The humiliation of the Sonne of God by his becomming the Son of man, by taking the forme of a servant, and by his sufferings under Pontius Pilat, &c. Or The eighth book of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creed: continued by Thomas Jackson Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinarie, and president of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford. Divided into foure sections.

CHAP. XIV. That our Saviour in his Agony (at least) did suffer paines more than naturall, though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines: That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes, but for his Conquest over Satan.

1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were, as God himselfe is, all-sufficient to these purposes; may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall, or of no other kinde than his Mar∣tyrs, Apostles, or Prophets have done? God for∣bid. Betweene paines naturall and the paines of

Hell, there is a meane; to wit, paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent, and some∣wayes more than naturall in respect of the Pati∣ent: and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden, though not upon the Crosse. Nor were these his sufferings super∣fluous, though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or re∣conciliation unto God. Most expedient they were, if not necessary to other purposes: As first, for his absolute conquest over Satan. Secondly, for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood. Of his conflict with Satan in the garden (a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents,) Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow. His Father exposed him to the second temptation, as he had unto the first temp∣tation in the wildernesse, and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him: onely over his soule or life hee had no power. These were takē from him by the malice of men, and by the death of the Crosse, not by the im∣mediate power of Satan. That the conflict in the garden was extraordinary; that in this houre the decretorie battle betwixt the old Serpent and the womans seed was to be fought (at least the brunt of it;) the letter of the Scripture is to my ap∣prehension very plaine: As first from that speech of our Saviours after his Maundy, Ioh. 15.13. Here∣after I will not talke much with you: for the Prince of this world commeth: with greater violence sure∣ly than at any time before had been permitted

him to use. For our Saviour uttered these words immediatly after Satan had entred into Iudas: at which time his Commission to enter the lists with the holy seed of the woman was first to bee put in execution. It hath alwayes seemed to me a mystery or secret, whereof no reason can bee given in nature, how Satan gaines greater power of doing mischiefes and harmes to men by secret compact with others of their owne nature, as with Witches, or other of his owne worshippers; than is permitted him to use by his owne imme∣diate power or strength. Iudas, though hee was no Witch, yet was hee a worshipper of Satan, one who had made Mammon his God, for whose service he had resolved to betray his Master into the hands of his enemies. It is pregnant againe frō that saying of our Saviour immediatly upon the cessation or intermission of his Agony and bloody sweat, that Satans assaults were at this time ex∣traordinary; When I was dayly with you in the Temple, you stretched out no hand against mee: sed haec est hora vestra, & potestas tenebrarum, But this is your houre, and the houre appointed for the powers of darknesse to try their strength against mee. But after they could get no advantage of him by grapling with him in the garden, being not able to move him to the least signification of any im∣patience, or overture of discontent, as Satan had done Iob in his second temptation; they leave him unto the malice of his mortall Enemies, be∣ing assured they should get advantage enough over their soules, and prevalently tempt them to

cruelty and hatred towards this holy One, more than naturall. The houre of his terrible combat with Satan was but newly expiring, when thus he spake to the chiefe Priests and Elders. And howbeit this word houre sometimes imports more than an houre (as wee say) by the clock, some larger indefinite time or season: yet that in the forecited place it is to bee taken for a just houre, and no more, many circumstances of the Text perswade mee: (this especially) when hee saith to his Disciples, Could yee not watch with mee one houre? As if he had said, Of all the time that I have been with you, this was the onely houre, wherein your watchfulnesse and attendance on me had been on your parts most requisite, and to me most acceptable. And the effect of his peti∣tion as S. Mark expresseth it, was thus, that if it were possible the houre might passe from him. This was the houre wherein hee tasted the bitter cup, whose present bitternesse upon his prayer was, if not altogether taken away, yet asswaged; and the houre it selfe, wherein hee was to tast of it, perhaps shortned.

2. This conflict with Satan, and the issue of it, our Saviour apprehended at his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem immediatly after his fu∣ture glorification was avouched by a voice from heaven three dayes before hee entred into his Agony. Now is my soule troubled, and what shall I say? Father save mee from this houre: but for this cause came I unto this houre. Father glorifie thy Name. Then came there a voice from heaven, say∣ing,

I have both glorified it, and will glorifie it a∣gaine, &c. Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the Prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lift up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, Ioh. 12.27, 28, &c. In what sense, or how farre the world at this time was judged, exhibits plen∣tifull matter of controverse Divinity, not imme∣diatly emergent from the positive points of Di∣vinity now in hand. And for this cause I must request the ingenuous Reader for the present to take a matter which before was proposed, into deeper consideration. The point is briefly this; Our first Parents in the selfe same fact by which they became rebellious, ipso jure, committing high treason against their God and Creator, did subject themselves, and their posterity, unto the tyrannicall dominion of Satan. His vassailes and slaves all of vs were by right most soveraigne a∣mongst the sonnes of men, by right of conquest in Duel. Now albeit the Conquerer was a Tray∣tor and rebell against God; although he did first commit or at least accomplish this his rebellion and treason, by withdrawing our first Parents from that allegiance and obedience which by law of nature they and wee ought perpetually to have borne unto our Maker: Yet so observant of all rules of equity and just forme of procee∣dings, was he who is goodnesse, equity, and justice it selfe; that unto Satan the professed Rebell a∣gainst him, and implacable Enemy towards man, he did vouchsafe the benefit of the Law of Armes or Duel. Now seeing Satan, being not Omni∣potent

but of power, force, and subtilty limited, had thus subdued our first Parents, whom their Creator had endowed with freedome and power sufficient to dispose of their actions for the future good of themselves, and their posterity: his gra∣cious goodnesse would not take us out of this Re∣bels hands by the Omnipotent power or irresisti∣ble force of his Godhead. Man being conquered by his sometimes fellow creature, was in the wis∣dome of Divine equity, to bee rescued from this bondage by a Creature, by a man of the same nature and substance, subject to all the infirmi∣ties (sinne excepted) to which wee are subject: as taking his substance from that man whom Sa∣tan had conquered. As Satan did not appeare in his owne shape or likenesse, when hee subdued our first Parents (for so no question they would have been more wary to have closed with him;) but disguised in the similitude of a Serpent, which was a creature more subtill than all the beasts of the field, yet a creature every way farre inferiour to man: So the Sonne of God did not enter this combat with Satan in the glory and strength of his Godhead, but in his Godhead as it were dis∣guised or clothed upon with the true nature and substance of man, and of a man whom Satan up∣on triall before had knowen to be throughly sub∣ject to the infirmities of mortality. Otherwise hee had more wit, than to have entered the lists with him in the second conflict.

3. How much dearer this conflict with Satan cost our Saviour, than Iobs second temptation

cost him; hee onely knowes, and this knowledge hee learned by patience and obedience in suffe∣ring these paines of what kind soever they were. The ancient Greek Liturgies expresse them best by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the unknowne sufferings. Such I take it, as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer, nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come, in which, the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many. But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible: for this being granted, the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him, than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste, a draught of the second death, unto which no man is subject, before he die the first death: nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living, or after death. This error, it seemes, hath surprized some (otherwaies good Divines) through incogitancie, or want of skill in Philosophie. For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy, the nature, quality, or measure of paines must bee taken, not so much from the force or violence of the Agent, as from the con∣dition or temper of the Patient: Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito. The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold, as it hath upon Lead; nor the same upon greene wood, which it hath on dry. Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body, and of strong bones; and another sickly, crasie, or wounded: the paines though issuing from the

equality of the blowes, would be most unequall. That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all, might drive the other into the very pangs of death. Goliath did looke as big, did speake as roughly, and every way behave him∣selfe as sternly against little David, as hee had a∣gainst Saul, and the whole hoast of Israel: Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible, did make no such impression of terrour upon David, as it had done upon Saul, and the stoutest Champions in his hoast. And the reason, why it did not, was because David was armed with the shield of faith, and confidence in the Lord his God; a se∣cret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides. But a farre greater then Goliath, associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast, both for number and strength, than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make; more maliciously bent a∣gainst the whole race of Adam, than the Phili∣stines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham, was now in field. And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God, that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre grea∣ter than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us. For if all mankinde from the East unto the West, which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time, or shall continue un∣to all future generations, had been then mustred together, all of us would have fled more swiftly, and more confusedly from the sight or presence

of this great Champion for the powers of dark∣nesse, than the hoast of Israel did from the Cham∣pion of the Philistines, when hee bid a defiance unto them. All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter, been commit∣ted alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment. But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse, at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath? No: If wee stretch the similitude thus farre, wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype. The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse (whether in the garden or upon the Crosse,) was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath, or Israel over the Philistines. David was Master of the field sine sanguine & sudore multo, without blood, or much sweat. The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary. And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered, in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods peo∣ple had suffered. As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater, than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter: so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the suf∣ferings of all his Martyrs. But all this and much more being granted, will not inferre that he suf∣fered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines

(poenas infernales, aut poenas inferorum:) such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into, unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach. Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could, against the pro∣mised womans seed, that is, the manhood of the Sonne of God: yet seeing (as the Apostle saith) the sting of death is sinne (not imputed but in∣herent) it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule, in whom there was neither seed nor re∣lique, neither root or branch of sinne. Or againe, admit hell fire (whether materiall or immateriall) be of a more violent and malignant quality, than any materiall fire which we know, in what sub∣ject soever it bee seated, is; and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture, which they are enabled or permitted to use: yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body, whereon this fire could feed; no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish, or such as the damned suf∣fer. For these are supernaturall, or more than so, not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them, but in respect of the Subject which endures them. Satan findes alwayes some thing in them, which he armes against them; some in∣herent internall corruption, which hee exaspe∣rates

to greater malignity, than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption, from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction. The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him.

4. In respect of Divine justice, or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe; it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan, and vanquish him by suffering evills, even all the evills incident to our mortall nature. There was no necessity, no congruity that the Sonne of God should van∣quish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments. These properly taken, or when they are suffered in kind, are the proper fruits and necessary effects of Sa∣tans victory over sinners; the finall wages of sinnes unrepented of or not actually expiated by the blood of our Redeemer. In all other tribu∣lations, distresses, or persecutions, which are not the wages of sinne, We are, (as our Apostle saith Rom. 8.35, 37.) more then Conquerers through him that loved us, if so we endure them with patience. But how more than Conquerers in these which are in themselves evill & distastfull to our nature? Therefore more than Conquerers, because these afflictions suffered with patience, doe testifie our conformity to the Sonne of God in his most grie∣vous

sufferings: and the dissolution of the works of Satan in us, doth seale unto our soules a full Acquitance from hell paines, from which que∣stionlesse our high Priest was free in that great Combat with Satan and his infernall powers. Otherwise, he had not been full Conquerer over hell and the second death, which is no other than the paines of Hell, or hellish torments. Nor could the sufferings of such torments bee any part of the Sonne of Gods qualification for dissolving those works of Satan, which cannot be dissolved but by the exercise of his everlasting Priesthood, which was the last end or finall cause of his suffe∣rings or consecration by afflictions.

Notes

• Mark. 14.35.