A Golden Chain

For this cause God the father is said to give his son unto us, and the son again to give his life for his friends.¹ The second question is, how by the short and temporary death of the son of God, any man can possibly be freed from eternal death and damnation, which is due unto him for the least sin. Ans. When we say that the son of God suffered, it must be understood with distinction of the natures of Christ not in respect of the Godhead, but in respect of the assumed manhood: yet nevertheless the passion is to be ascribed to the whole person of Christ God and man: and from the dignity of the person which suffered, ariseth the dignity & excellency of the passion, whereby it is made in value and price, to countervail everlasting damnation. For when as the son of God suffered the curse for a short time, it is more then if all men and angels had suffered the same for ever. VII. The difference of the passion of Christ, and the sufferings of Martyrs: and that stands in two things. First Christs passion was a cursed punishment; the sufferings of the Martyrs are no curses, but either chastisements or trials. Secondly, the passion of Christ is meritorious for us even before god, because he became our mediator and surety in the covenant of grace, but the sufferings of Martyrs are not of value to merit for us at Gods hand: because in suffering they were but private men, and therefore they nothing appertain to us. By this it appears that the Treasury of the Church of Rome, which is as it were a common chest containing the overplus of the merits of saints, mingled with the merits of Christ, kept and disposed by the Pope himself, is nothing else but a senseless dotage of mans brain. And whereas they say that Christ by his death did merit that Saints might merit both for themselves and others, it is as much as if they should say, the son of God became Jesus, to make every one of us Jesus. And it is a manifest untruth which they say. For the very manhood of Christ considered apart from the Godhead, cannot merit properly: considering whatsoever it is, hath, or doth; it is, hath, and doth the same, wholly and only by grace: whereas therefore Christ meriteth for us, it is by reason he is both God and man in one person. For this cause it is not possible that one mere man should merit for another.

For this cause God the father is said to giue his sonne vnto vs, and the sonne again to giue his life for his friends.¹