The souls exaltation A treatiseThe soules exaltation A treatise

Object. 1 First, say they, if Christ in his agony suffered the wrath of God, and if this made him to cry out, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, if this be so, then say they, our Saviour must continue in the agony from the garden, till he came upon the cross; but that he could not do, for he checks Judas, and reproves Peter; not as a man astonished, but as a man in his right wits; and he answered Pilate calmly, and he prayed holily, and commended himself to God the Father, and he was not as a man astonished in all this: therefore he was not now in the agony.

Object. 1 First, say they, if Christ in his agonie suffered the wrath of God, and if this made him to crie out, Father, if it bee possible, let this cup passe from mee, if this bee so, then say they, our Saviour must continue in the agonie from the garden, till he came upon the crosse; but that hee could not doe, for hee checks Iudas, and reproves Peter; not as a man astonished, but as a man in his right wits; and hee answered Pilate calmly, and hee prayed holily, and commended himselfe to God the Father, and he was not as a man astonished in all this: therefore hee was not now in the agonie.

Answer. To this I answer, the objection grows upon a false ground, for they conceive that because he was in the agony, therefore it must continue until his being upon the cross; I say no, that's false; for our Saviour entered into the agony, as into a combat, and he that enters into a combat, hath many bouts in it: as there are many storms and tempests, but there are some beams of sunshine between them, so here there is some interims. It is in this case as it is with a man in a burning fever, a man hath many intermissions between the fits; so although our Saviour bore all the whole wrath of God, yet he had intermitting fits of it; as in Matthew 26.39, 42, 44, in the 39. verse, he prayed and said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and he went away again the second time, and prayed saying, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; and he went again the third time, and prayed yet more earnestly saying, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me: and as it is in Luke 2.44. He entered into the agony, that is, into the fit, as we use to say of a sick man; now the fit is upon him, he prayed once and came again, so one fit was over; he prayed yet again, so two fits were over; then he prayed yet more earnestly, so the the third fit was over: here are three bouts which he had, when he wrestled with the indignation of the Lord. There were three storms in this tempest, and between every little storm, he had a pleasant gale of ease and refreshing: This is the answer to the first objection.