minde In the state of integritie it was farre otherwise Adam was new in his minde and holy and righteous as was proved before in which regard * Chrys Hom. 16. in Gen. Chrysostom saith Adam was a terrestriall Angel * Bas Homil. Quòd Deus non sit author malorum Basil reckoneth up as Adams chief good in Paradise His sitting with God and conjunction by love As all things els so Adams will was good and tended unto good there is the object his love in innocencie was entire and united to God there was his perfection Thirdly the object of his and our part concupiscible is moderate delight the perfection and felicitie of it was contentment As now this part is gauled with insatiable itchings and given over to lasciviousnesse to work all uncleannesse with greedines Ephes 4.19 But at the first Adam was free Augustine saith * Gratia Dei ibi magna erâ—t vbi terrenum animale corpus besâ—ialem libidinem non habebat There the grace of God was great where an earthy and sensuall body had no beastly lust The place he was in was a Paradise of pleasure a garden of delight nothing was wanting which might give true content Fourthly the object of his and our irascible part may in a sort be called Difficulty or rather Constancy whose glory of endeavours end and felicitie was Victorie This part now is much weakned with infirmitie In the best of us the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and alas we are often vanquished as being weak by nature But Adam was strong and could have overcome any temptation Augustine saith * Felices erant primi homines nullis agitabantur perturbatio ibus animorum nullis corporis laedebantur incommodis De Civit. 14.10 Our first parents were happy being neither shaken with any trouble of minde nor hurt with any infirmitie of body * Adam non opus habebat eo adjutorio quod implorant isti cùm dicunt Video aliam legem in membris meis c. Lib. De Corrept Gratia Adam had no need of that help which these crave when they say I see another law in my members c. Yea he is more bold there saying * Adam in illis bonis in quibus creatus est Christ morte non â—guit Ibid. Adam in those good things wherein he was created had no need of Christs death He had with libertie and will grace sufficient whereby he might have triumphed over all difficulties and temptations Augustine thus * In Paradiso etiamsi omnia non poterat Adam ante peccatum quicquid tum non poterat non volebat ideo poterat omnia quae volebat De Civit. 14.15 In Paradise before sinne although Adam could not do all things yet he then would not do whatsoever he could not and therefore could do all that he would Adam having these excellent endowments of nature and grace had also necessarily certain objects about which they should be conversant These objects were all the parts and branches of the Law of nature whereby he fully knew his dutie And all and every one of these he did for a while or at the least not break and he and his posteritie should and ought to fulfill as they were private persons and for the performance and non-performance thereof both he and we should and shall answer unto God at the high Throne and Tribunall of the just and righteous Judge 2. But there was one precept and onely one given to Eve perhaps to all Adams posteritie as private persons who if they had eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evill can not be imagined that they could have ruinated all mankinde but commanded to Adam onely as the publick person as the Idea of humane nature as the stock and root by whose obedience or disobedience all mankinde was to be happie or unhappie as the figure of Christ to come And this sin was not to be a sin of thought onely as the sin of the Angels who each of them sinned by his own expressed will but such a sinne as might bring a deserved blot and punishment upon all his posteritie who were in him which could not be unles it had been committed both by his soul and his body and thereby had power to infect all the parts and faculties both of souls and bodies Again the body of Adam could not sinne without the soul neither could this be a sinne of the soul alone without some concurrents of the bodily parts for then Adams sinning soul should have been damned and his innocent bodie saved but it was to be a sinne compounded of inward aversion and outward transgression So that if Adam had seen Eve eat and had himself lusted after the fruit and yet before the orall manducation had disliked his liking had feared the punishment and not proceeded to eat of it or touch it I do not think his posteritie had been engaged as they are Augustine citeth this out of S. Ambrose and approveth it * Si anima Adami appetentiam corporis refranâsset in ipso ortu extincta esset origo peccati Cont. Julian Pelag. lib. 2. If Adams soul had bridled the bodily appetite in the very beginning the originall of sinne had been quenched Catharinus thinketh there was an expresse covenant between God and Adam that Adam and his posteritie should be blessed or cursed according to the breaking or keeping of that one law What Catharinus saith is probable and may be most true though it be not so written For first if the prohibition had concerned Adams person onely since the precept was given before Eve was created Adam onely should have tasted of death and not Eve Secondly questionlesse that law and covenant included posteritie as is verified in the event When Morte Morieris was threatned unto Adam he was then Rectus in Curia and stood as a publique person representing all his branches If it concerned him as a private person he onely should personally have died and we escaped but our dying in him evinceth that he was reputed if I may so say a generall universall feoffee or person to whose freewill the happie or unhappie future estate of all his descendants was intrusted conditionally to live for ever upon the observance of one law or to die the death for the breach of it Life and death was propounded †Non uni sed universitati Not to one man but to all mankinde 3. And this law is registred and recorded Genes 2.17 Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eat for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Which words I verily beleeve that Adam understood either by his naturall wisedome which was very great or by divine conference or revelation which to him was not unfrequent to involve his posteritie as well as himself For if immediatly upon the creation of woman Adam could foresee and prophesie Genes 2.24 That a man shall leave
Velle before the Nolle and the first motion was to the unlawfull love of himself Now what the Serpent said to Eve questionlesse she related to Adam And her pride also might first arise from the said fountain and his uxoriousnesse followed thereupon and the immoderate love of himself was before the immoderate love unto his wife I say questionles because it is both true in it self and others yeeld unto it and * Aug. De Gen. ad â—t 11.34 S. Augustine observeth it What Adam received from God he told to Eve what Eve heard from Satan she told to Adam To conclude * De Civit. 14.13 Augustine saith Adam and Eve were first turned from God to please themselves and thence and after that to grow cold and dull that she either beleeved the Serpent or he preferd his wives will before the will of God Where he maketh both Adams and Eves sinne to be the same inordinate love to themselves and this is against Scotus Prosper in the 358 Sentence picked out of Augustine saith concerning Adam * Primum animae rationalis vitium est voluntas ea faciendi quae vetat summa intima veritas The first vice of the reasonable soul is the will of doing those things which the supreme and most intimate truth forbids Neither hath Scotus his argutation rather then argumentation his usuall subtiltie in it * Duplexest Velle aut est Velle aliquid amore amicitiae qui est propter se vel propter amatum velamore commodi qui est propter aliud Primum peccatum Adae non fuit ex immoderato amore sui sicut fuit primum peccatum Angeli nec potuit esse quia Angelus intelligit seprimò per suam essentiam homo intelligit alia priùs quà m se There is a twofold will either that will by which one desires a thing with the love of friendship which is for himself or for the thing loved or that will by which one desires a thing with the love of profit which is for another The first sinne of Adam was not out of an immoderate love of himself as the first sinne of Angels neither could be because the Angels know themselves first by their own essence but man knowes other things before himself For did not Adam know himself ere he knew Eve or Angels or hath it any necessarie consequence if he knew her first that therefore he must love her content first rather then please himself Yea if he had a desire to please her might not this arise out of a desire to please himself Lastly did the Angels and Eve sinne out of an immoderate desire of love toward themselves Then how saith Scotus that Adams first sinne neither was nor could be an immoderate and inordinate love of himself What was in Eve could and might have been and was in Adam The discourse of Aquinas in this point seemes more agreeable to Scripture and Fathers then that of Scotus And this it is That unto one sinne many motions do concurre amongst which that is to be accounted the first sinne in which first of all inordination deviation disorder or aberration from the Law is found Now it is apparent that exorbitancy or deordination is sooner in the inward motion of the soul then it is in the bodie and among the interiour motions of the soul the appetite is first moved toward the end it self then toward the means leading toward the end and therefore there was the first sinne of Adam where was the first desire of an unlawfull and disordered end The summe is Man desired an illicit seeming spirituall good namely to subsist of himself as God doth Which first act or motion of pride or inward disobedience being all one with the first inclination to break the Law of God and to eat the forbidden fruit and being accompanied with that chain of other evill motions actions before mentioned was consummated by the outward disobedience in the orall eating the food inhibited And the time was so short between the sinfull motus primo-primus in the soul and the various continued difformitie of other ebullitions which were coherent and bound up in that unhappie knot of outward disobedience that we may safely say it was one sinne aggregativè and every particular evill thought act or motion from his fare-well given unto innocency unto his plain down-fall from the last of his inward obedience unto his first outward disobedience compleat and ended was a parcell or branch of that one great sinne which was against that Law divine Genes 2.17 As our Saviour saith Matth. 5.28 Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adulterie with her already in his heart So so soon as ever Adam looked on the apple to lust after it the first inward motion tending to this lust of pride or disobedience was averse from the Law though the externall trespasse made the sinne to be full and the breach to be palpable and evident And as it is but one consummate adulterie though divers evil thoughts multae morosae cogitationes many wilde motions concurre unto it so may Adams sinne be said to be but one though consisting of divers parts and branches from the primative spirituall inclination of aversion to the hindmost bodily formalitie or coÌ„summation of his disobedience Est Dist 22 Paragr 1. Estius hath these arguments to evidence that pride which is unseparably annexed to disobedience was the first sinne of man First our parents Adam and Eve were first tempted with the sinne of pride by these words Ye shall be like Gods therefore by that they fell first Secondly the Devil would draw man to perdition by the same sinne by which he fell But he fell by pride 1 Tim. 3.6 Lastly Christ by humilitie and obedience recovered us therefore Adam by pride and disobedience hurt us And this is Augustines reason De Civit. 14.13 If any man desire more curiosities trenching upon this point let him consult with Doctor Estius in the place above cited who hath handled such things apertissimè satiatissimè most plainly and fully as Augustine said of Ambrose against Julian the Pelagian And now at length I am come to that second position which I resolved to unfold and handle in giving answer unto the first Question How and why death was appointed unto us The first part of the answer is already handled here I considered originall sinne principally as it was acted by Adam That Adam for sinne was appointed to die The second now followeth towit Adams sinne was propagated to us and so by just consequent We shall die for this sinne And first concerning the propagation of his sinne of originall sinne as it was an emanation from Adam and as it lodgeth and abideth in us ALmightie and most Gracious Father grant unto us that we which fell by pride may be humilitie and obedience be raised up through Jesus Christ our onely Advocate and Redeemer Amen CHAP. V. 1. Originall sinne
h Sentent 3. Distinct 13. Artic. 2. Marsilius i In illud Psal 102. BENEDICITE DOMINO OMNIA OPERA BIUS Jacobus de Valentia k Lib de Regno Christi Melchior Flavius l Theosophiae 3.13 Arboreus And again the same Suarez pag. 65.8 m Christus Dominus meruit sanctis Angelis omnia dona gratiae exceptis iis quae ad remedium peccati pertinent meruit iis electionem praedestinationem vocationem auxilia omnia excitantia adjuvantia sufficientia efficacia denique omne meritum augmentum gratiae gloriae The Lord Christ hath merited for the holy Angels all gifts of grace except those which belong to the remedy of sinne He hath merited for them election predestination vocation all means exciting helping sufficient and effectuall Lastly all merit and increase of grace and glory As the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron ran down upon his beard and thence descended to the skirts of his garments Psal 133.2 so all vertue distilleth from Christ the Head upon every member of his Church Angelicall or Humane Triumphant or Militant neither have they ought but what they received and from him onely In brief we have exchanged and bartred our brasse for gold n Periissâ—mus nisi periassemus We had perished if we had not perished as Themistocles said of old o O felix culpa quae tantum talem meruit Redempterem O happy fault that hath obtained so great and excellent a Redeemer Christ hath done us more good then Adam did himself or us hurt If these my humble private speculations or rather relations of other mens opinions give not satisfaction I desire you to have recourse unto the Apostle who hath put the first and second Adam into the balances and behold the first Adam is found too light In which comparative being like in the genus and unlike in the species as Origen soundly and wittily observed First let us see the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they are like Rom. 5.12 As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne the Apodosis is not expressed but thus to be conceived So by one man grace came into the world and life by grace See the same confirmed v. 19 20. Secondly As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The third thing wherein they were like is set down in the 18. verse of which hereafter Concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they differ they are set down in the 15 verse and so downward Not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many An other dissimilitude is in the 16 verse And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification And verse 17 If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reigne in life by one Jesus Christ After this he returneth to the third point of their comparison the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they differ being involved in a Parenthesis which indeed may seem at the first sight more strange Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnes of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life vers 18. But the true meaning is this according to the way of S. Augustine As none cometh to death but by Adam and none to Adam but by death so none cometh to life but by Christ nor to Christ but by life Thus the free gift came on al as the offence came on all As when we say All entred into the house by one doore it is not intended or included that all that ever were farre or nigh came thither into the house but that no man entred into the house save by the doore So though the Apostle saith Omnes in the application he meaneth not that all and every one are justified but that all that are justified are not otherwise justified then by Christ and this is S. Augustines exposition against Julian the Pelagian 6.12 As if he had said Christ is the Α and Ω the beginning means and end There is none other name by which we must be saved Acts 4.12 He perfecteth them for ever who are sanctified Hebr. 10.14 And they are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is my love delight said Ignatius And I professe I desire not heaven or the blessednes of heaven without him as I undeserving ill-deserving poore I hope to reigne in life by him onely who giveth spirituall birth life and increase till he bring us unto blessednesse even all them who are saved even the universality of the chosen in Christ The limitation of the word Omnis is frequent in Scriptures not comprehending generally or universally every one in all and all with every one but being put for a great number for many Luke 6.26 Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you where All must not be tentered and stretched to its utmost extent for all and every did never do never and never shall speak well of them So Acts 22.15 Thou shalt be witnesse unto all men saith Ananias to S. Paul which was not accomplished if All have no restraint Again Titus 2.11 The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men and yet there were then and now are many who never saw or knew that salutiferous or saving grace So here you are to reduce the word Omnes to omnes sui All that are in Christ saith the Glosse Again why may not All be aswell taken for Many in this our 18 vers as Many is taken for All in the 19 verse where it is said By one mans disobedience many were made sinners when all and every one that descended ordinarily and naturally from Adam sinned in him and by him as is expressed verse 12. and proved before Genes 17.4 Thou shalt be a father of many nations which is repeated word for word Rom. 4.17 and is thus varied Genes 22.18 In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and this is confirmed Galat. 3.8 where Many and All differ not in sense and substance By Omnes homines All men you may understand Humanum genus Mankinde and because all mankinde must be distinguished into two sorts goats and sheep and considered according to two estates fallen and repaired and their different receptacles the two cities the one the city of God the other of the Devil in the first member the word All must be interpreted generally without
one hundred yeares he is taken with a seeming incurable disease and is as it were in an ecstasie then growing better redit redivivus returneth young lively and lusty to the state of thirty yeares After Christs death he was baptized by Ananias who baptized S. Paul and was called Joseph he is reputed to be a man of a most austere and continent life humble and patient and liveth in both the Armeniaes among Clergy men Thus farre Matthew Paris who was a Monk of Saint Albans at that time And in the like words the storie is reported by Thomas of Rudbourn a Monk of Winchester in his Chronicle which is a manuscript as the great searcher of antiquities Mr Selden my very worthy friend assured me If this Joseph redit redivivus he hath not died twice onely but very often I have recounted these narrations for their pleasant varieties perhaps I may say rarities But as S. Augustine branded the former storie and the beleevers of it saying e Multùm mihi mira est hae◠opinantium tanta praesumptio The great presumption of these opinionists makes me much marvell So I will not be afraid to tax the latter of imposture both because of the varietie of Names by which he is called as you may finde in the learned Mr Seldens illustrations on Polyolbion pag. 15. where he also citeth the incredible fable of Ruan which is cousin-german to the relation of the Eastern Cartaphilus and because the Armenians as well as the Romans have their holy frauds as was seen by our men laught at by the Turks and beleeved by the silly Laicks of Armenia whilest their Priests would strive to fetch false fire from Christs sepulchre on Easter even See Mr Sands in his third book pag. 173. Lastly if this storie of the Armenian could be an undoubted truth the Greek Church would ere this have produced him to justifie the practise and opinions of the Eastern Church against the Western wherein they dissented But no such thing was ever attempted And therefore let this be cast into the number of fables Soli DEO gloria FINIS MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. 1. Many Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death THe third question is Whether Adam and his children all and every one of them without priviledge or exception must and shall die It ariseth also from the same fountain from which the two former questions did proceed It is appointed unto men to die The answer consisteth of three parts That there may be an exception of some That some have been excepted That others shall be excepted And so the answer is returned with the negative thus All and every one shall not die For though it be appointed for men to die yet the appointment may be hath been and shall be reversed Neither fear I the saying of Aquinas part 3. quaest 78. artic 1. a Est communior securior sententia Theologorum Vnumquemque moriturum It is the more common and more safe opinion of the Divines That every one must die And this opinion is maintained with stiffe and peremptory obstinacie by our adversaries the Papists Bosquier in his Terror orbis Salmeron upon the 1. Thessal 4. Gregory de Valent. with others are resolute That none can be dispensed withall but all mankinde and every childe of Adam must die But Melchior Canus is more moderate b Locorum Theologic 7.2 Num. 3. Though it be appointed for all men to die saith he yet that one or two out of that generall law by priviledge be exempted is not so against Scriptures that it may not be questioned And Locor Theol. 7.3 Numer 9. he proveth that it is no way against Scripture That the thrice-blessed mother of our Lord may by singular priviledge be exempted he had erred if he had said Is priviledged from the universall law of all being born in sinne and further confirmeth it by this instance Because the Scriptures say in generall Exod. 33.20 NO MAN SHALL SEE ME AND LIVE and John 1.18 NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME yet Moses and Paul saw God And though ordinarily there is no return from death to life and the Saints come not back again from heaven to dwell on earth yet Augustine saith in lib. de Cura pro mortuis Cap. 15. c Mitti quoque ad vivos aliquos ex mortuis ut Mosem ad Christum sicut è contrario Paulus ex vivis in Paradisum rapius est Divina Scriptura testatur The Scripture witnesseth that some from the dead have been sent to the living as Moses to Christ and on the other side Paul being living was carried into Paradise Again I say the words of the Apostle are onely indefinite not generall it is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is appointed to all men but It is appointed unto men whether all or onely some is not here determined Now because this place wants its strength and nerves to prove that point and neither in the Greek nor Vulgat nor Syriack is the universall expressed the Jesuits have amassed up together many places of Scripture to confirm their opinion 2. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 In Adam all die 1. Corinth 15.22 Death is the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 Death passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 He shall be brought to the grave and remain in the tombe The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him Job 21.32 MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 was threatned to Adam and all his and therefore God who cannot lie will see it accomplished To the last place I answer first It is well rendred and expounded Mortalis eris Obnoxius eris morti Thou shalt be mortall and subject to death as Lyra and Vatablus have it Beda on Genes 2. Morti deputatus eris Thou shalt be condemned to death Chrysostom on John Homil. 27. d Adam mortuus est si non Re tamen Sententiâ Adam died by guilt and judgement though execution was suspended And to say truth In the midst of life we are in death Man is dying till he be dead Infirmities and sicknesse pursue men till they perish Deuteronomie 28.22 The wicked shall finde no ease nor rest but shall have trembling hearts fayling of eyes and sorrow of minde verse 65. Thy life shall hang in
Assumption most honoured among the Papists and yet there is monstrous disagreeing among them who favour her Assumption The last instances concern not our question ibid. 8. Pineda presumed too farre upon uncertainties Lorinus dareth not name any particularly that were raised It cannot be known certainly 136 CHAP. XIIII 1. MY conjecture that none of the Patriarchs or old Prophets were raised 137 2. An objection concerning Peters knowing of Moses and Elias on mount Tabor answered ibid. 3. A conjecture that the Saints who lived in Christs time and died before him were raised at his Passion Who they were in most likelihood When Joseph the reputed father of Christ did die 138 4. The end why they were raised To whom they appeared 139 5. A crotchet concerning the wives of dead men which have been raised 140 CHAP. XV. 1. THe raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ as is proved by Scripture and reason Suarez his shallow answer Epiphanius strengthening my former positive conjectures 141 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 142 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull ibid. 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 143 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles ibid. CHAP. XVI 1. ANgels taken for men Angels representing men are called men 144 2. The name JEHOVAH ascribed to an Angel representing JEHOVAH say Estius and Thyraeus Picking of faults in the Apocryphall Scriptures to be abhorred ibid. 3. Drusius his povertie The Apocrypha is too little esteemed The Angel who guided young Tobie defended 145 4. The great difference between Christs manner of rising and Lazarus his 146 CHAP. XVII 1. THe place of Matth. 27.53 is diversly pointed and according to the pointing is the diversitie of meaning The first implieth that the Saints arose with Christ though their graves were opened before This interpretation is not so likely though received generally 148 2. The second inferreth that they arose before Christ though they went not into the citie till after his resurrection This is favoured by the Syriack and is more agreeable to reason ibid. 3. That the raised Saints died again proved by reasons and Heb. 11.40 149 4. Christ the first-fruits of the dead and of the raised Angelicall assumed bodies were seen and heard much rather should mens bodies ascending with Christ 150 5. S. Augustine Aquinas Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Euthymius Prosper Soto Salmeron Barradius Pererius Valentian affirm that the raised Saints died again Franciscus Lucas Brugensis holds it likely 151 CHAP. XVIII 1. THe arguments of the contrarie opinion answered Suarez and especially Cajetan censured 152 2. That by the holy Citie Jerusalem below was meant proved at large Josephus and the Jews erring about the name of Jerusalem Hierom uncertain 154 3. How the raised appeared A difference between appearing as men And appearing as newly raised men Franciscus Lucas Brugensis rejected 156 4. An argument of Maldonat answered by the prodigious Legend of Christina who died twice No hurt is to man if God will send his soul from an heavenly place to live a while on earth again 157 5. No harm to die twice The difference between death compleat and incompleat 159 6. God can dispense with his own laws 160 CHAP. XIX 1. STrange conceits concerning Nero from Suetonius Tacitus Hierom Augustine Nero supposed to be Antichrist 161 2. Another incredible relation of the Armenian who is said to have lived at Christs passion The Armenians have their holy frauds ibid. The Contents of the third book CHAPTER I. Sect. 1. MAny Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 165 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 166 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 169 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death ibid. CHAP. II. 1. THe third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 173 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 174 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 178 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think Enoch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 180 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truely The materiall remaineth not the formall Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 194 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transfiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies
of which hereafter and yet for all this dispensation it is truely said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not It Was appointed as having reference to what onely was past but It Is appointed It is a yoke that neither our fathers did nor we shall ever shake off and not onely labour and travell is an * Ecclus 40. ◠heavy yoke upon the sonnes of Adam but much more death Neither hath the worlds redeemer freed us from the stroke but from the curse of death for even hitherto * Pallida morsaequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres Horat. Carm. l. 1. O◠4. Pale death doth knock with equall power At th' poore mans doore and kingly tower The grave yet gapeth and though myriads of myriads have died before though Paracelsus promised immortality in this life and perhaps therefore was cut off in the prime of his yeares yet death is * Job 30.23 and 21.33 the house appointed for all living and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him Of the longest liver hath been said in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His life is past or as the Romanes when they were loth to say one was dead spake significantly to the sense yet mildly by this word Vixit Ecclus 14.17 He had his time he did sometimes live And it is the condition of all times THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The universall note or particle is not added It is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet sure it is included and so meant Not Christ himself the destroyer of death is exempted nor his thrice-blessed Mother nor fair Absalom nor strong Sampson nor wise Solomon nor craftie Achitophel It is appointed to all men and women no sex is freed no nation priviledged no age excepted If some few have been dispensed withall I will say with S. Augustine * Alii sunt humanarum limites rerum alia divinarum signa virtutum alià naturaliter alia miral iliter siunt Aug lib. de Cura pro mortuls gerenda cap. 16 Other are the bounds of humane things other the signes of divine power some things are done naturally and some miraculously We speak of the ordinarie course It is appointed for all men TO DIE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is a name of sundry significations and it is taken diversly for there is The last death by the losse of glory The death of the soul by the losse of grace The death of the body by the losse of the soul * Aug. De Civit. Dei lib. 13. cap. 12. If it be demanded saith S. Augustine what death God meaneth to our first parents Whether the death of the body or of the soul or of the whole man or that which is called THE SECOND DEATH we must Consitle si placet ingeniosum ejus Tractatum cap. 15. ejusdem libri saith he answer He threatneth all The death of the soul began immediately upon their eating and is evidenced by their hiding themselves and shame to be seen The death of the body presently seconded it Theod. in Gen. quaest 38. it suddenly becomes mortall saith Theodoret The sentence of mortality GOD called death in Symmachus his exposition For after the divine sentence every day that I may so speak he looked for death as it is in the same Theodoret. As we now expect the resurrection and life eternall every moment so Adam every minute looked for death I am sure he deserved it Peter Martyr on 1. Cor. 13.12 Our first parents perished * Primi parentes quum transgressi sunt illico periêre quoniam mors nequaquam alia censenda quà m recessus à vita nec vitam habemus citra Deum Quare mortui sunt quia à Deo recesserunt eorum anima non fuit à corpore avulsa sed in eo quodammodo sepulta in praesentia non vitam sed mortem vivimus so soon as they transgressed because no other death is to be imagined but a departure from life and we have no life out of God Therefore they died because they departed from God and their soul was not snatcht away from their bodie but in a manner buried in it For the present our life is not a life but a death Of the bodily death onely are the words of my Text to be understood being a prime commentarie on Genes 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return It is appointed for men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Once to die * Quod casus in diabolo id in homine mors What fall is in the devil that death is in man They fell but once we die but once We must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again 2. Sam. 14.14 Waters once spilt embrace the dust and are not gathered up again nor can be spilt again Christ tasted death for every man Hebr. 2.9 As Christ being once dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 so is it regularly and ordinarily with all other one corporall death sufficeth It is appointed unto men ONCE to die 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But after this the judgement Let me speak of the words severally and then in a lump or masse together That these articles Post tum mox modò After then anon presently and the like are taken at large for some yeares before or after you may see it proved in * Alb. Gent. disput ad 1. lib. Maccab. cap. 3. Al bericus Gentilis The Scripture thus Genes 38.1 At that time But it was ten yeares saith Tremellius Exod. 2.11 It came to passe in those dayes and he meaneth fourty yeares Matt. 3.1 In those dayes that is twenty and five yeares after Luke 23.43 To day is taken for presently Aretius hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon that or presently after that And questionles that is the meaning for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After may be interpreted long-after as the word proximus contrarilie doth not enforce necessarily a nearenes Proximus huic longo sed proximus intervallo said Virgil excellently He was next but a great distance between yet in the holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that doth most times rather intimate the procedure and order of things done then intend a large intercedencie of time John 19.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After that Jesus saith I thirst you must not understand it long after not yeares moneths weeks dayes or houres after that for our Saviour hung upon the crosse not above foure houres and many things were said and done before this So in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not evidently inferre a spacious distance of time but by the words after that we may say is meant not long after but presently or thereupon judgement cometh after death Which I the more confidently do so interpret because I know no place in the divine Writ where
after death excluding judgement in this life and placing death rather before judgement then any great distance betwixt death and judgement according to the native use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which before The second exposition is of Gregory de Valentia * Tom. 4. Disp 1. quaest 22. punct 9. who applieth the words to the particular judgement immediately upon death So doth Ludovicus de ponte Vallis Oletani * Part. 1. Meditat. medit 9. who sets it down as a veritie of faith * De particulari judicio animae quod sit proximè post mortem judicium singulorum exerceri invisibiliter statim post eujusque mortem Concerning the particular judgement of the soul which is done immediately after death every one is judged invisibly presently after his death and evinceth it by this Text. So doth Joannes * Viguer Instit pag. 692. Viguerius * Bus initio Panarii Antidotorum spiritual Busaeus the Jesuite likewise accounteth * Secundum novissimum est judicium particulare mortem proximè consequens the second last thing to be the particular judgement following death immediately the severitie whereof saith he Job the holy patient feared Job 31.14 What shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him S. Ambrose on this place hath it thus * Post mortem judicabitur unusquisque â—uxta userita sua Every one shall be judged after death according to their own deservings Which words do point at the particular judgement saith Suarez Lastly lest I may seem too eager against the second book of Esdras let me borrow a testimony or two from thence 2 Esdr 9.11 12. They that lothed my law while they had yet libertie and place of repentance open unto them must know it after death by pain And 2. Esdr 7.56 While we lived and committed sinne we considered not that we should BEGIN to suffer for it AFTER DEATH Whence we may probably collect That the beginning of punishment is immediately after death upon the particular judgement and the increase or additament at the generall judgement 2 That some are in torments before the generall day of retribution 3 That the beginning to suffer is not after a long time GOD onely knoweth how long but after death yea presently after it All these proofs on each side make way for the third and best interpretation That the Apostle meaneth not onely either of these judgements but both of them Benedictus Justinian on these words thus * Post eujusque obitum sequitur judicium privatum in quo quisque suarum actionum reddit urus estrationem post finem mundi erit judicium omnium tum hominum tum daemonum After every ones death private judgement follows in which every one is to give an account of his actions after the end of the world shall be the judgement of all both men and devils Of both the Apostle may be understood saith he So also Salmeron and Hugo Cardinalis and Carthusianus Oecolampadius thus * Sive speciale judicium intelligas sive generale uihil refert Whether you understand the speciall judgement or the gener all it matters not Thus have I brought you back to the point where I first began That this text is fitted to my intentions affording me just liberty to write whatsoever may be conceived or expressed concerning the estate of humane souls in their animation or in death or after it in the life future because the words must be expounded of both judgements And now the text being cleared from ambiguities the termes explained the state being made firm and sure not rolling and changeable and being fixed upon its basis and foundation three questions do seem to arise from the first words of the text and each of them to crave its answer before I come to my main intendment First How and when Death came to be appointed for us Secondly Whether Adam and his children all and every one without priviledge or exception must and shall die It is appointed for men to die Thirdly Whether they that were raised up from the dead at any time did die the second time It is appointed to men once to die O Gracious LORD who orderest all things sweetly and who dost dispose whatsoever man doth purpose I humbly implore thy powerfull guidance and enlightning assistance in all this work for his sake who is Alpha and Omega the Way the Truth and the Life thy onely SONNE my blessed SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Amen CHAP. II. 1 How GOD is immortall how angels and the souls of men how Adams body was mortall and yet immortall though compounded of contraries 2 Aristotles last words his death Holcot or the Philosophers pray for him Aristotle canonized by his followers Plato and Aristotle compared Vives taxed Adams body was not framed of â—he earth or dust of Paradise 3. Adam should not have been subject to any externall force he was Lord of the creatures inward distemper he could not have Adams bodily temperature Christs who was fairer then the children of Adam the helps for Adams body meat drink and sleep 4. Divers opinions of the tree of life If Adam had eaten of the tree of life before or after his fall he had lived for ever If he had not sinned he had not died though he had not tasted of the tree of life To what use the tree of life should have served 5. The Councel of Millan Cardinall Cajetan Richeomus the Jesuite Julianus Pomerius and S. Augustine think that Adam could not have died if he had not sinned The book of Wisedome Holcot Doctor Estius and two passages of Scripture Canonical are authorities evincing that Adam had in the state of innocency an immortall body 1. TO the full answering of the first question how or why Death was appointed for us I shall need to cleare but these two points That Adam for sinne was appointed to die That Adams sinne and punishment was propagated to us Thus sinne was the mother of death thus we were appointed to die because of sinne As a preparative to the first of these two points I hold it fit to demonstrate that Adam at first was made an immortall creature Concerning Adams soul and the spirits of all men descended from him that they are immortall I hope to prove it so soundly in an other part of this tractate that I will fear no other reproof but this that I bring too much proof for it Therefore supposing or rather borrowing that truth which by GODS grace shall be repayed with interest I now come to shew that Adams bodie was created immortall Immortall I say not as GOD is immortall who neither had beginning nor shall have end with whom is no shadow of change much lesse any reall substantiall change who hath as all other good things else so immortalitie eminently and so eminently that our Apostle in some sort excludeth all others and appropriateth it to him saying 1.
restriction because in it was speech of Adam by whom death came upon all without exception but in the second and opposite member All is not to be taken in the same amplitude sed juxta rem subjectam But according to the subject spoken of All that have grace and the gift of righteousnesse Omnes vivificandi All that are to be made alive saith S. Augustine All that are Christs So much in defence of those who by All understand genera singulorum but not singula generum Some of all kindes but not all of every kinde restraining and imprisoning the word yet as it were in libera custodia The free gift came upon all men to the justification of life that is it came upon all upon whom it did come freely and yet upon many which were not of Christs flock it came not at all If this seem harsh to any there is a second interpretation which came in my minde before ever I had heard or read that any other thought so and amongst a whole army of expounders I never met with any who wholly agreeth with me and never but one whose opinion in part concurreth with mine and he is Cardinall Tolet who is found fault withall covertly by Justinian the Jesuit and by the learned Estius under a generall Quidam vir doctus A certain learned man and expressely by name by Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit whose judgement otherwise I had been ignorant of as not having Tolets labours on the Romanes The words of S. Paul Rom. 5.18 at the latter end are these By the righteousnesse of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life So it is read according to the Vulgat in our late Translation the Bishops Bible hath it Good springeth upon all men to the righteousnesse of life but it is certainly amisse for they take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas there is great discrepancy between them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is generally confessed to be according to Philosophers that vertue or aggregation of vertue which is named Justice generall or according to Divinity the vertue or the habit of justice the work of grace sanctification righteousnesse or holinesse inherent Neither is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though I would be loath to say as Beza doth on that place I do not admit saith he Nè in anis quaedam argutia tribuatur Apostolo id est Spiritui sancto that these two are all one for this reason among others Lest some vain nicety should be attributed to the Apostle that is to the holy Ghost for if I did admit them to be all one yet I would rather admire the depths of the holy Spirit which I am not able to sound then ascribe any empty or vain nicety to the perfection of divine Scripture l Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem Tert. lib. contra Hermog Whose plenitude I adore that I may use Tertullians phrase whereas Beza intimateth as if the infinite Spirit knew not to dictate what he could not understand yet will I be bold to say there is a main difference between them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly is rendred justificatio For grant that among Heathen writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be now and then expressed A just cause or The ground-work or foundation of a just cause as l 1. de coelo Aristotle useth it Grant we also that in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used sometimes for the judgement of God as Rom. 1.32 and Revel 15.4 sometimes for the ordinances of God as Luke 1.6 and Heb. 9.1 and 10 verses and Rom. 2.26 yet most properly it is rendred Justificatio and by it is meant the merit of Christ and his righteousnesse imputed to us and is in Christ and not in us Beza saith right in this m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsam justificationis nostrae ut ità dicam materiam hîc declarat ab effecto nempe illam Christi obedientiam cujus imputatio nos juslos in ipso facit quam paulò antè vocavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quò Deus gratis eam nobit largiatur The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justification declareth as I may say the very matter of our justification from the effect namely that obedience of Christ the imputation whereof makes us righteous in him which a little before he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the free gift because God gives it freely to us Thus is the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and our justification all one in effect and onely divers in words to the same sense Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used both in the 16 verse and in this present place and thus Rev. 19.8 The fine linen is the righteousnes of Saints Not of themselves not inherent for to the Church was given or granted that she should be arayed ut cooperiat se as some reade it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in fine linen pure white 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 white to be seen by others And since our Saviour Revel 19.13 was clothed with a vesture dipt in bloud which Blasius Viegas saith is commonly interpreted of Christs humanitie begored with its own bloud by the Jews which suffer me to term Meritum rubrum as well as the School-men stile it Meritum udum which was pointed at Esai 63.1 Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah and verse 2. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat which Tertullian wittily thus expounded n Spiritus propheticus veluti jam contemplans Dominum suum ad passionem venientem carne scilicet vestitum ut in ea passum cruentum habitum carnis in vestimentorum rubore designat conculcatae expressae vi passionis tanquam de foro torcularis quia exinde quasi cruentati homines de vini rubore descendunt Contra Marcionem 4.40 The spirit of the Prophet contemplating as it were his Lord going to his passion clothed with flesh as suffering in it describes by the rednesse of his garments the bloudy habit of his flesh troden and pressed by the force of his passion as by a wine-presse because men come out thence as it were all bloudy with the rednesse of the wine According to that prophesied of him rather then of Judah or of Judah as a type of him Gen. 49.11 He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the bloud of grapes So that S. John may be thought to expound Esai and Esai to reflect on that prophesie of Jacob and all to designe out our Saviours passive obedience by which that I may so speak our sinnes are most properly washed away or not imputed Upon proportionable semblance of reason permit me to say that the pure and white linen describeth Christs active obedience his fulfilling of the Law in
they received their dead raised to life again to live with them according to their desire But others were tortured and would not accept deliverance and cared not for the joyes of this life or the punishment unto death nor temporary raising that they might obtain the better resurrection not to die again as the others did but to live for evermore 4 But as for the third Tostatus saith He lived a long time and he was more healthie then he was before he died And he giveth this sound reason Because what things are done supernaturally are farre more perfect then they that are done naturally Never was there so good wine as the water turned into wine the choicenesse whereof was so easily discerned even when the palate was cloyed when the taste was corrupted and dull'd towards the end of a feast Joh. 2.10 Now as he lived a long time so out of doubt in the end he died tasting of mortalitie as truely as the Prophet did whose bones before had raised him O Blessed Jesu I beg not at thy hands the reuniting of my soul unto my body for a temporary life but if it be thy holy will let the vertue of thy Passion raise me first from the death of sinne to the life of righteousnesse and from a righteous temporary life to the life of immortall happinesse Grant this for thy glorious Names sake O holy Redeemer Amen CHAP. III. 1. Whilest Christ lived none raised any dead save himself onely 2. The Rulers daughter raised by Christ died again 3. So did the young man whom Christ recalled to life 4. Many miracles in that miracle of Lazarus his resurrection 5. Christ gave perfect health to those whom he healed or raised 6. Lazarus his holy life and his second death 1. THe next place of my division leadeth me to treat of those whom Christ himself raised For if Christ did give authoritie to his twelve Apostles to raise the dead Matth. 10.8 though both in the old Interpreter and Theophylact these words are wanting saith Beza yet did they not or the Seventie at their return to him say they had raised any which he himself did so sparingly though they healed the sick Mark 6.13 and the devils were subject unto them through his name Luk. 10.17 Neither did the Baptist nor any in Christs life-time raise up any so farre as can be gathered It was a work he appropriated to his own power for the act thereof whilest he lived and which he maketh to be an infallible token and proof that he was the Messiah as appeareth by the answer of the ambassage which Christ returned to the Baptist Luk. 7.22 The dead are raised by me or by my power Therefore I am he that should come For that is one member of his argument And indeed perhaps he raised divers whom the Scripture hath not particularized for he did very many things that are not written Joh. 21.25 Yea many signes truely did he in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book Joh. 20.30 and his Apostles after his death did actuate that power which habitually in his life they received 2. But those that are mentioned to be raised by Christ whilest he lived on earth are likewise three 1. A Rulers daughter Matth. 9.25 2. A dead man the onely sonne of his mother Luk. 7.15 3. Lazarus his friend Joh. 11.44 And all these returned to do their offices and follow their vocations in this life and in the end payed their due to nature and died again In the first we observe that she was a damsel of twelve yeares of age and being dead her spirit came again Luk. 8.55 She arose and walked Mark 5.42 and Christ commanded to give her meat in the same place of Luke And as the meat was commanded to be given her that they might see she was to live such a life as before she lived so out of doubt the commanded meat was offered unto her and she did eat and was strengthened by it both living and dying afterwards as other maids and men did and no way rising to immortall life 3. As for the second he was a young man on whose mother Christ had compassion Luk. 7.13 She was a widow the youth her onely sonne and when Christ touch'd but the coffin and said Young man arise that you may see both his vertue and his voice had a piercing and quickning power he that was dead sat up and began to speak and Christ delivered him to his mother vers 15. Now these are evident signes of a naturall life in a naturall body which must yeeld in the end to the stroke of death And the raising of this young man being bruited abroad was the especiall motive why the Baptist sent two disciples with a message unto Christ Luk. 7.17 c. 4. The third whom Christ raised was Lazarus who had been buried foure dayes ere Christ came unto him Joh. 11.17 that I may passe over the uncertain time from his death to his buriall d Foetens quairiduanut Stinking after foure dayes enterring saith S. Augustine Yet when Jesus cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin and Jesus saith unto them Loose him and let him go Joh. 11.44 In which miracle I finde foure or five wrapped up and involved That so suddenly his soul did come from its abode That the stinking ill-organized body was so soon so well prepared That the soul was so quickly united and no sooner united then exercising her faculties on the bodie which yeelded such ready obedience That he could see the way out of the grave and perchance approach towards our Saviour when his eyes were blinded That he was able to go and walk before he was loosed by them while his hands and his feet were bound with grave-clothes Yet that the miracle aimed not to raise him to an immortall life appeareth because he did not onely go from his grave to Bethanie to the house where his sisters Mary and Martha were but because he supped with our Saviour he being one of them that sat at the table with Jesus Joh. 12.2 where out of doubt he did eat as the rest did There is an argument yet left as undeniable as unanswerable That the then living did think Lazarus lived to die again For the chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death as well as Christ Joh. 12.10 which they would not they could not have done if he had not lived and could not die like other men if he had been raised to life immortall and they knew he was once raised Joh. 11.45 47. 5. Concerning the sick that were healed and the dead raised by Christ worthy Writers further agree that Christ did integram corporis sanitatem conferre omni infirmitate rejectâ Left no reliques of sicknesse or infirmity when he healed Christ never healed any one man twice Joh.
pec 4.15 The decree is performed if all the posterity of Adam be obnoxious to death Or as S. Augustine answered the Pelagians concerning those which shall be alive at Christs coming x Satìs est illos fuisse morti destinatos 〈◊〉 quae subsecuta esset si seculum processisset Quòd eximantur à morte erit casus neque privilegium paucorum universali causae derogat It sufficeth that they were appointed to die and die they should if the world had endured By casualty they are freed from death nor doth the dispensation with some particular ones infringe the universall cause as I vouched in the second book And as S. Augustine goeth on when they have lived a life full of miserie and calamitie who can say they have not tasted death especially since thirst hunger cold heat infirmities crosses sicknesses are nothing else but a daily dying In which regard the wise woman of Tekoa in her subtile oration saith not We shall all and every one die but 2. Sam. 14.14 We die MORIENDO MORIMUR so runneth the Hebrew and are as water spilt on the ground when immediately both before and after she had spoken of outward crosses y Etiam dum crescimus vita decrescit Even whilest we are growing our life decreaseth saith Seneca Which S. Augustine in libro Soliloq cap. 2. thus enlargeth z Vita mea quantò magìs crescit tantò magìs decrescit quantò magìs procedit tantò magìs ad mortem accedit My life in going forward groweth backward and by how much it advanceth forward by so much it maketh a nearer approach to death As the fire it self consumes its fuell and is nourished by the consumption of it so mans age is fed and nourished by the consumption of his life and of the age he liveth in Man at the same time begins to live and die for LIFE is but the way tending to DEATH a Nascendo morimur imò longè ante nativitatem morimur In our birth we die yea long before it From the instant of the souls infusion we begin to die Lastly I say in that Christ died for all Although some be extraordinarily dispensed withall every one may be said to die Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man Hebr. 2.9 Thus much shall serve for the first part of the answer O Blessed Saviour who art life in thy self and the fountain of life unto others Grant I humbly beseech thee that when I shall passe from this present world from this dying life or living death I may evermore live by Thee in Thee and with Thee Amen Amen CHAP. II. 1. The third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think E. noch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and of his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truly The materiall remaineth not the formal Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transsiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies in heaven The place of Revel 11.7 concerning the two Witnesses winnowed by Bishop Andrews Enoch and Elias are not those two witnesses THe main third question being Whether all men and every one must of necessitie die the first part of the answer was That there was no absolute necessitie but there might be an exception The second part of the answer touched at was this That some have been excepted who never did die nor shall die If I be further demanded Who they be I will onely insist in Enoch and Elias The controversie concerning which two men is so exquisitely handled by the most learned Monarch our late Soveraigne King James in his monitory Preface and by his Second the reverend Bishop Andrews in his answer to Bellarmine his Apologie cap. 11. that the most scrupulous inquisitour may be satisfied After I have selected some matters of moment from that unanswerable Prelate I will take leave to glean after the gathering of their of their full sheaves and to discover a few clusters after their plentifull vintage and to bring to your taste some remarkable passages concerning Enoch and Elias which perhaps they thought fit to omit as affecting brevitie or tying themselves most strictly to the question whilest the nature of my Miscellanies give me licence to travel farre and neare 2. Bellarmine Tom. 1 de Romano Pontifice 3.6 makes it his third Demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Because Enoch and Elias are not come who yet do live and must oppose Antichrist Bellarmines first place is from Malach. 4.5 and sixth
cannot be executed without the glorifying of souls and bodies of his servants we may well think it pleased God to give to the old world a pledge or two of the generall glorification of the bodies of his Saints by the particular performance of the same to the bodies of Enoch and Elias whom he assumed up into heaven by way of especiall favour To this I may adde That Enoch and Elijahs raptures being types of Christs ascension since Christ ascended in a glorified and immortall bodie the shadows must be like the substance and therefore they ascended in glorified immortall bodies Suarez is driven to a great exigent They were onely saith he n in statu merendi potuerunt in gratia crescere c. in a state in which they might merit and increase in grace till the time in which they were translated And as they were translated they were so confirmed in grace that they can commit no sinne And to their old estate of meriting shall they return when they shall live again amongst men But who ever heard of such turnings and returnings in any other men or Angels or that their estate shall be changed from o A non posse peccare ad posse peccare an estate wherein they cannot sinne to an estate in which they may sinne and so backward For supposing they shall live again and die again if they can merit they can also sinne whilest they live among men and so when they die and have their reward in heaven this shall be no small part of it p Non posse peccare To have no power to sinne But this opinion somewhat resembleth the diversified estate of devils who shall be saved after the generall judgement as Origen feigned and fabled and which the Church hath branded for erroneous And now I see I have fallen before I was aware upon the fourth and last question by me propounded Whether Enoch and Elias shall ever die or do live with glorified bodies in the highest heavens which also I have answered at large That they never shall die but do and shall live in glorified bodies Tertullian I confesse said concerning Elias at the Transfiguration q Apparuit in veritate carâ—is nondum defunctae He appeared in true flesh which had never been separated from its soul and more punctually de Anima cap. 50. r Translatus est Enoch Elias nec mors eorum reperta est dilata scilicet Morituri reservantur ut Antichristum sanguine suo extinguant Enoch and Elias were translated nor is their death recorded or known it being adjourned they are kept and preserved that they may die hereafter and by their bloud overthrow and extinguish Antichrist as Baronius cites him And the more common opinion of the Papists is That they two shall be slain and they prove it by Rev. 11.7 When the two witnesses shall have finished their testimonie the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall overcome and kill them The three other places of Scripture on which Bellarmine built his third demonstration that Antichrist is not come because Enoch and Elias are not yet come are answered before This last place and passage of Scripture used by Bellarmine de Romano Pontif. 3.6 cometh now to be examined and you shall finde it thus well winnowed by Bishop Andrews in his Answer to Cardinall Bellarmines Apologie Cap. 11. That the two witnesses are the two Testaments as Beda Primasius Augustinus and Ticonius are Authours S. Hilarius rejecteth Enoch and puts Moses in his room and that very peremptorily Though many have substituted Jeremie in Enochs room saith Hilarie on Matth. Can. 20. S. Hierom the next Father cited by Bellarmine is not constant enough for Elias which I touched at before and Rupertus on Malach. 4. testifieth so much of Hierom and Bullinger in Apocal. lib. 3. v. 3. saith S. Hierom esteemeth them to be Jews and Jewish hereticks who think Elias shall come again Lactantius cited by Bellarmine in his Apologie nameth neither Enoch nor Elias And Chrysostom Theodoret Origen and Primasius say nothing of Enoch Hippolytus for the two witnesses brings in three one whereof is S. John the Divine and indeed he is more likely to be one of the witnesses then Enoch for unto him it was said Revel 10.11 Thou must prophesie again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings but no such thing was said to Enoch Others say Elizeus shall be one of the two witnesses Hieronymus saith r Nisi quis spiritualiter intelligat hunc locum Apocalypsews Judaicis ei fabulis acquiescendum est In Epist ad Marcellum Vnlesse a man understand this place of the Revelation spiritually he must needs settle and rest on Jewish fables Maldonate on the 17 of Matthew and his learned Interpreter saith It is so cleare a matter that Moses and Elias shall come that none but a rash and impudent man can denie it Thus much Bishop Andrews in his Answer to the place of the Revelation against Bellarmines Apologie who vaunted of a cloud of Fathers which cloud is vanished almost into nothing Much more of great worth and consequence hath that Reverend Bishop in the same 11 chapter concerning Enoch and Elias living in glorified bodies to whom I referre the Reader And this shall suffice to have spoken of Enoch and of Elias against Bellarmines third demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Every part and parcell of which proof is so weak and so farre from concluding apodictically that they scarce deserve a place among probable arguments And thus is the second main branch of my answers made good and manifested That some have been excepted from death viz. Enoch and Elias though it be objected that It is appointed for men to die The third part of my answer followeth That others also shall be excepted O Fountain of life and preserver of men to whom belong also the issues of death I have deserved to die the first and second death I have provoked thy long-suffering I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Lord make me as one of thy hired servants and put me to what labour to what pain soever within me without me so long as pleaseth thee onely I beseech thee for the blessed mediation of thy dearely beloved onely Sonne Jesus Christ my Saviour give me grace not to faint under the burthens appointed and at the end of the day at my lives end vouchsafe to give me a penie among thy labourers and eternall life among thy chosen Amen CHAP. III. 1. Some others hereafter shall be excepted from death The change may be accounted in a generall large sense a kinde of death The Papists will have a reall proper death Aquinas an incineration This is disproved 1. Thessal 4.17 which place is handled at large The rapture of the godly is sine media morte without death The resurrection is of all together The righteous prevent not the