the odious names and place of hell, accounting it not to be fit to
say, That so holy a person as the Son of God was there. I answer,
though I have not asserted it, yet let me ask, which is more
odious, hell or sin? Or whether such think that Christ Jesus was
subject to be tainted by the badness of the place, had he been
there? Or whether, when the scripture says, God is in hell, it
is any disparagement to him? (Psa 139:8) Or if a man should be so
bold as to say so, Whether by so saying, he confineth Christ to
that place for ever? And whether by so thinking he has contradicted
that called the Apostles' creed?6

(2.) Having thus spoken of the death and sufferings of Christ,
I shall in the next place speak of his preparations for his so
suffering for us; and by so doing, yet shew you something more of
the greatness of his love.

Christ, as I have told you, was even before his sufferings, a person
of no mean generation, being the Son of the eternal God: Neither
had his Father any more such sons but he; consequently he of right
was heir of all things, and so to have dominion over all worlds.
For, "for him were all things created" (Col 1:16). And hence all
creatures are subject to him; yea the angels of God worship him
(Heb 1). Wherefore as so considered, he augmented not his state
by becoming lower than the angels for us, for what can be added
to him, that is naturally God. Indeed he did take, for our sakes,
the human nature into union with himself, and so began to manifest
his glory; and the kindness that he had for us before all worlds,
began now eminently to shew itself. Had this Christ of God, our
friend, given all he had to save us, had not his love been wonderful?
But when he shall give for us himself, this is more wonderful. But