A blow at the serpent; or a gentle answer from Madiston prison to appease wrath advancing it self against truth and peace at Rochester. Together with the work of four daies disputes, in the Cathedral of Rochester, in the Countie of Kent, betweene several ministers, and Richard Coppin, preacher there, to whom very many people frequentlie came to hear, and much rejoyced at the way of truth and peace he preached, at the same whereof the ministers in those parts began to ring in their pulpits, saying, this man blasphemeth, ... Whereupon arose the disputes, at which were some magistrates, some officers, and souldiers, peaceable and well-minded, and very many people from all parts adjacent, before whom the truth was confirm'd and maintained. The whole matter written by the hearers, on both sides. Published for the confirmation and comfort of all such as receive the truth in the love of it. By Richard Coppin, now in Maidston Prison for the witness of Jesus. Twenty five articles since brought against him by the ministers, as blasphemie, and his answers to them, how he was

CHAP. III. Christ at the left hand of God, bearing sin, shun the curse and con∣demnation for all men, what the right and left hand is, also the Sheep and the Goats, that the way to the right hand is by the left, and how.

ROsewell.

He that will perswade the people to believe that Jesus Christ is a sinful Goat, to whom God will say, Go ye cursed, he is a perverter of Scripture, a venter of damnable er∣rors, but you do; ergo

Coppin.

Let me ask you one question, the Goats that are spoken of, Are they believers? Or are they unbelievers? Or are they part of both?

Rosewell.

The Goats on the left hand are unbelievers, and the Sheep on the right hand Believers.

Coppin.

It is also necessarie for you to shew, what is to be understood by the right and left hand of God, and then we shall know the better how the Sheep and Goats are there, and when, for in this there is an Allegorie, which if you know not, I will tell you.

Captain Smith.

Mr. Coppin, It is referred to you, to declare your judgment upon it.

Coppin.

I will: There is mention made of a right and left hand of God in Scripture, the sheep and the goats, Believers and Unbelievers, they on the right hand are the sheep blessed, and they on the left hand are the goats cursed; but to understand this,

the left hand of God where the Goats are cursed, is the Law, and the right hand of God where the Sheep are blessed, is the * 1.1 Gospel; the left hand of God is also his wrath, and the right hand is his love, and he saith to those on the left hand, as un∣der wrath, manifested by the Law, Go ye cursed, for ye be∣lieve not, and are damned; and he saith to those on his right hand, as under love, Joy and peace manifested by the Gospel, come ye blessed, for you believe, and are saved.

Now all men for a time, before they believe and are regene∣rated, are at the left hand of God under the Law cursed, For he that breaks but one Commandment is guilty of all, and all have sinned; and God hath concluded all men undersin, and unbelief, that he might have mercie upon all: Now all men * 1.2 being so under the curse, and under the Law, at the left hand of God, cannot be said to come from thence to the right hand, to receive the blessing and mercie, but by his stretching forth his right hand to take them from his left, as 'tis written, All the day long have I stretched forth my arm to a disobedient, re∣bellious, and gainsaying people. Now what is this Arm of God, * 1.3 but the Lord Jesus Christ, freelie and in love held forth by the Father to the worst of sinners, and that would not receive him, For he came to his own, and his own received him not; therefore saith the Prophet Isaiah, Who hath believed our re∣port? * 1.4 and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? even to sinners, and them that were out of the way, to them is Jesus Christ manifested for the knowledge of those things.

And according to this did Jesus Christ come and put himself under the Law, and under the curse, at the left hand of God, to receive the wrath and the curse due to us, and all this he did for us, to bring us to the right hand of God, that we might receive the forgivenesse of sins through him and so be blessed for evermore in him, for whatsoever we were, Christ made * 1.5 himself the same, and all to redeem poor man from the curse he lay under: Was man under the Law? so was Christ: Was man accursed for sin? so was Christ: In Leviticus 16. 21. you may read there of a Scape Goat, on which Aaron laid both his hands, and confest over him all the sins of the people, and all their transgressions, laying them on the head of the live

Goat, and the Goat was to carrie them away into the Wilder∣nesse, into a Land not inhabited, from whence they should appear no more.

Now this live Goat was a livelie tipe of Jesus Christ, who was to carrie away our sins, and was he indeed under that tipe that did carrie the sins of all the people, as in Isa. 53. 6. We all like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all; and he hath carried them away into the Wildernesse and lost them, buried them in the grave, cast * 1.6 them behind him, drowned them in the Sea of forgetfulnesse, never to be remembred any more: So that all people were cursed, and at the left hand of God bearing their own sins, till Jesus Christ did go there himself to redeem them from thence, by taking the curse on him, and bearing their sins for them, and so sets them at libertie from under the curse and wrath due by the Law, he being both God and man fitted for the purpose, * 1.7 having power to lay down his life, and to take it up again: And this Commandment he received from his Father, to do for us: Now he that must take on him the sins of the people, must take the curse on him also, therefore was Christ accursed for us, Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by being made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree, but Christ his own self did bear our sins * 1.8 in his bodie on the Tree.

And friends, I call you all friends, though enemies, and bre∣thren, though strangers, for I hate no man, but do love all, as Christ my Elder Brother hath given me Commandment, and shewed me an example that I should follow his steps: I say there is no believer now, but once he was an unbeliever, and there is no sheep now, but once he was a Goat at Gods left hand, and under the curse, till Jesus Christ the blessed Redeem∣er freed you from it, and blessed you by it, at his Fathers right hand: Now while man is an unbeliever, the Scripture saith he is condemned, He that believeth not is condemned already: so * 1.9 that the best of us all are in a prison, in the state of condemna∣tion, and in hell under the curse, one as well as another, till Christ the Lord Jesus doth free us from it, by breaking open the prison doors, and puting himself into this prison, hell, and

condemnation with us, standing there in our steeds, to receive that curse and condemnation which by the law is due to us with∣out him, and so deliver us and himselfe together as one man, ac∣cording to those Scriptures, he was himselfe taken from prison, * 1.10 and from judgment, he was given for a Covenant of the people, and for a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house, that they might be where he is, all comes * 1.11 out with him, he leaves not one behinde, but delivers himself and them together, and then shuts up the doors, and locks in the divell, and so keeps the keyes of death, and of hell, saying, Feare not. * 1.12

Roswell.

Christ was never in hell.

Coppin.

Sir, will you denie your own Faith, which you have so often confessed in your Creed, that he descended into hell.

Robison.

What do Christ goe into hell to turne us out before him, and then come out himselfe.

Coppin.

As we are first in hell before we are in Heaven, so he comes into hell to us, and with himselfe brings us out, and carries us to Heaven, according to those Scriptures, He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in Heavenly places * 1.13 in Christ Jesus, and together with my dead body shall they arise; and I (saith he) if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. But * 1.14 take this with you also, as a bone to pick against the next time, that as you are unbelievers before you are believers, so are you to be damned before you are saved, and in hell before you are in Heaven, for the way to Heaven is through hell: He that hath an eare to heare let him heare.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Gallat. 3. 10. Psa. 89. 13. 14, 15:
• * 1.2

  Rom: 11: 32:
• * 1.3

  Rom. 19. 21.
• * 1.4

  John 1•• 11: Isa: 53. 1:
• * 1.5

  Gall: 4: 4: 5:
• * 1.6

  Micah 7: 19: Jer. 31: 34.
• * 1.7

  Heb•• 10: 5: Joh. 10: 17: 18
• * 1.8

  1 Pet: 2: 24:
• * 1.9

  John 3: 18:
• * 1.10

  Isaiah 53 8.
• * 1.11

  〈…〉〈…〉h 42: 6: 7
• * 1.12

  R••v. 1. 17. 18
• * 1.13

  ••••aiah 26. 19.
• * 1.14

  Iohn 12. 32.