Body of Divinity, Book 5 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of CHRISTS double state of Humiliation and Exaltation.
HItherto of our Lords Natures and Offices, now of his acts by which inPs. 110. ult. Lu. 24. 26 He is called Enosh, calamitous man, Ps. 8. 5. the Apostle expounds it of him, Heb. 2. 5. See Psal. 22. 6. & 69. 1. 2. Christ speaks that there of himself (say some.) He did this as our Surety, as our Sacrifice, so he bare our sins, Psal. 40. 12. & 69. 5. compared with v. 9. & was liable to our debt, Gal. 4. 4. & 3. 13 Dan. 9. 26. there was a commutation of the person, not the debt, Isa. 53. 6. He had a negative ignorance though not a privative in his understanding, Isa. 7. 15. on this ground he is said to grow in knowledge, Luke 2. 52. was troubled in Spirit, John 11. 33. His Spirit was spent after labour, his strength weakned, Psal. 22. 14. all the creatures were against him, the good Augels withdrew themselves from him in the three hours of darknesse and approv'd of the judgement, the evil Angels set on him, John …4. 30. He was whipt and buffeted as a slave. The chief Magistrates in Church and State condemned him, the souldiers mocked and pierced him. God himself had a great hand in Christs sufferings, Isa. 53. 16. The same Greek word translated Deliver and Betray is used of God Rom. 8. 32. Jude ver. 26. Matth. 16. 21, 23. The Priests Mat. 27. 2. and Pilate. Matth. 27. 26. and of the people, John 19. 11. Acts 3. 13. God ordained Christs death, Acts 2. 23. & 4. 27, 28. 1 Pet. 2. 20. Some say God foreknows but doth not by a certain and immutable Decree predetermine. The Apostle Acts 2. mentions his determinate counsel in the first place, and in Acts 4. his hand to note his concurring power, and his counsel to note his pre-ordaining will. 2. A great part of Christs sufferings was immediately inflicted by God, Mat. 27. 46. Gal. 3. 13. 3. Christ ascribes the cup to God, John 18. 11. those Natures he fulfilled those Offices. They are all brought to a Dichotomy by our Lord himself, when he saith, Ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter into his glory? and by the Apostle St Paul, saying, He humbled himself, and God hath greatly exalted him.
First then for his Humiliation, it was of necessity for our Redemption, because he that is to satisfie for sin must bear punishment. The bearing of punishent, as being a suffering of some evil and undesirable thing, cannot be but an abasement.
This abasement was two-fold:
1. In submitting himself to obey the whole Law in our behalf in the form and quality of a servant, even as if he had been no other then a bare man, so that he was found in fashion as a man, and made in the likenesse of men, that is, was put to serve and obey as meer men are. To be subject to God and obedient to the author of being, is no abasement at all, but to be in such sort and degree subject, as if he were a meer sonne of Adam, of no more excellency then a man, this was an abasement. That the heir of some noble-man or great person be inferiour to his Father, and do whatsoever he shall imploy him in sutable to his quality and condition, is no abasement; nay it is an honour to him, but if some slave whom the son did please to affect should play the thief and runagate, and the son requesting his fathers favour in his behalf, should be answered, I am content to pardon him for your sake sonne, upon condition that you will be scullion in his room this seven years, and hereupon should serve his Father in that homely office of the kitchin for the term appointed, this now were a great abasement for the sonne. So for our Lord Jesus Christ in his Humanity to be subject and serviceable to his heavenly Father in an obedience sutable to his worth and dignity, had been no humiliation; but to be subject in the quality of a meer man, nay a sinfull man, and be put to obey the Law, and such a Law, and so to obey it as if he had been of no higher off-spring then the loins of his mother, this was a great abasing. He submitted himself to be under the authority of his mother, as another childe, and to live as a Prentice to Iosephs Trade, as another childe to go up to the Feasts to be circumcised, to bear injuries, to pray with weeping tears for sins, but our sins, and so in the rest; Here was a great and chief part of his humiliation, so our Apostle witnesseth; God sent his Sonne made of a woman, made under the Law, that he might redeem Gal. 4. 4, 5. Rom. 5. 19. He was obedient in the humane Nature alone, not in the divine. Dr Hampton.them that were under the Law, and as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Psal. 40. 6. He alludeth to the civil Ordinance, Exod. 21. 5, 6. both his ears were bored thorow, his obedience was double to that of others. Dr Hampton on Rom. 5. 19.
But this obedience was not so great a Humiliation as was requisite, a more difficult burden was required at his hands and a labour more tedious, he must suffer also those evils of all kindes which we should have *Amari…i…a… mortem dulcem, nitidam, candidam, acceptabilem reddit, dum audis Iesum Christum Filium Dei suo sanctissimo contactu omnes passiones, ipsam adeò mortem consecrasse ac sanctificasse, maledi…ionem benidixisse, ig…ominiam gl… rificasse, paupertatem ditasse, ita ut mors vitae janua, maledictio benedictionis origo, ignominia gloriae parens esse coga…tur. Luther. loc. com. primae Class. c. 6. We should look unto Christ whom we have pierced, and on all his sufferings as brought upon him by us, nothing will make sin so hateful nor Christ so dear, Vulnera Christi rutilantia sunt Biblia practica, these lead us to all duties of holinesse. The proper object of faith in justification is Christ crucified. The Angels love Christ because of the excellency and glory of his person, but not as made sinne for them. Dignites Person… primò conducit ad acceptationem. Unde enim fit quod Persona Iesu Christi, in nostram omnium vicem admittitur, nisi quod Persona jam multò dignior paenam luit, atque si omnes in mundo homines plecterentur? Secundò ad meritum. Tertiò ad compensationem. Sanford. de Descensu Christi ad inferos l. 3. p. 108.suffered, as if the fore-mentioned Sonne of some noble Personage for the winning of his Fathers favour to a runaway servant, should not be put alone to serve an apprentiship in the scullery, but also to be grievously whipped with rods, as the slave himself should have been for his offence.
The sufferings therefore of our Lord Jesus come to be considered of, which O that we could seriously consider. It were impossible for any man not to repent, not to believe, not to obey that would addresse himself to the frequent and serious meditation of these sufferings, if withall he were informed of the motive, end, and fruit of the same.
Now all of the things endured by Christ may be referred to those of his Infancy and Elder time.
First, To be born of a poor and mean parent, void of all earthly honour andEt in …ascendi s…rte, & in vivendi instituto, & in mortis genere nihil nisi humile & abjectum & sordidum infimumque spectavit & cogitavit, Quid Deo immortali minus conveniens aut decorum quam è Caelo in terram descendere? Hoc paru…. Immò in ventrem Virginis mortalis se insinuare, ibique naturam humanam mortalem, & omnibus hominis infirmitatibus obnoxiam assumere? Hoc ille fecit. Quid vero honesto homini magis probr…sum contumeliosum, indignum, quam servili supplicio, que & latrones tum puniri solebant, animam quafi criminosam per vim exbalares? Hanc ille etiam sustinere infim… abjectionis & ignomini… extrema notam voluit. Salmas. Epist. 2. ad Bartholinum de cruce. state, although she were the Heir of the greatest family and noblest bloud in the world, and had as due right as was possible to a rich and honourable Kingdom. The Virgin Mary and Ioseph both were of the famous linage of David, he the next Heir male, she the next Heir female to the crown of Israel and Iudah, but usurpers had laid violent hands upon that Principality, and the whole Tribe of Iudah, specially the linage of David was so farre depressed and obscured, that now the Heir to the Crown was unknown and neglected, and the family of such honour even raked up in the dunghill of meannesse and contempt, glad to apply themselves to base and carnal occupations, as the Carpenter or the like. This was an abasement to Christ that he was not born of Davids posterity all the while it was of esteem, note and honour in the world, but now that the Scepter was quite departed from the Tribe, now that it was even cast down to the dust, and no man of note or power in it; now must he be born of that Family, now must he take flesh of that linage.
Secondly, The manner of his birth also was very base and beggarly, for his FatherSugit ubera qui regit fidera. August. and Mother coming to Bethlehem upon occasion of taxing (when there was à great concourse of people to that little Town) were so coursly entertained, thatVagit infans, sed in coelo est; puer crescit, sed plenitudinis Deus permanet. Hilar. …. 10. de Trinit. her time of Travel being come perhaps a little before she looked for it, she was thrust into an out-house, an odd corner, a poor stable, there to cry out and be delivered without any attendance or regard. What could be more ignoble and contemptuous? The Sonne of God was born in a stable and laid in a manger, as if he had been worthy of no better esteem then a very vagrant. Thus was he born and in this simple fashion did he enter into the stage of the world, as if he had been a person of no esteem or reputation.
And thirdly, no sooner was he born, and the thing made known to the world, but that his life was sought for by the malice and craft of Herod, who had usurped that Kingdom which was due unto him. For he having notice that the King of Israel was born (as is the manner of Tyrants to seek the destruction of the right Inheritor) dissembled with the Wisemen, pretending that his purpose was to come and worship him, and learning by them what he could for that purpose, intended in very deed to have made him away, by which means he was compelled for the saving of his life to take a long and tedious journey down into Aegypt, no Question with great labour and wearinesse to himself as well as to his Parents.
Thus you have the sufferings of our Saviours Infancy; next consider his whole life, and what was it but a suffering of all misery, both in the whole course of it, and in the conclusion of all at his death.
For the course of his life it was private and publick. For his private life untillMark 6. 3. his thirty years he lived a Carpenter *Baronius thinks he made yokes, alluding thereto, in that he professeth my yoke is easie, Mat. 11. 30 Dr Prid. Introduct. for reading all sorts of Histories, c. 7. p. 51.He that was sufficient to have governed all the Monarchies under the Sunne, to have ruled the whole world, to have led mighty Armies, and to have read a Lecture of Wisdom to Angels and Archangels, he was servant to his Father, a Carpenter, and spent his time obscurely in a manual occupation, handling the Mallet and Chezil, and doing the work of a mean labourer, burying as it were all his Divine Excellencies under the thick and dark cloud of a poor Trade, and not shewing forth so much as a glympse of his heavenly glory, but that at one time at the age of twelve years he peeped a little out of the Cloud, when at a feast in Ierusalem he disputed with Doctors to the astonishment of all the hearers and beholders. He was cast down from all honour and made to inherit contempt and basenesse.
But come we to his publick life, where he was to take upon him a glorious function fit for himself, even to be the Minister of the Circumcision, a Prophet to the people Israel.
First, He entred into this function with a great toil and labour, for by and by after his Baptism and Calling to publick view, he was thrust forth into the wildernesse there to be tempted of the Devil, not for a few hours or dayes, but for full fourty dayes together. There he did challenge all the powers of darknesse, and hand to hand did enter the lists to fight a combate with all the Devils of hell. There was he singled forth, and they let loose to try the utmost of their mighty and subtil temptations, three principal ones are mentioned, but no question he stood not against so little as three thousand, for what would not Satan assay to do him mischief? What evils did he not by word or suggestion labour to draw him to? when he had him for so long a space of time at so great a disadvantage all alone in the wildernesse and fasting, he would strain himself to the utmost of his wicked wit to have poysoned him with some taint of wickednesse, that he might have killed the whole body of his Church in him the Head thereof, as he destroyed all mankinde in the first Adam the common root of it. It is certain that our Lord was armed with power and wisdom to discover and resist his temptations, and knew he should, could and would be victorious, but no doubt the combate was troublesome and tedious, and filled his righteous soul with unspeakable dolour and anguish. Let a vertuous and honourable Matron be shut up so many dayes together in one room with a base and loathsome adulterer, there to suffer all his impure solicitations, will not her misery be so much the greater in sense by how much her self is more shamefac'd and honest, and more abhorrent from all such impurity? so it was with the soul of our blessed Saviour. That great and foul polluter of himself and mankinde the Devil, had liberty given him to try what ever he could do with all his crafty and abominable temptations to draw our Lord Jesus from his God, and to make him as all other men were, a sinner. The most valiant person in the world armed with the best weapons for defence, and furnished with so much prowesse and skill that he knew he should be conquerour and unwounded, would yet finde it unspeakably troublesome to ward oft the multitude of blows of ten thousand at once, assailing him with such fiery darts and poisoned weapons, that each of them had they but fastened to draw bloud would have been mortal unto him. Had any of Satans temptations fastened on the soul of Christ, he had been made a sinner, and so separated from the Union with the second Person, and so himself with all his members that depended upon him had perished eternally. Doubtlesse though he knew he should overcome, yet the bearing off, putting by and resisting so many mighty blows and subtil thrusts must needs be extreamly tedious and bitter unto him, by how much he was more perfectly holy, and did more detest all such manner of temptations.
Thus his sufferings from Satan were horrible, though in the issue harmlesse, yea and glorious, but now thinke what he bare in his whole life after.
Five things are most intollerable to the nature of man in passing of his life, Poverty, Reproach, Labour, Danger and Sorrows, he was laden with all these in all extremity.
First for Poverty, Though he were very rich (saith St Paul) yet he became poor for 2 Cor. 8. 9.our sakes; he had been no slothful nor prodigal Person in his private life, but he was a Servant to his father in law, and the calling was poor, so that he could get nothing but from hand to mouth, and therefore being to leave his Trade, and become a Minister and Preacher of the Gospel, he had no house nor home of his own to dwell in, no stock nor revenues to live upon, but was fain to live of pure alms, and though he was no beggar aPope Nicolas the third and others maintain'd that our Saviour Christ was a very beggar and lived here in the lowest degree of beggary that can be, which Pope Iohn the 22. condemneth for an heresie. Mr Gatakers answer to Mr Walkers vindic. p. 40, 41., yet as if he had been a beggar, to maintain himself altogether by the kindenesse of others. bMat. 8. 20.The Foxes have holes, the Fowls nests, but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to rest his head. We reade of a bag he had, but it was not filled with the fruits of his own hand or stock, but with the gifts and alms of others. He had it, but he had it of alms: it was enough, but at other mens voluntary cost. What ingenuous spirit doth not feel it an abasement to be so maintained? You see his Poverty, he was of so low estate that indeed he had nothing at all, but what good people would bestow upon him.
Again, for Reproach, How insufferable a thing is that to worthy natures to be standered, reviled, ill-spoken of, and laden with false accusations and calumniations? Doth it not seem unto us a heavier thing then death? Who is not so tender of his good name that the least blemish and aspersion cast upon him, seemeth more smarting then the cutting of a sword? But our Saviour had all manner of disgraces cast upon him, not by mean, base, beggarly and despised companions; but by the Scribes, Pharisees, Elders, High-Priests and Rulers of the City, men of most fame and reputation not for command and wealth alone, but also for learning and piety. These did seek to discredit him out of their repining envy, these vilified his Person, depraved his best actions, and did cast the worst imputation they could upon him. They vilified our Saviours person by the basenesse of his parents, his kindred and profession, Is not this Iosephs son, is not Mary his mother, and his brethren Iames and Ioses, Simon and Iude? Is not he the Carpenter? They gave it forth that he was a duplicate page duplicate page drunkard, a glutton, a rioter, a companion with the basest fellows, even Publicans and sinners, they depraved his actions:
1. His Doctrine as heretical crossing Moses his Law, and treasonous that he forbad to pay tribute unto Caesar.
2. His miracles as magical, they reported that he did all those miracles for which the people did so much honour him, not by the power and singer of God, but by the black Art of hellish conjuration, even by the aid and working of Beelzebub the chief of Devils. These said he was a wicked and prophane fellow, a man that did not regard the Sabbath of the Lord. These were bold to lay to his charge that horrible and sacrilegious crime of blasphemy, saying, Why doth this man blaspheme? and for thy blasphemy we seek to stone thee. Lo! to be traduced of men famous for knowledge and religion, and for honour and wealth, as a boon companion, as a wine bibber, a fellow for harlots, a prophane polluter of the Sabbath, an horrible blasphemer of God; this was the bitter cup which our Lord Jesus was fain to drink. Could he suffer greater and more intollerable ignominy? Nay at one time they were so audacious as to tell him to his face, Thou art mad and hast a Devil?
Now consider thirdly his Labour, his travel on foot, many a weary step and long journey from Galilee to Ierusalem, from Ierusalem to Galilee, and from quarter to quarter, and Countrey to Countrey, sometimes on foot with sweat and toil till he was even weary and tired again, glad to sit down and rest him, as once at the Well of Iacob, sometimes by Sea in a Ship when the furious windes conspired against him, and raised such a storm, as if the ship must have been swallowed up in the vast belly of the waves, and as if the Devil would have watched his opportunity to have drowned him sleeping; for as for riding upon a beast he never took that ease unto himself except alone one time, and that the last of all that he went to Ierusalem, and then poorly mounted upon the bare back of a silly fole of an Ass that was never accustomed to the saddle before, with a jerkin or a coat or two cast on him in stead of better furniture. A toilsom life indeed to do nothing else but go afoot from City to City, and sometimes also to be ready to be prest to death with the throng of a rude and unmannerly multitude. You have his Labours, now consider
Fourthly, His Dangers. He lived in quietnesse and safety enough during his Carpenters imployment, but when he came to be a Minister he was still persecuted. At Nazareth his own City where he was not born but bred up, the first SermonLuke 4. 29. (as I think) that ever he preached there, because he was somewhat plain in telling them of their faults, they laid violent hands upon him, and would have broke his neck down a steep hill on which the Town was built. After as he grew more famous for wonders, so he was more hated and maligned by the Rulers, many times they conspired to take and intrap him, sent Officers to apprehend him,Mark 3. 6, 7. John 8. 59. took up stones to dash out his brains, and commanded that whosoever knew where he was should make it known that they might apprehend him, and that he which would confesse him to be the Christ should be excommunicated, insomuch that he was called A stone of offence, and a sign to be spoken against; and he saith, The world hateth me, yea they have hated me without a cause; Insomuch that he could not walk openly amongst them, but was fain to hide himself after a sort, and to flie for his life, for they were scarce ever without some or other device to take him and put him to death. You have heard of his Perils, let us speak
Fifthly of his Sorrows, He was a man of Sorrows, full of grief and tears, for he was not a stone or a piece of iron that all these things did not touch him, but he was sensible of these evils, and felt the heat of his Fathers displeasure against him for our sins, for which he had undertaken to answer in all these things, and especially the memorial of his last passion did wonderfully grieve and trouble him, Luk. 12. 50. How am I straitned or pained till it be accomplished? not with such a grief as made him unwilling to come to it, but with such as made him desire that it were once over. He often set his thoughts a work upon his last sufferings, he foretold his Disciples of it some four or five times, no question but he considered of it himself many hundred times, and not one of them without a vehement working of sorrow, as if one of us should know that some two or three year hence he must be put to the rack, or burned at a stake, he could not but bestow full many a heavy thought upon that hour; so did our Lord, without all controversie, with many frequent requests, and humble, tearfull, mournfull prayers, supplicating to God for aid and help against that hour, according as the many complaints and praiers made by David his Type in the Psalms, do manifestly evince.
Now come we to the last scene of this Tragedy, his end: The conclusion of hisThe Psalmist expresseth Christs trouble by roaring, Psal. 22. 1. The Apostle Heb. 5. 7. by strong crying and tears. Those words foreign, Matth. 26. 37. foreign, Mark 14. 33. foreign ▪ are emphaticall, see them opened in my Greek Critica. Tanta sudoris copia ut non corpus humectaret solum, sed etiam in terram caderet. Non sudor aqueus sed sanguineus, nec guttae sed grumi, cui exemplo quod unquam auditum simile, nedum aequale? Chamierus Tom. 2. l. 5▪ c. 13 Vide Sandfordum de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 203. ad finem. life (just like a Tragedy) was most distressed and lamentable of all the other parts, whether you consider the things he suffered from God immediatly; or the things he endured before, in, and after his death.
The first and great work of his Passion was the agony and bloudy sweat, grief, astonishment and extream heavinesse which he sustained in the garden. He began to be heavy and greatly grieved, saith one Evangelist: and To be astonished, saith another: and He was in an agony, saith the third; in so much that great drops of bloud trickled from him to the ground. The two tormentingst passions that man doth wrestle withall in this life, more insufferable then any rack or disease of the body are sorrow and fear, which if they be in the greatest extremity that can be are the greatest miseries that can be. Now so they were in him, for the word saith, he complained thus, My soul is sorrowfull round about even to death; so much as was enough to have killed him, not with the suddennesse of it, for that kils easily and quickly, but with the extream inwardnesse and weight of it, and his fear is called astonishment and amazement.
There is 1. An amazement of wonder in regard of the strangenesse of some accident beheld, as the people were amazed at Christs miracles and doctrine.
2. An amazement of horror, when a man stands agast and astonished at the greatnesse of some evil befalling him or like to befall him, and so was our Saviour taken with the highest degree of fear, even amazement, Mark 14. 33. It was not such a fear as did drive him out of his wits, or take away from him the use of reason, but such as did even surcharge his soul and so afflict him, (that as we use to say) he knew not what to do nor how to bear it, these two passions put him in an aAn agony is the perplexed fear of one who is entring into a great and grievous conflict, Timor quo corripitur is qui in certamen descendit. Arist. Irenaeus saith the year of his age wherein he suffered, was about the Fiftieth, which he voucheth to be an Apostolical tradition. The ground of his opinion was, Iohn 8. 57. The common received opinion is, That he suffered being thirty three compleat, and in the beginning of his thirty four. Scaliger addeth one year more, and placeth his Passion in the beginning of his thirty five. Non timeretur ille qui potest nocere, nisi haberet quandam eminentiam potestatis, cui de facili resisti non possit: ea enim quae in promptu habemus repellere, non timemus. In Christo fuit timor Dei: non quidem secundum quod respicit malum separationis à Deo per culpam, neque etiam secundum quod respicit malum punitionis pro culpa, sed secundum quod respicit ipsam Divinam eminentiam: prout scilicet anima Christi quodam affectu reverentiae movebatur in Deum, à Spiritu sancto acta. Aquin. part. 3. Q. 16. Art. 6.agony, that is to say an extraordinary great strife or wrestling. The infinite wrath of God due to him for our sins, as much as if he had committed them (for the surety is as much liable to the paiment of the debt, as if he had in person borrowed the mony himself for himself) did discover it self to him in all extremity, procuring to him the extreamest sorrow that might be, because he felt the tediousnesse of it for the present, and the extreamest fear that might be, because he feared the continuance of it for the future, not with a fear of reason that did doubt of the event of his sufferings, but with a passion of fear, which the beholding of a terrible thing, so terrible as Gods infinite anger will stirre up in a creature, though he be never so sure to escape it, and hence came that extream conflict which dissolved his flesh and made him sweat bThat is not …ound, that one drop of Christs bloud was enough to redeem the world. Pope Clement the sixth first used that speech, That one drop of Christs bloud was enough to save men, and the rest was laid up in the Treasury of the Church▪ Luk. 22. 44. Divine justice would not let go the sinner without a ransome, nor the Redeemer without full satisfaction. I am loath to beleeve that either the Father was so prodigall of his Sons life, or that the Son was so carelesse of his own bloud, that he would have poured out all, if one drop would have served the …n. D. Hampton on Rom. 10. 4. See M. Pinchins Meritorious price of Redempt. part 2. p. 88, 89, 90, 91.bloudy drops, whilst his faith and obedience strove against his fear and sorrow to keep him from murmuring or impatient fits, from all repenting of his having undertaken the work, from all doubting or despairing of Gods love or unwillingnesse to go through with the work, but to hold his heart still in the highest pitch of obedience, which he shewed, saying, Matth. 26. 39. Not my will, that is, natural desire, not resolute purpose be fulfilled, but thine.
Hence the Schools distinguish of a double will in Christ: 1. His Divine will, so as God he desired the same thing with his Father. 2. Humane, and that is either Voluntas desiderii naturalis, the bent of nature to its own conveniency; or Veluntas desiderii rationalis & deliberati, his sanctified judgement submitted the desires of humane nature to the will of God. Here is no repugnancy but a diversity of wills. Christ is to be considered under a different relation, in the first part of the prayer he speaks as man; in the second as Mediatour, see Matth. 26. 42. Heb. 4. 16. 2. If we consider Christ as man, there is no repugnancy of wills; we must distinguish between the innocent vellieties of humane nature, and the resolutions of reason.
This prayer was conceived, 1. With submission, If it be possible, not my will.
2. Drawn forth upon convenient reason.
If it be objected, How could this stand with Christs holinesse, the Law requires a conformity in the first motions and the very inclinations of the heart?
It may be answered, 1. That Christs sufferings were rather appointed by Gods Decree then his Law.
2. Suppose Gods Decrees were a Law to Christ, as they were to him being a Mediator, yet positive Laws blot not out natural affections: Though Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son, yet he was to have a natural affection to save his life. Christ was indeed obliged to this, and it was a duty in him to declare
1. His bitter sense of Gods wrath, Psal. 90. 11.
2. The reality of his humane nature, by abhorring what was destructive to it.
3. To shew his esteem of Divine consolation.
Now Gods Justice was satisfied, now his Name was honoured with an obedience as honourable to him as all the service of all the men in the world could have been. Thus did our blessed Saviour suffer in the garden from God alone.
Then follows from the Jews, his Apostles and friends, and his enemies, and the common people.
His Apostles, one betraies him, sels him for ready money, and for a little too,See Exod. 21. 32. Matth. 26. 15. Rectè hic ex More N…bo…him observavit Cl. Drusius in Praeter. pretium servi fuisse triginta siclos arg…tcos, liberi verò sexaginta. Servator ergo non liberi, sed servi pretio …stimatus est. De Dieu in loc. Iudas for love of mony was content to sell his Master, it may be he thought not to death, but that his Master might shift away and deliver himself by miracle, and he get the mony; for when he …aw that the Lord must die, he was grieved. M. Richardson in his Manuscript. the price of a slave, thirty silverlings, so many half crowns, in all three pound fifteen shillings. Lo the goodly price at which the Pharisees and this Iudas valued him, O infinite indignity! But what did the other disciples, Most of them left him and fled: The Shepherd was smitten and the flock was scattered; they afforded him no more assistance then a company of sheep would to him that tended them, if theeves come to murder him; but runne one this way, another that, and left their Saviour all alone; in the same sort did all his friends that had received so many and great benefits from him by his miraculous cures of themselves or their friends, they all disappeared, not one would open his lips to defend and justifie him against the leud aspersions that were cast upon him; but one of his disciples among all the rest denies him, forswears, abjures him.
Now for his enemies the Pharisees, first they send their ministers and servants with the Traitor to take him, who coming to the place laid violent hands upon him, and binding his hands behinde him, like a thief they carry him away to them that had appointed them that service. Secondly, Themselves hire false and perjured wretches to bear witnesse against him of many things, and when that course would not take effect, at last upon his own most true, holy and constant consession, that he was (as indeed he was) the Son of God; in solemn manner, with pretended gravity and grief, and with rent garments, the high Priest stands up and condemns him of blasphemy and unto death, to which sentence each of the Elders gave his suffrage. Then the servants buffet him with their gracelesse hands, spit on himThey accuse him of blasphemy the highest sin against the first Table, and sedition the highest sin against the second. with their slovenly mouthes, and mock and jest at him with their petulant tongues▪ and thus they passe away the time abusing him all night, till in the morning early the high Priests (quickly up for a bad businesse) bring him to the Civil Governour, and there accuse him of the falsest crimes that might be, Sedition and Treason, as if he forbad to pay Tribute, moved the people, and sought to make himself a King; besides his blasphemy in counterfeiting (as they interpreted it) to be the Son of God.
Now see what he suffers from the Gentiles and Jews both together. Pilate cPilate was his proper name, and he was called Pontius of Pontia an Iland the place where he was born that lay near to Italy. Ille Pilatus, qui tempore Christi praefidem egerat, sub Caio, in tantas incidisse calamitates fertur, ut necessitate compulsus, ultro sibi manum intulerit, suique ipsius interemptor, divina illa ultrone, ut par erat, non diu parcente factus est. Eus. Hist. Eccles. l. 2. c. 7.to rid his hands of him sends him to Herod, Herod intertains him with mocks and taunts, and sends him away scoffingly araied in purple. Pilate dares not loose him, but to please the people and asswage their rage by a little yielding causeth him to be sorely scourged dChrists bloud was shed seven times, Circumcisione, horto, corona, flagellatione, manibus, pedious, corde. Numb. 19. 4. Levit. 8. 11. Isaiah calleth the torments preceding his death with an elegant word …a…urah, Isa. 53. 5. and Peter foreign, 1 Pet. 2. 24. Christs body was beat with scourges, soedum supplicium, as a Schoolman cals it, a pain so base as might not be inflicted on a Burgesse of Rome. He was whipt twice as is thought and that cruelly, after the manner of the Romans, to move the people to compassion; by four, as is gathered by the parting of his robes into four parts, and those four all souldiers. A Spanish Postiller writes, that the Jews fearing Pilate would discharge him after stripes, gave mony to the Officers to scourge him to death. D. Clerke. Christ was twice whipt with rods: 1. Before the sentence of condemnation given, for that end that he might have been set free; and after condemnation, ex instituto capitali. He was whipt most grievously, for so Psal. 128. 3. shews. Montac. Orig. Eccles. Tom. prior. Part. post. In crowning him with thorns, the souldiers did not only wreath him a thick crown of thorns, to stick his head full of them, but after the putting it on, to fasten it, they did strike him on the head with their canes, as Matth. 27. & Mark 15. do plainly testifie. So big were the nails with which they nailed him to the Crosse (as the Ecclesiasticall History reporteth) that Constantine made of them a bridle and helmet for his own use. B Bils. Full Redempt. of mankinde by the death of Christ. pag. 5, 6. Mortuus est in juventae vigore, hoc est annos tres & triginta natus, ut magis charitatem erga nos ostenderet, & paternis jussibus obsequentiam, tum enim posuit vitam, quum erat vivere jucundissimum. Lod. Viv. de verit. Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15.with rods, according to the manner of the Romans, till his back was all gore bloud, and his skin and flesh torn with wounds and wailes, and then clapping a Crown of piercing thorns upon his head, he brings him forth in this fashion to be gazed upon by the people, who all shouting and hooting at him out of disdain, as accounting him undoubtedly a blasphemous impostor, because pretending to be the Messiah, from whom they looked for the restitution of their earthly Kingdom; he was so farre from doing that, as now he could not (so they thought) deliver himself from the hands of men. Then Pilate sets him in balance with a seditious murderer, and they require the murderer to be saved and him to be crucified; renouncing him and denying him before Pilate, as not the lawfull King of the Jews, but a grand Impostor, and will have no nay, but with importunate clamours inforce the timerous Judge to condemn him. Now is sentence solemnly pronounced upon him, That for as much as he was a Seditious person, a Traitor, and one that went about to usurp the Kingdom against the Royal dignity of C…sars Imperiall Majesty, therefore he should be taken by the Roman Officers and led to a place without the City, where malefactors▪ used according to the fashion of the Romans, with their basest slaves to be nailed to a Crosse, and so hang till they were dead. No sooner was the sentence passed but that it began to be executed. The souldiers seize upon him, and having gotten him as a Dove among Kites, a Sheep among Lions, they sport themselves with mocking, deriding and abusing him by words and gestures of counterfeit honour, which are the greatest dishonours, thereby upbraiding him with folly that would needs make a King of himself.
To the place of crucifying they lead him bearing his own Crosse, till he being spent with watching, bleeding, wearinesse and grief, was no longer able to bear it; then they compelled another whom they met to bear one end of it after him. So being arrived at the dismall place of dead mens skuls, they offer him the potion of malefactors, wine mingled with myrrhe, as it is thought to intoxicate his brain, which he refusing, they stretch his hands and legs till all his bones might be told, and so nailing one hand to one horn of the Crosse, the other to the other, and his feet to the stump at the bottom, they leave him hanging, and that also betwixt two theeves, with a scornfull superscription of his fault, I. N. R. I.
Ierusalem was chosen for the place of his suffering, Ibi peractum est verum hoc & summum sacrificium, ubi reliqua legis sacrificia umbrae istius. Ludovic. Viv. de verit. Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15.
His soul The great misery that Christ underwent was in his soul, when the Lord poured on him pure wrath, Matth. 26. 38. The redemption of mankinde is called The travel of his soul, Isa. 53. 10. Papists and Socinians say Christ suffered only in his body, that his soul suffered but sympatheticè and secondarily; but bodily sufferings could not make satisfaction for the sins of the soul: lusts fight against the soul; where the greatest debt was there must be the chiefest satisfaction. Christ as our Surety must pay our whole debt; the whole man is bound to the Law, but principally the soul, sin is primarily against that: they sinned against their own souls, Numb 16. See Micah 6. 9. The sufferings of the body will never make a man perfectly miserable; It is not pure darknesse till the inward man be dark. 2. The whole man was under the curse, Gal. 3. 13. The body is but one part of the man, therefore that could never pay the whole debt of the curse. 3. Christ took soul and body and the infirmities of both, that in them both he might make a sacrifice, Isa. 53. 10. 4. Else many Martyrs suffered more then Christ, for they suffered greater bodily torments; some were cut in pieces, some sawn as under, yet they suffered with rejoycing, because their spirits were filled with the consolations of God; but the Lord withdrew the light of his countenance from Christ. 5. Christs sufferings in soul began before his bodily sufferings, in the garden when he was in an agony. Some say Christ was not silius irae, because he was the Son of God, but filius sub ira, as a Surety. Vide Grot. de satis. Christ. c. 1. p. 11. & Sandford. de Descen. Christ. ad Inferos, p. 130, ad 152. & Rivet. Disput. 13. desatisf. Christ.was filled with unspeakable grief in the sense of the curse of the Law which there he bare, and so vehement was his anguish that he cried out for thirst, when they gave him the cold comfort of a little vinegar and gall, with a scoff to make it relish the bitterer, Let us see if Elias will come. All the people wagge their heads at him; the Pharisees they insult over him, with Oh thou that didst destroy the Temple. His poor mother and some friends stood by and lamented him, till at the end of three full hours, he mightily crying did give up the ghost into his Fathers hands. So he died a most vile and shamefull death, a most hard and painfull, a most execrable and cursed death, the death of the Crosse.
The death of the Crosse was 1. A shamefull fIt was usual with Pagans (as Chrysostom writes) to upbraid Christians with tu adoras crucifixū. Heading, stoning or burning is not so odious among any people as hanging is, among us it is called in special reproach A dogs death, Abeat in malam crucem.death, Heb. 12. 2. & 13. 13. Isa. 53. 12. A filthy death, Alexander ab Alexandro so termeth it, Mors turpissima, Bernard. Therefore Iulian called Christ the crucified or staked God: And the Jews continue still in railing on Christ and cursing him, and ignominiously call him Talui, him that was hanged, in which the Christians glory, Gal. 6. 14. They teach their children to curse Christ. The Turks mock us at this day with our crucified God. He died In medio latronum tanquam latronum maximus. He was counted a malefactour by wicked men, Matth. 26. 65. Good men lookt on him as an Impostor, Luk. 24. 21. God lookt on him as a malefactour, Heb. 9. 28.
Tully Orat. ad Verrem tertia.saith, Facinus est vincire civem Romanum, scelus verberare, quid dicam in crucem tollere? It is a great offence to binde a Citizen of Rome, a greater to beat him, the greatest to set him on the Crosse.
2. It is a painfull death, He endured the crosse, Heb. 12. 2. Christs strong cries likeMor… cousixorum in cruce est acerbissima; quia configuntur in locis nervosis & maximè sensibilibus, scilicet in manibus & pedibus, & ipsum pondus corporis pendentis continuè a…get dolorem, & cum hoc etiam est doleris diut…rnitas; quia non statim in oriuntur, ficut hi qui gladio interficiuntur. Magnitudo doloris Christi potest considerari ex preceptibilitate patientis, & secundum animam & secundum corpus. Nam & secundum corpus erat optimè complexionatus, cum corpus ejus fuerit formatum miraculosè operatione Spiritus sancti: sicut & alia, quae per miracula facta sunt, fuerint aliis potiora, & ideo in eo maximè viguit sensus tactus, ex cujus preceptione sequitur dolor. Anima etiam secundum vires interiores, efficacissimè apprehendit omnes causas tristitiae. Aquin. part. 3. Quaest. 46. Artic. 6. Vide Lactant. Div. Instit l. 4. p. 288, 289, 250. Quatuor causae sunt cur Christus crucis mortem sustinere voluerit. Prima, Quia accrbissima. Secunda, Quia ignominiosissima. Tertia, Quia gentilis non Iudaica erat. Quarta, Quia significabatur eam fieri pro salute omnium credentium ubicunque illi terrarum essent, quod etiam representabatur expansione manuum. Quo nimirum & Christus allusit, Joh. 12. 32. Mors & crucifixio Christi in lege quoque adumbrata est, sacrificio ventilationis quae sursum ac deorsum, dextrorsum ac sinestrorsum agitabatur. Paul. Fag. Annotat. in Deut. 21. 22. In ligno moritur Dominus, hoc est mysterium peregit salutis, quoniam & lignum perniciem ac mortem attulerat. Genus est mor…is non solum ignominiosum, sed durissimum, & prope intolerabile. Lod. Vir. de ver. Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15. womens in their travell, argued strong pain, Acts 2. 24. see Lament. …. 24. Bruising hath pain, Gen. 3. 15. Isa. 53. 10. He was nailed in the hands and feet the most sinewy and sensitive parts, Psal. 22. 16.
3. It was a cursed death, Gal. 3. 13. that is, yielded himself to a cursed death for us; so the Fathers glosse it. It was a cursed death by the decree and appointment of God, Deut. 21. 23. Christs hanging on the Crosse seems to be prefigured by the Heave offering, of which the Law makes mention: and the brazen Serpent, Numb▪ 21. 1. was a Type of Christ crucified, Iohn 3. 14, 15. & 12. 32, 33. The reason was, That he might free us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. The Prince of darknesse would not let so great an advantage passe without proving once more whether in this last hideous pang of death he might not prevail to have fastened some stain of sinne upon the pure soul of that immaculate and now dying Lamb of God. He could not have fitly been said to have triumphed over them on the Crosse, if he had not properly grappled and fought with them there, wherefore assuredly the whole band of that hellish kingdom of darknesse was let loose upon our Saviour, he having at once the Creator and the creatures, men and devils against him, and yet maintaining himself in perfect faith and patience, might indeed make a full satisfaction to the Divine justice for the miserable disobedience of man.
Christ died for the reprobate five waies.
1. By way of proclamation, Remission of sins is proclaimed to thee if thou wilt beleeve, Luke 24. 47. Act. 13. 38. & 10. 43.
2. By way of obligation, Thou art bound to beleeve that thy sins may be forgiven thee in Christ, Mark 1. 15. Rom. 7. 2.
3. By way of obsignation.
4. By way of generall merit, Iohn 3. 16.
5. By way of special intention too, for all that thou knowest, Act. 8. 22. M. Fenners Hidden Manna.
That is an Argument of great fame but little credit used by the Arminians hHoc argumentum Hofmannū ▪ Theologum quendam Augustanae confessionis Auctorem habuit, qui id primus extrusit. Avidè id exceptum fuit ab Arminio & ejus sequacibus, qui illi obstetricati sunt cum cur â. Spanhem. de Grat. Univers. part. 3. p. 1558, &c. Vide plura ibid., Quod unusquisque tenetur credere, hoc verum, &c. That which every one is bound to beleeve, is true: But every one is bound to beleeve that Jesus Christ died for him, Therefore it is true that Jesus Christ died for every one.
The first object of faith is not to beleeve that Christ died for us, but that there isThey are grossely mistaken that will make Jesus Christ to die for all, so as to make them salvabiles if they will, and yet cannot say that either God hath given Christ to all, or given all to Christ, or that the Spirit of God will apply that redemption to all. There is an adequation or commensuration betwixt the three Persons in the Trinity and their workings for the salvation of Saints. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Dr. Hill on Ephes. 4. 15. See Mr. Gillesp. Miscel, c. 22. salvation in no other, Act. 4. 12. To beleeve that Christ died for me is one of the heights of Religion, Rom. 8. 33. Gal. 2. 20. Faith is grounded on the word, assurance on experience. A wicked man going on in sin is not bound to beleeve that Christ died for him. Adams disobedience is generall and universall, not in power alone, but in act too, it maketh all sinners. The obedience of Christ hath a potentiall universality, and is sufficient to make all righteous, but actually it justifies the faithfull only, Dr Hampton on Rom. 5. 19.
Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to beleeve in Christ according to the first degree of faith, Iohn 3. 18. that is, by a true and lively assent to beleeve, That Jesus is the Saviour of all that truly beleeve in him, and having this faith thou art bound to beleeve that he is thy Saviour, that he died for thy sins, and rose again for thy justification; but every individual person is not bound to beleeve that Christ died for him, for then the greater part of men should be bound to beleeve untruths, so some answer it.
Others say that all generally have the offer of Christ to whom the Gospel is preached, Act. 13. 38, 39. yet Christ died not alike for all as the Arminians hold, but for the Elect more especially, so as not only to save them if they beleeve, but also that they may beleeve and so be saved, Iohn 17. 2, 6, 9. Acts 13. 48. Phil. 1. 29. Vide Davenant. Dissertat. de morte Christi. Mori pro aliquo, propriè est, morte sua aliquem à morte liberare, seu mori alicujus loco, ut ipse vivat. 2 Sam. 18. 33. Rom. 5. 6, 8. 2 Cor. 5. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 16. & 4. 9. Act. Synod. nation. Dordrecht. Artic. 2. exam. Vide plura ibid.
Testatur Scriptura Christum pro omnibus mortuum, nusquam autem pro singulis, nec disertis nec aequivalentibus verbis. Quamobrem Omnes in hac propositione, aut not at gentes pariter & Iudaeos, Rom. 3. 9. aut not at varia hominum genera, ut 1 Tim. 2. 5. aut denique omnes & singulos fideles, ut 2 Cor. 5. 14, 15. Id. ib. p. 133. Vide plura ibid. Ponit enim aliquando Scriptura pro omnibus multos. Gen. 17. 4. & 22. 18. Aug. de Civit. Dei. l. 20. c. 23.
Now after his death follow two things more for his further humbling, viz. his burial and his descending into hell.
For his burial, the Scripture is plain in it, Matth. 27. 59, 60. Luke 23. 53. andThis was so clear, as that there was an order of Knighthood of the Sepulchre; so at this day the Turk maketh a great commodity for letting travellers to go in and see the Sepulcher, Estey. A West-Indian King having been well wrought upon for his conversion to the Christian Religion, and having digested the former Articles, when he came to that, He was crucified, dead and buried, had no longer patience, but said, If your God be dead and buried, leave me to my old God the Sun, for the Sun will not die. there are good reasons for it.
1. To fulfill the Scripture, Isa. 53. 9.
2. To shew that he was truly dead, for none but those that are dead use to be buried; and Pilate would not grant that he should be buried, untill by diligent search he found that Christ was dead.
3. To bury sinne, Rom. 6. 4.
4. That his resurrection might be the more evident, to which the manner of his buriall belonged; for therefore was he laid in a new sepulchre, in which none yet ever lay, least they should say that he rose again not by his own vertue, but by the touch of some other there buried, 2 King. 13. 21.
5. To sanctifie our burial, and sweeten the grave to us.
6. That he might conquer death in his strongest hold, Iob 17. 13.
It was an honour to be buried of so worthy a man and with such store of ointment,Mark 15. 46. John 19. 38. but to be put prisoner into the dungeon of death the iIsa. 53. 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement. His prison was the grave, and he died under a judgement, that is, a sentence of condemnation. The Angel was sent as a publick Minister of justice to roll away the stone, and let the prisoner go, when the debt was paid.grave, and to seem to be swallowed up of death by giving so farre way unto it, that it might also bear him as it were captive into its strongest hold, this was an abasement. Had our Saviour rose again so soon as the souldier had run him through the midriff with a spear; or so soon as Ioseph had taken him down from the Crosse, and then shewed himself in glory in an instant, all his enemies would have been dismaied, and he should have put them to confusion; but in tarrying so long afore he rose till he might be laid in a Tomb as other dead men are, he even yielded himself, as it were, for a space to the flouts of his enemies, this was to abase him yet lower then dying.
Now for Christs descending into hell there is a deal of quarrelling about itkHunc Articulum Theologorum crucem non immeritò nuncupare possumus, adeo illos torquet & vexat. foreign descendit ad inferos vel ad infernum. This is the only Article (say some) which proves the immortality of the soul. The question amongst us is, Whether Christ descended locally in soul into the hell of the damned, or virtually by the power of his Godhead., in so much that one saith, It is a kinde of descent into hell to reade the Controversies about it. This Article is grounded on most evident words of Scripture, Psal. 16. 10. Acts 2. 25. St Austin might justly say, Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud Inferos Christum? And all men agree in this (as Bellarmine de Christo l. 4. c. 6. hath well observed) that Christ some way descended into hell, but the question (saith he) is altogether about the exposition of this Article, for the whole difficulty lieth in the word Hell.
The Word Scheol is taken four waies in Scripture.
1. For the grave, Psal. 16. 10.
2. For the place of the damned, Luke 16. 23.
3. For the torments of hell, 1 Sam. 2. 6.
4. For extream humiliation or abasement, Isa. 14. 15.
In like manner (saith lTom. 2. part. 1.Altingius) to descend into hell is taken four waies.
1. To be buried, Gen. 42. 38.Mr. Perkins following Solinius on the Augustane Confession in this Article (as he doth much on the whole Creed) mentions four several expositions, but in stead of this last, he hath another, that Christ was held captive in the grave, and lay in bondage under death for the space of three daies. Altingius Problem. Theol. part. 1. prob 44. much magnifies this Interpretation, as true, pious and agr…eable to the Creed▪ and approved of by great Divines, Calvin, Beza, Danaeus, Ursin, Paraeus, and by publick Confessions of the Church.
2. To come into the place of the damned, Numb. 16. 33.
3. To feel the torments of hell, 1 Sam. 2. 6.
4. Extreamly to be abased, Matth. 11. 23.
I shall rehearse four severall expositions of this Article, and deliver my judgement at last.
First, Some Interpret it of the inward sorrows of Christs soul, which were very great, as the Scripture testifieth, Mark 14. 33, 34. and as appears by Christs prayer thrice repeated to his Father that the cup might passe from him, by his agony and bloudy sweat, Luke 22. 24. By his words uttered upon the Crosse; and lastly by that testimony of the Apostle, Heb. 5. 7. The word Hell is often put Metaphorically for great and grievous troubles here suffered, Psal. 18. 5. & 116. 3. Psal. 86. 13. Ionah 2. 2. But this exposition can in no wise stand with the order and series of the Creed, for since there is mention made of Christs descent into hell after his death and burial, it cannot be understood of that which happened before his death.
They which expound this Article thus, give this reason thereof. The formerVide Sandford… de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 4. words, Was crucified, dead and buried, do contain (say they) the outward sufferings of Christ. Now because he suffered not only outwardly in body, but also inwardly in soul, therefore these words may be so interpreted. But this reason is invalid, for neither is it true, that by the first words only bodily torments are expressed, but those of the soul also are meant; for Christ was wounded for our transgressions, bore our iniquities, and made his soul an offering for sin: And by the words of David and Peter (whence this Article hath its foundation and originall) it is most evident that these words ought to be understood of that which Christ suffered after death: For the word Hell is not to be taken otherwise in the Creed then in those places of Scripture whence the Creed is taken; but it is manifest to any one that is not altogether blind, that David and Peter speak of that which happened to Christ after his death.
Secondly, Others say that Christ after his Passion upon the Crosse, did really and locally descend into the place of the damned.Vide Bellarm. de Christ. l. 4. c. 8, 12.
Many of the Ancient Fathers, the Papists, some Lutherans and Protestants follow this Exposition. One Reverend Divine, now with God, held that Christ descended locally into hell to suffer in his soul the miseries of the damned, and urgedSome hold that Christ went to the place of the damned, and there preached, and that as many as beleeved in him and were converted were thence delivered. for his opinion Ephes. 4. 9. where the Apostle (saith he) makes Christs descending into the lowest parts of the earth in such a kinde of suffering in the locall hell, opposite to his ascending farre above all heaven, as the highest degree of advancement and lowest degree of abasement that could befall a creature. And Acts 2. 24. 31. to take soul (said he) there for the dead corpse is so hard a kinde of phrase, that howsoever it must be yielded to in some places where the circumstances of the place and the thing spoken of compelleth, yet so to take it in a place where there is no such necessity, seemeth unreasonable. The literall text therefore here (saith he) is agreeable to those texts which speak of Christs sufferings, He made his soul Bellarm. de Christ. l. 3. c. 16.a sacrifice for sin, which could not be so well done any way, as by giving it to suffer the fulnesse of Gods wrath in the place of extreamest torment, which mightSome say he descended into hell that there he might shew himself a conquerour, and might triumph over the devil, as it were, in his own Kingdom. See B. Bils. Redempt. of Mankinde. Dr Prid. Serm. Moutac. Orig Eccles. Tom-prior part. posteriore, p. 442, 443, 444. But the de…cent into hell which the Creed expresseth, and the Scripture intimates did belong to his humiliation, Phil. 2. 8. but his triumphall descent would rather have been an exaltation. seem to be signifed by burning the sin-offering after it was killed *The Paschal Lamb was to be not alone killed but rosted after., to shew that not alone death was suffered by our Saviour, but also the torments of hell; and the words of mPsal. 16. 10. Christus secundum animam post ejus emigrationem, verè & localiter detrusus est in carcerem infernalem; ut execratio pro nobis factus, per i…enarrabiles inferorum animae suae cruciatus, nostras anim as liberatas ab aeternis angoribus & cruciatibus inferui, immunes praestaret. Lavater. de Descensu. Sandford de Descensu Christ. ad Infer. l. 4. Hoc idem censet & Latimerus noster in concione quadam quae inter alias ejusdem extat. Some Papists say that Christ went not down to hell but to the upper skirts and brims of it, where the Fathers were floting, to fetch them thence: but the Fathers were not there, but were saved by the same faith we are, Acts 15. 11. Vide Sandford. de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 2. p. 16. usque ad 36. & l. 4. p. 83, 84, &c.David (saith he) Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, may very fitly import so much, when he speaks of it as of a strange thing that a soul should be in hell and not left there. And Peter, Acts 2. 24. telling us, that God did loose the pains of death, might seem to import so much, seeing the pains of death may well be interpreted, those pains which follow after death, and in regard of which to those that know what death is, death is only painfull; otherwise from the pains of natural death, Christ was no more freed, neither were they more loosed from him then from every other man, seeing every man sees an end of his outward torments by dying. Paul also might mean this in mentioning of a cursed death, andGal. 3. 13. saying, He did bear the curse for us: The greatest part of the curse of the Law is, To be cast into the place of the damned, and into their torments, though not into the sinfull things that accompany their torments. David as a figure of ChristPsal. 86. 13. saith in one Psalm, Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell: Now the lowest hell is not the grave, but the infernal pit which is farre lower then the grave: This (saith the same worthy Divine) commends Gods justice and mercy, andSee Ps. 99. 1, 2. Christs love, and shews the abominablenesse and vilenesse of our sins, more then any thing else could do. All this notwithstanding, others hold that Christs locall descent into hell is an unwarrantable conceit, and contrary to the word of truth and sound reason. Vide Sandford. de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 36, &c.If Christ went to hell to endure those torments that we might not endure them, then he ought to have descended thither, both in soul and body, since both our bodies and souls must have suffered those torments but for Christ.
Neither in the Creed nor Scriptures, where mention is made of hell with relation to Christ, is the word gehenna used, which is alwaies restrained to the hell of the damned; but foreign which word designes the state of the dead in generall, and is used of all with no difference.
In all the New Testament it occurres but once, Luke 16. 23. where necessarily itFor that place Eph. 4. 9. By the lower parts of the earth Grotius understands the earth in which men live, where Christ exercised his divine power. See Tim. 3. 16 Others interpret it of the grave, which is called the heart of the earth, Matth. 12. 20. See my Annotat. Acts 2. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, id est, me, frequens Hebraismus, non relinques me diu sub regno mortis Grotius. The soul is used by a Synecdoche often in the Psalmes, (whence this place is taken) for me, Psal. 7. 2, 4. & 3. 2. & 11. 1. & 17. 3. See vers. 11. of this Chapter. By hell is signified the state of the dead, though they were godly and in joy. See Gen. 37. 35. Psal. 6. 5. The same is said twice in Acts 2. after the Prophets manner, and the latter words expound the former. Christ suffered not the pains of hell in specie or loco, that is, either in kinde or place; but some think that he suffered pains and punishments conformable and answerable to them in extremity, that only excepted which is sin, or consequent upon the inherence and eternity of the sin of such as are punished id hell. Dr. Field of the Church, l. 5. c. 17. Some say the torments of hell are 1. Essential, the wrath of God upon the soul, and that Christ underwent this. 2. Accidental, as despair, blasphemy, these he suffered not. The suffering of Gods wrath includeth two things. 1. A privation in regard of sense of all the favour of God. 2. An enduring in regard of sense of all the anger of God: These two things did Christ endure. He lost the apprehension of Gods favour, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 2. He suffered the full sense of the wrath of God. Whatsoever beleevers should have suffered for their sins, whether it be in the losse of the sense of Gods love, or in the sensible feeling of the wrath and Divine displeasure of Almighty God; all that Christ suffered, so far as can be suffered without sin, Zach. 13. 7. Mr. Hookers Gift of gifts on Titus 2. 14. There are eight things in hell pains which by no means Christs soul might suffer, Darknesse, destruction, death, and fire of hell, remorse, rejection, malediction, and desperation of the damned. B. Bilsons Redempt. of Mankinde by the death and bloud of Christ. p. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53. Vide Sandfordum de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 152, ad 179. Bilson saith the word foreign by which Saint Luke, Act 2. expresseth Davids meaning, doth alwaies note hell in the new Testament, p. 170, 171. But Sandford. opposeth this, de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, p. 40, &c. signifies the hell of the damned; and yet not there from the force and propriety of the word (for it is of larger extent) but from the circumstances which are there used. For as Bucer learnedly notes, the rich man is not simply said to be foreign, that is, in inferno, seu in gehennâ, because in torments and in flame.
2. The Evangelists have professedly delivered to us the History of our Saviour even to his ascension, neither yet have they made even the least mention of this his descent into hell, which they would never surely have omitted, if they had judged it a thing necessary to salvation. Moreover, blessed Luke in the Preface of his Gospel, tels Theophilus, That he having had perfect understanding of all things from the first, would write to him in order, that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed, ad verbum, in which he had been catechized, but of descent ne gry quidem, whence it appears that it was no part of the Catechism which Theophilus learnt and certainly knew.
3. Blessed Paul, 1 Cor. 15. 1, 2, 3, 4. where he rehearseth certain chief heads of the Gospel, which he had preached to the Corinthians, rehearseth the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but not this descent into hell, yet that was a fit place to have rehearsed it in if he had preached any such thing. Therefore it is manifest enough that he preached it not nor is it necessary to be known; he affirmeth to the Corinthians that which he preached would suffice them to salvation, if they were not wanting to themselves.
4. If Christ did go into the place of the damned, then either in soul or in body, or in his Godhead. But his Godhead could not descend, because it is every where; and his body was in the grave till the third day; and as for his soul it went not to hell, but presently after his death it went to Paradise, that is, the third heaven, a place of joy and happinesse, Luke 23. Nec valce foreign Smalcii à priscis emendicatū. Ego dico tibi hodie (ubi ponatur distinctio) & cris mecum in Paradiso, nempe post diem Judicii. Nam evertit hoc, 1. Lectio Syriaca. Ego dico tibi, quia hodie cris mecum in Paradiso. Et 2. Hodie, illud salvatoris respondet, quando latronis. Dr Prid. Fascic. Controvers. Theol. cap. 4. de Eccles. Haec elusio & (inquit Suarez) non interpretatio, cùm dicat Christus, petitionem latronis implendam esse, eo ipso die. Sandford. de Descensu Christi ad Inferos.43. which words of Christ must be understood of his manhood, or soul; and not of his Godhead.
Some think by Paradise no certain place is designed, but that is Paradise whereever Christ is, and wheresoever God may be seen; because therefore the soul of the thief was to follow Christ and to see God, it is said to be with him in Paradise.
Many modern Interpreters (saith Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 39.) much favour this opinion, and cite Austin and Beda as Authors of it, quam verè ipsi viderint. He saith he cannot approve this interpretation whosoever is the Author of it; for Christ spake of that Paradise where then he was not. But if Paradise be nothing but the place whence God was seen, when the thief hung on the Crosse he was in Paradise. Paradise is put often for heaven in the new Testament, Rev. 2. 7. 2 Cor. 2. 4.
There is an analogy between the first and second Adam. The first Adam was cast out of Paradise the same day he sinned, therefore the second Adam did enter into heaven the same day he made satisfaction.
Some say that to descend into hell is a popular kinde of speech which sprungBishop Usher of Limb. Patrū. Loquendum ut vulgus, sentiendum ut sapientes. Aristot. in Top. from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the receptacle of the souls under the earth. As we use to say commonly, that the sunne is under a cloud, because it is a vulgar form of speech, and yet it is farre enough from our meaning for all that, to imagine the cloud to be indeed higher then the sun.
Thirdly, Some almost confound this Article with Christs burial, and make one sense of both, because those words Sheol, Hades, Infernus, often in Scripture note the grave.
Both many Ancient and Modern Divines have taken Christs descent into hell in that sense. This seems to some to be the reason wherefore the Nicene Creed mentions only Christs burial and no descent into hell; and Athanasius his Creed, his descending into hell without speaking a word of his burial: Neither Irenaeus, Augustine, Tertullian nor Origen, when they recite the rule of faith, mention Christs descent into hell. Vide Rivet. Cathol. Orthodox.
But this seems not so probable an interpretation,
1. Because He was buried goes next before these words, neither can these be added exegetically because they are obscurer then the former.
2. It is not likely that in so succinct and short a Creed the same Article should be twice put, or the same thing twice said by changing the words. Vide Chamier. contract. â Spanh. Tom. 2. lib. 5. c. 3. & Calvin. Institut. l. 2. c. 16. Sect. 8, 9, 10. & Bellarm. de Christo, l. 4. c. 14.
Fourthly, Some interpret this article of Christs descending into hell, by his going to the dead, and for a time (viz. even to the resurrection) continuing in the state and under the dominion of death; and this seems to be the most genuine exposition of all, for it keeps both the propriety of the words and the distinction of the Articles, and it is drawn from Peters words, nor is this opinion urged with any great difficulty. Hell signifieth the state of the dead, the condition of those that are departed this life, common to good and bad, the being out of this land of the living, when the soul and body are separated and do no more walk upon the earth to be seen of men and converse with them.
The Hebrew, Greek and Latine words for hell, both in the Scripture and otherOf the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek foreign. See my Hebrew & Greek Critica. Infernus ab inferendo deducitur, eò quod mortui efferantur domo & humo inferantur. Sanfordus de Descensu Christi ad inferos, p. 68. Vide plura ibid. The Vulgar renders it Abire, Act. 13. 4. Venire, Act. 18. 5. & 27. 5. Devenire, Act. 9. 32. Supervenire, Act. 11. 27. & 27. 10. sit Authors are used for the state of the dead, Psal. 89. 47, 48. Psal. 30. 3. Isa. 38. 18, 19. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Peters words, Acts 2: 24. sufficiently confirm this exposition. The whole state of the dead is called a descent, because although some of the dead ascend into Heaven, yet all which are buried descend into the earth, whence from the first condition of the descent of carkasses the whole other state of the dead is called a descent. To descend often in the Acts of the Apostles noteth not a descent from a higher place into a lower, but only a deporture from one place into another. Sometimes it signifieth to passe from a lower place to a higher. See Iud. 11. 37. & 15. 11. So Iuvenal,
—Praecordia pressit.
Ille senis, tremulúmque caput descendere jussit
In Coelum.