hell to be plainly deliuered in the Scriptures with great aduise admitted this Article into the Creed Otherwise how could it be that with so full consent of all nations and all tongues this clause should be so constantly and so consentingly receaued Repeating therefore many other senses he refuseth them euery one and concludeth Quare mea est sententia Christum descendisse ad inferos postquam tradidisset spiritum in manus Dei patris in cruce c. Wherfore mine opinion is that Christ descended into hell after he yeelded his soule on the Crosse to the hands of God his Father And hell in this question we put to be a certaine place appointed for the damned euen for Satan and his members To the words of Christ vttered to the thiefe this daie shalt thou be with me in Paradise I answere they hinder not this cause For Christ was in Paradise with the thiefe according to his diuinity in the graue according to his body in hell according to his soule Howbeit there is no certaintie how long Christ staied in hell not long it seemeth so that he might in soule that verie day returne from hell and after a glorious sort enter Paradise with the thiefe Neither hath that any more strength that Christ commended his soule into his Fathers handes For the soule of Christ was still in his Fathers hands though he descended into hell This descent was voide of forrow and shame to Christ. Where they say there was no need of this descent they run backe to the beginning for how should it be needlesse which the Scripture pronounceth Christ did and we confesse in our Creed We iudge it therefore needfull first for the reprobate that they might know he was now come of whose comming they had so often heard but neglected it with great contempt Againe Satan was perfectly to know that this Christ whom he had tempted in the desart and deliuered to death by the fraud of the Iewes was the very Messias and the seed promised to the woman Hoc inquam expediebat etiam Demonibus in imo Tartaro innotescere This I say was expedient euen for the diuels in the deepe of hell to know Thirdly it was expedient for the elect that Satan might see he should haue no right no not on their bodies since Christ heereafter would raise them to life Hemmingius As Christ by his death conflicted with the enemy on the gibbet of the crosse and ouercame him so by his glorious descent to hell resurrection and ascension to heauen he executed the triumph erecting as a monument of his victorie the ensigne of his crosse Mollerus writing on the 16. Psalme Touching Christes descent to hell We saith he vnderstand that Article of our faith in the Creede simply and without allegorie and beleeue that Christ truely descended to the lower parts of the earth as Paul speaketh Ephes. 4. It is enough for vs to beleeue which Austen affirmeth in his Epistle to Dardanus Christ thereforâ—… descended that he might helpe those which were to be holpen For Christ by his death destroied the powers of hell and the tyrannie of the diuell as is said Osee 13. O death I will be thy death and thy destruction O hell And this his victory he would in a certaine maner shew vnto the diuell that he might strike perpetuall terrors into the diuell and take from vs all feare of Satans tyrannie Let it suffice vs to know this and omit curious questions and disputations heereabouts Pomeranus on these words of the 16. Psalme Thou wilt not leaue my soule in Hell Heere hast thou saith he that Article of our faith Christ descended into hell If thou aske what he did there I answer He then deliuered not the Fathers onely but all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the end thereof not out of Lymbus but out of the lowest nether most hell to which we all were condemned and in which we all were as in death by the sentence of God There euerlasting fire did abide to vs all that being deliuered to death by the sinne of Adam we might in the last iudgement be deliuered to punishment and perpetuall sire Christ therefore descended euen thither vnto death and hell to this end least thou shouldest dâ—…scend thither that as he had redeemed vs from death so he might deliuer vs from hell Westmerus in his expositions of the Psalmes followeth worde for word the confession of Pomerane Wolfgangus Musculus Christ therefore was to die not that he should simply be dead but that by his death he might conquer death and ouercome him that had the rule ouer death and so he was to descend to hell
not that his soule should be subiect to any infernall power but that subduing the gates of hell he might deliuer our souls from that tyrannie Of the article of Christs descent to hel I am not ignorant how diuersly learned men doe thinke It is somewhat obscure indeed and subiect to many disputations but yet no godly man vpon that occasion will resist or offer force to the Apostles words thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell but will desire of God the vnderstanding therof and in the meane time with a single faith cleaue to the word of trueth although he can not cleerely perceaue the maner how that was performed Of this Article see Austâ—…n Epistle 99. Vrbanus Regius The Church deliuereth vs out of the Scriptures that Christ after he was dead on the crosse descended also to hell to suppresse Satan and hell to the which we were condemned by the iust iudgement of God and to spoile and destroy the kingdome of death Zacharias Scilterus The descent of Christ to hell whereof mention is made in the Apostles Creede after the death and buriall of Christ is to be vnderstood simply according to the letter and without allegorie of the ostension and declaration of Christes victorie no lesse glorious then terrible as Luther writeth to Philip Melancthon indeed made to the diuels in hell or in the place of the damned and of Christes expugning disarming spoyling and captiuating the power of Satan and of his destroying hell and euerting the whole kingdome of Satan and of his deliuering vs from the power of death and eternall damnation and out of the iawes of hell Dauid Chytreus The Article of the Creede let vs retaine simply as the words sound and let vs resolue that the Sonne of God truely descended to hell to deliuer vs from hell to which we were condemned for sinne in Adam and from the power and tyrannie of the diuell by which we were held captiue Of which effect and fruit of Christs descent the Fathers speake as Ierom Christ descended to hell that we might ascend to heauen And Fulgentius The man which God assumed descended thither whither man separated from God by defert of sinne fell that is to hell where the soule of a sinner vsed to be tormented And Augustine Dying for thee I descended to hell to bring thee to Paradise Tartara adij vt tu in caelo regnares I went to the place of the damned that thou mightest raigne in heauen Georgius Mylius in his explication of the Augustane confession The true and proper sense of this Article is that no metaphoricall but a reall descent of Christ to hell must be vnderstood whereby he descended to the lower parts of the earth Eph. 4. vers 9. Et ipsas Damnatorum sedes adijt and went to the very place of the damned The second point is that this Article is no part of his passion and humiliation but of his victorie and triumph I omit infinite others not onely priuate writers but Vniuersities Cities and Countries that haue publikely approoued the same doctrine admitting and allowing the Augustane confession exhibited by the States of Germanie to Charles the Emperour which thus they declare in their booke of Concord With one consent we aduise this matter not to be disputed but this Article of Christs descent to hell to be most simply beleeued and taught It ought to suffice vs if we know that Christ descended into hell destroied hell to all beleeuers and by him or his descent thither we were taken out of the power of death and Satan from euerlasting damnation and euen out of the iawes of hell The maner how this was done let vs not curiously search but referre the exact knowledge heereof to an other worlde where not onely this mysterie but many others simply beleeued of vs in this life shall be reuealed which passe the reach of our blinde reason And where some would so moderate this Article as if it ment no more but that the force and effect of Christes death was manifested as well to the damned to exclude them from all hope as to the faithfull to encrease their comfort Luther sharpely but truely thus refuteth that fansie Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell The sense heereof is most plaine so plentifully and diligently deliuered by the Apostles But euen here haue men presuming all things of their wittes begun to dispute whether Christ were in hell as touching his soule and the substance thereof and what this meaneth that he was in hell And a great number haue dared to contradict the spirit of God that Christs soule was not in hell but by effect being for sooth handsome glozers of the word of God Thou wilt not leaue my soule that is the effect of my soule in hell Christ descended to hell that is he effected somewhat in hell but despising these friuolous and impious trifles let vs simply vnderstand the wordes of the Prophet as they are simply spoken and if we can not vnderstand them let vs faithfully beleeue them Greater is the authoritie of this Scripture then the capacitie of all mens wittes as Augustine saith For the soule of Christ according to her substance truely descended to hell To like purpose might exceeding many new writers be brought all confessing the descent of Christes soule to the very place of the damned and of the diuels that the trueth force and glory of his humane soule might appeere as well to the reprobate angels and spirits vnder earth as to the elect aboue the earth God making the humane nature of his Sonne this recompence that as he was despised and reproched by Satan in his instruments so he should be adored and feared euen of all the powers of darckenesse and wholy despose of them and their kingdome but these may suffice the sober Reader to let him see that I deliuer none other sense of that Article then hath beene formerly receaued in the church of Christ with full consent and to this day is continued in the same by many great and graue Diuines whose iudgements I need not be ashamed to follow though I confesse I depend not on their wordes farder then they conforme their writings to the word of God which in this case I take to be plaine enough howsoeuer some quarrell be made to the diuers significations of Sheol and Hades which is as easily done in other Articles of the Creed as in this if it were the part of a Christian to wrangle with euerie worde that hath sundry senses or vses in the holy Scriptures To my purpose other Scriptures doe make very much as where Christ saith Father into thine hands I commend my soule and to the thiefe that hung by him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise You bring Scriptures rather for shew then substance since they inferre no such thing as you would enforce on them The soules of the Saints liuing and dead are in the hands of