desideramus or volumus for so must the Apostle be interpreted as appeareth vers 2 We grone earnestly desiring to be clothed upon Tertullian saith * Quiâ—uon desiderat adhuc in carne superinduere immortalitatem continuare vitam lucrifactam mortis vicariâ denuntiatione De Resur carnis Who desireth not being yet in the flesh to be clothed upon with immortalitie and to continue his life gained by a substituted denunciation of death Can so blessed a change be painfull or can we naturally desire pain shall we grone and grone earnestly that we may have pain Hierome in his Epistle to Minerius and Alexander saith thus of the word Rapiemur * Hoc verbo estendi puto subitum ad meliora transcensum ideirco raptum se voluisse dicere vt velocitas transcuntis sensum cogitantis excederet I think that this word sheweth a sudden passage to a better place and that he said he was caught up to signifie that his passing was swifter then his thinking not as if it were painfull to be taken as I imagine S. Paul speaketh of this translation and change as a matter worthie of thanks unto God 1. Corinth 15.51 c. Onely death of all other wayes by which God useth to call mankinde to glorie death onely is painfull Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me God loosed the pains of death Act. 2.24 and Hebr. 2.15 Some through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage And indeed this pain of death is part of the curse denounced But of this point more hereafter And thus do I make my approach towards it 2. * Aug. De. peccat Merit Remis 1.16 Augustine saith When disobedient Adam sinned then did his body lose the grace of being obedient to his soul Then arose that bestiall motion to be ashamed of by men which he blusht at in his nakednes Then also by a certain sicknes taken by a sudden and contagious corruption it came to passe that the stabilitie of age being lost in which they were created by the changes of ages they made a progresse to death For though they lived many yeares after yet they began to die the same day when they received the law of death by which they were to grow old For whatsoever by a continuall change and degrees runneth unto an end not perfecting or consummating stands not a moment but decayes without intermission Thus was fulfilled what God said Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die So he Let me adde my conjecture First if God had not called Adam and Eve so sensibly to an account yet had they died by vertue of the former sentence For the later sentence inflicts not death which was then entred on them but labour and pain In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life Genes 3.17 And though it be said vers 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Yet this is but an explication of the former sentence shewing that the manner of the death shall be by incineration which was not so exactly speciallized before Secondly the same instant that Adam had eaten I make no doubt but both their eyes were opened and they knew their nakednes which was the first sensible degree towards death and corruption For though the Scripture doth not say expressely Immediately their eyes were opened yet it implieth so much as may appeare by the implicative particle and Genes 3.6 c. Eve did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat and the eyes of them both were opened c. S. Augustine thus * Quomodo corpus nostrum dicit Apostolus mortuum Rom 8.10 cùm adhuc de viventibus loqueretur nisi quia jam ipsa conditio moriendi ex peccato parentum haesit in prole De Gen. ad lit 6.26 How doth the Apostle say that our body is dead Rom. 8.10 when he speaks of the living but because the condition of dying arising from the sinne of the parents sticks to the posteritie So we also die or are dying the first houre of our being And again * Corpus mortuum est propter peccatum Nec ibi ait Mortale sed Mortuum quamvis vtique mortale quia moriturum mox vbi praeceptum transgressi sunt ecrum membris velut aliqua aegritudo lethalis mors ipsa concepta est Quid enimaliud non dicam nati sed omnino concepti nisi aegritudinem quandam inchoavimus quâ sumus sine dubis morituri Ibid. 9 10 The body is dead because of sinne He saith not there It is mortall but dead albeit it is truely mortall because it shall die So soon as they transgressed the commandment death like some deadly disease was conceived in their members For as soon as we were I will not say born but even conceived what did weels but begin a certain sicknes by which we shall undoubtedly die IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH and now non vitam vivimus sed mortem which was toucht at before and must be handled again God who drew light out of darknes yea all things out of the unformed TOHV-BOHV and that masse or rude lump out of nothing is so good a God and so divine a goodnes that he would never have suffered sinne in this world but that he knew how to extract good out of evill and to turn mans sinne to his benefit Neither would he have permitted death to enter upon man but that he knew how to use the sting of death to mans greater happines and how to bring forth meat out of the eater and sweetnes out of the strong Judg. 14.14 As of the vipers flesh is made a preservative against the poison of the viper so from this bitter cup of death ariseth health joy and salvation to mankinde * Aug. De Civit. Dei 9.10 Augustine hath a witty collection from Plato and his follower Plotinus Plato in Timaeo writeth * Hominum animos mortalibus vinculis esse à dâ—is minoribus illigatos that the spirits of men are tied with mortall bands by the lesser gods So Vives on the place citeth Plato but Plotinus in lib. de dubijs Animae as he is also cited by Vives on that place of Augustine thus * Jupiter Pater laborantaâ— animas misâ—ratus earum vincula quibus laborant solubilia fabriâ—avit Father Jupiter having compassion of the afflicted souls hath made their bands soluble wherewith they are wearied These quotations at large give light to S. Augustines meaning which is subobscure for he saith * Plotinus Platenem prae caeteris intellexisse laudatur Is cùm de humanis animis ageret Pater in â—uit misericors mortalia illis vincula saciebat Plotinus is commended for having understood Plato above the rest He treating
of the souls of men saith The mercifull Father made them mortall bands Whether the particle Is aimeth at Plato or Plotinus appeareth not by Augustine Bartholomaeus * Barth Sib. Peregrin Quaest Decad. 1. c. 2. q. 2. Sibylla appropriateth the word Is to Plato I rather assigne it to Plotinus as the good Expositor of Plato Or it may be that S. Augustine taking some words from both of them into one sentence purposely left it doubtfull unto whom the Is must be referred Howsoever his collection as I said is ingenious and subtile * Ità hoc ipsum quòd mortales sint homines corpore ad misericordiam Dei Patris pertinere arbitratus est nè semper huâ—us vitae miseriâ teneantur So he thought that this very thing that men are mortall in body proceeds from the mercie of our divine Father lest they should be alwayes held with the miserie of this life Even as the very miserie of mankind from which no man is free could not pertain to the just judgement of the Almightie if there had been no originall sinne as Augustine saith otherwhere Gods judgement brought miserie and death for sinne yet in death God remembred mercie distilled good out of it I cannot omit this memorable speech of Gregory * Naz. Orat. 2. de Pasch Nazianzen Adam was expelled and extruded from this tree of life from Paradise at once by God for sinne And yet even in this case by death he gaineth the cutting off of sinne lest the evill should be immortall So was punishment turned into mercy He is excellently seconded by Rupert * Rup De Trinit 3.24 c. How should we turn away with deaf eares the care of the death of the soul and the generall judgement if we should never have died that are so proud to day dying to morrow Well therefore did our Lord God strike Man with the death of the flesh of the body lest he should be ignorant of the death of his soul and sleep securely in his pleasures till the dawning of the last day that at least Man might be waked even by the fear of the instantaneall death and that he might not like the immortall devil adde prevarication to prevarication but rather flee and avoid the pride height of sinne by humble repentance Let me adde Hence is the patience of the Saints Here are the crowns of the Martyrs saith Chrysostome This death causeth many vertues which had else never been * O munde immunde si sic me tenes breviter transeundo quid faceres diu permanendo O unclean World saith devout Bernard if thou holdest me so shortly passing what shouldest thou do long remaining If ye desire more proofs that death was appointed to Adam for sinne and that he was kept from the tree of life after he had sinned lest his miserable life should have been immortall consult with the authoritie of Irenaeus in his third book and 37. chap. of Hilarius in his commentarie on Psal 69.26 of Hierome on Esai 65. of Cyrill of Alexandria about the middle of his third book against Julian and they shall confirm you in this point That death is a bitter-sweet a compound of judgement and mercy a loathsom pill and a punishment yet wrapt up in gold and working out health and blessings for mankinde * A culpa natae sunt duae filiae Tristitia Mors quae duaefiliae pessimam matrem destruunt From the transgression two daughters are born Sorrow and Death which two daughters destroy their very ill mother Augustine against two Epistles of the Pelagians 4.4 * Quamvìs bonis conferatur per mortem plurimum boni unde nonnulli etiam DE BONO MORTIS Congruenter disputaverunt tamen hinc quae praedicanda est nisi misericordia Dei quòd in usus bonos convertitur poena peccati Although by death much good be bestowed on good men whereupon some have fitly discoursed even of the good of death yet what hence can we commend but Gods mercie that the punishment of sin is turned to good uses I will seal up all with the saying of Cicero in the beginning of his third book de Oratore where he spake wiser then he was aware of * Mihi non à diis immortalibus vita erepta sed mors donata est Life hath not been taken away from me by the immortall gods but death hath been given Death is a benefit though it was appointed unto Adam for sinne for one sinne onely which is the next point to be explained 3. It is true that the wages due to any one sinne is death and as true that we commit many sinnes which are rightly divided into originall and actuall Actuall sinnes are of a thousand kindes committed by us yet none of these our sinnes nor Adams after-sinnes but his first sinne onely produced death Likewise originall sin consisteth of two parts of Adams transgression of our corruption In Adams transgression were many sinnes involved our corruption consisteth both in the want of original justice in the positive ill-qualitie of our nature Adams sinne is imputed to us our corruption both inherent imputed His sin as a qualitie concerned himself as relation concerned us As he was an individual man it touched himself onely as a coÌ„mon person it drop't down upon us His actuall sin is not propagated his corrupting of our nature is deriv'd And this corruption is both a sin and a punishment of sinne Some late Divines have written Originall sinne is said to be twofold 1 Imputed which was inherently in Adam and charged upon his posteritie 2 Inherent which is naturally propagated to us So amongst others Scharpius pag. 463. But they speak improperlie for originall sinne is but one onely made up of two parts or branches indeed perchance parts constituent not ratione onely but re differentes yet not so natively to be call'd a double sinne as one sinne of two steps degrees sections composures parts or branches for originall sinne is not many not two but one onely viz for which death was inflicted And this is the point I must now insist upon and thus I prove it apodictically Rom. 5.12 Death entred by sinne and verse 21 Sinne reigned unto death Likewise Rom. 6.23 The wages of sinne is death and 1. Corint 15.56 The sting of death is sinne All in the singular number evincing it to be one onely sinne David complaineth Psal 51.5 I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me In sinne not in sinnes both the Hebrew and the Vulgar Translation have all these places in the singular number Concerning David it is observable lest any one might imagine that Davids mother was lascivious and that therefore he complained and so this complaint concerned David himself onely and personally and not us that it was no part of Davids intent to disparage his mother and Aquinas saith David was born of a lawfull
all sins which by a wicked life they have added to that one Ignatius calleth it The ancient impietie Irenaeus stileth it The hand-writing written by Adam All in the singular number pointing at one man onely and at one sinne onely Two points are cleared We are appointed to die for one sinne onely We are appointed to die of one person onely It followeth by the native and genuine method This person was one man * Parvuli moriuntur soli peceato originali obnoxâ—i adulti omnibus peccatis quae malè vivendo addiderunt ad illud unum Enchir. cap. 43. This one man was Adam And so by consequent it was not Eves sinne for which death was appointed to us And first of the first part 4. That this person sinning was one man seemeth evidenced Rom. 5.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By one that sinned It is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ignatius Epist ad Trallianos Yet if that proof reach not home but may suffer extension even to Angels or spirits others shall 1. Cor. 15.21 * Iren. lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By man came death and by man the Resurrection of the dead You may as well deny the Resurrection by the Sonne of man as that sinne or death came not by man Again Rom. 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By one man sinne entred into the World and death by sinne the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demonstrating the humane nature and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with it necessarily pointing and signing out the masculine and not the feminine Rom. 5.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the disobedience of one man where most evidently not onely the humane nature is signed and marked out unto us but also the masculine sex the He and not the She. Having found that he was a Man for whose sinne death was appointed let us now follow the sent and we shall trace out who he was which is the main point of inquirie Searching the Scriptures even close to the former place occurreth this 1. Corint 15.22 As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive He who confesseth the quickning power of the second Adam unto Resurrection must also confesse the weaknes of the first Adam and that In him all men die Indeed it is said Eccl. 25.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Accusative Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die But of Adam the phrase is used in the Genitive Rom. 5 three severall times Per illam non in illa morimur The Divines distinguish them two We die by her and in Adam We also die by the Devill as he was the tempter of her as well as by her she being the tempter of Adam by them both occasionally by him and onely in him effectually So for the former part of the words it is true * Ab Eva initium peccati ab Adamo complementum Eve began sinne but Adam made it compleat She was principium but principium principiatum Satan was the principium principians the mover primo-primus He was a murderer from the beginning John 8.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from the first absolute beginning for then Satan had no being not from his own beginning for at his creation he was good as all things els were but so soon as ever man was he resolved to destroy man and with reference to that intention he was a man-slayer or a murderer of man from the beginning of man From Satan was the beginning of sin from Eve a seconding a middesse a continuation you may call it an other beginning secundo-primum But had not Adam sinned death had not reigned for in Adam all die it was never said of Eve in Eve we die Augustine saith * Aug. De Civit. 12.21 God made some certain creatures solitarias quodam modo solivagas solitarie and after a sort wandring alone as eagles kites lions wolves other creatures gregales that love to troupe fly shoal and herd together as pigeons stares fishes deere and made divers of them all at once of severall kindes and not onely two of each kinde by which the rest should be propagated but he made the man unum singulum one and single and would not create the woman when he created the man but made her of man himself * Vt omne ex homine vno diffunderetur genus humanum that all mankinde should be derived from one man He annexeth other where That originall sinne might come from one onely man The Apostle saith most divinely 1. Timoth. 2.14 Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression From whence though the ignorant may think that Eve was the sinner and Adam was not yet they erre not understanding the Apostle His main intent is to prove that a woman ought to be silent and subject and not usurp authoritie over the man as a talking woman doth and this he effecteth by two reasons First Adam was first formed then Eve The reason holds of things of the same species Otherwise beasts and birds were created before Adam Secondly Adam was not deceived but Eve not first deceived not deceived by a beast and one of the worst of them a serpent Therefore she is unfit to be any longer a teacher Chrysostom thus The woman taught once and marred all therefore let her teach no longer Hence it appeareth it was no part of the Apostles meaning to handle Whether the sinne of Adam or of Eve caused mankinde to fall which is our main point for the transgression here mentioned was not that sinne that great sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diverticulum transiens a peccadillo a little sinne in respect of that great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ingaged all mankinde much lesse did the Apostle intend to excuse Adam from that great presumptuous offence in which he onely was That sin of his being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5.19 which must needs be a crying sin and almost infinite since it is opposed to Christs obedience called there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam was not deceived because no man is properly deceived but of him who hath an intent to deceive now the Devil onely had such an intent and thereupon deceived Eve Wherefore she complaineth saying the Serpent beguiled me Genes 3.13 the Apostle ratifieth it 2. Corinth 11.3 The Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty And in this manner Eve onely being deceived was in the transgression For Satan set not upon Adam * Diabolus non est adorsus eum qui corà m acceperat coelesse mandatum sed eam quae à viro didicerat Ambr. lib. de Paradiso cap. 12. Dolo illo serpentino c Aug. De Gen. ad lit 11.42 The Devil set not upon him that had received in presence the heavenly commandment but upon her that had learned it of her husband saith Ambrose Yea S. Augustine
his Father and Mother and cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh and by the same words perhaps understand Christ and his Church and that mysterie explained by S. Paul Ephes 5.31 c. those being the words of Adam as †Epiph. Contr a Ptolemaîtas Epiphanius saith of Adam speaking unto God speaking the truth of God and in this respect as I conceive Christ saith Matth. 19.4 c. these words are the words of God of the Creator as all light is from the Sunne so all truth from God as on the contrarie all lies are from the Devill I say if Adam could foresee marriages generations cohabitations mysteries and future usances he could not be ignorant that that law was given him to keep to the blisse of all mankinde and the contempt thereof would draw on the destruction of his posteritie And I think I shall not erre if I collect from the correlative correspondencie which must be between the Type and the Antitype the shadow and the substance That the first Adam knew his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disobedience was sufficient to bring destruction on all mankinde as the second Adam knew that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or obedience was a sufficient redemption for the sinnes of all the World Durand foolishly presupposeth that the will of Adam sinning was ours onely concomitativè interpretativè because we lost originall justice when Adam finned beyond his thoughts or intentions * Stap. De Originali Peccato 1.9 Stapleton saith truly If Adam intended no such thing with an actuall intention yet he did it with a virtuall intention But I rather think that the word If may be cut off and we may say Adam did as Esau afterward prefer temporals before spirituals and as all the sonnes of Adam do at one time or other for he was not ignorant of the danger yet embraced it and he might say within himself Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor * Aug. De Gen. ad lit 11.18 Augustine hath this wittie Quaere Whether Adam and Eve foreknew their fall For if he did before hand know that he should sinne and that God would revenge it whence could he be happie and so he was in Paradise yet not happie If he did not foreknow his fall then by this ignorance he was either uncertain of that blessednesse and how was he then truly blessed or certain by a false hope and not by a right knowledge and then how was he not a fool I answer They did not know that they should fall or sinne for there was no necessitie laid upon them and to know the unalterable certaintie of a thing contingent as their future estate was is to take away the nature of its contingencie and to make it unavoidable But for all this ignorance they were certain enough of blessednesse if they would themselves and their wills and persons were in Paradise blessed though changeable though not so wholy blessed as good Angels are or as the Saints shall be For if we say Nothing is blessed but what hath attained absolute certainty and the height of blessednesse the very blessed Spirits of heaven shall not be said to be blessed especially if they be compared with God who onely is blessed And so Adam and Eve were beati modo quodam inferiori non tamen nullo that I answer in Augustines words Again to the former part of this Question I answer That they knew before hand that they could sinne and that God would punish them if they did sinne and yet for all this they had the grace given to stand if they would and so to avoid both sinne and punishment and withall they knew that they had that grace But if before hand they had known or could have known that they should have sinned they could not have been happie in Paradise yet as they were in Paradise they were happie though they knew not that they should fall For if men on earth may be called Saints Saints of light Blessed as they are often and Spirituall Galat. 6.1 though they were in their bodies to passe through both temptations and tribulations and can not divers times but fall much more Adam might be termed Blessed in Paradise who though he saw he might fall yet he saw also he might have stood and so rejoyced saith Augustine himself for the reward to come that he endured no tribulation for the present Lastly to S. Augustines three-headed Dilemma I answer by distinguishing There is a threefold ignorance The first is pravae dispositionis when one is prepossessed with a false opinion excluding knowledge this may be called positive ignorance or plain errour The second is ignorantia privationis when a man knoweth not what he is bound to know neither of these can consist with blessednesse nor was in innocent Adam But there is a third viz. ignoratio simplicis nescientiae when we know not such things as we need not to know This was in Adam and is in good Angels yea Christ himself knew not some things This ignorance is not sinfull nor erronious not making either imaginarily happie or foolish This great law in Tertullians phrase is stiled * Lex primordialis generalis quasi matrix omnium praeceptorum Dei The Mother-law breeding all other laws which had been sufficient for them if they had kept it saith he * Aug. De Civit. 14.12 Augustine and * Chrys Homil. 41. in Acta Apost Chrysostom agree in this That Adams first sinne onely maketh us culpable †Chrys in Ephes 6. Chrysostom calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first sinne Augustin saith that * Prima duntaxat Adae transgressio transit in posteros quia illo primo peccato universa naturae corrupta est Cont. Julian 3.6 Onely the first transgression of Adam is passed upon the posteritie because the whole nature is corrupted by that first sinne Therefore when a childe is born he hath originall sinne and death the wages thereof annexed as due to it not because he is a creature not because he is a person not because he is a person of mankinde or humane nature not because he descended from his immediate or mediate parents not because they came from Eve not onely because he was in the loyns of Adam of sinning or sinfull Adam but because he was in Adam when he first sinned and implicitly gave his consent to the committing of that first transgression and that primarie aversion which hath led us astray ever since 4. Some have held that Eve sinned before she talked with the Serpent So * Rup lib. 3. De Operib Trinit in Gen. cap. 5. Rupertus and * Ferus in Gen. 3. Ferus But certainly she sinned before Adam being carried headlong with the Bonū apparens did little imagine to work so much mischief Had she known that her husbands yeelding should necessarily and infallibly bring forth death to him and all his posteritie and after
illa successione propagatus nascitur sicut ad istum pertinet omnit qui gratiae largitate in illo renascitur unde fit vt totum genus kumannm quodam modo sint homines duo PRIMUS SEâ—VNDUS Prosp Sent. 299. The first man Adam so died in time past that yet after him Christ is the second man although so many thousands of men be born between that and this and therefore it is evident that every one who is born propagated from that succession belongs to that former as whosoever is born again by the liberalitie of grace pertains to this latter whence it comes to passe that all mankinde in some sort consist in two men THE FIRST and THE SECOND Yea the whole world except Christ onely as men are the first Adam and the first Adam as he beleeved in Christ to come is not now the first but a branch of the second Adam What Christ did for us we are said to do what Adam did misdo as he represented us we may justly be said to misdo with him Genes 4.10 The voice of thy brothers bloud crieth unto me Sanguinum yea Seminum saith the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Rabbins whom howsoever the Jesuit Cornelius à Lapide faulteth yet I will commend for their witty invention That God seemed as it were to heare the cries of all those many little ones which ever might have descended from Abel and them Cain killed and their bloud he shed even ere they were and their bloud cried in Abels So we consented with Adam and in him all sinned saith our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our latest Translation hath it For that all have sinned The Bishops Bible in as much as we have all sinned So Erasmus and some others yet our latest Translation alloweth a place in the margin for in whom it is rendred by the Vulgat In quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not here taken for a Preposition of whose various constructions see the Grammarians none of which constructions afford so full and punctuall a sense to this place as if we render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Preposition by it self and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the Dative of the subjunctive relative article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Genevian readeth it in whom and interprets the words in whom to be in Adam and so indeed it may be read and must be meant for though the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be otherwise rendred and used yet divers times it is confounded with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and necessarily is so to be understood View in one Chapter two places Hebr. 9.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solummodo in cibis potibus Which stood onely in meats and drinks as our very late Translatours have it And vers 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testamentum enim in mortuis ratum est so word for word is it construed So Demosthenes hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his acquiescere Basil in his Epistle to Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In hac solitudine So we usually say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In nobis and the like This reading being established let us search the meaning of these words In whom or in which and to what they are referred There are but foure things to which these words can possibly have relation First unto the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then the sense is By one man sinne entred into the world in which world all have sinned This exposition is very absurd For first it is nothing to the intent of the Apostle who proveth that we fell in Adam and are raised by Christ but how conduceth this unto that sense Secondly the senselesnesse of the words is most ridiculous being thus read As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men in which world all have sinned The Spirit of wisedome would not speak so nor the God of order so disjointedly The second exposition is as unlikely and that readeth it In which death all have sinned but as * In peccato moriuntur homines non in morte peccant Aug. Cont. duas Epist Pelag. 4.4 S. Augustine saith Men die in sinne not sinne in death The phrase is improper yet grant that some sinne in death yet it is most untrue That in death all sinne The third word to which In whom or which may be referred is Sinne In which sinne all have sinned and thus * Aug. De Peccat Merit Remis 1.10 Augustine did interpret it once And if it were so to be read it is all one in effect to say In Adam all sinned and In which sinne of Adam all sinned But * Vide Aug. Cont. 2. Epist Felag 4.4 Augustine afterward more accuratly examining the place rejecteth that exposition and confirmeth another by the authority of S. Hilarie And indeed Grammaticall construction overthroweth the sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the feminine gender to which the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can have no good reference Therefore the last exposition is best which renders it In quo In which Adam all have sinned So it is expounded by Hilarie Augustine and Ambrose by Origen Chrysostom Theophylact Oecumenius and generally both by the Greek and Latine Fathers and the Apostle strongly argueth for this sense verse 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners In him we sinned And whoso shall throughly weigh both the precedent and subsequent dependances must needs acknowledge that the words In whom or In which do point at Adam onely in whom as in a masse we were contained and in him sinned Photius thus * In hoc ipsi Adam commorimur quòd ipsicompeccavimus ille initium dedit peccato nos adjutores illi fuimus In this we our selves die with Adam that our selves have sinned with him he gave the beginning to sinne we have been helpers to him And Neither by the Devill who sinned before the woman nor by the woman who sinned before her husband but by Adam from whom all mortality draweth its beginning did sinne truly enter into the world and death by sinne So farre Origen Augustine likewise * In Adamo omnes peccaverunt quando omnes ille unus homo fuerunt Aug. De Baptismo parvulorum 1.10 In Adam all have sinned when all were that one man So punctually speaketh he For we were in Adam radically seminally representatively Adam was our head he did lead the whole body into evill he was our parent all the issue of him were disinherited by him Augustine thus * Peccavimus omnes in Adamo voluntariè non voluntate nostrâ propriâ— sed voluntate illius cum quo in quo eramus unus homo atque vna omnium voluntas Aug. Epist 23. Ad Bonifacium We have all sinned in Adam willingly not by our own will but by his will with whom and in whom we were one man and one will
contracting of sinnes and undergoing punishment for them Fourthly weigh this strong inconvenience which he toucheth at That the latter born in time is still the worse in nature worse then any that went before as followeth necessarily if the sinnes of our forefathers are communicated to us Fifthly he seemeth to conclude the unreasonablenesse That they who were never regenerated should be overburdened with eternall damnation if they should be compelled from the beginning of mankinde to contract the sinnes of all their progenitours and be punished for them And therefore he questioneth Whether it reacheth onely to the third and fourth generation I would also question Whether if the threat reach onely to the third and fourth generation upon supposall that from Adam all the predecessours of a man were wicked till the fourth generation that man shall have none of those sinnes imputed to him before his progenitours in a fourth ascent Or if an others progenitours were all good from Adam till the foure last generations and from it all and every of his parents in a lineall descent were stark-naught till we come to himself who is good Whether he shall have communicated to him the sinnes of these foure last progenitours and no goodnesse for a thousand generations of holy and repentant forefathers himself also being a holy man since God sheweth mercy unto thousands that love him that is more mercy to more good men then severitie which extendeth even towards his haters but to the third and fourth generation which number is short of thousands The last objection from the place of Exodus is this q Consequi videtur Deum permittere ut pâ—ccata parentum in filios transeant It seems to follow that God doth permit that the sinnes of parents passe unto their children and the sonnes imitate the sinnes of their fathers that God may justly punish sinnes which are not so proper to the parent as to the parent and childe I answer He doth well to mince it with It seems to follow But Quaedam videntur non sunt Some things seem to be and are not Bucer and Martyr do float too much in generalities they neither mention what sinnes all or some neither what parents good bad or all nor what they mean by passing when they say r Peccata parentum in filios transeunt The sinnes of parents passe unto the children There are also nets and ginns in these their words Å¿ Peccatorum labes cou contegium redundat in patris corpus per ejus sanguinem semen in filios The spot and as it were contagion of sinne overspreadeth the fathers body and by his bloud and seed redoundeth upon the children Before they said sinnes now the spot of sinnes though there be a great difference between them two for the sinne is past before the spot cometh and the latter is the effect of the former Again because it is easie to prove that t Macula patris non redundat in filios the stain of the father redoundeth not on the children it is added u Labes ceu contagium the spot and as it were contagion Moreover how unaptly do they bring the place of Exodus to prove the sinnes of the next parents to be communicated if by them they understand onely the immediate father and mother when in that place there is expresse mention of the third and fourth generation If they stretch the words of the next parents to the third and fourth generation onely why not to the fifth sixth and so upward Sixteen generations since Christs time are the next parents if you compare them to the thirty nine generations which in the law of Nature and of Moses preceded Christ Lastly note their wilde inference God permits the fathers sinne to passe unto the childe and the childe to imitate the father that he may punish as if God could not justly punish the sinnes of the fathers in the children unlesse they be like them in personall transgressions as if the communication of original sinne onely were not cause enough to punish children for the sinnes of their parents as if the evil of sinne were ordained to justifie the evil of punishment Away then with this fishing in troubled waters this delighting in amphibolous terms Which censure that I may the rather justifie I will endeavour to explain all things necessary to the knowledge of this point to salve all doubts to unfold all intricacies in these seven propositions 4. God justly may and doth punish with any temporall punishment any children like or unlike to their parents for their fathers personall sinnes Horat. Epod. 7. Immerentis fluxit in terram Remi Sacer nepotibus cruor And Carminum 3. Ode 6. Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane For the children are a part of the fathers and in the childes punishment the father himself is punished For as a sonne receiveth under God life and the things of this life by the father so it is no injustice if he lose the same for him The widow of Zarephath her sonne was in her apprehension dead for her sinne 1. King 17.18 So 2. Sam. 12.15 God stroke the childe that Uriahs wife bare to David and it was sick and died Both father and childe endured a punishment of seven dayes the father in sorrow fasting a fast lying on the earth in a holy sordiditie weeping and praying the childe by sicknesse tormenting him to death Ahabs children were punished for his offence 1. King 21.21 and among the rest Jehoram his sonne who although he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord yet was not so bad as his father or mother 2. Kings 3.2 The passage is very observable Jer. 16.3 4. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sonnes and daughters that are born in this place and concerning their mothers and fathers They shall die of grievous deaths Both the great and small shall die vers 6. The punishment of Gehazi his posterity is more exemplarie for though they sinned not nor could sinne the sinne of Gehazi yet the leprosie of Naaman did cleave unto him for that his personall simonie and unto his seed for ever 2. Kings 5.27 The case of Jobs children surpasseth this for they were not stricken with death for their own sinnes or the sinnes of their father Job so much as for the triall of his patience and for the experimentall confutation of Satan yet was it not unjust that they should lose their lives for their fathers good which they had by him since he also suffered in their sufferings and might easily see Gods especiall hand against himself For the greatest winde in the world naturally cannot smite the foure corners of an house and if it should yet one corner would uphold the other but this whirlwinde did so and the house fell Job 1.19 1. Sam. 15.6 the Kenites are spared because they shewed kindenesse to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt but because Amalek had fought with
and involved in originall sinne which they either knew not or considered not Lastly when I had taken these pains to frame this chapter in defence of a point which I never held to be questioned it grieved me to heare my ingenious friend so much to defend the new Writers and to dance after the new pipe Candid and favourable expositions I shall love while I live and both use towards others and desire to be used towards me but violent forced farre-fetched interpretations as this hath been I can no way allow For since reformation hath been so sharp-sighted as to finde fault in all things to esteem the Schoolmen as dunses though they are thought dunses that so censure them to account the Fathers as silly old men or as children though they are but babes that admire them not to disregard Provinciall Councels yea Generall Councels as the acts of weak and sinfull men though they are the chiefest the highest earthly-living-breathing Judges of Scriptures controversed which cavils against former times I have heard belched forth by the brain-sick zealous ignorants of our times since we have hissed out the Papists and think they speak against their own consciences when they maintain the infallibilitie and inerrabilitie of the Pope May not Bucer and Martyr erre Must all new opinions needs be true and defended with might and main with wrested part-taking over-charitable defenses rather then a small errour shall be acknowledged If such milde dealing had been used against times precedent we could not have found as some now have done about two thousand errours of the Papists But thus much if not too much shall suffice concerning these men and this matter with this cloze That Zanchius himself in the place above cited saith thus against that new-fangled opinion t Neque enim aliud peccatum in posteros transfusum est quà m quod ipsius quoque fuit Adami fuit enim inobedientia cum privatione justitiae originalis totius naturae corruptione Deinde etiam non propter aliud peccatum nos sumus adjudicati morti quà m propter illud propter quod Adamus Ejusdem enim peccati stipendium fuit mors Illi autem fuit dictum Morte Morieris propter inobedientiam c. For no other sinne was transfused to posteritie then that which also was Adams for it was disobedience with a privation of originall justice and corruption of the whole nature Besides we are sentenced to death for no other sinne then for that for which Adam also was for death was the wages of the same sinne Now it was said to him THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH for disobedience c. Now let them say if they can that Adam was sentenced to death for any sinne of predecessour or successour or any other sinne of himself but one onely I have maintained and do resolve Death was inflicted for his first sinne onely Therefore by Zanchius his true Divinitie against Bucer and Martyr and their peremptorie defenders Not all not many sinnes of all of many of any of our predecessours but the first sinne onely of Adam is transfused to posteritie nor are they guiltie or condemnable for any other preceding actuall sinne or sinnes of others whosoever O Father of consolation O God of mercies who knowest that every one of us have sinnes personall more then enow to condemne us lay not I beseech thee the sinnes of our fathers or fore-fathers or our own if it be thy holy will to our charge to punish us in this life present or our originall sinne in and by Adam or our own actuall misdeeds to trouble our consciences by despair or to damne us in the world to come but have mercy upon us have mercy upon us according to thy great mercy in Christ Jesus our alone Lord and Saviour Amen CHAP. VIII 1. Original sinne came not by the Law of Moses but was before it in the World 2. God hath good reason and justice to punish us for our original sinne in Adam Gods actions defended by the like actions of men 3. Husbands represent their wives The men of Israel represented the women Concerning the first-born of men and beasts The primogeniture and redemption of the first-born 4. The whole bodie is punished for the murder committed by one hand Corporations represent whole cities and towns and Parliaments the bodie of the Realm Their acts binde the whole Kingdome Battelling champions and duellists ingage posteritie 5. S. Peter represented the Apostles The Apostles represent sometimes the Bishops sometimes the whole Clergie The Ministers of the Convocation represent the whole Church of England The authoritie of Generall Councels National Synods must be obeyed 6. Private spirits censured Interpretation of Scripture not promiscuously permitted An Anabaptisticall woman displayed 7. An other woman reproved for her new-fangled book in print Scriptures not to be expounded by anagrams in Hebrew much lesse in English but with reverence How farre the people are to beleeve their Pastours 8. Saul represented an entire armie Joshua and the Princes binde the Kingdome of Israel for long time after 9. Christ represented us Christ and Adam like in some things in others unlike Christ did and doth more good for us then Adam did harm IT hath been plentifully evidenced that death entred into the world by sinne and that both Adam and we were sentenced to die for one sinne the first sinne onely of Adam onely and not for any other sinne or sinnes of him or any other our remote propinque or immediate parents and that death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 I adde Death shall live fight and prevail though not reigne from Moses unto the end of the world For when this mortall shall have put on immortality then then and not till then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory 1. Cor. 15.54 and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1. Cor. 15.26 Aquine on Roman 5. lect 4. thus Because corporall death reigned from Adam by whom originall sinne came into the world unto Moses under whom the Law was given and death is the effect of sinne especially originall sinne it appeareth there was originall sinne in the world before the Law and lest we might say they died for actuall sinnes the Apostle saith Death reigned even over those who sinned not proprio actu as children So he 2. The things themselves then being unquestionable and before elucidated to the full That death is inflicted for originall sinne and that we all and every of us except Christ have contracted originall sinne it followeth justly by the judgement of God that death is appointed unto us for this sinne Tertullian lib. 1. contra Marcion a Homo damnatur in mortem ob unius arbusculi delibationem pereunt jam omnes quì nullum Paradisi cespitem nôrunt Man is condemned to death for tasting of a small
tree and now they all perish that never were acquainted with Paradise and let me adde They are most justly punished Neither let man cavill or cast aspersion of unrighteousnes upon God For though men be but of yesterday yea though the childe be born but this minute yet by reason of their originall sinne in Adam and with him they were justly sentenced in Adam unto death almost six thousand yeares ago For though God needeth no defence from the actions and behaviour of men yet from their usances and customes generally received from their right and equitie daily practised let us ascend to behold the blamelesse course in the like of the Almightie Do we finde a young snake viper or other venemous or hurtfull beasts birds or the egges of a cocatrice we destroy them not for the harm which they have done but for the kinde sake and for the spoil which they may do Do not prodigall great heirs waste and scatter abroad estates ensured to posteritie Do they not cut off intailes annihilate and void perpetuities draw inheritances drie in smoke and consume them wholly on gut or groin to the everlasting prejudice of their issues Did not the disobedience of Queen Vashti unto her husband do a wrong not to the King Ahasuerus onely but to all the princes and all the people Esther 1.16 and as being exemplarie was punished accordingly If the whordome of the High-priests daughter be a profanation of her father Levit. 21.9 and therefore she was to be burnt alive though other whores were put to milder deaths if an evil done to a brother striketh up to the abuse of the father as it doth for God rendered the wickednesse of Abimelech which he did unto his father in flaying his seventie brethren Judges 9.56 then why might not the wickednesse of a father descend in some sort upon the children in a storm of wrath and punishment 3. The husband representeth the wife what bargain he maketh she maketh they are one flesh The great commandment to keep the sabbath was given to sonne and daughter to servants and to strangers but not to the wife She was forbidden in her husband which the rest were not but dividedly so was Eve forbid in Adam not inhibited her self but in him who represented her The men of Israel represented the women and the women had good by the actions or passions of the men The females were redeemed in the males every male gave a ransome for his soul unto the Lord all and every one rich and poore alike even half a shekel and they gave this offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their souls Exod. 30.15 Women were partakers of this benefit and in the mens atonement was the womans comprized Neither were the females presented to the Lord but the males the males onely and the women in them and by them but not in their own persons In Gods due claim to the beasts these three conditions were to be observed First that the beasts should be clean and so not swine not horses camels dromedaries elephants or the like but onely these three kindes sheep ruther-beasts and goats were the Lords unlesse you will make up the number foure with an asse which was to be redeemed with a lambe or his neck to be broken Exod. 13.13 For though it be said Exod. 13.2 Sanctifie unto me all the first-born whatsoever openeth the wombe among the children of Israel both of man and beast it is mine Yet you must not extend the words to dogs or cats or things unclean but onely to such clean beasts as God hath appointed for sacrifices Yea though it be said Numb 18.15 The firstling of unclean beasts thou shalt redeem You must know there is a double uncleannesse First that which is unclean throughout all its species as swine and horses and the like Secondly that which is unclean by accident and is contra-opposed to perfect and unblemished Levit. 22.22 23. as blinde or broken or maimed or having a wen or scurvie or scabbed or which hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts such beasts even of clean beasts as sheep goats c. the Lord counted unclean and claimed them not Those that were thus unclean by accident were to be redeemed and so that place of Numb is to be understood and not to be wire-drawn as if God did claim the unclean beasts to be his The second condition That those clean beasts should be first-born Thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix and every firstling that cometh of a beast Exod. 13.12 Thirdly these clean first-born or sirstlings must not be the females though they first open the matrix but the males 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagints have it Exod. 13.12 The males shall be the Lords Semblably in the case of mankinde women were not the Lords claim but the men onely and the women included in the men For though it be said in generall terms Exod. 13.13 All the first-born among thy children thou shalt redeem yet the women were not redeemed but in the men and the men onely were offered Luke 2.23 Every male that openeth the wombe shall be holy Openeth the wombe by extramission and ejection not by intromission and injection as the Hebrew phrase importeth the Greek is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnis masculus primogenitus as Beza reads it Omne masculinum as the Vulgat hath it according to that Exod. 22.29 The first-born of thy sonnes thou shalt give unto me From whence let me inferre this conclusion That the first-born had his denomination from the mothers first birth or parturition as well as from the fathers first generation Exod. 11.5 From the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the maid-servant that is behinde the mill The Septuagints stile the first-born not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with reference to the fathers act but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the mother and Christ is not called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a carnall father for he had none or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.18 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 2.7 her first-born sonne Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ill interpreted by the old Bishops bibles Mat. 1.25 first-begotten and by the Genevean translation as ill rendered Luke 2.7 forsaking their good rendering of it Mat. 1.25 But our late translation in both places aptly hath it the first-born and not first-begotten Though Jacob saith Genes 49.3 Reuben thou art my first-born yet Leah might have said the same words as well for he was the first-born of both Yea I dare say if a man had more wives at once as Jacob had or successively as many others the first male childe of each of these women by the same man may justly be called his first-born and every one of these first-born children if they had lived under the Leviticall law had been consecrated to God And therefore Reuben having lost his birth-right the double
immediately divine and infallible revelation there is none at all or if any be it is in some of those learned ones who are lawfully called to be the members of our Church representative And if any defects be in learned men there are more in unlearned But of this point otherwhere 8 Another observation there is That kings and supream Officers do represent the people committed to their charge And here I will tell you in honour of the Royall Majesty what z Lib. 2. contra Appionem Flavius Jose phus saith We offer daily sacrifices for the Emperours and that not onely on ordinary dayes of the common cost of all the Jews but also when we offer no other sacrifices of the common charge no not for our children We give this high honour to the Emperours onely which we do not give to any other man This he saith they practised in the behalf of heathen Emperours different from them in Religion how much more ought we by all lawfull means exceed them in the honouring of our Kings Espencaeus calleth a Prince columbam Dei Gods dove Saul is termed the beauty of Israel 2. Sam. 1.19 David is styled the light candle or lamp of Israel 2. Sam. 21.17 Josiah was the breath of our nostrils saith Jeremy Lament 4.20 Are not these two latter phrases ideall are their persons themselves onely Again is not Saul called the head of the Tribes of Israel 1. Sam. 15.17 and David the head over Nations 2. Sam. 22.44 a Hom. 2. ad popul Antioch Chrysostom intituled Theodosius The head and supream over all men on earth And therefore as the people reap benefits extraordinary by their Kings for Saul clothed you in scarlet with other delights he put on ornaments of gold upon your apparell saith David 2. Sam. 1.24 so for their Kings offences they justly may be punished 2. Sam. 24.17 Lo I have sinned saith David but these sheep what have they done Yet the pestilence worse then the bane or rot fell upon those sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Apollo being incensed against the King Agamemnon sent an evil disease upon his army and the people perished The story is memorable of Saul 1. Sam. 14.24 c. He took a foolish and rash oath hurtfull to his own souldiers profitable for the enemy Neither Jonathan nor the Captains nor the people did swear with him but in him and by him and through his oath yet it bound both the people and himself yea tied aswell Jonathan who heard it not and knew it not as those who were present and heard it for the lot from God drew Jonathan out as faulty and punishable for his fathers adjuration who sware expresly by name the death of Jonathan if he were faulty vers 39. yet the love of the people delivered him and as I think the father did not much care to break his oath In this fact Sauls person represented the whole army and the people for their own particular held themselves wrapped up to obedience in his oath But what do I instance in slighter matters when a proof is pregnant That the chief governours oaths binde the whole nation their posterity for evermore while their Polity lasted Joshua unadvisedly without counselling with God made peace and league with the Gibeonites the descendants of Canaan that servant of servants to let them live in the lowest rank of slaves and the Princes of the congregation sware unto them Josh 9.15 And though all the congregation murmured against the Princes vers 18. from whence I conclude that the people consented not to the treaty much lesse were sworn to it yet the Princes resolved justly and conscionably We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them vers 19. And vers 20. thus We will even let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we sware unto them And accordingly Joshua freed them from the intended slaughter of the angry Israelites vers 26. That this oath concerned not the people then living onely but reached also unto posterity is apparent 2. Sam. 21.1 c. When for the breach of this oath committed about foure hundred yeares after the Lord himself taxeth Saul and his bloudy house because he slew the Gibeonites and therefore sent purposely a trienniall famine upon the land and Gods wrath was not satisfied till the Gibeonites were appeased by the death of Sauls posterity And these 5 things are yet observable First Saul sought to slay the Gibeonites in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah v. 2. Secondly God commanded Moses to destroy all the inhabitants of the land whereof the Gibeonites were part as they themselves confessed Josh 9.24 Thirdly what was the oath of the Princes onely is said to be the oath of the children of Israel as it is 2. Sam. 21.2 because it concerned them for ever Fourthly after the punishment for this cause inflicted God was intreated for the land Fifthly it was about foure hundred yeares after the oath of Joshua and the Princes when God thus severely vindicated the breach thereof by Saul upon Sauls posterity 9 Lastly let us diligently consider how much Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour hath done for us representing as it were our persons and what we perform and shall obtain in him and by him Isa 53.4 Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows which is applied to him Matth. 8.19 The force of which words is expressed by the Apostle 1 Peter 2.24 Christ his own felf bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree or to the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by his stripes ye were healed S. Paul saith Christ died for our sinnes 1. Corinth 15.3 Christ tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 And in the next verse We be justified by his bloud and We shall be saved from wrath by him He hath blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary unto us and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse Coloss 2.14 And By him God hath made peace through the bloud of his crosse and reconciled all things unto himself by Christ Coloss 1. vers 20. He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight vers 22. He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Ye are buried with him in baptisme wherein also ye are risen with him and you being dead he hath quickned with him as it is most divinely expressed Coloss 2.12.13 In Christ we are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes 2.22 Our life is hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 And in the verse following Christ is our life Ye be risen with Christ Coloss 3.1 God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 6. Our conversation is in heaven Philip. 3.20 From which positive proofs and doctrine that Christ stood in our stead and that almost all if not all his actions and passions as he was the Mediatour between God and man were representative of us let us descend to the comparative and shew that Christ hath done and will do more good unto us then Adam hath done harm Which point I have more enlarged in my Sermon at the re-admitting into our Church of a penitent Christian from Turcisme being one of the two intituled A return from Argier where these five reasons are enlarged First that Adam conveyed to us onely one sinne but Christ giveth diversities of grace and many vertues which Adam and his posterity should never have had as patience virginity repentance compassion fraternall correction martyrdom Secondly Adams sinne was the sinne of a meer man onely but the Sonne of God merited for us Thirdly by Adams offence we are likened to beasts by the grace of Christ our nature is exalted above all Angels Fourthly Adams disobedience could not infect Christ Christs merit cleansed Adam saving his soul and body Fifthly as by the first Adam goodnes was destroyed so by the second Adam greater goodnes is restored and all punishments yea all our own sinnes turned to our further good To which I will annex these things following By Adams sinne we were easily separated from God Satan the woman and an apple were the onely means But I am perswaded saith the Apostle Rom. 8.38 that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God Again Rom. 5.13 c. the Apostle seemeth to divide the whole of time in this world into three parts under three laws the law of Nature of Moses of Christ In the first section of time sinne was in the world Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses saith the Apostle In the law of Moses though death was in the world yet sinne chiefly reigned and the rather for the law Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimúsque negatum This the Apostle confirmeth often especially Rom. 7.8 Sinne taking occasion wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The third part of times division is in the dayes of grace under Christ and now not so much death not so much sinne as righteousnes and life do reigne or rather we in them by Christ and the power of both the other is diminished and shall be wholly demolished If Adam hurt all mankinde one way or other Christ hath helped all mankinde many wayes In this life he giveth many blessings unto the reprobate his sunne shineth on all his rain falleth both upon good and bad and I do not think that there ever was the man at least within the verge of the Church but had at some time or other such a portion of Gods favour and such sweet inspirations put into his heart that if he had not quenched by his naturall frowardnes the holy motions of the Spirit God would have added more grace even enough to have brought him to salvation For God is rich in mercy Ephes 2.4 The Father of mercies 2. Corinth 1.3 Thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made for never wouldest thou have made any thing if thou hadst hated it Wisd 11.24 What thou dost abhorre or hate thou dost wish not to be what thou dost make thou dost desire it should be saith Holcot on the place In our Common-prayer-book toward the end of the Commination this is the acknowledgement of our Church O mercifull God which hast compassion of all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made which wouldest not the death of a sinner but that he should rather turn from sinne and be saved c. God is intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amator animarum A lover of souls Wisd 11.26 Holcot on the place confirmeth it by Ezek. 18.4 All souls are mine saith God Men commonly love the bodies saith Holcot but God the souls b Amat Deus animas non singulariter sic quòd non corpora amet sed privilegialiter quia eas ad se in perpetuum fruendum praeparavit God loveth the souls not onely as if he did not love the bodies but principally because he hath fitted them for the eternall fruition of himself It is not the best applied distinction for whose soever souls shall enjoy God their bodies also shall and that immortally for ever If he had said that God had loved humane souls privilegialiter because man had nothing to do in their creation or preservation he had spoken more to the purpose Nor think I that God forsaketh any but such as forsake him but Froward thoughts separate from God Wisd 1.3 c. For into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sinne For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding Concerning the souls of infants dying without the ordinary antidotes to originall sinne baptisme and the pale of the Church though they may most justly be condemned yet who knoweth how easy their punishment may be at least comparatively as some imagine For that some drops of mercy may extraordinarily distill upon them they cannot deny who say That the rebellious spirits of actually sinfull men and Angels are punished citra condignum But to leave these speculations I dare boldly affirm that if there be any mitigation of torments in any of them it is not without reference to Christ Moreover the redeeming of man was of more power then the very creation for this was performed by a calm Fiat but the redemption was accomplished by the agony passion and death of the Sonne of God c Aug. in Joan. Tractatu 72. post medium Augustine on those words John 14.12 Greater works then these shall he do saith thus It is a greater work to make a wicked man just then to create heaven and earth Therefore much more doth Christs merit surmount the fault of Adam In the first Adam we onely had posse non peccare posse non mori A possibility of not sinning a possibility of not dying We should have been changed though we had not died posse bonum non deserere A possibility of not forsaking goodnesse and should by his integrity and our endeavours have attained at the utmost but bene agere beatificari To do well and be blessed By Christ we have not onely remission of sinnes and his righteousnes imputed but rich grace abundance of joy and royall gifts Not a more joyfull but a more powerfull grace saith d Non laetiorem sed potentiorem gratiam Aug. de Correp Gratia cap. 11. Augustine and we shall have non posse peccare non posse
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
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.
punishment to be a favour and blessing of God 3. Not many or more sinnes but one caused death One onely David begotten in lawfull wedlock That this one sinne is not lesse in the godly nor greater in the wicked Death was appointed for one sinne onely of one person onely 4. This one person onely was Man this Man that sinned that one sinne was Adam Strange and curious speculations that Eve sinned not that sinne for which man-kinde was appointed to death 5. Two Schoole-speculations propounded The second handled at large as expounding the former and determined against the Schoolmen themselves viz. That the children of innocent Adam had been born confirm'd in grace The censure of Vives upon these and the like points A part of his censure censured 1. COncerning Death I mean in this place to touch onely the strange medly that is mixed in it of Sower Sweet The sowernes or bitternes of death is discerned because that manner of secession or departure is onely painfull whereas all other approaches unto glorie all other stairs steps and means inducing to blessednes are void of pain Let us see it exemplified in Enoch He walked with God and was not for God took him Genes 5.24 His manner of not-being as he was before whatsoever it were or howsoever was never held painfull Secondly the chariot of fire and the horses of fire which parted Eliah and Elisha both asunder 2. Kings 2.11 hurt neither of them Elijah saith the place went up by a whirlwinde into heaven the very form of words implying a willing-easie ascent nor did the whirlwinde molest him or pain him though Ecclesiasticus 48.9 it is said it was a whirlwinde of fire Christs Transfiguration comes next to be considered It was a true representation of that bodilie glorie which at the recollection retribution of all Saints God will adorn and cloth the faithfull withall Christ shewing them the mark at which they ought to shoot for we also are to be fashioned or configured to his transfiguration Philip. 3.21 * Qualis futurus est tempore judicandi talis Apostolis apparuit As he is to be at the time of judging such did he appeare to the Apostles saith Hierom on Matth. 17. And let not man think he lost his old form and face saith he or took a body spirituall or aëriall the splendor of his face was seen and the whitenes of his vestments described * Non substantia tollitur sed gloria commutatur The substance is not taken away but the glory is changed Or that I may utter it in Theophylacts words on Mark 9.2 By the transfiguration so Oecolampadius should translate it understand not the change of character and lineaments but the character remaining such as it was before an increase was made of unspeakable light This admirable light not coming from without to him as it did to Moses but flowing from his divinitie into his humane soul from it into his body and from it into his very clothes will you say his clothes were changed saith S. Hierom His raiment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no fuller on earth can white them Mark 9.3 And his face did shine as the Sunne Matth. 17.2 What S. Chrysostom saith of the spirituall bodies of the Saints I will much more rather say of Christs body transfigured for if starre differeth from starre in glorie man from man much more shall Christ shine above all other men by infinite degrees They shall shine as the Sunne not because they shall not exceed the splendor of the sunne Aquin part 3. q. 45. art 2. but because we see nothing more bright then the sunne he took the comparison thence And this shining saith Aquinas * Fuit gloriae claritas essentialiter licèt non secundum modum cùm suerit per modum transeuntis passionis was essentially a claritie of glory though not in the manner seeing it was by way of a transient passion as the aire is inlightned of the sunne whereas * Ad corpus glorificatum redundat claritas ab anima sicut qualitas quaedam permanens to a glorified body claritie from the soul doth accrue as some permanent qualitie Which essentiall claritie Christ had from his nativitie yea from his first conception yet by dispensation he ecclipsed it ever till he had accomplished our redemption except at this time when appeared a brightnes of glory though not a brightnes of a glorious body not imaginary unlesse you take imaginary as synonymall with representative but reall though transitorie Can any one think that herein was any pain or rather not infinite pleasure The beholders rejoyced they could not do so at the pain of Christ If there were any pain or grief it would rather have been so at the withdrawing of his unusuall claritie which not being likely the manifestation of this claritie at this transfiguration was lesse likely to be painfull The fourth and last kinde of degree to happines is translation not onely as Enoch was translated from one life to an other kinde of life but such a translation as should have been of Adam if he had not sinned and shall be of such as shall be alive at Christs coming Adams translation had been sine media morte Nor was his slumber painfull nor solutio continui at the drawing out of his rib nor the closing of the flesh again nor is it likely there was in Adams side any scar the badge of pain and sorrow much lesse should he have had pain at his translation Pain is the grand-child of sinne the daughter of punishment from both which the estate of innocency was priviledged Every thing in the Creation was very good Genes 1.31 Every tree was pleasant to the sight and good for food Genes 2.9 and could the tree of life cause pain By tasting the fruit thereof Adam and his ofspring had come to an higher and more unchangeable happines The middesse was then proportionate to the beginning and to the end Sorrow was part of the curse innocency could not feel pain much lesse shall eternall happines and should the tree of life have caused pain Then were there little difference between it and the tree of knowledge of good and evill Or what difference in that point would there be between Adams death which was painfull and his translation if it should have been painfull As concerning the translation of them that shall be found alive at the last day I am thus conceited That there shall be no true and reall separation of their souls from their bodies at least so much as concerneth the righteous That they shall be changed That they shall put on immortalitie If it be delightfull now to our bodies to receive ease shall it be painfull to be clothed with incorruptibility It shall be done in a moment in the twinkling of an eye 2. Cor. 5.4 Nolumus expoliari saith the Apostle shewing the unwillingnes of men to die sed supervestiri
sinne were his Corruptio personae Reatus Poena as he was considered by himself till he repented but as he was the Referree and Representor of mankinde the effects were The corruption of our nature our fault our guiltines our punishment till we be freed The effects of our originall sinne are sinnes actuall with all the penalties or punishments due to them Moreover that we may more distinctly enlarge this point and remove the doubtfulnesse of termes know that in a larger sense the actuall sinne of Adam may in a sort be said to be originall sinne it may be called Adams originall sinne as it was first and originally in him It may be originall sinne both of Adam and all his posterity because our naturall defects and all manner of sinnes flowed originally from this onely sinne as from a defiled fountain Yet properly this sinne was in him actually in us potentially in him explicitly in us implicitly in him personally in us naturally in him perse in us per accidens And that his first sinne or aversion from God may both be said to be his originall sinne and the cause also of our originall sinne the cause not physicall or naturall for he doth not traduce by the vertue of that sinne any real thing which is properly sinfull unto his posterity but it was and is the morall cause of our originall sinne As originall sinne is by some described namely to be propagated to be in all alike and to be in the humane creature at the beginning of his being or to be an hereditarie transgression so Adam had not originall sinne but onely his posterity As originall sinne is defined to be That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transgression that totall aversion of mankinde from God whereby we incurre death and damnation so was Adams sinne our originall sinne and he had originall sinne 3. Which the fuller to demonstrate let me insist on this point namely That sinne of Adam we sinned this way as we were in him materialiter though not formaliter As the severall members of a mans body united to his soul make one individuall person so all the branches of Adams posteritie with himself make one humane nature and are as it were but one by participation of the species * Fuerunt omnes in Adam quando peccavit fuerunt quidem in illo sed nondum nati erant ipsi All were in Adam when he sinned they were indeed in him but they were not yet born themselves saith Augustine De Civit. 13.14 and more punctually in the same Chapter * Nondum erat nobis singillatim creata distributa forma in qua singuli viveremus sed jam natura erat nobis seminalis ex qua propagaremur The form in which every one of us should live was not yet created and distributed to us but the seminall nature was alreadie of which we were to be propagated Anselm saith * Infans qui damnatur pro peccato originali non damnatur pro peccato Adam sed pro suo nam si ipse non haberet suum peccatum non damnaretur Aâ—sel De Partu Virginis cap. 26. The infant that is damned for originall sinne is not damned for the sinne of Adam but for his own for if he himself had not his own sinne he should not be damned And therefore Augustine Retractat 1.13 * Originale peccatum in parvulis cùm adbuc non utantur libero arbitrio voluntatis non absurdè vocatur voluntarium Originall sinne in infants though they have not yet the use of freewill is not absurdly called voluntary And Confess 1.7 * Imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est non animus infantium The weaknes of infantine members not the soul of infants is innocent Lastly De Peccat Meritis Remiss 3.8 as he calleth originall sinne oftentimes Alienum peccatum to shew it began not in us alone but was delivered to us came from without so in the same place he termeth it Peccatum proprium our selves sinning in and with Adam and having corruption in us by him It can not sink into my head that God would have imputed unto us Adams fault by his absolute irrespective decretory will of good pleasure but that he whose foresight reacheth to things that are not yea to things that shall never be much more to things certainly future of which in another place did foreknow and preconsider that every one of mankinde if they had been in Adams state and place would have done as Adam did Therefore let us not accuse God or lay the fault onely on Adam our selves would have done so For as one said concerning the thief on the Crosse confessing Christ when Christ was on the Crosse nailed naked pained reviled scorned dying and forsaken of his own Disciples Profectò ego non sic fecissem I should not have made so glorious a confession as the penitent thief did at that time So on the contrary I say and am fully perswaded I should have done as Adam did Let God be just and all men faulty for it would have been the fault of all men Yea I must go one step further and without boldnes justifiably say by verdict of Scripture it was the fault of all men all men did sinne that sinne in Adam It is not said Propter hominem but Per hominem Mors 1 Cor. 15.21 and Rom. 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In quo in whom all sinned Of the first man Adam are all these words By man and in whom to be understood and by him and in him all died and sinned saith the Apostle and sinned that sinne by which death came into the world Though the father of the faithfull payed tithes of all unto Melchisedec before Leviwas born and Abraham alone personally discharged that duty yet for all this the Apostle saith Hebr. 7.9 Levi also who receiveth tithes payed tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loyns of his father So on the contrary though Adam the universall father of mankinde did actuate that great offence long before we were created yet we also concurred in our kinde and were partakers in that iniquity For he stood Idealiter for us and we were in him our will in his our good and hurt in his and so farre as he received a law for us so farre as he represented us so farre when he sinned did we sinne in him with him and by him And if the worthy S. Augustine may say as is before cited * De Peccat Merit Remiss 1.10 Omnes eramus ille unus Adam I hope I may as well say Adam ille erat nos omnes I am sure Prosper in his Sentences pickt out of Augustine saith that * Primus homo Adam sic oâ—im defunctus est ut tamen post illum secundu homo sit Chrisius cum tot hominum miilia inter illum hunc orta sint idâ—ò manifestum est pertinere ad illum omnem qui ex
words or my answer be recited I think fit to premise these things First If Heinsius mean onely to extoll the knowledge of the Hellenisticall language and of the Chaldee and Syriack I assent unto him nor shall any man in right ascribe more to the holy mother of them all and of all other languages the primitive Hebrew the language of God when he spake audibly and of Angels unto men then I will Yet the purest gold may be over-valued and the very shekel of the Sanctuarie thought heavier then it is And indeed I should be loath to say what the most learned Cardinall Cusanus hath written in his Compendium cap. 3. pag. 240. e Nec absurdum videtur si creditur primam dicendi artē adeò fuisse copiosam ex multis Synonymis quòd omnes postea linguae divisae in ipsa continebātur Omnes enim linguae humanae sunt ex prima illa parentis nostri Alae scilicet hommis lingua Et sicut non est lingua quam homo non intelligit ità Adam qui idē quod bomo nullam si audiret ignoraret Ipse enim vocabula legitur imposuisse ideo nullum cujusque linguae vocabulum ab alio fuit originaliter institutum Nec de Adam mirandum cùm certum sit dono Dei multos linguarum omnium peritiam subitò habuisse It is not absurd to beleeve that the first art of speaking was so copious and full of many Synonymaes that all the afterward-divided tongues were in it contained For all languages are derived from our first parent Adams language And as there is not a tongue which man understandeth not so even Adam who was no other then a man could understand any language if he heard it For he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who imposed names upon the creatures and therefore no word of any other language was originally instituted by any other Neither are we to wonder at this in Adam when it is certain that by the gift of God many have suddenly obtained and speedily were inspired with the skill and knowledge of all languages So farre Cusanus That there is no language under heaven but hath some words retaining the foot-steps of the Hebrew I beleeve and in the languages which I understand I can demonstrate but that Adam could understand all languages now spoken if he had heard them is not credible When God confounded their language Genes 11.7 c. the language of all the earth he did it to this end that they might not understand one anothers speech The confusion was not of inventing of new letters vowels and consonants for they are still the same and if there were seventie two languages as say the Ancient Hierom Augustine Prosper Epiphanius or but fiftie five as our Modern writers conjecture answerable to their families Genes 10. yea two thousand foure hundred languages more they might all be uttered by the first two and twenty letters Nor was it onely such a confusion as when the sweet singing of the nightingales is undistinguishable through the obstreperousnesse of gagling geese and chattering daws For if at the beginning of that confusion every one had spoken to another articulately and distinctly alternis vicibus they could not have understood what either said though afterward by use each familie understood themselves as we may dumbe men But the confusion consisted in this That God took away from all save the family of Heber the habituall or actuall knowledge of the Hebrew tongue emptying the treasuries of their memories both sensitive and intellective from all and every old note impression character figure or species Secondly when by an universall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or oblivion he had drowned or blotted out all former conceptions he prompted readily unto them new forms and furnished their intellectualls with new notions which the pliable obedience of the tongue at first not knowing what it said uttered in new words and languages by the transposition and trans-changing adding or diminishing of a letter or letters See Avenarius drawing almost all Greek and our Minshaw many languages from the Hebrew But if they retained the same syllable and the same word yet in one language it signified one thing and in another another thing as sus signifieth in the Hebrew an horse with the Flaunderkins silence among the Latines an hogge as Cornelius à Lapide hath observed Nor think I that Noah who lived at the confusion of Babel and was born within sevenscore yeares of Adams death could understand all their languages without much commerce studie or divine revelation Besides all this all ages have made and framed new words nor is any time to be blamed si nova rerum Nomina protulerit If it coyn new names it was lawfull and is yet dabitúrque licentia sumpta pudenter It shall be lawfull so it be done modestly without enforcement saith Horace De arte Poetica And though there were but few yeares about half a mans age between the first and second Punick warre yet the articles of peace made at the end of the first warre were hardly understood at the second as may be gathered from Polybius What speak I of words when new languages have sprung up more then ever were at the confusion of Babel If God at the overthrow of Babel coyned or stamped the Greek and if Adam could have understood it were all its dialects distinguished or no and the Hellenisticall Greek or Grecanick language that I may use some of Heinsius his words And if those were then spoken and then intelligible was the now common corrupt Greek misformed or could Adam understand that which Plato or Aristotle would sweat to expound If the Teutonick were then spoken was the Saxon English Scotish c. the derivatives from it as Verstegan and others will have it then in use If the Latine was framed in Babel was it the first old blunt Latine or the refined If the refined was the Valachian Italian Spanish French the Provinciall tongues of Rome if I may so call them at that time spoken I could be plentifull herein But I passe unto the objections of Cusanus which shall receive this satisfaction in order Object 1. The first art of humane speech was copious by many Synonymaes I answer The Hebrew had but few Synonymaes few primitive Radixes in comparison of other languages many words signifying contrary things every one divers things nor did Adam speak any but Hebrew nor needed he know any more Cicero cried out of old * O inops verborum Graecia O word-wanting Greece and much more Judea say I. Object 2. All languages came from the Hebrew which Adam spake I confesse it quoad fundamenta sermonum id est quoad literas There were no new letters stamped or added to the first but the tongues themselves came after divers descents so that many languages now in use may acknowledge other mothers though even those mothers were grand-children or daughters of the Hebrew neither of
shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of the dayes IN FINE DIERUM Which words are applied by Vatablus to the resurrection of the last judgement which was mentioned Dan. 12.2 And lest any should interpret the rising out of the dust vers 2. as Porphyrie did for their creeping out of the holes and caverns in the time of the Maccabees Lyra expressely contradicteth it and saith it is to be understood c De resurrectione vera in fine mundi of the true resurrection in the end of the world implying that Daniel shall then arise as he arose not saith Lyra at the time of the Maccabees nor at the opening of the graves before Christs resurrection d Ergò resurrexit Job sanctissimus Therefore most holy Job arose also saith Pineda equalling Noah Daniel and Job in this priviledge But the consequence is lame for Ezechiel doth not mention the equall priviledges of these three in their resurrection though perhaps this latter is figured out but onely the delivery from famine or death by famine Ezech. 14.13 c. of Noah Daniel and Job or rather of other holy men also designed out by their names and like them in their severall vertues Noah overcoming the world Daniel the flesh and Job the devil Concerning Pineda his other proof That Gregorie Nissen in his third Oration of the resurrection saith That the day of their resurrection who arose out of the graves was much more joyfull to them then the day of the generall resurrection If I should grant that he said so and that he said so truely yet it followeth not necessarily scarce probably that they went with their bodies into heaven The day of the generall resurrection is not yet come and could not be rejoyced at but in hope More especially concerning Job though Salianus ad ann mundi 1544. num 783. makes Jobs tombe-stone speak thus e Clausit viator hoc marmor aliquando mortuum emis itque gloriosum eum Principe Messia resurgentem Jobum This stone O wayfaring man kept under it dead Job and sent forth also Job in glorie arising from the dead with Messiah our Prince though Pineda his fellow-Jesuite in the end of his Commentaries on Job saith That Jobs sepulchral pyramis and kingly monument was made for him by his seven sonnes and three daughters and was framed and erected f Ad pietatis memoriam sempiternä spémque resurrectionis cum Redemptore certissimain for an eternall memoriall of pietie and most certain hope of his resurrection with our Redeemer yet none is ignorant that these are tricks of wit panegyrick Eulogies poeticall Epitaphs even a little thwarting one another rather then divine truths or historicall relations 4. And further it is evident that Job spake of the generall resurrection when he said Job 19.25 c. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this bodie yet in my flesh shall I see God By which latter or last day we may fitly expound not the last day of judgement saith Pineda but the state of the Evangelicall Law and of Christs suffering and rising ending by his death and resurrection the former times and beginning to appoint a new for he is THE FATHER OF THE WORLD TO COME Isa 9.6 Did ever man thus delude Scripture and make it a nose of wax It is scarcely worse used by our unlearned lay-Rabbies the Doctours of Doctours Who ever dreamed that Dies novissimus should signifie so unlikely a matter and if it did how vain is his proof The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pater aeternitatis The father of eternitie as the Interlinearie Bible reads it and Vatablus with it expounding the words g Anthor vitae aeternae The authour of eternall life which hath no reference to Pineda's wilde Comment or the everlasting Father as we translate it 5. The Seventie indeed and the Book of Job thus Job died being old and full of dayes so farre also goeth the Hebrew and it is added in the Greek But it is written that he shall again be raised up with those whom the Lord shall raise These words are not in the Original nor in Aquila nor in Symmachus nor in the Seaventie used by Vatablus but Theodotion so reads it and the Vatican Edition of Sixtus so acknowledgeth it and Origen in his epistle to Africanus confirmeth it and Clemens Romanus cap. 5. lib. 6. approveth it Two wayes there are of expounding the word Rursus Again Francis Turrian the Jesuite on the place of Clement collecteth that Job shall not onely be raised up in the last day at the generall resurrection but that he should be first raised when Christ arose and afterward at the last day Nicetas saith better The word AGAIN was therefore put that his first resurrection might be understood to have been when he was delivered from his troubles Which way soever you follow we have it That Job shall be raised at the last day of the world And therefore he arose not with Christ or died again and so went not into the eternall happinesse of bodie and soul for glorified bodies shall not be raised 6. Lastly there is an opinion even to this day among the Turks grounded no doubt on some old Tradition That Jobs bodie was removed from the place of his buriall to that citie and place which is now called Constantinople as Mr. Fines Morison in the first part of his Itinerary pag. 243. witnesseth These are all that ever I read of by name that are thought by Pineda or others both to rise with Christ and to partake with him at that time of the eternall happinesse both in soul and bodie 7. Bartholomaeus Sybilla Peregrinarum quaestionum decade 1. cap. 3. quaest 7. dubio 3. citeth Henricus de Assia as Authour that Perhaps not onely Enoch and Elias are kept in Paradise to preach against Antichrist but both John the Evangelist and those that rose with Christ Observe saith Sybilla the word PERHAPS for S. Hierom saith formerly concerning S. John WE DOUBT BUT BOTH S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARIE DO REJOYCE IN THEIR GLORIFIED FLESH VVITH CHRIST And Aquin. in 4. sentent distinct 43. artic 3. cited by Sybilla saith It is a point of faith holily to be beleeved concerning the blessed Virgin Marie and S. John the Evangelist that their resurrection is not deferred to the end of the world Also Holcot saith on Wisdome cap. 2.2 h Corpus benedictae Virginis non fuit resolvendum in cineres quia in ca fomes extiuctus extitit The bodie of the blessed Virgin was not to be turned into ashes because in her was no fountain of ill from whence her asportation into heaven may seem to be confirmed The feast-day of her assumption is greater and more festivall then any other holy-day for her saith Durandus Rational 7.24 Surely I must needs say we reade
some think that Joseph lived after Christs resurrection and yet others say he died the twelfth yeare of Christs age to whom Baronius rather inclineth a Ad annum Christi 12. Joseph being very aged about 80 yeares old when he was espoused to the holiest Virgin as Epiphanius and others do guesse For my part I embrace the mean and tread in the middle path Neither thinking that Joseph died the 12 yeare for when Christ was twelve yeares old Joseph went up to Jerusalem Luk 2.42 and after Christs descent to Nazareth Christ was obedient to Joseph and the all-garacious Virgin vers 51. therefore Joseph could not be dead in the twelfth yeare of Christ which the learned Baronius did supinely and sluggishly passe over and not observe Nor yet do I imagine on the other side that he lived beyond Christs resurrection or till his death since there is frequent mention of Christs Apostles of his holy mother and of his cousins and friends men and women yea of strangers and no mention nor intimation at all See Salianus in his Annals in annum mundi 4065 at large on this point that Joseph lived till Christ began publickly to preach and do miracles much lesse after his death So upon my supposall that he died between the thirteenth yeare of Christ and the twentie ninth Joseph might very well be one of those who were raised at that time and with him perhaps divers whom Christ had healed or to whom he had preached if they died before and many others with whom Christ conversed till he was thirty yeares old 4. And all these did prove and confirm unto the incredulous or wavering Saints their friends or kindred yea and to the very beleevers also the truth of Christs doctrine of his death of his resurrection appearing not promiscuously to Grecians or to Romans not to all no not to all the Jews but to many but to fit persons saith the Interlinearie Glosse whether Jews Grecians or Romans then residing at Jerusalem to such as knew them in their lives and at their deaths This conjecture may passe the more plausibly if we consider that Christ himself appeared not to all indifferently but onely to some and to some oftner times then to others yet no where is said to have shewed himself to any but onely to his followers and Disciples And as the Apostles were confirmed by Christs holy conference so might many other then living beleeve or the rather beleeve the Gospel of Christ upon proof made by the new raised in many particulars strengthning their faith They arose b Vt Dominum ostenderent resurgentem To shew that Christ was raised saith S. Hierom on Matth. 27. c Cum eo debebant resurgere ut ipsum ostenderent resurrexisse They ought to rise with Christ that they might shew he was risen saith Ludolphus the Carthusian That d Debebant they ought savoureth of presumption Dionysius the Carthusian hath more moderate terms he on the place saith They did testifie that Jesus was the Christ that he was truely risen and had destroyed hell Hierom Tom. 3. fol. 50. in his answer to the eighth question of Hedibia thus e Non omnibus apparuerunt sed multis qui resurgentem Dominum susceperunt They appeared not to all but to many who received our Lord risen from the dead And yet let me superadde by his leave If they had appeared to the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who received Christ I cannot think they would have concealed it 5. Among my other diversions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or winde-abouts let this be one occasionally arising from the odde position which Estius hath in 1. Cor. 7.39 f Rectè ex Apostoli verbis inferunt Aquinas carthusianus Non teneri mulierem ad recipiendum virum de morte resuscitatum Aquin and Carthusian conclude rightly saith he from the Apostle that a woman is not bound to receive her husband newly raised nor may she enjoy him without a new contract What if I answer That a woman is tied to her husband as long as he liveth but he liveth afterward though he had been dead and when the Apostle speaketh of death he speaketh of a compleat death not susceptible in this world of another life For he opposeth the dead man to the living as if one could not be dead and then living but first living and then dead for ever till the generall resurrection Suppose we Lazarus was married had not his wife been his lawfull wife bound to him by their first agreement even after his resurrection I doubt it not Yet this might be the case of some of the many who were raised especially if they died but a while before But I confesse the case differeth and is more perplexed if the partie were dead and the dayes of mourning past and the woman married to another Yet even here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Father most gracious O Saviour most mercifull O holy Spirit most comfortable I humbly begge thy grace mercie and comfort to be shed forth upon me in this life that I may please thee in my vocation and do thy will and fulfill the businesse which thou hast appointed for me And leave not off I beseech thee to guide me by thine enabling counsel here till thou art readie to crown me with thy glorie in the life to come Amen Lord Jesu Amen 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 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles THat these raised Saints who bare witnesse of Christ setling many pendulous and doubting souls strengthening many followers and Disciples of our Saviour and perhaps converting some unbeleevers by teaching them that their expected Messiah was now come that he did live among them and had died for their sinnes and risen again for their justification That they I say after this office performed again deposited their bodies in the earth and ascended not corporally into heaven you may behold proved by this first reason drawn from Scripture For Christ is compared to the high Priest who alone entred the SANCTUM SANCTORUM Hebr. 9.7 It is true indeed that we enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus Heb. 10.19 but he onely * Hebr. 10.10 by a new and living way through the vail that is to say his flesh * Hebr. 9.12 entred in once into the holy place His entring differing from others entring and differing in this That with his bodie he entred others ascended not into heaven with him bodily Secondly if they had ascended into heaven following Christ their bodies must have been
ea resurrectio completa It is an holy belief of the Church that the blessed mother of Christ hath obtained a full and perfect resurrection Which words suffice to crosse other Papists who denie that any exception is to be made to the generall axioms though by us they are held as fables 3. Let us take a view of some indefinites and we shall not finde them to be universally applied The Prophets are dead John 8.53 yet Enoch was a Prophet Jude vers 14. and Elijah was chief among Prophets Notwithstanding these were not dead Revel 14.13 The dead rest from their labours yet divers have been raised from a true death and have returned again into this world of labour My very Text is fertile of more particulars to this purpose It is appointed unto men to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—MEL UNO TEMPORE as it is in the Syriack word for word yet some have died twice It is appointed unto men once to die and after that cometh JUDGEMENT but Christ was not judged after he died That he was judged in the particular judgement of souls cannot be since himself is there the Judge So shall he also be judge in the generall judgement But let us return to the universalls Matth. 26.33 Though all men shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended yet was he a man and if the words there be restrained to all Christs Disciples or Apostles yet Peter accounts himself none of that all and exempts himself from the number of them that would be scandalized 1. Corinth 15.27 He hath put all things under his feet But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him Heb. 11.13 These All died in faith Yet Aquinas truely there excepteth Enoch Aquinas in 4. lib. Sentent dist 43. artic 4. thus By the same reasons by which we shewed that all should arise from the dead may we shew also that all shall arise A CINERIBVS in the generall resurrection unlesse by especiall grace the contrarie be granted to some as the hastening of the resurrection is granted to some Where Aquinas confesseth that some are dispensed withall both for incineration that their bodies should not be turned into dust and some also shall have a speedier resurrection by an especiall grace Why then by the especiall grace of the same God may not some be freed from the stroke of death 4. Salmeron tuggeth it out hard by the teeth to uphold that none shall be acquitted from death but without exception all must die Hearken to his reasons n Si Christo matri Christi mors non pepercit cui parcet If death spared not Christ and his Mother whom will death spare I answer Death spareth none so that no one can say I will not die Death spareth none but he that hath the power of death may spare whom he pleaseth Fire and water have no mercie yet the three children were preserved in the fire and S. Peter walked upon the sea The rivers have divided themselves yea the Red sea gathered it self together and was as a wall on the right hand and on the left in the passage of the children of Israel toward Canaan God above the pitch of humane reason may free whom he will from death and shut up the mouth of the grave that it shall not swallow some as he did the mouthes of the lions when he saved Daniel Again saith Salmeron o Qui cum Christo mortui non sunt non resurgent nec erunt membra ejus Who die not with Christ or as well as Christ shall not arise nor be members of his bodie All the Jesuits in the earth cannot demonstrate that proposition If they use S. Augustines reason p Resurrectio est solummodo mortuorum At omnes resurgent Ergòomnes morientur Onely the dead shall arise But all shall arise Therefore all shall die I answer with S. Augustine and many more what is handled at large in the third part q Immutatio erit vice resurrectionis Change shall be a kinde of resurrection and in the proposition The dead are not taken strictly but largely for any such as have changed their first life But take we the dead properly and natively for such onely as indeed have died the proposition is false and must be denied since we shall not all die but some shall be changed and yet both the one and the other sort shall be raised Salmeron again on 1. Cor. 15. thus objecteth r Tardante Sponso dormitaverunt omnes dormierunt While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbred and slept Matth. 25.5 Did not Salmeron sleep slumber and dream when he produceth these words to prove that all shall die when the words have apparent reference to the supine securitie of their mindes and perhaps if you will to their bodily sluggishnesse drowsinesse and sleep if there were any realitie in the parable Death was never meant in these words for Christ doth not there that is at the resurrection tarrie but he that shall come will come and will not tarrie Heb. 10.37 He continueth objecting thus f Stulte quod seminas non vivificatur nisi mortuum fuerit Ergò Omnes morâ—entur quia Omnes vivificabuntur THOU FOOL THAT WHICH THOU SO WEST IS NOT QUICKENED EXCEPT IT DIE 1. Cor. 15.36 Therefore All shall die because All shall be quickened I answer The Apostles drift in that place is not to shew whether any shall remain alive or all die but he onely proveth by naturall reason that resurrection may grow out of putrefaction Secondly even they themselves who say All must die cannot take the words exactly as they sound For then as the seed hath time to rot and rotteth ere it quicken so the bodies of men should suffer corruption and putrifaction as the seeds do which they dare not say Lastly seeds do not die properly there is no separation of a soul from a bodie they die analogally and improperly and so do even those who shall not die but shall be changed An other objection is Genes 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Peter Martyr answereth t Id est Quamdiu orbis durare pergat nisi dies judicii cursum naturae intercipiat That is whilest this world lasteth and till the day of judgement break off the course of nature But I say that even such as maintain that every one must die will not say they shall reverti in terram Be incinerated and turned into dust and earth for they allow a very short time till the bodies reunion If any will still urge the generality and presse the extent of the words and force of the decree It is appointed unto men to die I answer with Bellarmine himself u Decreto satisfieri videtur si omnes Adae posteri morti obnoxiâ— sunt Tom. 3. de amissione grat stat
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
death and therefore he is exempted out of the compasse of that word All by speciall dispensation and onely Abel Noah Abraham are the All there meant Secondly saith Drusius in his Preface It may be said the Apostle spake m De morte calamitatum agritudinum ut sententia sit Nè videret mortem hoc est ea incommoda quae mortâ—m comitari solent of calamities crosses and sicknesses which may be accounted as a death as if he had said Lest he might see death that is THE DISCOMMODITIES AND INCONVENIENCIES WHICH ACCOMPANY DEATH For who are continually sick are accounted as dead First I say this is a forced interpretation Enoch was translated lest he should see death that is lest he should be continually sick and that he might not feel the discommodities which accompany death Secondly that opinion leadeth Enoch to death but not the dolorous way to it which indeed rather beggeth the question then proveth any thing against me Lastly there is no circumstance inducing us to think that the Apostle by the word death aimed at the large and extended signification of it for calamities or sicknes Sure about Enoch his time there were no such notable calamities upon the Saints and the generations of the world were then strong and healthfull Thirdly saith Drusius in the same place It may be said Enoch died not because the Scripture when it mentioneth his rapture mentioneth not his death so the Jews say Jacob is not dead because the Scripture useth the word of EXPIRING not of DYING This is ridiculous for what is expiring but dying Genes 49.33 Jacob yeelded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people doth not either of these phrases do not both evince that he died Oh but the Jews say Jacob non est mortuus I am sure the Apostle Hebr. 11.21 speaking of Jacob saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he was dying he blessed his children or when he was a dying as it is in our last translation It evinceth he died within a while after And I am sure again that Christ Luke 20.37 from the testimonie of Moses proveth that Jacob died I am also sure that S. Stephen saith Act. 7.15 Jacob went down into Egypt and died Surely these crotchets of misbeleeving Jews should not have the least countenance against pregnant proofs both of the Old and New Testament Drusius yet inforceth this third answer thus The same Apostle saith of Melchisedech Heb. 7.3 HE WAS WITHOVT FATHER WITHOVT MOTHER WITHOVT DESCENT HAVING NEITHER BEGINNING OF DAYES NOR END OF LIFE Wherefore without doubt because in Scripture there is no mention of his parents and kindred of his birth or of his death I answer First If it be said of all whose progenitours issues kindreds birth and death are unrevealed in Scripture that they were without father mother descent having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life we should have many very many more Melchisedechs in those respects Demetrius the silversmith and Alexander the coppersmith and troups of the wicked Daniel Sidrach Misach and Abednego Nathanael and Joseph of Arimathea S. Mark and S. Luke and divers others For what mention is there of their parents their children their genealogies their birth-dayes or of their death-dayes in the sacred Writ Therefore these words may be said of Melchisedech without any reference at all to that reason and the words may not be said of others though the divine Scripture omitteth as much as it did of Melchisedech Secondly if we grant that it is in part the reason why he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a father c. yet it may be said also because no other record before S. Pauls time no sacred or profane Authour no tradition no book Apocryphall historified his parents or issue so farre as yet appeareth And because S. Paul who knew the names of Jannes and Jambres some such way or by revelation immediate and by no such way knew Melchisedechs pedegree he might say as he did Thirdly Erasmus saith Melchisedech came of obscure parents not worthy to be named Before him Eustatius Antiochenus said the same and perhaps it may be a reason why David called his Nephews Joab and Abishai the sonnes of Zeruiah 2. Samuel 19.22 for Zeruiah was Davids own sister 1. Chron. 2.16 and omitted their father for his unworthinesse yea the Divine historie where David is silent often mentioneth Joab and Abishai with the addition of their mothers name but alwayes omitteth the fathers name This I cannot think to be Melchisedechs case for being a King and so glorious a Priest both in one it is most unlikely that he had obscure and poore parents yet he might descend from cursed Cham as well as Christ from Moabitish Ruth or from Rahab the harlot of Canaan Fourthly the Jews say He was a bastard But it is sooner said then proved for never bastard attained as called by God to those two highest conjoyned titles of King and Priest Many men have thought him to be Noah and more to be Sem Noahs sonne as some Jews Lyra and Abulensis when indeed he can be neither n Quidam admodum stultè opinantur Sem esse Melchisedechum Vâ—rùm id impossibile est suprà enim cùm ejus genealogiam explicaremus patuit quòd nec Tharrae tempora assequi potuit Some very foolishly think that Sem was Melchisedech saith Procopius But that is impossible for when I set down his genealogie it appeareth that he lived not to the time of Terah or Thara Genesis 11.24 So he who hitteth the truth that Melchisedech was not Sem but is out in the genealogie for both Noah and Sem lived in Abrahams time See Cornelius à Lapide on the Hebrews and the learned Helvicus Noah saith Helvicus died the 57 yeare of Abraham and Sem out-lived Abraham That neither Noah nor Sem could be Melchisedech is demonstrable from Hebr. 7.6 Melchisedechs descent or pedegree is not counted saith the Apostle Hebr. 7. from Levi or Abraham or their Progenitours who came from Arphaxad the sonne of Sem the sonne of Noah Secondly both Noah and Sem and their genealogie and generations are perfectly and exactly set down but Melchisedech is without descent or pedegree or genealogie Hebr. 7.3 as undescribed say they Thirdly we know Sems father was Noah Noahs father was Lamech but Melchisedechs father is not known Fourthly Noah died Genes 9.29 and Sem lived not 603 yeares as it is apparent Genes 11.10 c. Helvicus maketh his death fall on his six hundredth yeare but there is no end known of Melchisedechs dayes Origen in likelihood fore-seeing the inconveniences accompanying the fore-recited and commonly received opinion inventeth a new trick That Melchisedech was an Angel After him ran Didymus But no Angel was ever a temporall earthly King no Angel was ever a Priest offering up bread and wine and receiving tithes or had an order of Priesthood annexed to any of them no Angel had ever pedigree from
〈◊〉 is taken Ezechiel 24.16 t Ecce ego aufero 〈◊〉 te desiderium oculorum tuorum Behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes Salmanticensis Judaeus in lib. Johasin 98.2 saith u Mortuus est Rabbi Emmi quia rapuit eum mors Rabbi Emmi died for death snatched him away And so it is in the Latine phrases Rapio and Aufero what in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quis Deus Octavi te nobis abstulit te Raptum Romanam flebimus historiam What God Octavius Took the away from us We will bemoan the death of thee And of our Romane historie So farre Drusius in the preface to his book called Henoch But this is no good exposition since God took away by death all the rest of the Patriarchs as well as Enoch and yet it is most singularly spoken of Enoch He was not found for God took him By death saith the shallow Jew but our divine Apostle saith He was translated that he might not see death What Christian or rationall man will doubt but we are to incline to the Apostle Again the third answer brought by Drusius against his own opinion as himself professeth to prove that VIDERE MORTEM To see death doth not signifie to die a naturall death where there is a true separation of the soul from the bodie and that NON VIDERE MORTEM Not to see death on the contrary doth not signifie To be kept alive from death which I with Drusius do say was the true intent of the Apostle draweth to this head Enoch saw not death that is died not because the holy Scriptures where they make mention of his rapture mention not his death I answer If all were true yet it followeth not that Enoch is dead or shall die which is the point questioned Moreover if Enoch were dead or to die the wisdome of the Divine Inspirer would never have singled out such a phrase among so many other thousand as should leade men to think the clean contrary He was translated that he should not see death For there resteth the period If it had been meant he should die it would have been added He should not see death for a long time or He should not see death till toward the end of the world or the like But He was translated that he should not see death Therefore he shall never see death Suarez in tertiam partem summae quaest 59. artic 6. sect 1. saith directly S. Paul meaned that Enoch should not die in that place into which he was translated True But why should he die in any other place or indeed why should he die at all who above other men was rapted purposely That he might not see death Surely the deferring of death for a time is not so great a favour The exempting one wholly from death is a blessing above ordinary Again it is said of Enoch Genes 5.23 All his dayes were 365. where dayes are taken for yeares as otherwhere in Scripture But these are not all his dayes if either he remove from one place of the earth into an other which Salianus fondly imagined or live now in a mortall corruptible bodie It is said of our blessed Saviour Hebr. 5.7 He poured out prayers in the dayes of his flesh that is whilest he lived on earth the life of nature in an elementary terrene humane passive bodie And of some other Patriarchs All the dayes of them were such and such Genes 5.17 20 c. that is all the dayes while they breathed on the earth the breath of life in mortall bodies Therefore even from the very phrase concerning Enoch All his dayes were 365. we may inferre He lived not in a mortall bodie any longer on the earth He liveth not now any where in a mortall bodie Somewhat must I say also of Elias severally Rabbi Solomon on the 5 of Genes saith When Elijah was hurried up in a fiery chariot his bodie was burnt up of that fire and Other Jews agree with him saith x De Romano Pontifice 3 6. Bellarmine For my part I say I will not embrace an unlikelihood though it runne toward my opinion I think the cloke might have been burnt as well as his bodie and Elishah could not have escaped scorching when the fire parted them Again the ashes might have fallen as well as his mantle And the Jew would account it no great favour to be burnt alive That fire certainly was rather conservative then destructive not penal and consuming as the fire from heaven drawn down by Elias 2. Kings 1.12 not punitive and conserving as the fire of hell Everlasting Matth. 25.41 Vnquenchable Mark 9.43 but like the fierie furnace in which the three children sang Daniel 3.25 or the fire in the bush Exod. 3.3 harmlesse yea gracious or the fire at the consummation of the world which one calleth Ignem rationalem The phrase then 2. Kings 2.11 importeth no lesse Elijah went up by a whirlwinde into heaven Elijah All Elijah Whole Elijah Soul and bodie His soul had no need of a whirlwinde Elijah went up It is varied 1. Maccab. 2.58 He was taken up into heaven His rapture excluded not his willingnes his willingnes had been insufficient without his rapture his ascension being grounded on assumption the power being Gods not his or his passively and Gods actively If it be true what Bellarmine avoucheth That some other Jews agree with Rabbi Solomon in this that Elijah was burned Yet I am sure y Bibliotheâ—â— Sanctae lib. 2. pag. 65. Sixtus Senensis citeth the opinion of other Jews to the contrarie For they said that the length of time from the beginning of man till the end of the world hath been and shall be measured by the severall lives of seven men and that there was never houre from mans creation to the generall resurrection but some one of these seven men did or shall live in it Adam lived to see Methuselah Methuselah was alive in Sems time Sem died not till Jacob was born Jacob lived till Amram Moses his father was born Amram expired not till Ahijah the Shilonite lived Ahijah lived with Elijah Elijah shall live till the end of the world Therefore they thought Elijah was not burnt is not dead But first the Papists themselves say that Elijah shall be slain by Antichrist before the end of world Therefore this maketh not for them Secondly the Jews might have tucked up the time shorter on this fashion Adam lived in the dayes of Enoch and Enoch to the end of the world And so their number of seven might be reduced unto two But let us leave these Rabbinicall speculations concerning Elijah and say somewhat of him not as he was in a Paradise of phansie but as he was with our blessed Saviour on the mount at that glorious transfiguration And this I set down for certain No passage in the Gospels proveth demonstratively that his bodie was immortall It is true it is said of
raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption c. What coherence subsequent then shall you make unto these words None at all The coherence must be with the antecedent words But say I take the antecedent words as the Vulgat hath them and reade as you must the connexion in this sort We shall indeed all arise but shall not all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound c. I say even in this reading there is little sense also yea much untruth Is it not certain that we shall be changed in a moment Or how long shall the time of change be There is no way to avoid this foul absurditie which cometh by the Vulgat edition unlesse it be by a greater that is by saying that you will make an Hyperbaton and include these words We shall not all be changed in a Parenthesis and then the sense will be We shall arise in a moment c. For though it be true that we shall arise in a moment yet there is no ground that we shall not be changed in a moment In all likelihood a change may rather be more speedie which is without death then that change which is made through death and resurrection If they may be and shall be raised and changed in a moment they may in a moment be changed and not raised Secondly no authoritie that I know runneth for such a needlesse Parenthesis and I deem it as a violence offered to the Text so to strain it when the sense will runne fairly otherwise according to the best Greek copies We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump Let this also serve to have been spoken against the Latin Vulgat edition and its bad reading Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur In momento in ictu oculi in novissima tuba canet enim tuba mortui resurgent incorrupti c. By how much the lesse sense is in this by so much the more are we bound to adhere to the Originall and the most common and best copies of it This I may be bold to averre That if some shall not die and yet be changed there shall be an infallible yea demonstrative proof unto sense That the very self same bodie which man had shall inherit eternall glorie For if they die not they must needs keep and have the same bodies from which they are not parted by immutation Yea the identicall resurrection of the same very bodies which were dead may thus farre be proved That if the changed bodies shall be still the same in substance though differing in qualities the raised bodies also shall be no otherwise nor any way different and Pythagoras will then disprove his * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transmigration of souls into diverse bodies and his heathenish * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regeneration to which Nicodemus seemed to have an eye Joh. 3.4 when every soul cometh arayed with its own bodie and when they who by change put not off their bodies shall come alive to judgement 5. The Pelagians were wont thus to argue If sinne came in by Adam then all must needs die But some shall not die namely those y Qui reperientur vivi who shall be found remaining alive Therefore sinne came not into the world by Adam S. Augustine answereth this argument very sufficiently otherwise and it may easily and briefly be answered All shall die reatu though not actu Yet that holy Father and that great just enemie of the accursed Pelagians z In majorem cautelam for the greater and better securitie and safetie would seem to rest doubtfull of their assumption which he needed not Whereupon de Civitat 20.20 he saith a Dormitio praecedit quamvìs brevissima non tamen nulla Death goeth before a most short and speedie one yet a death And in the same place b Per mortem ad immortalitatem mirâ celeritate transibunt They shall slip sail or passe over by death to immortalitie with wonderfull speed Again de peccat merit remiss 2.31 c Hoc quibusdam in sine largietur Deus ut mortem istam repentiuâ commutatione non sentient God at the end of the world shall grant this priviledge unto some That by reason of their sudden change they shall not feel death And Retract 2.33 d Aut non morientur aut de vita ista in mortem de morte in aeternam vitam celerrimâ commutatione tanquam in ictu oculi transeundo mortem non sentient Either they die not or otherwise they glide from this life into death and from death into eternall life as it were in the twinkling of an eye by a most speedie alteration taking no notice or sense of death He leaves it doubtfull as you see in these his last books though sometimes before he thought That all should die and otherwhere as ad Dulcitium quaest 3. That they should not die The Master of the Sentences saith concerning the question Whether the change be by death or without it e Horum quid sit verius non est humani judicii definire Man cannot determine certainly which of these is truest Rabanus lib. 4. de sermon proprietat having alledged the consent of divers Fathers to establish his own opinion That all must die yet annexeth this Because there are others alike Catholick and learned men who beleeve That the soul remaining in the bodie those shall be changed to immortalitie who shall be found alive at the coming of our Lord f Et hoc eis reputari pro resurrectione ex mortuis quòd mortalitatem immutatione deponant non morte c. and that it stands them in stead of rising from the dead that they cast away mortalitie by change not by death Let any man rest on which opinion he pleaseth c. Which very words also you shall finde in the book de Ecclesiast Dogmat. cap. 7. Now though S. Augustine was dubious and some with him and though some also have imbraced the contrary opinion yet equally Catholick and learned men have been constant to maintain That some shall not die but be changed as you have heard confessed If you please you may take a view of some more particularly The afore named Theodorus Heracleotes cited by Hierom in his epistle to Minerius and Alexander hath it thus i Sancti qui in die judicii in corporibus reperiendi sunt non gustabunt mortem erúnt que cum Domino gravissimâ mortis necessitate calcatâ The Saints who in the day of the last judgement shall be found to be alive and remain in their earthly bodies shall not see death or taste of it and shall be with the Lord kicking and spurning at death and the greatest inforcing necessitie thereof Apollinaris cited in