1.—THOUGH
crucifixion of itself involveth not in it certain death, and he which is
fastened to a cross is so leisurely to die, as that he being taken from the
same may live; though when the insulting Jews in a malicious derision called
to our Saviour to save himself, and come down from the cross;
he might have come down from thence, and in saving himself have never saved
us: yet it is certain that he felt the extremity of that punishment, and
fulfilled the utmost intention of crucifixion: so that as we acknowledge him
crucified, we believe him dead.
2.—For the
illustration of which part of the Article it will be necessary, first, to
shew that the Messias was to die; that no sufferings, howsoever shameful and
painful, were sufficiently satisfactory to the determination and predictions
divine, without a full dissolution and proper death: secondly, to prove that
our Jesus, whom we believe to be the true Messias, did not only suffer
torments intolerable and inexpressible in this life, but upon and by the
same did finish this life by a true and proper death: thirdly, to declare in
what the nature and condition of the death of a person so totally singular
did properly and peculiarly consist. And more than this cannot be necessary
to shew we believe that Christ was dead.
3.—First then,
we must consider what St. Paul delivered to the Corinthians first
of all, and what also he received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; that the Messias was the Lamb
slain before the foundations of the world, and that his death was
severally represented and foretold. For though the sacrificing Isaac
hath been acknowledged an express and lively type of the promised Messias;
though, after he was bound and laid upon the wood, he was preserved from,
the fire, and rescued from the religious cruelty of his father's knife;
though Abraham be said to have offered up his only begotten son, when Isaac
died not though by all this it might seem foretold that the true and great
promised seed, the Christ, should be made a sacrifice for sin, should be
fastened to the cross, and offered up to the Father, but not suffer death:
yet being without effusion of blood there is no remission, without
death no sacrifice for sin; being the saving of Isaac alive doth not
deny the death of the antitype, but rather suppose and assert it as
presignifying his resurrection from the dead from whence Abraham received
him in a figure; we may safely affirm the ancient and legal types did
represent a Christ which was to die. It was an essential part of the
paschal law, that the lamb should be slain: and in the sacrifices for sin,
which presignified a Saviour to sanctify the people with his own blood,
the bodies of the beasts were burnt without the camp, and their blood
brought into the sanctuary.
Nor did the
types only require, but the prophecies also foretel, his death. For he
was brought, saith Isaiah, as a lamb to the slaughter; he was cut off
out of the land of the living, saith the same prophet; and made his soul an
offering for sin. Which are so plain and evident predictions, that the
Jews shew not the least appearance of probability in their evasions.
Being then the
obstinate Jews themselves acknowledge one Messias was to die, and
that a violent death; being we have already proved there is but one
Messias foretold by the Prophets, and shewed by those places, which they
will not acknowledge, that he was to be slain: it followeth by their
unwilling confessions and our plain probations, that the promised Messias
was ordained to die: which is our first assertion.
4.—Secondly, we
affirm, correspondently to these types and prophecies, that Christ our
Passover is slain; that he whom we believe to be the true and only
Messias did really and truly die. Which affirmation we may with
confidence maintain, as being secure of any even the least denial. Jesus
of Nazareth upon his crucifixion was so surely, so certainly dead, that
they which wished, they which thirsted for his blood, they which obtained,
which effected, which extorted his death, even they believed it, even they
were satisfied with it: the chief priest of the scribes and the Pharisees,
the publicans and sinners, al1 were satisfied; the Sadducees most of all,
who hugged their old opinion, and loved their error the better, because they
thought him sure for ever rising up. But if they had denied or doubted of
it, the very stones would cry out and confirm it. Why did the sun put on
mourning? Why were the graves opened, but for a funeral? Why did the earth
quake? Why were the rocks rent? Why did the frame of nature shake, but
because the God of nature died? Why did all the people, who came to see him
crucified, and love to feed their eyes with such tragic spectacles, why did
they beat their breasts and return, but that they were assured it was
finished, there was no more to be seen, all was done? It was not out of
compassion that the merciless soldiers brake not his legs, but because they
found him dead whom they came to dispatch; and being enraged that their
cruelty should be thus prevented, with an impertinent villainy they pierce
his side, and with a foolish revenge endeavour to kill a dead man; thereby
becoming stronger witnesses than they would, by being less the authors than
they desired, of his death. For out of his sacred but wounded side came
blood and water, both as evident signs of his present death, as certain
seals of our future and eternal life. These are the two blessed sacraments
of the spouse of Christ, each assuring her of the death of her beloved. The
sacrament of Baptism, the water through which we pass into the Church of
Christ, teacheth us that he died to whom we come. For know ye not,
saith St. Paul, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ,
are baptized into his death? The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the
bread broken, and the wine poured forth, signify that he died which
instituted it; and as often as we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we
show forth the Lord's death, till he come?
5.—Dead then
our blessed Saviour was upon the cross; and that not by a feigned or
metaphorical, but by a true and proper death, As he was truly and properly
man, in the same mortal nature which we the sons of Adam have; so did
he undergo a true and proper death, in the same manner as we die. Our life
appeareth principally in two particulars, motion and sensation; and while
both or either of these are perceived in a body, we pronounce it lives. Not
that the life itself consisteth in either or both of these, but in that
which is the original principle of them both, which we call the soul: and
the intimate presence or union of that soul unto the body is the life
thereof. The real distinction of which soul from the body in man, our
blessed Saviour taught most clearly in that admonition; Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now being death is
nothing else but the privation or recession of life, and we are then
properly said to die when we cease to live; being life consisteth in the
union of the soul unto the body, from whence, as from the fountain, flow
motion, sensation, and whatsoever vital perfection; death can be nothing
else but the solution of that vital union, or the actual separation of the
soul, before united to the body. As therefore when the soul of man doth
leave the habitation of its body, and being the sole fountain of vitality
bereaves it of all vital activity, we say that body or that man is dead: so
when we read that Christ our Saviour died, we must conceive that was a true
and proper death, and consequently that his body was bereft of his soul, and
of all vital influence from the same.
6.—Nor is this
only our conception, or a doubtful truth; but we are as much assured of the
propriety of his death, as of the death itself. For that the unspotted soul
of our Jesus was really and actually separated from his body, that his flesh
was bereft of natural life by the secession of that soul, appeareth by his
own resignation, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and by
the Evangelist's expression, and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
When he was to die, he resigned his soul, when he gave it up, he died;
when it was delivered out of the body, then was the body dead: and so the
eternal Son of God upon the cross did properly and truly die.
This reality
and propriety of the death of Christ is yet farther illustrated from the
cause immediately producing it, which was an external violence and
cruciation, sufficient to dissolve that natural disposition of the body
which is absolutely necessary to continue the vital union of the soul: the
torments which he endured on the cross did bring him to that state, in which
life could not longer be naturally conserved, and death, without
intervention of supernatural power, must necessarily follow.
7.—For Christ,
who took upon him all our infirmities, sin only excepted, had in his nature
got only a possibility and aptitude, but also a necessity of dying; and as
to any extrinsical violence, able, according to the common course of nature,
to destroy and extinguish in the body such an aptitude as is indispensably
required to continue in union with the soul, he had no natural preservative;
nor was it in the power of his soul to continue its vital conjunction unto
his body bereft of a vital disposition.
8.—It is true
that Christ did voluntarily die, as he said of himself, No man taketh
away my life from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. For it was in his power
whether he would come into the hands of his enemies; it was in his power to
suffer or not to suffer the sentence of Pilate, and the nailing to
the cross; it was in his power to have come down from the cross, when he was
nailed to it: but when by an act of his will he had submitted to that death,
when he had accepted and embraced those torments to the last, it was not in
the power of his soul to continue any longer vitality to the body, whose
vigour was totally exhausted. So not by a necessary compulsion, but
voluntary election, he took upon him a necessity of dying.
It is true that
Pilate marvelled he was dead so soon, and the two
thieves lived longer to have their legs broken, and to die by the accession
of another pain: but we read not of such long furrows on their backs as were
made on his, nor had they any such kind of agony as he was in the night
before. What though he cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost?
What though the Centurion, when he saw it, said, Truly this man was the
Son of God? The miracle was not in the death, but in the voice: the
strangeness was not that he should die, but that at the point of death he
should cry out so loud: he died not by, but with, a miracle.
9.—Should we
imagine Christ to anticipate the time of death, and so subtract his soul
from future torments necessary to cause an expiration, we might rationally
say the Jews and Gentiles were guilty of his death, but we could not
properly say they slew him: guilty they must be, because they inflicted
those torments, on which in time death must necessarily follow; but slay him
actually they did not, if his death proceeded from any other cause, and not
from the wounds which they inflicted: whereas St. Peter expressly chargeth
his enemies, Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain; and again, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew, and hanged on a tree. Thus was the Lamb properly slain, and the
Jews authors of his death, as well as of his crucifixion.
10.—Wherefore
being Christ took upon himself our mortality in the highest sense, as it
includeth a necessity of dying; being he voluntarily submitted himself to
that bloody agony in the garden, to the hands of the ploughers who made long
their furrows, and to the nails which fastened him to the cross: being these
torments thus inflicted and continued did cause his death, and in this
condition he gave up the ghost; it followeth that the only begotten
Son of God, the true Messias promised of old, did die a true and
proper death. Which is the second conclusion in this explication.
11.—But,
thirdly, because Christ was not only man, but also God, and there was not
only an union between his soul and body while he lived, but also a
conjunction of both natures, and an union in his person: it will be farther
necessary, for the understanding of his death, to shew what union was
dissolved, what continued, that we may not make that separation either less
or greater than it was.
12.—Whereas,
then, there were two different substantial unions in Christ, one of the
parts of his human nature each to other, in which his humanity did consist,
and by which he was truly man; the other of his natures, human and divine,
by which it came to pass that God was man, and that man God: first, it is
certain, as we have already shewed, that the union of the parts of his human
nature was dissolved on the cross, and a real separation made between his
soul and body. As far then as humanity consists in the essential union of
the parts of human nature, so far the humanity of Christ upon his death did
cease to be, and consequently he ceased to be man. But, secondly, the union
of the natures remained still as to the parts, nor was the soul or body
separated from the Divinity, but still subsisted as they did before, by the
subsistence of the second Person of the Trinity.
13.—The truth
of this assertion appeareth, first, from the language of this very
Creed. For as we proved
before, that the onlybegotten and eternal Son of God, God of God, very God
of very God, was conceived, and born, and suffered, and that the truth of
these propositions relied upon the communion of properties, grounded upon
the hypostatical union: so while the Creed in the same manner proceedeth
speaking of the same Person, that he was buried and descended into hell, it
sheweth that neither his body, in respect of which he was buried, nor his
soul, in respect of which he was generally conceived to descend into hell,
had lost that union.
14.—Again, as
we believe that God redeemed us by his own blood, so also it hath been the
constant language of the Church, that God died for us: which cannot be true,
except the soul and body in the instant of separation were united to the
Deity.
Indeed, being
all the gifts of God are without repentance, nor doth he ever subtract his
grace from any without their abuse of it, and a sinful demerit in
themselves, we cannot imagine the grace of union should be taken from
Christ, who never offended, and that in the highest act of obedience, and
the greatest satisfaction to the will of God.
It is true,
Christ cried upon the cross with a loud voice, saying, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? But if that dereliction should signify a
solution of the former union of his natures, the separation had been made
not at his death, but in his life. Whereas indeed those words infer no more
than that he was bereft of such joys and comforts from the Deity, as should
assuage and mitigate the acerbity of his present torments.
15.—It
remaineth therefore, that when our Saviour yielded up the ghost, he suffered
only an external violence; and what was subject to such corporal force did
yield unto those dolorous impressions. Being then such is the imbecility
and frailty of our nature, that life cannot long subsist in exquisite
torments; the disposition of his body failed the soul, and the soul deserted
his body. But being no power hath any force against omnipotency, nor could
any corporal or finite agent work upon the union made with the Word,
therefore that did still remain entire both to the soul and to the body.
The Word was once indeed without either soul or body; but after it was made
flesh it was never parted either from the one or from the other.
Thus Christ did
really and truly die, according to the condition of death to which the
nature of man is subject: but although he was more than man, yet he died no
more than man can die; a separation was made between his soul and body, but
no disunion of them and his Deity. They were disjoined one from another,
but not from him that took them both together; rather by virtue of that
remaining conjunction they were again united after their separation. And
this I conceive sufficient for the third and last part of our explication.
16.—The
necessity of this part of the Article is evident, in that the death of
Christ is the most intimate and essential part of the mediatorship, and that
which most intrinsically concerns every office and function of the mediator,
as he was prophet, priest, and king.
17.—First, it
was necessary, as to the prophetical office, that Christ should die, to the
end that the truth of all the doctrine which he delivered might be confirmed
by this death. He was the true and faithful witness, who before Pontius
Pilate witnessed a good confession. This is he that came by water and
blood: and there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the
water, and the blood. He preached unto us a new and better covenant,
which was established upon better promises, and that was to be ratified with
his blood; which is therefore called by Christ himself the blood of the new
testament, or everlasting covenant: for that covenant was also a testament;
and where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. Beside, Christ, as a prophet, taught us not only by word,
but by example: and though every action of his life, who came to fulfil the
Law, be most worthy of our imitation; yet the most eminent example was in
his death, in which he taught us great variety of Christian virtues. What
an example was that of faith in God, to lay down his life, that he might
take it again; in the bitterness of his torments to commend his
spirit into the hands of his Father; and for the joy that was set
before him, to endure the cross, and despise the shame? What a pattern
of meekness, patience, and humility, for the Son of Man to come not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many;
to be led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before the
shearer, not to open his mouth; to endure the contradictions of
sinners against himself; and to humble himself unto death, even the
death of the cross? What a precedent of obedience, for the Son of God
to learn obedience by the things that he suffered; to be made
under the Law, and, though he never broke the Law, to become obedient
unto death; to go with cheerfulness to the cross upon this resolution,
as my Father gave me commandment, even so I do? What exemplar of
charity, to die for us while we were yet sinners and enemies, when
greater love hath no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends;
to pray upon the cross for them that crucified him, and to apologize for
such as barbarously slew him; Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do? Thus Christ did suffer for us, leaving us an example
that we should follow his steps; that as he suffered for us in the flesh, we
should arm ourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin: that he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of
God. And so his death was necessary for the confirmation and completion
of his prophetical office.
18.—Secondly,
it was necessary that Christ should die, and by his death perform the
sacerdotal office. For every high priest taken from among men is
ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins. But Christ had no other sacrifice to offer for
our sins than himself. For it was not possible that the blood of bulls
and goats should take away sins: and therefore when sacrifice and offering
God would not, then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; then did
Christ determine to offer up himself for us. And because the sacrifices of
old were to be slain, and generally without shedding of blood there is no
remission; therefore if he will offer sacrifice for sins he must of
necessity die, and so make his soul an offering for sin. If Christ
be our Passover, he must be sacrificed for us. We were sold under sin, and
he which will redeem us must give his life for our redemption: for we could
not be redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but only
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without
spot. We all had sinned, and so offended the justice of God, and by an
act of that justice the sentence of death passed upon us: it was necessary
therefore that Christ our surety should die, to satisfy the justice of God,
both for that iniquity, as the propitiation for our sins, and for that
penalty, as he which was to bear our griefs. God was offended with us, and
he must die who was to reconcile him to us. For when we were enemies,
saith St. Paul, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
We were sometimes alienated, and enemies in our mind by our wicked works;
yet now hath he reconciled us in the body of his flesh through
death. Thus the death of Christ was necessary toward the great act of
his priesthood, as the oblation, propitiation, and satisfaction for the sins
of the whole world: and not only for the act itself, but also for our
assurance of the power and efficacy of it, (For if the blood of bulls and
goats sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the
blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot
to God, purge our conscience from dead works?) and of the happiness
flowing from it (for he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?)
Upon this assurance, founded on his death, we have the freedom and
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and
living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh. Neither was the death of Christ necessary only in
respect of us immediately for whom he died, but in reference to the priest
himself who died, both in regard of the qualification of himself, and
consummation of his office. For in all things it behoved him, to be made
like unto his brethren: that he might be a merciful and faithful High
Priest, and having suffered, being tempted, might be able to succour them
that are tempted: so that passing through all the previous torments, and
at last through the pains of death, having suffered all which man can
suffer, and much more, he became, as an experimental priest, most sensible
of our infirmities, most compassionate of our miseries, most willing and
ready to support us under, and to deliver us out of, our temptations. Thus
being qualified by his utmost suffering, he was also fitted to perfect his
offering. For as the high priest once every year for the atonement of
the sins of the people entered into the Holy of Holies not without blood; so
Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, with his own blood entered in
once into the holiest place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
And this is the grand necessity of the death of Christ in respect of his
sacerdotal office.
Thirdly, there
was a necessity that Christ should die in reference to his regal office.
O king, live for ever, is either the loyal or the flattering vote for
temporal princes; either the expression of our desires, or the suggestion of
their own: whereas our Christ never shewed more sovereign power than in his
death, never obtained more than by his death. It was not for nothing that
Pilate suddenly wrote, and resolutely maintained what he had written,
This is the King of the Jews. That title on the Cross did signify no
less than that his regal power was active even there: for having spoiled
principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over
them in it; and through his death destroyed him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil. Nor was his death only necessary for the present
execution, but also for the assecution of farther power and dominion, as the
means and way to obtain it. The Spirit of Christ in the Prophets of
old testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that
should follow. He shall drink of the brook in the way, saith the
Prophet David; therefore shall he lift up his head. He humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name. For to this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that he might
be Lord of the dead and living.
Thus it is
necessary to believe and profess our faith in Christ who died:
for by his blood and the virtue of his death was our redemption wrought, as
by the price which was paid, as by the atonement which was made, as by the
full satisfaction which was given, that God might be reconciled to us, who
before was offended with us, as by the ratification of the covenant made
between us, and the acquisition of full power to make it good unto us.
20.—After which
exposition thus premised, every Christian is conceived to express thus much
when he makes profession of faith in Christ Jesus which was dead:
I do really and truly assent unto this, as a most infallible and fundamental
truth; That the only-begotten and eternal Son of God, for the working out of
our redemption, did in our nature, which he took upon him, really and truly
die, so as, by the force and violence of those torments which he felt, his
soul was actually separated from his body; and although neither his soul nor
body was separated from his Divinity, yet the body bereft of his soul was
left without the least vitality. And thus I believe in Jesus Christ
which was crucified and dead.
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