Seuen goulden candlestickes houlding the seauen greatest lights of Christian religion shewing vnto all men what they should beleeue, & how they ought to walke in this life, that they may attayne vnto eternall life. By Gr: Williams Doctor of Divinity

CHAP. I. Of the necessity of Christ his suffering.

THirdly, Hauing heard the chiefest particu∣lars of the sufferings of Christ, wee are now to consider the necessitie of his suffe∣ring, expressed here by Christ himselfe, in these words,* 1.1 Thus it behoued Christ to suf∣fer. Touching which we must consider that there are three kinds of necessities.

The first is an obsolute necessitie, as when a thing in regard of the nature of it, cannot be other∣wise; so the Sunne mooueth, and the fire burneth, as wee see, necessarily: because it is the propertie of their nature so to doe, as it is for euery light thing to ascend, and for euery heauy thing to descend downewards towards the center.

The second is, a necessity of constraint,* 1.2 as when a malefactor is constrained, and must necessarily suffer, whether hee will or not; because the sentence of the Law hath passed ouer him, and his strength is not sufficient to saue himselfe.

And in these two sences our Sauiour Christ was not of ne∣cessitie for to suffer; because God might, if he had would, haue vsed a 1000. other wayes to haue saued man, without the death of his onely Sonne: and there was neither Law to inioyne him, nor any force that could compell him, for to suffer; for he saith Abba Father, all things are possible vnto thee; and,* 1.3 he could pray to his Father, and haue more then twelue legions of Angels to haue assisted him: And therefore no absolute necessity, that he should suffer, Sed oblatus est quia voluit; But he was offered vp for vs, because he would; he gaue his soule an offering for sin,* 1.4 & he yeelded vp himselfe into the hands of his enemies; he could but he would not be rescued; and he gaue Pilate power against himselfe:

for vnlesse he would, hee needed not to haue suffered; Iustice could not seize vpon him, because he was a Lambe without spot; and constraint could not compell him, because all things were possible vnto him, and he had all the Angels at his command: and therfore as the Prophet Esay saith, that he did beare the bur∣then imposed by his Father,* 1.5 so he did assume the same himselfe; & S. Paul saith,* 1.6 that as God gaue Christ for vs, Rom. 8.32. So Christ gaue himselfe for vs: and our Sauiour saith; No man taketh my life from me,* 1.7 but I haue power to lay downe my life, and I haue pow∣er to take it vp againe: and so it was, that he himselfe layd downe his life,* 1.8 as a man layeth downe his garment; for it is obserued by the Euangelists,* 1.9 that when he would die, he seeing that impotent man could not take away his soule, he bowed downe his head, and gaue vp the Ghost, as calling and yeelding vnto the stroke of death; which otherwise durst not for feare, to approach him: and so Christ shewed his power in weakenesse: for though it be a great infirmity to die, yet so to die is an argument of infinite Maiestie:* 1.10 and Saint Hierome doth well obserue, that the Centu∣rion hearing his prayer with a loud voice, to shew that he was farre inough, and free inough from the touch of death; and seeing him, Statim spiritum sponte demisisse, tradidisse, (saith Saint Iohn) emisisse (saith Saint Matthew) and presently to haue yeel∣ded,* 1.11 and most willingly to haue sent forth his Spirit out of his body, as Noah sent his Doue out of the Arke; Commotus signi magnitudine; being troubled with the greatnesse of that won∣der, hee said forthwith, truly this man was the Sonne of God: So wonderfully strange was this his yeelding vnto death;* 1.12 and so Saint Augustine largely expresseth the same: to shew vnto vs that the laying downe of his life, was no imposed punishment a∣gainst his will, nor any forcible inuasion of death vpon him, but a voluntary sacrifycing of himselfe for sinne, and a tende∣ring of his death to satisfie Gods wrath for our sake.

The third is not an absolute, not a primatiue, not an imposed necessity, but a voluntarily assumed necessity, of conueniency; in respect of the end, as armour and weapons are necessary for him that goeth forth to fight: or a necessity by consequent, presup∣posing the decree and ordinance of Almighty God: and thus it was necessary that Christ should suffer, because it was the best

and most conuenient way that God in his wisedome saw fittest,* 1.13 to performe that great worke of mans saluation; and because God had promised that the Messiah should suffer, should be slain: and therefore Christ saith vnto Peter, that if he were rescued out of the hands of his enemies, How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, which said, that thus it must be? for God had decreed,* 1.14 or∣dained, and reueiled in his Scriptures, that Christ should die.

Notes

• * 1.1

  That there is a threefold necessity.
• * 1.2

  That Christ suffered, be∣cause he wil∣lin••ly gaue himselfe to suffer.
• * 1.3

  Marke 14.36.
• * 1.4

  Esay 53.10.
• * 1.5

  Esay 63.6.
• * 1.6

  Rom. 8.32.
• * 1.7

  Gal. 2.20.
• * 1.8

  Iohn 10.
• * 1.9

  Crucem sustinuit voluntate non necessitate. S. Hieron. in Esayam. c. 53. Iohn 19.30.
• * 1.10

  Nazian. & Bern. Ser. 4. Hebdom. paenosae.
• * 1.11

  Et quod emit∣titur volunta∣rium est, quod amittitur ne∣cessarium.
• * 1.12

  Hierom. q. 8. ad Hedib. Aug tract. 119. in Iohn.
• * 1.13

  In what sense it was necessa∣ry for Christ to suffer. Esay 53.
• * 1.14

  Dan. 9.26. Matth. 26.54. Esay 53.14.