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
there followeth with the hideous secret most feared and affrighting torments of the Inquisition confiscation of goods and sometimes shamefull commonly a painfull and violent death If he rely on the advice of the Pastours he sinneth against his own conscience and against truth Who can or will direct this wavering Christian in such uncertainty of wayes that he step not aside nor be out of the right path O gracious God send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me Psal 43.3 Let them direct my discourse and illuminate it that it may be to the anxious and scrupulous conscience as a guide to direct the way and as a lanthorn to give it light in the way S. Hierome and Ockam and Doctour Field of the Church 4.13 three most eminent in three ages a Father a Schoolman and a pillar of our Church do counsel good men in such a case to silence and mourning in secret as the Prophet Jeremy did Men saith he have nothing left unto them but with sorrowfull hearts to referre all unto God I should rather under correction say That a Christian thus perplexed is to take these courses which those Divines perhaps did presuppose as necessary preparatives but did not expresse First I advise that man whose conscience runneth a singular way to wash his heart from wickednesse Jerem. 4.14 to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty which is pointed at as a means whereby men may come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.2 c. For unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth Psal 50.16 Ezek. 20.3 Yes but thou art confident that thou thy self art a guide of the blinde a light of them which are in darknesse an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Rom. 2.10 I answer Thou must also take the qualifications and necessary appendants to a reformer following in that place immediately Thou therefore that teachest an other teachest thou not thy self c. Thy self must not be ignorant thy self must not steal not commit adultery not commit sacriledge not break the Law not dishonour God For as it is Wisd 1.5 6. The holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where unrighteousnesse cometh in For wisdome is a loving spirit Never were the uncharitable ignorant or sinnefull men fit undertakers to contradict established doctrines disciplines or commonwealths But Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye Matth. 7.5 Reasons more then ordinary will be expected by God and good men from him who leapeth out of the Church in which he was born and bred kicking at the breasts of his mother running with the bit in his teeth his own wayes I conclude this first point thus He who will needs runne such singular courses had need be a man of rare sanctity and of singular good endowments of knowledge Secondly I would have him earnestly to pray for humility and to practise it By pride Satan cast himself out of heaven Adam him and his out of Paradise David said Psal 131.1 Lord my heart is not haughty neither do I exercise my self in great matters or in things too high for me And vers 2. Surely I have quieted my soul as a childe that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned childe On which words suffer me to make a little excursion by way of explanation Concerning the first passage If David had appealed to men some scruple might have remained but saying to God the searcher of hearts and reins Lord my heart is not haughty he maketh his humility unquestionable In the second passage observe that though he was a King and a Prophet yet some things were too high for him by his own confession Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 153. Him I count humble not that speaks humbly and modestly of himself or that speaks courteously and humbly to his inferiour but that speaks modestly concerning God and knows what to speak and what to conceal and in some things can confesse his ignorance and yeeld to them to whom the office of teaching is committed On the contrary a Objectum superbi est ipsemet câ—lsior quà m eâ— convenit The object of a proud man is himself and he is higher in his own conceit then is fit saith Cajetan Pride exalteth a man humilitie casts him down and as all pride shall be at the last thrown down so all true humilitie shall be exalted I would not go to heaven by pride no man ever went to hell by humilitie In the third passage this is the sense May my hopes or God himself fail me may evil betide me for this or some such like imprecation antecedent is to be understood si non posui silere feci animam meam as it runneth in the Hebrew The oath it self or imprecation is not expressed that people may learn to be abstemious in swearing In which regard also it is said Ecclus 23.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jurans nominans He that sweareth and nameth God Where the Vulgat and Septuagint omit the name of God though it be necessarily understood and is expressed in our best translation In the last passage remember that we ought all in this point of humilitie to be as little children if we will enter into the kingdome of heaven Matth. 18.3 David addeth My soul is as a weaned childe not in this respect that newly weaned children are commonly more froward similitudes hold not in every particular but as the mother applieth mustard wormwood and other bitter things to her breasts that she may keep her childe from the milk which he desireth though she know it inconvenient or hurtfull for him so God did wean David by the bitter remembrances of death fear of Gods judgement and the pains of hell and by crosses also of this life sicknesse banishment envy in court insurrection of his own sonnes and the like from those pleasurable things which David affected but God knew to be naught for him There was never any arch-heretick or grand impostour but made private ends his cynosure self-conceit and self-love his card and compasse Even after God had wondrously appeared unto Moses and gave him his mission Moses replied Exod. 3.11 Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh c. and Exod. 4.1 2. his backwardnesse further appeareth yea after though God by his two miracles confirmed the calling yet twice more did he declare that he was afraid to begin so great an alteration Exod. 4.10 and especially at the 13. vers insomuch that the Lord was angry Humblenesse which is alwayes accompanied with modesty bashfulnesse measuring ones own strength and subjection of spirit is to be
MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE Divided into three books Wherein is explained at large the estate of the Soul in her origination separation particular judgement and conduct to eternall blisse or torment BY EDVVARD KELLET Doctour in Divinitie and one of the Canons of the Cathedrall Church of EXON S. AUGUST serm nov 24. de S. Paulo ¶ Omnibus hominibus natis constituit Deus mortem per quam de isto seculo emigrent Exceptus eris à morte si exceptus fueris à genere humano Iam homo es venisti Quomodo hinc exeas cogita HINC LVCEM ET POCLA SACRA ALMA MATER GANTA BRIGIA Printed by the Printers to the Vniversitie of CAMBRIDGE and are to be sold by Robert Allot at the Beare in Pauls-Churchyard 1635. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD MY VERY GOOD LORD THE LORD Archbishop of CANTERBURIE his Grace Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitane Most Reverend THE manifold graces which God hath plentifully poured on you enabling you even from your youth to be a fit instrument divers wayes to advance his glorie and blessing your great good labours with the favourable acceptance of our dread Soveraigne State and all who have well-wishing unto this our Sion have caused me a crazie old retired man who never saw you but once and that long since to leave behinde me a testimoniall to the world both of my heartie thanks to God that you have been of my humblest prayers that you may long continue a prop of our Church a favoured Ezra the prompt Scribe in the Law a powerfull Aaron to make an atonement for the people an Elijah zealous in your calling a provident guide to the Prophets to the sonnes and schools of the Prophets a father chariot horsemen of Israel as Elisha called Elijah as king Joash called Elisha May heavenly influences and divine irradiations say Amen Amen Your Graces in all dutie Edward Kellet The Contents of the first book CHAPTER I. Sect. 1. THe subject of the whole work The reason why I chose the text of Hebr. 9.27 to discourse upon The Division of it Fol. 1. c. 2. Amphibologie prejudiciall to truth Death appointed by God yet for Adams fault The tree of life kept from Adam not by phantasticall Hob-goblins but by true Angels and a flaming sword brandishing it self Leviticall ceremonies dead buried deadly Things redeemed dispensed with yet still appointed 2 3. The Kingdome of Death reigning over all Bodily death here meant and onely once to be undergone 4 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth not necessarily the longinquitie of future times intercurrent but rather a demonstration that other things were precedent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After doth often signifie an immediate succession Judgement here taken for an act of justice 5 5. The generall judgement here understood by OEcumenius and Bellarmine The second book of Esdras apocryphall and justly refused More then the generall judgement is meant Even the particular judgement also is avouched by many authorities Three questions arising from the former part of these words 6 CHAP. II. 1. HOw God is immortall how Angels and the souls of men how Adams bodie was mortall and yet immortall though compounded of contraries 10 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 bodie was not framed of the earth or dust of Paradise 12 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 bodie meat drink and sleep 17 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 20 5. The Councel of Millan Cardinall Cajetan Richeomus the Jesuit Julianus Pomerius and Saint Augustine think that Adam could not have died if he had not sinned The book of Wisedome Holcot Doctour Estius and two passages of Scripture Canonicall are authorities evincing that Adam had in the state of innocencie an immortall bodie 24 CHAP. III. 1. DEath is a bitter-sweet Enoch and Elias Raptures were not painfull to them Christs transfiguration and the manner of it That it was not painfull to him Adams translation to a life celestiall and a bodie spirituall should not have been painfull if he had not sinned They who shall be changed at Christs coming shall by it finde no pain Death is painfull 28 2. Man-kinde died the first minute of their sinne God draweth good out of evil Death in some regard is changed from a punishment to be a favour and blessing of God 31 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 33 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 mankinde was appointed to death 36 5. Two School speculations propounded The second handled at large as expounding the former and determined against the School-men 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 43 CHAP. IIII. 1. ADams perfection in innocencie Our imperfection after his fall contrary to his both in understanding and will and in the parts concupiscible and irascible 55 2. Adam had other laws given him but one above all and one onely concerning posteritie 57 3. What this law was Adam knew the danger to himself and his off-spring The first sinne was against this law 58 4. Eve sinned before How she sinned the same and not the same sinne with Adam 60 5. Zeno the Stoicks and Jovinian confuted Sinnes are not equally sinfull 62 6. Adam sinned farre more and worse then Eve 65 7. This sinne of Adam was not uxoriousnesse as Scotus maintained but disobedience or pride The branches of Adams sinne 66 CHAP. V. 1. ORiginall sinne is an obscure point The errours of the Schoolmen concerning it The over-sight of Bellarmine 73 2. Originall sinne described by its causes Distinguished from Adams actuall sinne 77 3. In what sense Adam had and his posteritie hath Originall sinne We were in Adam He stood for us idealiter Every one of us would have done exactly as Adam did We did sinne in Adam and how 78 4. Whether Christ was in Adam and how 82 5. We sinned not that sinne in Adam by imitation onely 84 6. Adams sinne as personall was not imputed Adam is saved Adams actuall sinne as it was ideall and
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
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
in her personall chastisement Eve was created in Paradise and for all her sin we had continued still in Paradise if Adam had kept in it but as Adam was made out of Paradise so out of it again by his fall he brought both himself us S. Ambrose saith * Fuit Adam in illo fuimus omnes periit Adam in eo perierunt omnes Ambr. in Lucam lib. 7. Adam was in him we were all he perished in him all perished Eve was onely a part of Adam till his fall he being till then the onely root after his sinne she is now also Eva mater viventium a root yet radix de radice we receive our sap bring forth fruit through both of them And for all this both Scripture and Fathers runne with a torrent ascribing that great sin which plunged mankinde into destruction not unto Eve save onely as the occasioner but unto Adam as the immediate causer And though Eve sinned before Adam and that in divers respects yet is he chiefly yea onely faultie for presenting vs by his fall to destruction Hosea 6.7 They like Adam have transgressed the covenant there or as the Vulgar hath it joyning Ibi to the latter clause Ibi praevaricati sunt in me Ibi saith Hierom that is in Paradise And Adam is excellently painted out Esai 43.27 Thy first father hath sinned Eve is not mentioned for her sinne considered by itself reached not to them nor hurt any but herself per se and us per accidens as Adam yeelded to her temptation When God had denounced severall punishments first to Eve then to Adam and proper to each by themselves he added this to Adam onely Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return For even in him and by him was Eve to return to dust and by his offence formally Death cometh on all And therefore not from Eve but from Adam doth S. Luke draw our pedegree Luke 3.38 Which was the sonne of Adam which was the sonne of God And therefore as the Genealogies were ever drawn from the males perchance to shew that the woman was but accidentall to our first making and the first sinne reducing all up to the Protoplast Adam who derived originall sinne both to Eve and all us though in different manner so when they had drawn their Genealogies down to Christ who had no man to be his father nor had originall sinne but satisfied for it all other sinnes all Genealogies are ceased yea counted by the Apostle as foolish and vain Titus 3.9 Against one of these passages if it be objected that Joab is not termed after his father but full often yea alwayes after his mother The sonne of Zeruiah for she was the sister of David 1. Chron. 2.16 I answer that Zeruiah the mother of the three famous brethren Joab Abishai Asahel was perhaps married to some base ignoble groom before David came to his greatnes or she herself was an extraordinary Virago active in State plotting and furthering the plots of her children though she crost her brother David and therefore as I take it she is named not so much in honour as in dislike These men the sonnes of Zeruiah be too hard for me 2. Sam. 3.39 Or lastly the father of Joab had committed such a sinne or sinnes that the remembrance of him was odious and might resemble Judas Iscariot who deserved that in the next generation his name should be blotted out Psal 109.13 When Adam transgressed my statutes 2. Esdras 7.11 12. then were the entrances of this world made narrow full of sorrow and travel And in reference it may be to Adams especiall sinning both a man-childe was born before a woman-childe and a man-childe died before a woman-childe the males onely were circumcised and Adam himself died ten yeares before Eve as Salianus out of Marianus Scotus Genebrard Fevardentius collecteth though never a woman els except Eve from the creation til the Law of Moses is recorded to have outlived their good husbands As for Er Onan they were wicked for their sin cut off shortly Genes 38.7 c. Sure I am he had an especiall manner of transgression since some are punished who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 Other sinnes we sinned are like to Adam but herein we are unlike His sinne hurt us aswell as himself our sinnes hurt not him but ourselves Bellarmin hath brought unto my hand the thre following authorities Tertullian * Omnis anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur Tert. lib. De Anima Every soul is counted in Adam untill it be reckoned in Christ Hierom * Vnusquisque nostrûm in Paradiso cum Adamo cecidit Hieron in Mich. 2. Every one of us fell in Paradise with Adam Cyprian derives the infants sin from Adam onely For we were in him tanquā in activo principio In him to stand or fall Adam is the figure of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 Was Eve a type of Christ was Christ ever resembled or compared or contra-opposed unto Eve The Apostle Rom. 5.15 16 * Cypr. lib. 3. Epist 8. Ad Fidum sheweth wherein Adam was like and unlike to Chirst of which hereafter And most divinely to our purpose verse 17 c. If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more the righteous shall reigne by one Iesus Christ No inkling no intimation of more sinnes then of one of more persons first sinning that one sinne then of one and that one was not Eve but Adam therefore as Christs Merits onely save us so Adams sinne onely did destroy us Cherubim faceth Cherubim Type and Antitype must agree When the Apostle saith of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illius futuri as the Interlinearie reades it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not quae but qui proveth the exclusion of Eve But of the first man Adam and the last Adam is a noted sweet resemblance 1. Corinth 15.45 Where he holdeth it not enough to say The first Adam but lest Eve might seem to be included in the comparison he addeth The first man Adam and so compareth him to Christ Likewise verse 47 The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven Yet was not Christ the second man in number but in representation of mankinde being the substance of the first shadow Adam was the first the onely one who hurt us Christ is the second man the onely one who helpeth us Yea I think I may be bold to averre that Christ would have taken on him the feminine sex if by Eve we had fallen but since we fell by man by man onely therefore our Redeemer though he came of a woman yet was made a man And Christ having determined to be not a woman but a man I dare further avouch if he had been a stone cut out not * Et abscissus est
having ended their first sinne they were ashamed and had time to gather figleaves and sew them and make themselves aprons or things to gird about them after this they heard God speak and hid themselves after this was their examination de facto and their confession after all this begins Adams excuse Genes 3.12 and Eves vers 13. The diversitie of these severall actions and the distance of time interceding shew it was no part of their first sinne to excuse themselves An other especiall sinne it was aggravating the former and in this sinne Adam sinned worst as accusing God indirectly for giving such an helper to him as had hurt him Who will see things more at large let him consult with Estius and Bellarmine unto whom for the main I do subscribe though I make the last part and act of Adam and Eves sinne to be their reall orall manducation The second scape of Bellarmine is that whereas in true Divinitie the fall of mankinde is a consequent of our first parents transgression Bellarmine makes it one of the seven acts of their sinne confounding the cause with the effect and not sufficiently distinguishing the fault from the punishment May I adde these things Out of the words of Scotus I thus argue Originall justice was given to Adam as to the worthier abler and wiser person yea it was so given that if he lost it he was to lose it for himself and his whole posteritie But it was not so given or infeoffeed to Eve therefore since he failed when the trust of the whole World was reposed on him his sinne must needs be much more hainous then hers If the first sinning Angel was the greatest delinquent though none of the other Angels sinned in him but each of himself by his own proper will then Adam certainly sinned worse who bare our persons and being the Referre to whom our blessednesse or cursednesse was intrusted drew us all into unhappinesse For the woman was but the incompleat principle of offending saith Gorran But by Adams first sinne we lost the good of nature * Bonum naturae quod erat per originem naturae traducendum Aquin in Rom. 5. Lect. 3. which was to be transmitted by the spring of nature saith Aquine By Adams other transgressions the good of personall grace was diminished and might be recovered but the Naturall good traducible could not be regained by any repentance The greatnesse of Adams sinne appeared in that he might so easily have kept the precept * Quanta erat iniquitas in peceando vbi tanta eratnon peceandi facilitas Aug. De Civit. 14.15 How great iniquitie was there in sinning where such facilitie was of not sinning saith Augustine Indeed to eat of the apple seemeth a small matter to the carnall eyes of men but in the least thing to be disobedient is not the least offence for as to obey is better then sacrifice so disobedience is as the sinne of witchcraft and transgression is wickednesse and idolatrie 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Naaman who would have performed a greater matter should much more willingly have been ruled by the Prophet in a trifle it was the well-poised argument of his servants 2. Kings 5.13 and his correspondent obedience was justly rewarded with health But Adam besides the smallnes of the matter it self erred grosly in the manner for God did not appoint him any hard work no laborious task to perform Omission is of an easie and pliable nature more facile it is for one not to wash a thousand times then to wash once Now the precept unto Adam was inhibitive meerly of omission negation or preterition easier to be kept then broken and therefore to break it was a sinne of an high hand a presumptuous sinne which may be aggravated in him by this circumstance that he received the restraint from God which Eve did not They who think otherwise of Adams sinne do judge of it as the common people do of the fixed starres who imagine them to be no greater then a candle But if you truly take the height and breadth of Adams sinne it will be found as the starres in heaven of greatnes almost incredible divers of them in their severall stations being greater then the whole earth Perhaps one of the reasons why the Apostle Heb. 11. nameth not Adam among the old faithfull Heroes was this because he committed a greater sinne then any of them For his offence hath been the cause of death of sicknes of all punishments inflicted on men in this life or in the life to come Not Satans temptation not Eves seduction but Adams wilfull disobedience cost the bloud of the Sonne of God And all the despighteous sinnes of mankinde wherewith the Father blessed for ever the gracious Redeemer and the sanctifying Spirit are grieved and do as it were grone under and at which the holy Angels are offended and do in their sort mourn proceed originally from that sinne of Adam and but for that had never been Therefore was his offence greater then Eves Moreover God first summoned Adam though Eve sinned first and questioned Adam particularly for that sin and not Eve Genes 3.9 and at the censure perchance with an emphasis God said unto Adam which he did not unto Eve Gen. 3.17 Thou hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded THEE saying THOV shalt not eat of it and denounced more punishments against him then against Eve and worse and this among the rest ratifying the former threatning Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return inflicting death on Adam on Eve on us for Adams sinne and not for Eves Lastly the Spirit of God seemeth to derive the fault from Eve unto the Serpent 2 Cor. 11.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in astutia sua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his craft and her simplicitie he deceived her Now let Scotus lessen Adams offence as much as he can let him say * Esus ligni vetiti non fuit piccatum nisi quia prohibitum The eating of the forbidden tree was no sinne but because it was forbidden and he might well and lawfully have eaten of it if he had not been forbidden and he erred not against any naturall law but a law positive and in a thing otherwise indifferent I answer The same and more excuses are for Eve Again in regard of its spreading infection and the myriads of evils thence ensuing the blessed estate of many millions by him betrayed to the lake of fire and brimstone which never shall be quenched contrarie to the trust to him concredited I shall alwayes think Adams sinne the worst of all sinnes that ever any one of mankinde committed not excepting the sinne of Judas or the sinne against the Holy Ghost For these hurt but few and if they were worse intensively they were not so bad extensively and therefore I must account it one of Scotus his errours when he saith * Peccato Adae non debebatur maxima
ad lyram * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that learns must beleeve saith Aristotle I abhorre that monstrous opinion of Tolet and others in the Papacy That it is meritorious in simple men to be misled by their Pastours And yet all truth is not at all times to be published to all alike Christ forbad the Apostles to reveal the truth to the Gentiles and Samaritanes who were then in an indisposition to beleeve Matth. 10.5 Give not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is holy unto dogs and cast not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your pearls before swine Matth. 7.6 By which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he meaneth the Gospel saith S. Augustine De adulterinis conjugiis 1.27 Again Matth. 16.20 our Saviour charged his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ namely for some time which yet himself published as he saw occasion John 5.18 and 10.30 and 18.37 and died for the publishing of it sealing the truth with his bloud Mark 14.62 1. Tim. 6.13 Yea Christ himself concealed divers things from his own Apostles and from some Apostles more then from others Peter James and John did see more then the rest of the Apostles and were commanded to conceal the Transfiguration even from the rest of the Apostles Tell the vision to no man untill the Sonne of man be risen again from the dead saith Christ to them Matth. 17.9 and yet the knowledge of the Transfiguration was none of the necessary points to salvation Christ at first taught obscurely as it were by shadows and resemblances both his death by the amphibolous words Destroy this Temple Joh. 2.19 and his resurrection and ascension by instancing in the type of the brasen serpent lifted up Joh. 3.14 For Christ was lifted up or exalted both by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When you have lift up the Sonne of man Joh. 8.28 and by the right hand of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 2.33 Yea God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superexaltavit eum highly exalted him Philip. 2.9 After he spake more plainly and he began to teach his Apostles of his sufferings and resurrection Mark 8.31 and that openly ver 32. which is confirmed by specializing of the time Matth. 16.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that time forth began Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to demonstrate insomuch that his Disciples said unto him Lo now thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb or parable Joh. 16.29 And the Apostle 1. Cor. 3.1 2. acknowledgeth that he fed them with milk because they were not able to bear strong meat insomuch that he could not speak unto them as unto spirituall but as unto carnall as unto babes in Christ Could not that is could not conveniently could not to their good or edification A young man is not a fit hearer of morall Philosophie saith Aristotle Briefly thus All religions under heaven the true and the falsely called religion have had their arcana their secrets and mysteries the patefaction whereof was not promiscuously imparted to every one of the vulgar or illiterate sort who sometimes hir upon a good belief and by it may rapere coelum take heaven by force in the phrase and sentence of S. Augustine whiles learned men may be thrust to hell but indeed know little with the perfection of knowledge It must be confessed that it was the accursed policie of our adversaries to nuzle up the people in ignorance but Buy the Bible saith S. Chrysostom Search the Scriptures saith Christ John 5.39 Let all the people daily reade or heare them meditate on them and labour to follow them let them who have any learning interpret them according to the competency of their gifts and in their own families instruct the more unlearned What said King Henry the eighth Decemb. 24. in the 37 yeare of his reigne as it is in Stows Chronicle enlarged by Howes pag. 590 and to whom said he it Be not judges your selves of your own phantasticall opinions and vain expositions For in such high causes you may lightly erre And though you be permitted to reade holy Scriptures and to have the word of God in your mother-tongue you must understand it is licensed you so to do onely to inform your consciences and to instruct your children and families and not to dispute and make Scripture a railing and a taunting stock against Priests and Preachers as many light people do Queen Elisabeth also shewed her dislike in Parliament March 29. in the 27 yeare of her reigne in Stows Chronicle pag. 702 saying I see many overbold with God Almighty making too many subtile scannings of his blessed will as Lawyers do with humane testaments The presumption is so great that I may not suffer it nor tolerate new-fanglednesse So she Humilitie and subjection of spirit ought to be in every Prophet to the Prophets and shall the unlearned take up presumption as a buckler and arm himself with obstinate singularity which is a branch of pride as with a sword As I would not have the people with the Papists as it were to hoodwink and cover their eyes that they may be led by others and glory in blinde obedience which little differeth from wilfull and stupid ignorance but advise them to unmuffle their heads and open their own eyes and judge of things which they do or can know are skilfull to judge but z Ignorantia in Jadice aequiparatur dolo Ignorance in a Judge is as bad as injustice and a simple unlearned Judge is a mischief as intolerable as unheard of so do I wish the people to avoid the other extream of Separatists who thinking they know all things though they have no heavenly inspiration will seem wiser then their teachers and taking up opinions for truth and malepert obstinacy for humble constancy disrepute their Pastours disregard all authority and ascribe nothing to that sovereigne generall commission He who heareth you heareth me which is enough to seal up their mouthes and captive their thoughts unto their learned Pastours in things which themselves cannot apprehend and their Pastours can well judge of Oh but men are men and as men may erre I hope the unlearned people are not Angels nor more free from errour then the learned Yet we must be led by our consciences True and your consciences even therefore ought the rather to be well grounded and founded not upon the slippery sand of self-conceit but on knowledge as on a sure and safe rock And in whom should knowledge reside if not in your Pastours But in Queen Maries daies should a man have been led by his Pastours when themselves were at ods and the greatest part awry Or how should a true Protestant and now a subject of Spain in Spain behave himself How much is left to his power of discretion when the whole Estate both Ecclesiastick and Civil runneth with a torrent the contrary way If he be led by his conscience and oppose them
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
they received their dead raised to life again to live with them according to their desire But others were tortured and would not accept deliverance and cared not for the joyes of this life or the punishment unto death nor temporary raising that they might obtain the better resurrection not to die again as the others did but to live for evermore 4 But as for the third Tostatus saith He lived a long time and he was more healthie then he was before he died And he giveth this sound reason Because what things are done supernaturally are farre more perfect then they that are done naturally Never was there so good wine as the water turned into wine the choicenesse whereof was so easily discerned even when the palate was cloyed when the taste was corrupted and dull'd towards the end of a feast Joh. 2.10 Now as he lived a long time so out of doubt in the end he died tasting of mortalitie as truely as the Prophet did whose bones before had raised him O Blessed Jesu I beg not at thy hands the reuniting of my soul unto my body for a temporary life but if it be thy holy will let the vertue of thy Passion raise me first from the death of sinne to the life of righteousnesse and from a righteous temporary life to the life of immortall happinesse Grant this for thy glorious Names sake O holy Redeemer Amen CHAP. III. 1. Whilest Christ lived none raised any dead save himself onely 2. The Rulers daughter raised by Christ died again 3. So did the young man whom Christ recalled to life 4. Many miracles in that miracle of Lazarus his resurrection 5. Christ gave perfect health to those whom he healed or raised 6. Lazarus his holy life and his second death 1. THe next place of my division leadeth me to treat of those whom Christ himself raised For if Christ did give authoritie to his twelve Apostles to raise the dead Matth. 10.8 though both in the old Interpreter and Theophylact these words are wanting saith Beza yet did they not or the Seventie at their return to him say they had raised any which he himself did so sparingly though they healed the sick Mark 6.13 and the devils were subject unto them through his name Luk. 10.17 Neither did the Baptist nor any in Christs life-time raise up any so farre as can be gathered It was a work he appropriated to his own power for the act thereof whilest he lived and which he maketh to be an infallible token and proof that he was the Messiah as appeareth by the answer of the ambassage which Christ returned to the Baptist Luk. 7.22 The dead are raised by me or by my power Therefore I am he that should come For that is one member of his argument And indeed perhaps he raised divers whom the Scripture hath not particularized for he did very many things that are not written Joh. 21.25 Yea many signes truely did he in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book Joh. 20.30 and his Apostles after his death did actuate that power which habitually in his life they received 2. But those that are mentioned to be raised by Christ whilest he lived on earth are likewise three 1. A Rulers daughter Matth. 9.25 2. A dead man the onely sonne of his mother Luk. 7.15 3. Lazarus his friend Joh. 11.44 And all these returned to do their offices and follow their vocations in this life and in the end payed their due to nature and died again In the first we observe that she was a damsel of twelve yeares of age and being dead her spirit came again Luk. 8.55 She arose and walked Mark 5.42 and Christ commanded to give her meat in the same place of Luke And as the meat was commanded to be given her that they might see she was to live such a life as before she lived so out of doubt the commanded meat was offered unto her and she did eat and was strengthened by it both living and dying afterwards as other maids and men did and no way rising to immortall life 3. As for the second he was a young man on whose mother Christ had compassion Luk. 7.13 She was a widow the youth her onely sonne and when Christ touch'd but the coffin and said Young man arise that you may see both his vertue and his voice had a piercing and quickning power he that was dead sat up and began to speak and Christ delivered him to his mother vers 15. Now these are evident signes of a naturall life in a naturall body which must yeeld in the end to the stroke of death And the raising of this young man being bruited abroad was the especiall motive why the Baptist sent two disciples with a message unto Christ Luk. 7.17 c. 4. The third whom Christ raised was Lazarus who had been buried foure dayes ere Christ came unto him Joh. 11.17 that I may passe over the uncertain time from his death to his buriall d Foetens quairiduanut Stinking after foure dayes enterring saith S. Augustine Yet when Jesus cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin and Jesus saith unto them Loose him and let him go Joh. 11.44 In which miracle I finde foure or five wrapped up and involved That so suddenly his soul did come from its abode That the stinking ill-organized body was so soon so well prepared That the soul was so quickly united and no sooner united then exercising her faculties on the bodie which yeelded such ready obedience That he could see the way out of the grave and perchance approach towards our Saviour when his eyes were blinded That he was able to go and walk before he was loosed by them while his hands and his feet were bound with grave-clothes Yet that the miracle aimed not to raise him to an immortall life appeareth because he did not onely go from his grave to Bethanie to the house where his sisters Mary and Martha were but because he supped with our Saviour he being one of them that sat at the table with Jesus Joh. 12.2 where out of doubt he did eat as the rest did There is an argument yet left as undeniable as unanswerable That the then living did think Lazarus lived to die again For the chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death as well as Christ Joh. 12.10 which they would not they could not have done if he had not lived and could not die like other men if he had been raised to life immortall and they knew he was once raised Joh. 11.45 47. 5. Concerning the sick that were healed and the dead raised by Christ worthy Writers further agree that Christ did integram corporis sanitatem conferre omni infirmitate rejectâ Left no reliques of sicknesse or infirmity when he healed Christ never healed any one man twice Joh.
the living God and not with penne and ink For though the sense and words of this Epistle to the Galatians be from God and most divine yet there is no reason to imagine that S. Paul intended to include that sense under these words Videte or Videtis qualibus literis scripsi vobis manu meâ You see how large a letter I have written to you with mine own hand But if the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie quantitie though S. Paul wrote in great letters and characters yet it might be a verie good and fair hand as there are few fairer writings then some where the letters are large and full drawn and I doubt not but he who gave them the extraordinary gift of tongues and languages did also as a necessarie appendant give them the power to write well those languages especially since their writings were to benefit more then their voices could reach unto We never reade that the holy Apostles Peter James or John were learned or could reade or write before their calling or learned it by degrees after their Apostleship yet they could and did write and as the Spirit guided their thoughts and words so did he their hands and they wrote both divinely for matter and as I think exquisitely for the manner yea more exquisitely then other men as being governed and actuated by the hand of God which is perfect in all his works And indeed the true sense of the place in my opinion toucheth not at the deformednesse of the characters or at the grand-greatnesse of them but at the length or prolixitie of the Epistle which is excellently rendered by our English You see how large a letter I have written as if S. Paul had spoke thus more at large I who before told you that we must not be weary of well-doing but must do good unto all men whilest we have time especially to the houshold of faith I say I my self have not been wearie in writing this Epistle though it be long and whilest I had time I have spent that time in doing you good by writing this letter by writing this long and large letter to you For though I have written longer Epistles yet I did rather subscribe to them and wrote not all of any one of them with mine own hand but you may take it as a token of my heartie love that I wrote all this Epistle my self You see how large a letter I have writ to you with mine own hand And this sense better answereth to the coherence then that of S. Hierom or of the other learned man whom S. Hierom wondered at So much for the third Lemma 8. I come now to the first Question viz. Whether it was necessarie that Scripture should be written for mens instruction That it was not absolutely necessarie must be confest for God might have used other means He is liberrimum agens the freest agent or rather ipsa libertas libertie it self not chained to fate nor bound in with nature or second causes Necessitie freedome of our will or indifferencie to either side and contingencie are the issues of his will Yea God did use other means in the law of nature for above 2450 yeares the Patriarchs were nourished with agraphall Tradition onely No word was ever written till God wrote the Law the two first Tables the work of the onely-wise Almightie The writing was the writing of God graven upon the Tables Exod. 32.16 Written with the finger of God Exod 31.18 The Jews say The book of Genesis was written by Moses before God wrote the Law For though God spake all the words of the Decalogue Exod. 20.1 c. yet he delivered not the Tables to Moses till Exod. 31.18 but Exod. 24.4 it is related that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and vers 7. that he took the book of the Law and read it in the audience of the people Kemnitius answereth That the things are recorded per Anticipationem seu per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last is recorded in the first place for the writing and dedication here mentioned were accomplished afterward Exod. 34.32 The pillar of stone and that other of brick which Josephus Antiq. 1.4 saith the children of Seth did write in before the floud were either fictions or antidated The prophesie of Enoch was not written by him as S. Augustine de Civit. 15.22 and Origen Hom. 28. in Num. think but Enoch prophesied Saying Jude 14. As the prophesie of Adam Genes 2.24 and of God himself Genes 3.15 both of them concerning Christ were spoken in Paradise not written and as the Apostles wrote not the Creed but delivered it onely vivâ voce by word of mouth saith Irenaeus 3.4 and Augustine de Fide Oper. cap. 9. and Ruffinus on the Creed and divers others so is it likely that Enochs prophesie was not written or rather was written long after it was spoken for writing was not so necessarie for the Patriarchs First because they were purer in minde saith Chrysostom Hom. 1. in Matth. And it is the fault of our corrupt nature and we may be rightly impleaded that ever there was any writing as may be gathered from Isidorus Peleusiota lib. 3. epist 106. Secondly the long lives of the Patriarchs supplied the room of writing for Methusalah who lived 240 yeares with Adam with the first Adam who was AETATIS ILLIUS EPISCOPUS Bishop of those times saith Kemnitius in Examine part 1. pag. 13. lived also 90 and odde yeares with Sem and Sem lived 50 yeares in Jacobs time by the calculation of Helvicus and there were not 200 yeares from Jacobs death to the writing of the Law Thirdly besides such aged venerable Prophets as were Adam Enoch Noah and Abraham who was an eminent instructer with authoritie and as it were with a Pretorian power Gen. 18.19 I know that Abraham will command his sonnes and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord other Patriarchs knew the will of God by immediate revelation by dreams and visions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At sundrie times and in divers manners Heb. 1.1 Gods speech was in stead of writing But when men grew more impure and upon the increase of sinne mans dayes were shortened God did withdraw himself and his familiar conversation was not so common but because their hearts of flesh were hardened in which was printed the law of nature by them even obliterated and they received new evil impressions in stonie hearts God himself wrote the Morall Law in two Tables of stone and Gods own handie-work being broken by the occasion of their sinne to shew that the Morall Law should continue for ever the broken Tables were removed and none knoweth what ever became of them and Moses was commanded to frame two new whole Tables of stone like the former Two extreams about the written word are here to be avoided The first is of the Papists who too much disgrace the Scripture at least comparatively
shews Fabers opinion to be That some writers of Scripture had power to use such words as they pleased and used some amisse even such as he found fault withall O novell criticism Wilt thou set thy self no bounds till thou reachest up to heaven and tramplest on the word of God The holy Amanuenses were guided by the Spirit to write as well as the Apostles to dictate When S. Paul accounted and would have his Galatians to account it as a favour above ordinary that he wrote so large an Epistle as that to the Galatians with his own hand and since the Epistle to the Romanes was larger then it and was writ by Tertius let me probably collect that other Epistles of S. Paul as those to the Corinthians and that to the Hebrews and any other if any other be longer and larger were not written by S. Pauls own hand For then his own writing had not been so great a testimonie and argument of his love to the Galatians for the rest were longer and larger but were writ by some other hand except perhaps the close and saluation Fevardentius on 1. Pet. 5.12 and Salmeron Tom. 13. Disput 5. as they are cited by Lorinus Act. 15.23 do think that Paul and the rest of the Apostles wrote seldome with their own hands but did dictate and subscribe which they prove by S. Peter 1. Pet. 5.12 By Silvanus a faithfull brother unto you as I suppose I have written briefly Lorinus answereth That by the same reason Judas and Silas wrote the Epistle of the Councel at Hierusalem Act. 15.23 Let me reply That I see nothing to the contrary in the Text or otherwhere but Judas and Silas being chief men among the brethren might write it as well as any others and might also be joyned in Commission with others to carrie it Concerning which Penmen this is my opinion That even they were led by the holy Ghost both to conceive what the Apostles spake and to write exactly what they dictated so that they did not they could not erre in writing any one word syllable or letter of the first Originals no nor did nor could mis-accent it or mis-point any part thereof nor can it be proved nor seems it likely that ever the Apostles revised or righted what the Penmen had done but subscribed to it took it as their own or rather as the holy Ghosts and sealed it for divine Scripture Oh that the first Originals themselves of the New Testament or of some part of it could yet be found I would go a thousand miles on my bare feet to see them kisse them and in Tertullians phrase I would adore the plenitude of them They would prove an Antidote against many heresies a correctorie of more false opinions which have sprung up from the variation of Copies and the uncertaintie what reading is best By this opinion I am sure one firm anchor-hold is established That humane wisdome and skill is excluded from having part in any parcell of Scripture and the whole Scripture is by me maintained to be wholly and absolutely true certain and most divine which Heinsius and others seem not to do So end I this point I Give thee thanks most gracious God that thou hast freed me of the gout and eased me of the stone that I have been able though in great weaknes to swim through this sea to go through this wildernesse in paths untrodden Lord I beseech thee by thine infinite mercies be mercifull to my soul prepare me throughly for my departure and in the houre of death and judgement good Christ deliver me Amen Amen CHAP. X. 1. Reall truth in the Greek and Latine texts of Act. 7.16 The place expounded thus The Fathers were not Abraham Isaac and Jacob but the twelve sonnes of Jacob. 2. These twelve Fathers were not buried in Abrahemio but in Sychem 3. Abraham in this place is not taken properly but patronymicé 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by S. Stephen amphibolous and expounded 5. Two opinions concerning the place of Acts 7.16 propounded 6. The last preferred I Now return to the old matter and Text Act. 7.16 Foure propositions there are in the words of S. Stephen which are all questioned First that the Fathers are said to be carried over into Sychem Secondly that they were laid in the sepulchre of Abraham Thirdly that Abraham bought the sepulchre of the sonnes of Hemor Fourthly that this Hemor was the father of Sychem as our last Translation hath it very truely Now let us see what different or contrary propositions are maintained against these and so labour to reconcile them First that the Fathers were not carried over into Sychem Secondly that they were not laid in the sepulchre of Abraham Thirdly that Abraham bought the field of Ephron the sonne of Zohar Gen. 23.8 Fourthly that Hemor was the sonne of Sychem as the Vulgat and Genevean translations have it That the first proposition may be reconciled to his opposite let us examine what is meant by the word Fathers All the Patriarchs indeed were Fathers and so called Abraham is our Father say the Jews Joh. 8.39 and Art thou greater then our Father Jacob saith the woman to Christ Joh. 4.12 I am the God of thy Fathers the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob saith God himself or an Angel representing him Act. 7.32 Abraham was a great Father Ecclus. 44.19 These Patriarchs were Patres majorum gentium Fathers of the highest rank if I may accommodate the Romane distinction unto the Jewish Governours And whereas David is called Act. 2.29 according both to the Greek and Latine a Patriarch there by the Arabick Translatour he is termed Princeps Patrum The chief or Prince of the Fathers Yet in the sense of S. Stephen by the word Fathers those first or greatest Fathers and prime Patriarchs are not to be understood but the Patres minorum gentium Fathers of a lower degree onely Joseph and the other sonnes of Jacob the immediate Fathers and Heads of the twelve Tribes And this is apparent by the light of the words themselves where there is a wall of separation between the one and the other Act. 7.15 Jacob died he and our Fathers therefore there were some who were called Fathers after Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Jacob died he and our Fathers Not Abraham and Isaac for they died before Jacob but Jacob died and who els He and our Fathers What more He and our Fathers when they were dead were carried to Sychem But Abraham and Isaac were never carried to Sychem Again such Fathers are meant as died in Egypt for they that died in Canaan needed no carrying over to the place where they were and Jacob went down into Egypt and died there he and our Fathers But Abraham though he went down into Egypt yet died not there but he went up out of Egypt he and his wife and all that he had Genes 13.1 lest you might think that he by leaving ought behinde might be occasioned to return
not to have bought that but an other piece of ground at an other time in an other place for * Genes 23.16 c. foure hundred shekels of silver of Ephron the Hittite neare Hebron which was farre distant from Sychem Which sale of Ephron and purchase of Abraham is ratified by the witnesse of truth in the mouth of Jacob himself and dying Jacob Genes 49.29 c. Therefore though the name of Abraham be read it may be it must be a patronymick and Jacob is called by his grandfathers name and Jacob did what is ascribed to Abraham for other passages of Scripture do force us to expound it of Jacob. Thus have I digressed to satisfie the great doubt which hath tortured the wits both of old and late Writers O Lord God God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob God of our fathers Father of Jesus Christ our God and Saviour be pleased I beseech thee that these my poore weak labours in points obscure may receive strength from thy strength light from thy light that thy most blessed holy and all-wise Word may be a lanthorn and light not onely to my paths but to my understanding that so I may know thee love thee and alway cleaving to thee may be glorified by thee through Jesus Christ my Redeemer and Advocate Amen CHAP. XI 1. Pineda makes Moses to be one of the raised at Christs Passion if once he died Pineda censured for his assertion or rather his hypothesis 2. David then arose in Pineda his judgement 3. His Argument answered Bishop Bilson wavering and rejected as he rejecteth S. Augustine 4. A demonstration upon S. Augustine his ground and Act. 2.24 that David was not raised nor ascended bodily into heaven 5. Davids sepulchre now kept by the Turk I Return to my old task against Pineda and of him I demand Who else are said to arise about the time of Christs Passion besides Abraham Isaac and Jacob He hath alreadie answered a At fuerit quoque redivivus Moses stolim diem suum obiit Moses also lived again if long since he died once I answer Why doth he make a needlesse If The Scripture saith expressely he died Deut. 34.5 and he was an hundred and twentie yeares old when he died vers 7. and he was buried vers 6. If he died not yet then first was he partaker of celestiall blessednesse saith Pineda after Christ was risen But in Christs life say I Moses and Elias appeared in glory and spake of his decease Luk. 9.30 31. They were not onely glorified but they did appeare gloriously to Christ and his Apostles before his resurrection And if S. Ambrose hath such words as Pineda citeth we may trulier reply b Mosen nunquam in caelesti gloria legimus postquam sed antequam Christus resurrexit We never read that Moses was or was seen in heavenly glorie after Christ arose but before 2. From this his pendulousnesse concerning Moses he descendeth to others c Neque abfuerit omnino David David was one of them and was not excluded I confesse with the divine S. Augustine that if any did arise to the eternall glory both of their souls and bodies David may be thought to be one neither then will I exclude Adam Abraham Isaac and Jacob and other Patriarchs under the law of Nature but Augustine in the same 99 Epistle ad Euod cited by Pineda proveth by divers reasons that they who arose out of their graves arose not then to an eternall happinesse 3. Yea but Sophronius in his Sermon of the most blessed Virgins Assumption evinceth saith Pineda that David did then arise because S. Peter speaking of the death of David Act. 2.20 saith not His bodie was at Jerusalem but His sepulchre is with us Cajetan on Aquin. part 1. quaest 53. artic 3. addeth ascribing it to Hierom that S. Peter said d Cujus sepulchrum apud nos est quasi non ausus fuerit dicere cujus corpus apud nos est Whose SEPVLCHRE is with us as if he durst not say Whose BODIE is with us Bishop Bilson in the place afore-cited is either for us or dubious in the rere or end although he be peremptorie and adverse to us in the front and beginning for he holdeth That it would somewhat impeach the power of Christs resurrection if it were able to raise the Saints to life but not to preserve them in life I answer The question is not of what Christ could do or can do but what he did do and what was done A Posse ad Esse non valet argumentum And if he imagineth that it impeacheth the power of Christs resurrection unlesse de facto the raised Saints be now alive in their bodies which is his intent any indifferent reader will say he is amisse and ought not to square the power of Christs resurrection to his own fancie Yea but saith he The whole fact will seem rather an apparition then a true resurrection I answer If he take apparition for a phantasticall vision and meer imagination or a delusion of the senses his meaning is not to be suffered yet in a good sense and at large it may be called an apparition for they appeared unto many Matth. 27.53 A true apparition and as true a resurrection A true resurrection is of two sorts the first and the last a good and a better resurrection of which I spake before One eternall Such was Christs Christ dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 and He hath the keyes of death Revel 1.18 yea he alone was blessed with this resurrection hereafter we shall Every man in his own order Christ the first-fruits afterward they that are Christs at his coming saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.23 The very time is expressed S. Paul wrote this after Christs first coming yea after his resurrection many yeares and therefore you must needs interpret it of his second coming as is most evident by the context Therefore either those Saints are not Christs or they shall arise at his last coming and therefore have not risen to an eternall resurrection The other true resurrection is temporarie Thus some were raised in the Old Testament and some in the New and though they died again I dare not say their resurrection was an apparition And as out of doubt some of them who were raised by the Prophets or by Christ in his life time died sooner then other so if any of them had died within three or foure dayes yea within an houre or two after that their resurrection yet had it not been an apparition onely but a true temporary resurrection As if a childe should die the third instant after the souls infusion there were a true union and a true death so if one should die again presently after a resurrection there must needs be both a true reunion resurrection and a second death God reuniting the soul and again separating it and disposing of the creature without its wrong to the
nothing certain concerning her death nor is her bodie or her tombe-stone found on earth nor did S. John the Evangelist who out-lived her and the rest of the Apostles by all mens consents write any thing of her death much lesse of her assumption though as Christ committed her to him so he took her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his own home was a sonne unto her Joh. 19.26 27. Amongst those who assent to her assumption i Monstrosa quaedam discrepantia reperitur there is monstrous diversitie saith Baronius Anno Christi 48. num 4. Which words I wonder he would let drop from his pen or that others of their side would suffer to be printed Of the former instances I say the lesse because if all which was supposed were granted and if they had this priviledge to prevent others in their bodily glorie yet it was long after Christs ascension whereas my principall question was of those many that arose about Christs Passion Who in particular they were 8. The summe is Pineda hath taken great pains to little purpose hath presumed to name those whom the Scripture or any sound tradition hath left unnamed his proofs have been so slender as his conjectures have been bold He convinceth not exactly that any one of those whom he specializeth were raised much lesse to eternall happinesse and I have demonstrated that some of those whom he nameth did not then arise to a glorious immortalitie In the particular instancing in those who arose about Christs death his fellow-Jesuite dares not follow him k Non ausim de ullo particulatim definire I dare not say peremptorily that any such an one was raised saith Lorinus most modestly on Act. 7.29 Yet still it must be confest that many bodies which slept arose c. though the book be clasped the secret reserved and no absolute knowledge can inform us who they were O Lord who didst open the eyes of the blinde to thee do I confesse the blindenesse of my understanding open I beseech thee those eyes of my minde dispell the clouds leading me in the right way amidst by-paths and uncertainties even for thine own sake who art the onely way to the true life So be it Lord Jesus Amen Amen CHAP. XIIII 1. My conjecture that none of the Patriarchs or old Prophets were raised 2. An objection concerning Peters knowing of Moses and Elias on mount Tabor answered 3. A conjecture that the Saints who lived in Christs time and died before him were raised at his Passion Who they were in most likelihood When Joseph the reputed father of Christ did die 4. The end why they were raised To whom they appeared 5. A crotchet concerning the wives of dead men which have been raised IF still you presse the question Who those MANY were or Who were some of those MANY I answer with Lorinus that part of truth lieth hid and covered Amongst conjectures I propound this mine own as probable First negatively That none of the ancient Patriarchs Prophets or Types of Christ in the Old Testament arose for if one Who is he and why not others as well as he and if they had risen Who should have known them or how could they induce the then living to beleeve that they were the same Patriarchs or Prophets They might have been as well thought to have been incarnate spirits for the evil spirits also kept about the tombes and graves of the deceased Unlesse you will multiply miracles upon miracles and say God by miracle did reveal these to be true Patriarchs Otherwise they could not prove it to those who lived 2000 yeares after them And if there had been such miracles the Evangelists would not have slipt them 2. Yea but S. Peter knew Moses and Elias at Christs transfiguration though they were taken away from among men long before And therefore the then living might know the dead Patriarchs and holy men raised though they died long before I answer That S. Peter and the other Apostles James and John might know by the conference between Christ and Moses and Elias who they were Whereas Christ never conversed or conferred with those that were raised for ought that is recorded or probably to be maintained And it is a figment to say or imagine that there was any third person which knew both the then raised on the one side and the living which never had been dead on the other side or could give assurance that the raised were such and such Patriarchs and Fathers Nor were their testimonies to be taken one for another since the deniall or doubt concerning any one draweth in the deniall or doubt of all the rest and upon supposall of one false apparition any one and every one of the rest might be questioned Secondly S. Peter and S. John might know Moses and Elias by divine revelation which to them was not unfrequent as Christs Divinitie was revealed to Peter Matth. 16.17 and Ananias his heart Act. 5.3 c. or as Luke knew by the Spirit that Peter wept bitterly though Peter wept secretly for he went out first Luk. 22.62 and what he went out purposely to conceal shall we think that he did purposely reveal Now though the Apostles had supernall illumination guiding them into all truth yet that by divine revelation extraordinary every one of them then living at Jerusalem knew every one of them who were raised and appeared unto them is unnecessarily to multiply many miracles Now since they knew not the persons of the raised by Christ nor any other third person nor by heavenly instruction they could no way know the raised Patriarchs unlesse by their pictures or statues which of all other wayes is most unprobable as being a course not practised in those times and places The argument now hath received its answer Peter might many wayes and did some way know Moses and Elias and yet I finde not any way whereby the inhabitants of the holy citie could personally know the Patriarchs and Fathers being before buried and incinerated And therefore I probably conclude Not any one of these were raised 3. Secondly my positive probable conjecture is this which also seemeth more likely to Lucas Brugensis That many of those Saints who lived in Christs time and beleeved in him whose memorie was fresh and whose children kindred or acquaintance were yet living and who were known to adhere to Christ and to this opinion Bishop Bilson seemeth somewhat to encline Many I say of those dead Saints now arose and appeared unto many as it may be John the Baptist though the deceitfull miracle-mongers shew the false reliques of that good Saints head in divers places and Zacharie and Elisabeth his parents and those many Luk. 1.66 and those shepherds Luk. 2.8 and those wonderers to whom the shepherds told our Saviours nativitie Luk. 2.18 perhaps some would adde those wisemen who came to worship Christ Matth. 2.2 and old Simeon and Anna the Prophetesse and Joseph Christs reputed father though
you expound this of the Fathers of the Old Testament and of the stola animae the robe of honour for the minde yet you shall finde Revel 6.11 that in regard even of stola corporis the glorious garment of the bodie the Saints themselves are commanded to rest yet for a little season untill their fellow-servants also and their brethren either then alive or perchance not then born that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Now against this generall rule you must not make a particular exception without expresse warrant from the word of God But there is no testimony at all from the word of God either direct or inferentiall that any of those Many who arose arose to glorie or immortalitie or ascended into heaven Therefore we may boldly conclude They died again This argument is of such force that Suarez leaveth it unanswered and untouched Lastly if the bodies of these Saints ascended into heaven either they ascended after Christ or before him or with him If after him When and how long after and why after him They ascended not presently after him for the Apostles who looked stedfastly toward heaven even after he was taken out of their sight might have then perceived their bodily ascent If you say So soon as the Apostles left their serious viewing and hearkened unto the Angels then they ascended I answer I would say so also if I saw any proof or if I could think that God sent the Angels just at that moment to hinder the Apostles from seeing the Saints mount up to heaven which would have been so joyous a sight Briefly there is no reason to say they ascended long after Christ ascended and certainly lesse reason is there to think they ascended before him 4. Moreover Christ as man shall be Judge at the last day and God hath given assurance of it to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17.31 If any other were raised up in the same manner before him or with him to an eternall resurrection what assurance doth God give by this place of S. Paul that Christ shall be the Judge rather then others But indeed the raising of Christ was more then ordinary was more then temporarie Let him have the preeminence in all things Christ is the first-fruits of them that slept 1. Cor. 15.20 The first-fruits of them that are raised vers 23. He is Primitiae mortuorum Revel 1.5 resurgentium Act. 26.23 Christ is the first who shall arise from the dead viz. to an eternall resurrection his bodie opening as it were the gates of heaven for our bodies which if Enoch and Elias did by priviledge especiall anticipate though these were not properly raised but rather taken up yet if more if so many should before him arise to an everlasting resurrection it destroyeth the nature of a generall rule b Gratia quae omnibus datur non est gratia sed natura privilegium gaudet paucitate Grace given alike to all is no longer grace but nature and a priviledge is properly confined to a few That they ascended not with Christ I proved before and for a Corollarie do repeat this That if assumed and Angelicall bodies were to be seen and were seen and heard at Christs ascension out of doubt the bodies of Saints had been visible yea seen if they had then ascended 5. If any desire to see more reasons let him reade S. Augustine Epist 99. ad Euodium de Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae whose reasons c In tertia parte Summae quaest 53. artic 3. Aquinas preferreth and subscribeth unto You may now perceive that I am gently fallen upon the second head in vertue of which I undertook to prove That the Saints who miraculously arose and here arose did not ascend into heaven but died again for the second head was Authoritie Among Authours you have alreadie two of the chiefest for depth of learning Augustine and Aquinas Hierom is of their minde on Matth. 27. Chrysostom Hom. 89. on Matth. compareth those Saints resurrection unto Lazarus his rising to a mortall life though Beza directly contradicteth it The same Hierom Epist 150. ad Hedibiam again confirms it To the same purpose Theophylact on the place and Euthymius chap. 67. on Matth. so Prosper in his book de promissionibus praedictionibus Dei. In the middle school you have Soto in 4. lib. Sentent Distinct 43. quaest 2. artic 1. Yea even among Jesuites Salmeron and Barradius are on this side and Pererius on the 6 chapter of the Revelation Disput 24. and Gregorie Valentian Tom. 4. Disput 2. Quaest 5. where he sleighteth Cajetans arguments and saith that our is the more probable opinion and that Aquin from Augustine doth most excellently confirm it In the last place cometh that learned Franciscus Lucas Brugensis who having set down the ends why these Many were raised to wit To be praecones criers or trumpetters of Christs resurrection which was experimentally evidenced by their own and that Jesus was that Saviour and that he ought thus to suffer and thus to enter into his glorie closeth in these words d Hoc officio quando isti defuncti fuerant verisimile est cos iterum dormivisse in sepulchris suit quievisse quemadmodum Aloses When they had performed this duty it is likely that they slept again and rested in their sepulchres like Moses Yea say I much rather did they sleep in their graves then Moses for though he was buried yet being raised he appeared in glorie Luk. 9.31 which apparition being in bodie principally for his soul was not seen we may not imagine that a glorified bodie is so subject to corruption or a second dying which Brugensis himself will not say of these raised Many for he hath an odde crotchet and singular conceit That those Many were raised neither to an immortall nor to a mortall life but to a middle and mean betwixt both not to a perpetuall one nor yet to a terrene life but heavenly without the use of meats or drinks without fear or pain of death O Fountain of mercie inexhaustible sweet Jesu who being the Sonne of God didst become Man that we the sonnes of Men might be the sonnes of God who didst die that we might live suffering for our sinnes and rising again for our justification Have mercie O have mercie upon me passe by my transgressions I beseech thee and present me blamelesse to the Throne of Grace for thine own merit sake to which I ascribe all power and from which I expect all my glorie So be it CHAP. XVIII 1. The arguments of the contrary opinion answered Suarez and especially Cajetan censured 2. That by the holy Citie Jerusalem below was meant proved at large Josephus and the Jews erring about the name of Jerusalem Hierom uncertain 3. How the raised appeared A difference between appearing as men and appearing as newly raised men Franciscus Lucas Brugensis rejected 4. An argument of Maldonat
is living or that he is dead The reason why some thought S. John liveth was because Christ said to Peter John 21.22 If I will that he tarrie till I come what is that to thee Neither doth it satisfie them that John himself saith ver 23. Jesus said not He shall not die for they expound that exposition John shall not die namely till that time that Christ doth come Dorotheus speaking of S. John hath it thus John lived 120 yeares which being expired he living as yet the Lord would so have it buried himself The storie is enlarged by S. Augustine Tract 124. in Joannem thus Some report that in certain Scriptures though Apocryphall it is found that S. John being in health caused a grave to be made and laid himself in it as in a bed and presently died or as some think lay down as dead but not dead and being thought to be dead was buried sleeping and that he sheweth his being alive a Scaturigine pulveris by the ebullition of the dust of his grave b Qui pulvis creditur ut ab imo ad superficiem tumuli ascendat flatu quiesoentis impelli which dust is beleeved to arise and to be forced from the bottome of the tombe to the top by his breath And truly saith Augustine We heard not this of light credulous men Whereupon he adviseth c Viderint qui hunc locum sciunt utrùm hoc ibi faciat terra vel patiatur quod dicitur Let them who know the place consider whether the earth spring up there so as is reported If it be so saith he if the earth or sand bubble up like water and that being taken away other ariseth and boyleth up in the room it doth so either to commend the precious death of that Saint or for some other reason which we know not So farre Augustine Some such thing in another case is recorded by S. Hierom Heare his own words Tom. 3. de locis Hebraicis out of the Acts of the Apostles d Cùm Ecclesia in cujus medio sunt vestigia rotundo schemate pulcherrimo opere conderetur summum tamen cacumen ut perhibent propter Dominici corporis meatum nuilo modo contegi concamerari potuit sed transitus ejus à terra ad coelum usque patet apertum Mount Olivet is situated on the East of Jerusalem parted by the stream of Cedron where the last footsteps which Christ set upon this earth are imprinted on the ground and even to this day are to be seen and shewed And whereas the same earth is taken away daily by the beleeving Christians neverthelesse the same holy footsteps presently and immediately recover their old form and fashion Who also in the same place addeth another strange thing e Mons Oliveti ad Orientem Hierosolymae situs est torrente Cedron interfluente ubi ultima vestigia Domini humo impressa bodiéque monstrantur Cúmque terra eadem quotidie à credentibus hauriatur nihilominus tamen eadem sancta vestigia pristinum statum continuò recipiunt Whereas the Church in the midst whereof these footsteps are was built of a round form with most exquisite workmanship yet the very top of that Church as people report could by no means ever be covered or vaulted over by reason of our Saviours bodily ascent into heaven but Christs passage and way by which he mounted from earth even to heaven lieth open and is visible But our late traveller M. Sands relateth That the footstep is on a firm naturall rock and the passage open at the summitie or top of the temple of the Ascension is to receive light into that sacred place For that is covered as the sepulchre or rather as the temple of the sepulchre whose round is covered with a CVPVLO sustained with rafters of Cedar all of one piece open in the midst like the Pantheon at Rome whereat it receiveth the light that it hath and that as much as sufficeth Just in the midst and in view of heaven standeth the glorified sepulchre So farre M. George Sands M. Fines Morison saith On the top of mount Olivet the highest of all the mountains that compasse Jerusalem in a Chappel they shew in stone the print of Christs feet when he ascended into heaven It did a little amaze me that these our two countreymen both being learned and both being there eye-witnesses do differ so much the first mentioning a footstep in the singular number the other feet in the plurall Antiquitie saith On the Earth late Writers On a Rock which maketh me rather bear with the good S. Hierom who relateth from others that the top could by no means be covered Open perhaps the top was left and open purposely by some exquisite workmen whose skill some credulous ignorants could not discern and they might report that what was done could not be done otherwise But of this in either of our countreymen there is not one word I return to the old matter Sixtus Senensis Bibliothecae sanctae lib. 6. Annotat. 93. saith Many most grave and worthy Authours have written that S. John the Evangelist yet liveth But Chrysostom Hom. 66. in Matt. reporteth f Illum violentâ morte obtruncatum obtisse That he was put to a violent death and he bringeth in Christ speaking these words to the two sonnes of Zebedee of whom S. John the Evangelist was one Mark 10.35 g Calicem meum bibetis Matth. 20.23 id est Martyrii coronâ potiemini violentâ morte sicut ego à vita discedetis YE SHAL DRINK OF MY CVP shall be put to a violent death and be crowned with martyrdome like unto me Euthymius also testifieth that Chrysostom in two other places saith that S. John the Evangelist was slain in Asia which makes me wonder that George Trapezuntius if he be truely alledged by Sixtus Senensis ibid. should interpret Chrysostoms words of the martyrdome and violent death which John forsooth should suffer with Enoch and Elias under the last persecution of Antichrist especially since Chrysostom so punctually designeth out the time past and telleth what was done to John and where Hippolytus Portuensis Episcopus in his short Tractate de mundi consummatione saith As Christs first coming had John the Baptist his forerunner so the second shall have Enoch and Elias and John the Evangelist This comparison is very lame and halteth for it may be applied as well to any as to John the Evangelist Others use not so foolish a similitude but yet embrace a wilder opinion for they say that S. John died and rose from the dead and was assumed into heaven Nicephorus 2.42 addeth DECEBAT It was fit convenient decent and requisite that he who kept Christs mother and was so beloved of Christ should be so assumed as Christs mother was O man how proud art thou to judge what is convenient or inconvenient for God to do Baronius Tom. 2. Anno Christi 101. numero
cannot be executed without the glorifying of souls and bodies of his servants we may well think it pleased God to give to the old world a pledge or two of the generall glorification of the bodies of his Saints by the particular performance of the same to the bodies of Enoch and Elias whom he assumed up into heaven by way of especiall favour To this I may adde That Enoch and Elijahs raptures being types of Christs ascension since Christ ascended in a glorified and immortall bodie the shadows must be like the substance and therefore they ascended in glorified immortall bodies Suarez is driven to a great exigent They were onely saith he n in statu merendi potuerunt in gratia crescere c. in a state in which they might merit and increase in grace till the time in which they were translated And as they were translated they were so confirmed in grace that they can commit no sinne And to their old estate of meriting shall they return when they shall live again amongst men But who ever heard of such turnings and returnings in any other men or Angels or that their estate shall be changed from o A non posse peccare ad posse peccare an estate wherein they cannot sinne to an estate in which they may sinne and so backward For supposing they shall live again and die again if they can merit they can also sinne whilest they live among men and so when they die and have their reward in heaven this shall be no small part of it p Non posse peccare To have no power to sinne But this opinion somewhat resembleth the diversified estate of devils who shall be saved after the generall judgement as Origen feigned and fabled and which the Church hath branded for erroneous And now I see I have fallen before I was aware upon the fourth and last question by me propounded Whether Enoch and Elias shall ever die or do live with glorified bodies in the highest heavens which also I have answered at large That they never shall die but do and shall live in glorified bodies Tertullian I confesse said concerning Elias at the Transfiguration q Apparuit in veritate carâ—is nondum defunctae He appeared in true flesh which had never been separated from its soul and more punctually de Anima cap. 50. r Translatus est Enoch Elias nec mors eorum reperta est dilata scilicet Morituri reservantur ut Antichristum sanguine suo extinguant Enoch and Elias were translated nor is their death recorded or known it being adjourned they are kept and preserved that they may die hereafter and by their bloud overthrow and extinguish Antichrist as Baronius cites him And the more common opinion of the Papists is That they two shall be slain and they prove it by Rev. 11.7 When the two witnesses shall have finished their testimonie the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall overcome and kill them The three other places of Scripture on which Bellarmine built his third demonstration that Antichrist is not come because Enoch and Elias are not yet come are answered before This last place and passage of Scripture used by Bellarmine de Romano Pontif. 3.6 cometh now to be examined and you shall finde it thus well winnowed by Bishop Andrews in his Answer to Cardinall Bellarmines Apologie Cap. 11. That the two witnesses are the two Testaments as Beda Primasius Augustinus and Ticonius are Authours S. Hilarius rejecteth Enoch and puts Moses in his room and that very peremptorily Though many have substituted Jeremie in Enochs room saith Hilarie on Matth. Can. 20. S. Hierom the next Father cited by Bellarmine is not constant enough for Elias which I touched at before and Rupertus on Malach. 4. testifieth so much of Hierom and Bullinger in Apocal. lib. 3. v. 3. saith S. Hierom esteemeth them to be Jews and Jewish hereticks who think Elias shall come again Lactantius cited by Bellarmine in his Apologie nameth neither Enoch nor Elias And Chrysostom Theodoret Origen and Primasius say nothing of Enoch Hippolytus for the two witnesses brings in three one whereof is S. John the Divine and indeed he is more likely to be one of the witnesses then Enoch for unto him it was said Revel 10.11 Thou must prophesie again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings but no such thing was said to Enoch Others say Elizeus shall be one of the two witnesses Hieronymus saith r Nisi quis spiritualiter intelligat hunc locum Apocalypsews Judaicis ei fabulis acquiescendum est In Epist ad Marcellum Vnlesse a man understand this place of the Revelation spiritually he must needs settle and rest on Jewish fables Maldonate on the 17 of Matthew and his learned Interpreter saith It is so cleare a matter that Moses and Elias shall come that none but a rash and impudent man can denie it Thus much Bishop Andrews in his Answer to the place of the Revelation against Bellarmines Apologie who vaunted of a cloud of Fathers which cloud is vanished almost into nothing Much more of great worth and consequence hath that Reverend Bishop in the same 11 chapter concerning Enoch and Elias living in glorified bodies to whom I referre the Reader And this shall suffice to have spoken of Enoch and of Elias against Bellarmines third demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Every part and parcell of which proof is so weak and so farre from concluding apodictically that they scarce deserve a place among probable arguments And thus is the second main branch of my answers made good and manifested That some have been excepted from death viz. Enoch and Elias though it be objected that It is appointed for men to die The third part of my answer followeth That others also shall be excepted O Fountain of life and preserver of men to whom belong also the issues of death I have deserved to die the first and second death I have provoked thy long-suffering I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Lord make me as one of thy hired servants and put me to what labour to what pain soever within me without me so long as pleaseth thee onely I beseech thee for the blessed mediation of thy dearely beloved onely Sonne Jesus Christ my Saviour give me grace not to faint under the burthens appointed and at the end of the day at my lives end vouchsafe to give me a penie among thy labourers and eternall life among thy chosen Amen CHAP. III. 1. Some others hereafter shall be excepted from death The change may be accounted in a generall large sense a kinde of death The Papists will have a reall proper death Aquinas an incineration This is disproved 1. Thessal 4.17 which place is handled at large The rapture of the godly is sine media morte without death The resurrection is of all together The righteous prevent not the