Clause 4

Testimonies out of the Prophets and Apostles, whereby it is shewed, that Christ must not die by tumult: but must suffer vnder a iudge: and that when a straunge magistrate should exercise iudgement

¹He was reckoned amongest the wicked. Therfore, he must not perish by tumult, but must be iudged or reputed amongest the wicked. Wherto also that belongeth: He was woūded for our iniquities, & smitten for our wickednesses. The chastisemēt of our peace was vpon him, and in his stripes we were healed. And in the same place, He was taken away by indgement: Therefore he must come into iudgement. With these Propheticall sayinges, agreeth truely that Propheticall explication of Christ, which is extant in the 18. of Luke. Beholde we goe vppe to Hierusalem, and all thinges shalbe fulfilled that are written by the Prophetes concerning the sonne of man. He shalbe deliuered vp to the nations, and shalbe mocked, and euill entreated of them. And after they shall haue whipped him, they shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise againe. And Luke the 24. To those that went to Emaus, he saith, O fooles and slowe of hearte to beleeue all things, which the Prophets haue spoken. Ought not Christ to haue suffered these thinges, and to enter into his glorie? And beginning from Moses and all the Prophets; he interpreted in all the scripture, those thinges which were concerning him. Acts 4. They gathered themselues truely together against thy holy sonne Iesus whom thou anointedst. Herode also and Pontius Pilate with the nations & people of Israel, to doe whatsoeuer thy hand and Counsel had first determined should be done. Now that he must suffer, when a straunge magistrate executed iudgement (the which thing the very mention of Pontius Pilate sheweth) these Prophesies witnesse: Genes. 49. The Prophesie of the Patriarch Iacob. The scepter shall not depart from Iudah till Schiloh come, is throughly fulfilled when the scepter was translated from Iudah, and when Pilate in the name of Caesar executed iudgement. And the Prophesie of Zachary in the 6. cap. that a braunch shall builde a Temple, the glory wherof should become greater, then the glorie of the first Tēple. And then must altogether be fulfilled, as Ezechiel also in the 21. Cap. & the 26. ver. hath plainly prophesied, when the golden crownes should be taken from the heades of the Kings of Iudah. But when Pilate was president, the Iewes acknowledge that they haue no other king but Caesar: and so they professe that the crowne was taken from the heades of the Kinges of Iudah: therefore now the time was come, that they should destroy the temple of the bodie of Christ, and that that same branch should reedifie it againe, or that he should raise it vp the 3. day. The glorie of which temple (namely of the body of Christ raised vp from the dead, in which the Deitie dwelleth bodily) doth surpasse at this day, and shal doe euerlastingly, the glorie of the first temple, according to the prophesie of Haggai in the second Chap.

Why Christe must be condemned by a indge before the iudgement seate?

Thou must looke vpon God him selfe the Iudge exercising iudgement by the mouth of Pilate. Christe is set before the tribunal seate of GOD here in earth, laden with thine and mine wickednesses ready to receaue the sentence of the iudgement of GOD, and to beare the paine of condemnation. For seeing that we must haue beene set before the tribunall seate of the heauenlie iudge, and there be condemned. it behoued Christe for as much as he translated all our guiltinesse from vs to him selfe, to be set in our person, as a wicked person, before the tribunall seate, and to be condemned by God, exercising iudgement by Pilate, thinking nothing lesse. Now the end of this is, that all our sinnes being condemned at once of God himselfe, exercising a righteous iudgement, and being punished in his sonne, with the greatest rigor of righteousnes: wee might not be farther called into iudgement for them, before Gods iudgement seate, and much lesse be condemned for them. The scripture teacheth vs that our mindes are to be lifted vp to God himselfe the president or Iudge of this most heauie sentence, that we might haue sure consolation, that wee (if we beleeue in Christ) are fully exēpt from the iudgement of GOD. And that thing doeth that horror of Christe declare, when he crieth: Let this cuppe passe from mee, &c. because he knewe that hee must appeare before the iudgement seate of God, & must drinke of that cup of condemnation for vs. Isay 5.3. God woulde by weakening him bruise him, and treade him vnder. To the Romans 8. For that which was impossible to the lawe, inasmuch as it was weake because of the fleshe, this did God, sending his sonne, in the similitude of sinnefull fleshe, and for sinne condemned sinne in the fleshe. And againe in the same place. God spared not his owne sonne, but gaue him for vs all. And 2. Cor. 5. Him who knewe no sinne, God and made sinne for vs, that we might bee made the righteousnesse of God in him. God made Christ sinne, that is to say a sacrifice for sinne: Loe, God made him: And Act. 4 28.

Why Christ by the mouth of the Iudge was condemned as an euil doer, and by the same iudges mouth, was pronounced innocent

Both these make for a notable confirmation of our faith. For in that he is condemned and accounted amongest the wicked, our heauenly father doth wittnesse vnto vs, that he doth beare our person, and in the same is made guiltie of the father, for vs, to the ende that hee taking that condemnaon vppon himselfe that laie vppon our heades, hee might deliuer vs from it. Againe, whilest he is declared innocent by the same iudges mouth, by which he was condemned, the father witnesseth by the mouth of the iudge that he suffered not for his owne faults, but for ours. Ioh. 8. vers 21.24. For the father would not that his sonne should suffer in vaine: but either for his owne, or for others sinnes, to witte for ours. But he suffered not for his owne which were none, by the testimony of the iudge him self, and by the testimonie of the Prophets: Psal. 69 he paid that which he toke not: and Esay 53. Why therefore doe wee distrust, seeing Christ suffered not in his owne sinnes, but in ours?

Footnotes

1. Isai. 53. ↩