dead So that we may shut up this point with this perclose and with a distinction out of Peter Martyr from S. Augustine Death is so termed either properly or improperly compleatly or incompleatly If you take death properly and compleatly for that separation of the soul which cannot admit an other conjunction or union with the bodie till the generall resurrection then no man ever died but once or was come ad plenam mortem to that prefixed period and last houre of life but their former death was onely improper preparatorie and abortive Now if you take death improperly and incompleatly for any manner of true separation which indeed is the commonest acception a man may die twice and divers have died twice yea all they that ever were raised in the Old and New Testament except our Saviour onely who cooperated to his own resurrection all they and every of them died the second time 6. f Paucorum praerogativa non officit legi Naturae ut aliquoties monet Origines The priviledge of a few checketh not offendeth not the law of nature as Origen observeth more then once saith Erasmus on the 1. Thessal 4. or in Hieroms phrase g Singulorum privilegia legem efficere non possunt The prerogatives of singular men establish not a law or in the way of Augustine h Privilegium paucorum universali legi non derogat The priviledge of a few doth not derogate from the generall law Though it be ordinarily appointed for all men once to die yet extraordinarily some may not die at all and some must die twice For i Potens est Deus cum statuto communi dispensare God may and can dispense with a common statute of his own saith Holcot on Wisdome the 2. His hands are free who hath manicled the whole world by his laws he is not tied by Stoicall fatall necessitie who is Agens liberrimum a most voluntarie free agent HOly holy holy Lord God of Hosts I humbly implore thy favourable protection strengthen me O gracious God against all mine enemies bodily and ghostly and when I have by thy power fought a good fight when I have finished my course take me I beseech thee from being a member of thy Church militant in this Jerusalem below to be partaker of blessednesse with thy Church triumphant in Jerusalem above the Mother of us all which petition I earnestly present unto thy Sacred Majestie in the name and mediation of my onely Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. XIX 1. Strange conceits concerning Nero from Suetonius Tacitus Hierom Augustine Nero supposed to be Antichrist 2. An other incredible relation of the Armenian who is said to have lived at Christs passion The Armenians have their holy frauds AS I began with two or three strange histories having some relation to the propounded question so I hold it not amisse to end with two or three which shall give some light to some other parts of this question or at least by their strangenesse shall afford delight though I end in a fable Suetonius in Nerone cap. 27. toward the end thus historifieth a Non defuerunt quì per longum tempus vernis aestivÃsque floribus tumulum Neronis ornarent ac modò imagines praetextatas in rostris proferrent modò edicta quasi viventis magno inimicorum malo reversuri Denique cùm post viginti annos adolescente me extitisset conditionis incertae qui se Neronem esse jactaret tam favorabile nomen ejus apud Parthos fuit ut vebementer adjutus vix redditus sit There were some who for a long time did deck the tombe of Nero with flowers both of the spring and summer and sometimes did bring his statues and resemblances adorned with long purple imbroydered robes into the pleading places now and then they would proclaim his Edicts as if he had been alive and would shortly return to the damage of his enemies To conclude After twentie yeares when I was but a youth when there appeared on the stage an odde fellow who bragged that he was Nero so great respect was shewed to his name and credit that he had great helps and aids and with much ado was delivered up So farre Suetonius Tacitus also Histor 2. reports that many did beleeve Nero did live long after he was dead S. Hierom to Algasia de undecim quaest quaest ultimâ makes Nero a fore-runner of Antichrist and he gives this sense to these words 2. Thess 2.7 b Jâ—m mysterium operatur miquitatis Multis malit peccatis quibus Nero impurissimus Caesarum mundum premit Antichristi parturitur adventus c. NOW THE MYSTERIE OF INIQUITIE WORKETH By those many harms and sinnes saith he by which Nero the worst of all the Cesars oppresseth the world Antichrists coming is breeding and readie to come to light and what Antichrist shall do hereafter Nero now in part accomplisheth S. Augustine his relation goeth one step further c Nonnulli illum resurrecturum futurum Antichristum suspicantur c. de Civit. 20.19 Some do suspect and imagine saith he that Nero shall rise again and be Antichrist Others think that Nero was not slain but was withdrawn when they thought he was murdered and that he lieth hid living in the vigour of that age wherein he was when they thought he was slain Which storie when I read it recalled to my minde a more uncouth relation of an other dive-dopper And this it is 2. In Matthew Paris on the eleventh yeare of Henry the third anno Christi 1228. in his greater historie printed at London pag. 470. it is said That an Arch-bishop of Armenia came into England in pilgrimage was entertained at S. Albans Abby Being there asked touching that Joseph of whom there was a common speech that he was present when Christ suffered and spake with him and that he yet liveth as a firm proof of the Christian faith the Arch-bishop answered That he knew Joseph well and the Antiochian who was the interpreter to the Arch-bishop told the whole storie thus to Henry Spigurnel his acquaintance and the Abbots servant That before the Arch-bishop came out of Armenia Joseph used to be at his table that at the Passion when Christ was haled from before Pilate to the crosse the said Joseph then called Cartaphilus being usher of the Court did most scornfully punch Christ on the back as he went out of the doore and mocking said Go faster Jesus Go Why stayest thou But Christ looking back with a stern eye and countenance on him said I go indeed but thou shalt expect or stay till I come As if he had said The Sonne of Man goeth indeed as it is written of him and must be crucified and die and shall live again but thou shalt abide and not die till my second coming It is further added that this Cartaphilus was at the time of Christs death about thirty yeares old and so often as he cometh to
death and therefore he is exempted out of the compasse of that word All by speciall dispensation and onely Abel Noah Abraham are the All there meant Secondly saith Drusius in his Preface It may be said the Apostle spake m De morte calamitatum agritudinum ut sententia sit Nè videret mortem hoc est ea incommoda quae mortâ—m comitari solent of calamities crosses and sicknesses which may be accounted as a death as if he had said Lest he might see death that is THE DISCOMMODITIES AND INCONVENIENCIES WHICH ACCOMPANY DEATH For who are continually sick are accounted as dead First I say this is a forced interpretation Enoch was translated lest he should see death that is lest he should be continually sick and that he might not feel the discommodities which accompany death Secondly that opinion leadeth Enoch to death but not the dolorous way to it which indeed rather beggeth the question then proveth any thing against me Lastly there is no circumstance inducing us to think that the Apostle by the word death aimed at the large and extended signification of it for calamities or sicknes Sure about Enoch his time there were no such notable calamities upon the Saints and the generations of the world were then strong and healthfull Thirdly saith Drusius in the same place It may be said Enoch died not because the Scripture when it mentioneth his rapture mentioneth not his death so the Jews say Jacob is not dead because the Scripture useth the word of EXPIRING not of DYING This is ridiculous for what is expiring but dying Genes 49.33 Jacob yeelded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people doth not either of these phrases do not both evince that he died Oh but the Jews say Jacob non est mortuus I am sure the Apostle Hebr. 11.21 speaking of Jacob saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he was dying he blessed his children or when he was a dying as it is in our last translation It evinceth he died within a while after And I am sure again that Christ Luke 20.37 from the testimonie of Moses proveth that Jacob died I am also sure that S. Stephen saith Act. 7.15 Jacob went down into Egypt and died Surely these crotchets of misbeleeving Jews should not have the least countenance against pregnant proofs both of the Old and New Testament Drusius yet inforceth this third answer thus The same Apostle saith of Melchisedech Heb. 7.3 HE WAS WITHOVT FATHER WITHOVT MOTHER WITHOVT DESCENT HAVING NEITHER BEGINNING OF DAYES NOR END OF LIFE Wherefore without doubt because in Scripture there is no mention of his parents and kindred of his birth or of his death I answer First If it be said of all whose progenitours issues kindreds birth and death are unrevealed in Scripture that they were without father mother descent having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life we should have many very many more Melchisedechs in those respects Demetrius the silversmith and Alexander the coppersmith and troups of the wicked Daniel Sidrach Misach and Abednego Nathanael and Joseph of Arimathea S. Mark and S. Luke and divers others For what mention is there of their parents their children their genealogies their birth-dayes or of their death-dayes in the sacred Writ Therefore these words may be said of Melchisedech without any reference at all to that reason and the words may not be said of others though the divine Scripture omitteth as much as it did of Melchisedech Secondly if we grant that it is in part the reason why he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a father c. yet it may be said also because no other record before S. Pauls time no sacred or profane Authour no tradition no book Apocryphall historified his parents or issue so farre as yet appeareth And because S. Paul who knew the names of Jannes and Jambres some such way or by revelation immediate and by no such way knew Melchisedechs pedegree he might say as he did Thirdly Erasmus saith Melchisedech came of obscure parents not worthy to be named Before him Eustatius Antiochenus said the same and perhaps it may be a reason why David called his Nephews Joab and Abishai the sonnes of Zeruiah 2. Samuel 19.22 for Zeruiah was Davids own sister 1. Chron. 2.16 and omitted their father for his unworthinesse yea the Divine historie where David is silent often mentioneth Joab and Abishai with the addition of their mothers name but alwayes omitteth the fathers name This I cannot think to be Melchisedechs case for being a King and so glorious a Priest both in one it is most unlikely that he had obscure and poore parents yet he might descend from cursed Cham as well as Christ from Moabitish Ruth or from Rahab the harlot of Canaan Fourthly the Jews say He was a bastard But it is sooner said then proved for never bastard attained as called by God to those two highest conjoyned titles of King and Priest Many men have thought him to be Noah and more to be Sem Noahs sonne as some Jews Lyra and Abulensis when indeed he can be neither n Quidam admodum stultè opinantur Sem esse Melchisedechum Vâ—rùm id impossibile est suprà enim cùm ejus genealogiam explicaremus patuit quòd nec Tharrae tempora assequi potuit Some very foolishly think that Sem was Melchisedech saith Procopius But that is impossible for when I set down his genealogie it appeareth that he lived not to the time of Terah or Thara Genesis 11.24 So he who hitteth the truth that Melchisedech was not Sem but is out in the genealogie for both Noah and Sem lived in Abrahams time See Cornelius à Lapide on the Hebrews and the learned Helvicus Noah saith Helvicus died the 57 yeare of Abraham and Sem out-lived Abraham That neither Noah nor Sem could be Melchisedech is demonstrable from Hebr. 7.6 Melchisedechs descent or pedegree is not counted saith the Apostle Hebr. 7. from Levi or Abraham or their Progenitours who came from Arphaxad the sonne of Sem the sonne of Noah Secondly both Noah and Sem and their genealogie and generations are perfectly and exactly set down but Melchisedech is without descent or pedegree or genealogie Hebr. 7.3 as undescribed say they Thirdly we know Sems father was Noah Noahs father was Lamech but Melchisedechs father is not known Fourthly Noah died Genes 9.29 and Sem lived not 603 yeares as it is apparent Genes 11.10 c. Helvicus maketh his death fall on his six hundredth yeare but there is no end known of Melchisedechs dayes Origen in likelihood fore-seeing the inconveniences accompanying the fore-recited and commonly received opinion inventeth a new trick That Melchisedech was an Angel After him ran Didymus But no Angel was ever a temporall earthly King no Angel was ever a Priest offering up bread and wine and receiving tithes or had an order of Priesthood annexed to any of them no Angel had ever pedigree from
of which hereafter and yet for all this dispensation it is truely said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not It Was appointed as having reference to what onely was past but It Is appointed It is a yoke that neither our fathers did nor we shall ever shake off and not onely labour and travell is an * Ecclus 40. ◠heavy yoke upon the sonnes of Adam but much more death Neither hath the worlds redeemer freed us from the stroke but from the curse of death for even hitherto * Pallida morsaequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres Horat. Carm. l. 1. O◠4. Pale death doth knock with equall power At th' poore mans doore and kingly tower The grave yet gapeth and though myriads of myriads have died before though Paracelsus promised immortality in this life and perhaps therefore was cut off in the prime of his yeares yet death is * Job 30.23 and 21.33 the house appointed for all living and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him Of the longest liver hath been said in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His life is past or as the Romanes when they were loth to say one was dead spake significantly to the sense yet mildly by this word Vixit Ecclus 14.17 He had his time he did sometimes live And it is the condition of all times THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The universall note or particle is not added It is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet sure it is included and so meant Not Christ himself the destroyer of death is exempted nor his thrice-blessed Mother nor fair Absalom nor strong Sampson nor wise Solomon nor craftie Achitophel It is appointed to all men and women no sex is freed no nation priviledged no age excepted If some few have been dispensed withall I will say with S. Augustine * Alii sunt humanarum limites rerum alia divinarum signa virtutum alià naturaliter alia miral iliter siunt Aug lib. de Cura pro mortuls gerenda cap. 16 Other are the bounds of humane things other the signes of divine power some things are done naturally and some miraculously We speak of the ordinarie course It is appointed for all men TO DIE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is a name of sundry significations and it is taken diversly for there is The last death by the losse of glory The death of the soul by the losse of grace The death of the body by the losse of the soul * Aug. De Civit. Dei lib. 13. cap. 12. If it be demanded saith S. Augustine what death God meaneth to our first parents Whether the death of the body or of the soul or of the whole man or that which is called THE SECOND DEATH we must Consitle si placet ingeniosum ejus Tractatum cap. 15. ejusdem libri saith he answer He threatneth all The death of the soul began immediately upon their eating and is evidenced by their hiding themselves and shame to be seen The death of the body presently seconded it Theod. in Gen. quaest 38. it suddenly becomes mortall saith Theodoret The sentence of mortality GOD called death in Symmachus his exposition For after the divine sentence every day that I may so speak he looked for death as it is in the same Theodoret. As we now expect the resurrection and life eternall every moment so Adam every minute looked for death I am sure he deserved it Peter Martyr on 1. Cor. 13.12 Our first parents perished * Primi parentes quum transgressi sunt illico periêre quoniam mors nequaquam alia censenda quà m recessus à vita nec vitam habemus citra Deum Quare mortui sunt quia à Deo recesserunt eorum anima non fuit à corpore avulsa sed in eo quodammodo sepulta in praesentia non vitam sed mortem vivimus so soon as they transgressed because no other death is to be imagined but a departure from life and we have no life out of God Therefore they died because they departed from God and their soul was not snatcht away from their bodie but in a manner buried in it For the present our life is not a life but a death Of the bodily death onely are the words of my Text to be understood being a prime commentarie on Genes 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return It is appointed for men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Once to die * Quod casus in diabolo id in homine mors What fall is in the devil that death is in man They fell but once we die but once We must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again 2. Sam. 14.14 Waters once spilt embrace the dust and are not gathered up again nor can be spilt again Christ tasted death for every man Hebr. 2.9 As Christ being once dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 so is it regularly and ordinarily with all other one corporall death sufficeth It is appointed unto men ONCE to die 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But after this the judgement Let me speak of the words severally and then in a lump or masse together That these articles Post tum mox modò After then anon presently and the like are taken at large for some yeares before or after you may see it proved in * Alb. Gent. disput ad 1. lib. Maccab. cap. 3. Al bericus Gentilis The Scripture thus Genes 38.1 At that time But it was ten yeares saith Tremellius Exod. 2.11 It came to passe in those dayes and he meaneth fourty yeares Matt. 3.1 In those dayes that is twenty and five yeares after Luke 23.43 To day is taken for presently Aretius hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon that or presently after that And questionles that is the meaning for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After may be interpreted long-after as the word proximus contrarilie doth not enforce necessarily a nearenes Proximus huic longo sed proximus intervallo said Virgil excellently He was next but a great distance between yet in the holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that doth most times rather intimate the procedure and order of things done then intend a large intercedencie of time John 19.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After that Jesus saith I thirst you must not understand it long after not yeares moneths weeks dayes or houres after that for our Saviour hung upon the crosse not above foure houres and many things were said and done before this So in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not evidently inferre a spacious distance of time but by the words after that we may say is meant not long after but presently or thereupon judgement cometh after death Which I the more confidently do so interpret because I know no place in the divine Writ where
its death and also to his future and more happie life which should never have end I summe up all with Augustines words * Cibus aderat nè Adam esuriret potus nè sitiret lignum vitae nè illum senecta dissolveret nullus intrinsecus morbus nullus ictus metucbatur extrinsecus De Civit. 14.20 There was meat lest Adam should hunger drink lest he should thirst a tree of life lest old age should dissolve him no inward disease no outward blow was feared A new Quaere may be made Whether if Adam after his sin had eaten of the tree life his posteritie as well as himself had lived for ever My answer setleth on the negative because Adams action had been personall not representative or ideall and his posteritie was neither to answer for his second sinne or after-offences nor to have received any benefit by his good deeds succeeding his fall but he stood alone for us and we were in him onely as he had power to keep or break the first commandement And now am I come to the second Topick place by which I undertook to prove that Adams body had been immortall if he had not sinned and that is Authoritie 5. Not S. Augustine alone but a whole Councell where he was present to wit the Milevitan Councell is strong on our side * Quicunque dixerit Adam primum hominem mortalem factum it à ut sive peccaret sive non peccaret moreretur in corpore hoe est de corpore exiret non peccati merito sed necessitate naturae Anathema sit Whosoever shall say that the first man Adam was made mortall so that whether he had sinned or no he should have died in body that is gone out of the body not for the desert of sinne but by the necessitie of nature let him be accursed And this curse fell heavy upon the Pelagians who did think that Adam should have died though he had not sinned for so they held saith * Lib. de Haeresibus cap. 88. Augustine Cajetan thus * In 1. Cor. 15.53 In the state of innocencie Adam had a corruptible body in regard of the flux of naturall moisture but not mortall Richeomus a Jesuit saith * In statu innocentiae Adam corpus habebat corruptibile quantum ad fluxum humidi naturalis sed non mortale If man was created mortall those threatnings where by God did denounce death unto him were unprofitable for Adam might have answered I know well enough that I shall die although I neither taste nor touch the tree of knowledge of good evill And again God in the production of every one of his works kept an exact and most beautifull symmetry between the matter and the form the body and the soul and such a symmetrie as was most fit and accommodate to * Si komo mortalis creatus fuit inutiles crant illae minae quibus ' Deus mortem illi intendebat poterat namque respondere c. In Valedictione animae devotae Colloq 32. obtain the end of everie creature furnishing the matter with qualities and instruments most apt and pliable to serve the vertues and faculties of the form Therefore the soul of man being immortall and the faculties and operations proportioned to the essence the body also then must needs be immortall Item In every good marriage two things are observed at least the qualities of the parties and their age Therefore unto the soul which is free from the tyranny of death God married the body which was free also from the grave-clothes and bands of death Death is the brood of sinne saith Julianus Pomerius Adam was so created * Colloq 34. that having discharged his duty of obedience without the intervention of death he should have been followed of Angelicall immortality and blessed eternity He had immortalitie * Etiam ipsam nobis corporis mortem non lege naturae sed merito inflictam esse peccati De Civit. Dei 13.15 yet changeable not Angelicall and eternall As I began with S. Augustine so with him will I end It is a constat among Christians holding the Catholick Faith * Adâ—ujusque creaturae finem consequendum that even the death of the body hath been inflicted upon us not by the law of nature but by the desert of sinne * Peccatum est pater mertis Otherwhere he saith * Colloq 35. Sinne is the father of death Again * Vt perfunctus obedientiae munere sine interventu mortis Angelica eum immortalitas aeteinitas sequeretur beata If Adam had not sinned he was not to be stripped of his body but clothed upon with immortalitie that mortalitie might be swallowed up of life that is that he might passe from a naturall to a spiritual estate from an earthly to an heavenly from a mortal to an immortall as I truly interpret his meaning For he taketh not Mortall for that which must die And Again * Si non peccâsset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immertalitate ut absorberetur mortale à vita id est ab animali ad spirituale transiret à terreuo ad coeleste à mortali ad immortale De peccat Merit Remis l. 1. cap. 2. It was not to be feared if Adam had lived longer that he should have been troubled with age or death For if God was so gracious to the Israëlites that for fourty yeares their clothes waxed not old upon them nor their shoes waxed old upon their feet Deutero 29.5 what marvell were it if God granted to obedient Adam * Ibid. cap. 3. that having a naturall and mortall body he should have in it some state and condition that he might be old without imperfection and at what time it pleased God he should come from mortalitie to immortalitie * Vt animale ac mortale habens corpus haberet in eo quendam statum without passing through death Where though S. Augustine seemes to say Adam had a mortall body and should have passed from mortalitie yet he taketh Mortale for all one with Animale and opposeth it to Spirituale So that I confesse Adam in Paradise had not a spirituall body not such a bodie as he and we shall have after the Resurrection And thus the body which he had may be called Animale or Mortale and yet S. Augustine with us and we with him acknowledge this truth that the body of Adam could not have died if he had not sinned and in that regard Adams body may be justly termed immortall not with reference to that heavenly and spirituall bodie which he shall have hereafter but immortall therefore because except for sinne his body as it was was free from death And the same Augustine hath a whole Chapter intituled thus * Sine media morte Against the doctrines of those that beleeve not that the first men had been immortall if they had not sinned Among such a
desideramus or volumus for so must the Apostle be interpreted as appeareth vers 2 We grone earnestly desiring to be clothed upon Tertullian saith * Quiâ—uon desiderat adhuc in carne superinduere immortalitatem continuare vitam lucrifactam mortis vicariâ denuntiatione De Resur carnis Who desireth not being yet in the flesh to be clothed upon with immortalitie and to continue his life gained by a substituted denunciation of death Can so blessed a change be painfull or can we naturally desire pain shall we grone and grone earnestly that we may have pain Hierome in his Epistle to Minerius and Alexander saith thus of the word Rapiemur * Hoc verbo estendi puto subitum ad meliora transcensum ideirco raptum se voluisse dicere vt velocitas transcuntis sensum cogitantis excederet I think that this word sheweth a sudden passage to a better place and that he said he was caught up to signifie that his passing was swifter then his thinking not as if it were painfull to be taken as I imagine S. Paul speaketh of this translation and change as a matter worthie of thanks unto God 1. Corinth 15.51 c. Onely death of all other wayes by which God useth to call mankinde to glorie death onely is painfull Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me God loosed the pains of death Act. 2.24 and Hebr. 2.15 Some through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage And indeed this pain of death is part of the curse denounced But of this point more hereafter And thus do I make my approach towards it 2. * Aug. De. peccat Merit Remis 1.16 Augustine saith When disobedient Adam sinned then did his body lose the grace of being obedient to his soul Then arose that bestiall motion to be ashamed of by men which he blusht at in his nakednes Then also by a certain sicknes taken by a sudden and contagious corruption it came to passe that the stabilitie of age being lost in which they were created by the changes of ages they made a progresse to death For though they lived many yeares after yet they began to die the same day when they received the law of death by which they were to grow old For whatsoever by a continuall change and degrees runneth unto an end not perfecting or consummating stands not a moment but decayes without intermission Thus was fulfilled what God said Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die So he Let me adde my conjecture First if God had not called Adam and Eve so sensibly to an account yet had they died by vertue of the former sentence For the later sentence inflicts not death which was then entred on them but labour and pain In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life Genes 3.17 And though it be said vers 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Yet this is but an explication of the former sentence shewing that the manner of the death shall be by incineration which was not so exactly speciallized before Secondly the same instant that Adam had eaten I make no doubt but both their eyes were opened and they knew their nakednes which was the first sensible degree towards death and corruption For though the Scripture doth not say expressely Immediately their eyes were opened yet it implieth so much as may appeare by the implicative particle and Genes 3.6 c. Eve did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat and the eyes of them both were opened c. S. Augustine thus * Quomodo corpus nostrum dicit Apostolus mortuum Rom 8.10 cùm adhuc de viventibus loqueretur nisi quia jam ipsa conditio moriendi ex peccato parentum haesit in prole De Gen. ad lit 6.26 How doth the Apostle say that our body is dead Rom. 8.10 when he speaks of the living but because the condition of dying arising from the sinne of the parents sticks to the posteritie So we also die or are dying the first houre of our being And again * Corpus mortuum est propter peccatum Nec ibi ait Mortale sed Mortuum quamvis vtique mortale quia moriturum mox vbi praeceptum transgressi sunt ecrum membris velut aliqua aegritudo lethalis mors ipsa concepta est Quid enimaliud non dicam nati sed omnino concepti nisi aegritudinem quandam inchoavimus quâ sumus sine dubis morituri Ibid. 9 10 The body is dead because of sinne He saith not there It is mortall but dead albeit it is truely mortall because it shall die So soon as they transgressed the commandment death like some deadly disease was conceived in their members For as soon as we were I will not say born but even conceived what did weels but begin a certain sicknes by which we shall undoubtedly die IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH and now non vitam vivimus sed mortem which was toucht at before and must be handled again God who drew light out of darknes yea all things out of the unformed TOHV-BOHV and that masse or rude lump out of nothing is so good a God and so divine a goodnes that he would never have suffered sinne in this world but that he knew how to extract good out of evill and to turn mans sinne to his benefit Neither would he have permitted death to enter upon man but that he knew how to use the sting of death to mans greater happines and how to bring forth meat out of the eater and sweetnes out of the strong Judg. 14.14 As of the vipers flesh is made a preservative against the poison of the viper so from this bitter cup of death ariseth health joy and salvation to mankinde * Aug. De Civit. Dei 9.10 Augustine hath a witty collection from Plato and his follower Plotinus Plato in Timaeo writeth * Hominum animos mortalibus vinculis esse à dâ—is minoribus illigatos that the spirits of men are tied with mortall bands by the lesser gods So Vives on the place citeth Plato but Plotinus in lib. de dubijs Animae as he is also cited by Vives on that place of Augustine thus * Jupiter Pater laborantaâ— animas misâ—ratus earum vincula quibus laborant solubilia fabriâ—avit Father Jupiter having compassion of the afflicted souls hath made their bands soluble wherewith they are wearied These quotations at large give light to S. Augustines meaning which is subobscure for he saith * Plotinus Platenem prae caeteris intellexisse laudatur Is cùm de humanis animis ageret Pater in â—uit misericors mortalia illis vincula saciebat Plotinus is commended for having understood Plato above the rest He treating
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
7.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totum hominem sanum feci I made a man every whit whole Healed a man wholly say the Rhemists Perhaps I may adde that Christ never healed the body of any but he healed his soul likewise at least for the instant time I am sure Chrysostom Augustine and Beda to this purpose say The same man was healed by Christ Joh. 5.14 Qui foris ab infirmitate ipse etiam intus salvavit à scelere He saved the man from outward infirmitie and inward sinne He healed as I may comment on the words his body at the pool of Bethesda his soul in the Temple Christ himself said Totum hominem sanum feci I have healed the whole man and Beza on Joh. 7.23 saith He was healed both soul and body Corporaliter spiritualiter Both bodily and ghostly saith Hugo Cardinalis Even he who was impotent and had an infirmity thirty eight yeares upon Christs command immediately was made whole and took up his bed and walked Joh. 5.9 and immediately upon Christs word the blinde received his sight Mark 10.52 the deaf and ill-speaking man after Christ had said EPHPHATHA his eares were straightway opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain Mark 7.35 The fever immediately left Simons wives mother after Christ took her by the hand and lift her up and she ministred unto them Mark 1.31 Christ left no relique of any old disease and whom he healed of any one infirmitie we never read that he complained of any other So though Lazarus before his death was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Languens longâ infirmitate fractus actu aegrotus Pining feeble sick saith Salmeron yet was he immediately and perfectly cured and as I imagine he was upon his resuscitation not onely in latitudine sanitatis Void of all weaknesse so that no part was sick or mis-affected by any dyscrasie but in perfectione salutis In full compleat health and had obtained by Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The height and fulnesse of health a constant setled habituall soundnesse in each part of his body For as art is but the ape of nature and naturall things are farre more absolute and perfect then artificiall so things miraculous as much exceed things naturall in perfection So that no naturall crasis no temper or temperature no health is so pure and exact as that which is wrought immediately by a divine finger In the vigour and strength whereof Lazarus might have lived as Adam and Eve did a long time 6. What do I speak of likelihoods or possibilities when we have good Authours which give us more light concerning Lazarus his life and concerning his death There is a manuscript of the English historie in the Vatican at Rome testifying That about the 35 yeare of Christ saith Baronius on the same yeare Lazarus Marie Magdalene and Martha with Marcella their waiting-woman with Maximinus their disciple with Joseph of Arimathea their companion e Imponebantur navi absque remigio were put into a little sciph or great boat without oares or fit tackling and so were in great danger at the sea but by Gods providence f Massiliam appulerunt they arrived at Marsillis a citie of Provance in France Tostatus upon 1. King 17. saith Lazarus was a Bishop and an holy Martyr Epiphanius in the catalogue of Manichaeus his assertions saith he hath it by tradition that Lazarus was thirty yeares old when he was raised up and that he lived afterward other thirty yeares See the same Epiphanius Haeres 66. Gregory the great Dialog lib. 4.28 addeth that Lazarus never laught after he was raised and he did so tame himself with fastings watchings and labours that his very conversation did seem to speak though he held his tongue that he had seen the infernall torments So farre Gregorie Yet under his correction he might as well and as much bring his bodie under and flee from the verie inclination to sinne because he had tasted of the joyes celestiall and peace unconceiveable Thus have you the life and death of Lazarus O Thou who art the Resurrection and the Life quicken me with thy Spirit lead me by thy grace and crown me with thy glory for thy tender mercy O my sweet Saviour my joy and delight the life of my soul my Mediatour and Advocate Jesu Christ Amen CHAP. IIII. 1. Tabitha died again 2. So did Eutychus 3. They who were raised about the Passion of Christ died not again as many ancient and late Writers do imagine Mr. Montague is more reserved 1. NOw am I come to speak of those who after Christs ascension were raised For though in his life time none of Christs inwardest disciples or friends raised any as Elisha's servant could not raise the Shunammites sonne but Elisha himself must do it and did it 2. King 4.31 c. And Elisha himself raised none while his master Elijah lived but Elijah himself did it 1. King 17.22 yet after Christs ascension by his power communicated to them the beleever shall do the works that I do and greater works then these shall he do saith Christ Joh. 14.12 One was raised by S. Peter an other by S. Paul You shall finde the first Act. 9.40 When Peter had kneeled and prayed and turned him to Tabitha her body and said Tabitha arise she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up Yet was she dead before and washt and laid in an upper chamber vers 37. 2. And for the other the storie is this Act. 20.9 As Paul was long preaching Eutychus sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead perchance broken in some parts of his bodie bruised certainly him S. Paul raised and they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted vers 12. Of these two as well as of the rest there is no doubt but that they lived again again to die So thinks Aquinas 3. part Summ. Quaest 53. Artic. 3. and the whole School following him agree with us in this So Suarez Lorinus who not Take one of the ancients for all Cyprian reckoneth up those who were raised in the Old Testament and others raised by Christs command and saith of these h Aliquo tempore beneficio vitae usi iterum ad funera rediêre Pag. 523. de Resur Christi paragr 8. They lived a while and died again and a little before of them in the Old Testament i Ad mortem quam gustaverunt iterum redierunt They tasted of death the second time And therefore it needs the lesse proof because none denieth it and the contrary needeth the lesse disproof because none hath averred it 3. Now it is time to come to the third and last part of my main first division and to speak of them who arose about the time that Christ died for of them there is a deep and intricate question and the historie of them is set down at large
some think that Joseph lived after Christs resurrection and yet others say he died the twelfth yeare of Christs age to whom Baronius rather inclineth a Ad annum Christi 12. Joseph being very aged about 80 yeares old when he was espoused to the holiest Virgin as Epiphanius and others do guesse For my part I embrace the mean and tread in the middle path Neither thinking that Joseph died the 12 yeare for when Christ was twelve yeares old Joseph went up to Jerusalem Luk 2.42 and after Christs descent to Nazareth Christ was obedient to Joseph and the all-garacious Virgin vers 51. therefore Joseph could not be dead in the twelfth yeare of Christ which the learned Baronius did supinely and sluggishly passe over and not observe Nor yet do I imagine on the other side that he lived beyond Christs resurrection or till his death since there is frequent mention of Christs Apostles of his holy mother and of his cousins and friends men and women yea of strangers and no mention nor intimation at all See Salianus in his Annals in annum mundi 4065 at large on this point that Joseph lived till Christ began publickly to preach and do miracles much lesse after his death So upon my supposall that he died between the thirteenth yeare of Christ and the twentie ninth Joseph might very well be one of those who were raised at that time and with him perhaps divers whom Christ had healed or to whom he had preached if they died before and many others with whom Christ conversed till he was thirty yeares old 4. And all these did prove and confirm unto the incredulous or wavering Saints their friends or kindred yea and to the very beleevers also the truth of Christs doctrine of his death of his resurrection appearing not promiscuously to Grecians or to Romans not to all no not to all the Jews but to many but to fit persons saith the Interlinearie Glosse whether Jews Grecians or Romans then residing at Jerusalem to such as knew them in their lives and at their deaths This conjecture may passe the more plausibly if we consider that Christ himself appeared not to all indifferently but onely to some and to some oftner times then to others yet no where is said to have shewed himself to any but onely to his followers and Disciples And as the Apostles were confirmed by Christs holy conference so might many other then living beleeve or the rather beleeve the Gospel of Christ upon proof made by the new raised in many particulars strengthning their faith They arose b Vt Dominum ostenderent resurgentem To shew that Christ was raised saith S. Hierom on Matth. 27. c Cum eo debebant resurgere ut ipsum ostenderent resurrexisse They ought to rise with Christ that they might shew he was risen saith Ludolphus the Carthusian That d Debebant they ought savoureth of presumption Dionysius the Carthusian hath more moderate terms he on the place saith They did testifie that Jesus was the Christ that he was truely risen and had destroyed hell Hierom Tom. 3. fol. 50. in his answer to the eighth question of Hedibia thus e Non omnibus apparuerunt sed multis qui resurgentem Dominum susceperunt They appeared not to all but to many who received our Lord risen from the dead And yet let me superadde by his leave If they had appeared to the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who received Christ I cannot think they would have concealed it 5. Among my other diversions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or winde-abouts let this be one occasionally arising from the odde position which Estius hath in 1. Cor. 7.39 f Rectè ex Apostoli verbis inferunt Aquinas carthusianus Non teneri mulierem ad recipiendum virum de morte resuscitatum Aquin and Carthusian conclude rightly saith he from the Apostle that a woman is not bound to receive her husband newly raised nor may she enjoy him without a new contract What if I answer That a woman is tied to her husband as long as he liveth but he liveth afterward though he had been dead and when the Apostle speaketh of death he speaketh of a compleat death not susceptible in this world of another life For he opposeth the dead man to the living as if one could not be dead and then living but first living and then dead for ever till the generall resurrection Suppose we Lazarus was married had not his wife been his lawfull wife bound to him by their first agreement even after his resurrection I doubt it not Yet this might be the case of some of the many who were raised especially if they died but a while before But I confesse the case differeth and is more perplexed if the partie were dead and the dayes of mourning past and the woman married to another Yet even here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Father most gracious O Saviour most mercifull O holy Spirit most comfortable I humbly begge thy grace mercie and comfort to be shed forth upon me in this life that I may please thee in my vocation and do thy will and fulfill the businesse which thou hast appointed for me And leave not off I beseech thee to guide me by thine enabling counsel here till thou art readie to crown me with thy glorie in the life to come Amen Lord Jesu Amen CHAP. XV. 1. The raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ as is proved by Scripture and Reason Suarez his shallow answer Epiphanius strengthening my former positive conjectures 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles THat these raised Saints who bare witnesse of Christ setling many pendulous and doubting souls strengthening many followers and Disciples of our Saviour and perhaps converting some unbeleevers by teaching them that their expected Messiah was now come that he did live among them and had died for their sinnes and risen again for their justification That they I say after this office performed again deposited their bodies in the earth and ascended not corporally into heaven you may behold proved by this first reason drawn from Scripture For Christ is compared to the high Priest who alone entred the SANCTUM SANCTORUM Hebr. 9.7 It is true indeed that we enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus Heb. 10.19 but he onely * Hebr. 10.10 by a new and living way through the vail that is to say his flesh * Hebr. 9.12 entred in once into the holy place His entring differing from others entring and differing in this That with his bodie he entred others ascended not into heaven with him bodily Secondly if they had ascended into heaven following Christ their bodies must have been
Solomo Procopius Gazaeus Sophista in his Commentarie on the place thus o Si tum demum postquam genuit Methusalem placuit Deo Enoch certè antequam gigneret ut Scriptura docet non gratus acceptus erat Deo Quòd igitur amore complexus est eum Deus poenitentiae quam egit imputari debet If then at last Enoch pleased God after he had begot Methusalem certainly before he begat him as the Scripture saith God did not like him nor accept of him Therefore it is to be ascribed to Enochs repentance which he performed that God made so much of him and loved him Though Salianus saith of this testimonie that p Nescio quomodo animus aversatur his minde was against it yet there is no impossibilitie no nor improbabilitie in it and howsoever it be not apodicticall yet it is not inepta foolish as Salianus censureth it He addeth Perhaps Philo the Jew was of that opinion for in his book de Abrahamo speaking of repentance c. he bringeth Enoch in as an example And it seemeth saith he that he followed Jesus the sonne of Sirach in the words cited viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclefiastic 44.16 And though he slubbereth over the words and matter which are to him Canonicall and saith that The minde of the Scripture in that place is that Enoch shall be an exemplarie penitent not as David and Manasses Peter or Mary Magdalene but as John Baptist yet I answer First no Ancient ever said John Baptist was an example of repentance and did repent of any enormous sinnes but was alwayes holy and most austere preventing great sinnes rather then repenting and not so much bemoaning his own offences as dehorting other men and crying out against their iniquities with a charge almost inforcing them to repentance whilest himself shewed a signe of his being sanctified and illuminated even in his mothers wombe Secondly there is as much joy over a repentant and God is as much glorified for point of mercie in a Marie Magdalene or a Peter as in a Baptist or just man that needeth no repentance if not more Procopius Gazaeus who imagined the worst of Enochs former part of life till he begot Methuselah yet speaketh very good things before of Enoch thus God rested on the seventh day when he had made the world q Et nunc ille idem Deus generatione septimâ accipit ceu symbolum consummationis seculi Enochum ut primitias rationalis creaturae c. and now the same God in the seventh generation of the world assumeth as a signe of the ending of an age I say assumed Enoch as the first fruits of the reasonable creature He was out of Gods favour for a while but when he pleased God he was extraordinarily assumed Thus in effect Procopius which the Jesuit had not much cause to finde fault withall Let this suffice for the first question Whether Enoch were at any time a very wicked man The second question is Whether Enoch did ever die Divers Rabbins maintain that he did die So Rabbi Solomon on the fifth of Genesis Aben Ezra saith His death was sweet and he felt no pain which opinion the Jesuit Cornelius à Lapide ascribeth also to Calvin whether truely or falsely I enquire not but the matter giveth me the hint of an excursion Moses said from God Genes 6.3 Mans dayes shall be an hundred and twentie yeares and Moses himself died when he was 120 yeares old Deut. 34.7 David said The dayes of our yeares are threescore yeares and ten Psal 90.10 and he himself who prayed to God to teach him to number his dayes died the same yeare being the first lesser climactericall yeare after that great one of nine times seven that dangerous threescore and third yeare for He was thirtie yeares old when he began to reigne and he reigned fourty yeares 2. Sam. 5.4 Both these were most certain Prophets of their own deaths and perhaps had more especiall reference to their own times designing those yeares out in the more generall which were more appropriate to their own persons in particular Let me adde two heathen examples by way of imperfect parallels That most exquisite work of nature her glory pride and master-piece Julius Cesar preferred a swift and sudden death in his choice before any other kinde Suetonius in vita Julii Caesaris in fine thus of him r Quondam cùm apud Xenophontem legisset Cyrum ultimâ valetudine mandâsse quaedam de funere suo aspernatus tam lentum mortis genus subitam sibi celerémque optavit mortem pridie quà m occideretur in sermone nato super coenam apud M. Lepidum Quisnam esset vitae sinis commodissimus repentinum inopinatúmque praetulerat When Julius Cesar had sometime read in Xenophon that Cyrus in his last sicknesse ordered some things concerning his funerals he hating so lingring a death wished that himself might have a sudden and quick end Again the day before he was slain as he was at supper with Marcus Lepidus a question arising Which death was most commodious and to be wished for Cesar preferred a sudden unlooked for and unthought of end And sutable to his choice and desire in that respect did a sudden and unlooked for end befall him Likewise that wonder of Fortune that darling of terrene happinesse Augustus the successour unto the Dictatour ſ Fere quoties audîsset citò nullo cruciatu defunctum quempiam sibi suis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similem precabatur Almost as often as he had heard saith Suetonius in Augusto in fine that any one had died speedily without long pain or great torment he would pray that the like easie departure might befall himself and his friends And saith he t Sortitus est exitum similem qualem semper optaverat c. He died according as he alwayes desired parting as in a complement with his most familiar friends u Et repentè in osculis Liviae defecit and gave up the ghost amidst the kisses of Livia This storie hath brought my Miscellanie home to that point which the Rabbin said of Enoch That he died without pain The New Testament also is thought to afford us such an other example x De Joanne Evangelista dicitur quòd dolorem in moriendo non sensit It is said of John the Evangelist that he died without any pain saith Holcot on Wisd 2.5 and by that instance saith concerning those who rose about Christs resurrection y Non sequitur quòd si iterum moriehantur moriebantur cum poena vel sentirent etiam poenam It followeth not that if they died again they had or felt any painfull death But because of the strange opinions which are held concerning S. John the Apostle let me enlarge my discourse a little concerning him Melchior Canus Locor Theolog. 7.2 saith We may hold or deny z Salvâ fide without prejudice to our belief either that he
〈◊〉 is taken Ezechiel 24.16 t Ecce ego aufero 〈◊〉 te desiderium oculorum tuorum Behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes Salmanticensis Judaeus in lib. Johasin 98.2 saith u Mortuus est Rabbi Emmi quia rapuit eum mors Rabbi Emmi died for death snatched him away And so it is in the Latine phrases Rapio and Aufero what in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quis Deus Octavi te nobis abstulit te Raptum Romanam flebimus historiam What God Octavius Took the away from us We will bemoan the death of thee And of our Romane historie So farre Drusius in the preface to his book called Henoch But this is no good exposition since God took away by death all the rest of the Patriarchs as well as Enoch and yet it is most singularly spoken of Enoch He was not found for God took him By death saith the shallow Jew but our divine Apostle saith He was translated that he might not see death What Christian or rationall man will doubt but we are to incline to the Apostle Again the third answer brought by Drusius against his own opinion as himself professeth to prove that VIDERE MORTEM To see death doth not signifie to die a naturall death where there is a true separation of the soul from the bodie and that NON VIDERE MORTEM Not to see death on the contrary doth not signifie To be kept alive from death which I with Drusius do say was the true intent of the Apostle draweth to this head Enoch saw not death that is died not because the holy Scriptures where they make mention of his rapture mention not his death I answer If all were true yet it followeth not that Enoch is dead or shall die which is the point questioned Moreover if Enoch were dead or to die the wisdome of the Divine Inspirer would never have singled out such a phrase among so many other thousand as should leade men to think the clean contrary He was translated that he should not see death For there resteth the period If it had been meant he should die it would have been added He should not see death for a long time or He should not see death till toward the end of the world or the like But He was translated that he should not see death Therefore he shall never see death Suarez in tertiam partem summae quaest 59. artic 6. sect 1. saith directly S. Paul meaned that Enoch should not die in that place into which he was translated True But why should he die in any other place or indeed why should he die at all who above other men was rapted purposely That he might not see death Surely the deferring of death for a time is not so great a favour The exempting one wholly from death is a blessing above ordinary Again it is said of Enoch Genes 5.23 All his dayes were 365. where dayes are taken for yeares as otherwhere in Scripture But these are not all his dayes if either he remove from one place of the earth into an other which Salianus fondly imagined or live now in a mortall corruptible bodie It is said of our blessed Saviour Hebr. 5.7 He poured out prayers in the dayes of his flesh that is whilest he lived on earth the life of nature in an elementary terrene humane passive bodie And of some other Patriarchs All the dayes of them were such and such Genes 5.17 20 c. that is all the dayes while they breathed on the earth the breath of life in mortall bodies Therefore even from the very phrase concerning Enoch All his dayes were 365. we may inferre He lived not in a mortall bodie any longer on the earth He liveth not now any where in a mortall bodie Somewhat must I say also of Elias severally Rabbi Solomon on the 5 of Genes saith When Elijah was hurried up in a fiery chariot his bodie was burnt up of that fire and Other Jews agree with him saith x De Romano Pontifice 3 6. Bellarmine For my part I say I will not embrace an unlikelihood though it runne toward my opinion I think the cloke might have been burnt as well as his bodie and Elishah could not have escaped scorching when the fire parted them Again the ashes might have fallen as well as his mantle And the Jew would account it no great favour to be burnt alive That fire certainly was rather conservative then destructive not penal and consuming as the fire from heaven drawn down by Elias 2. Kings 1.12 not punitive and conserving as the fire of hell Everlasting Matth. 25.41 Vnquenchable Mark 9.43 but like the fierie furnace in which the three children sang Daniel 3.25 or the fire in the bush Exod. 3.3 harmlesse yea gracious or the fire at the consummation of the world which one calleth Ignem rationalem The phrase then 2. Kings 2.11 importeth no lesse Elijah went up by a whirlwinde into heaven Elijah All Elijah Whole Elijah Soul and bodie His soul had no need of a whirlwinde Elijah went up It is varied 1. Maccab. 2.58 He was taken up into heaven His rapture excluded not his willingnes his willingnes had been insufficient without his rapture his ascension being grounded on assumption the power being Gods not his or his passively and Gods actively If it be true what Bellarmine avoucheth That some other Jews agree with Rabbi Solomon in this that Elijah was burned Yet I am sure y Bibliotheâ—â— Sanctae lib. 2. pag. 65. Sixtus Senensis citeth the opinion of other Jews to the contrarie For they said that the length of time from the beginning of man till the end of the world hath been and shall be measured by the severall lives of seven men and that there was never houre from mans creation to the generall resurrection but some one of these seven men did or shall live in it Adam lived to see Methuselah Methuselah was alive in Sems time Sem died not till Jacob was born Jacob lived till Amram Moses his father was born Amram expired not till Ahijah the Shilonite lived Ahijah lived with Elijah Elijah shall live till the end of the world Therefore they thought Elijah was not burnt is not dead But first the Papists themselves say that Elijah shall be slain by Antichrist before the end of world Therefore this maketh not for them Secondly the Jews might have tucked up the time shorter on this fashion Adam lived in the dayes of Enoch and Enoch to the end of the world And so their number of seven might be reduced unto two But let us leave these Rabbinicall speculations concerning Elijah and say somewhat of him not as he was in a Paradise of phansie but as he was with our blessed Saviour on the mount at that glorious transfiguration And this I set down for certain No passage in the Gospels proveth demonstratively that his bodie was immortall It is true it is said of
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
representative is imputed to us 85 CHAP. VI. 1. ORiginall sinne is propagated unto us Originall sinne properly is not in the flesh before the union with the soul 90 2. Bishop Bilson Mollerus Kemnitius and Luther in an errour Bishop Bilsons arguments answered Conception taken strictly by Physicians c. We are not conceived in originall sinne if we respect this conception Conception taken largely by Divines Thus we were conceived in sinne 92 3. A Physicall Tractate of conception clearing the point 97 4. A Discourse touching aborsives and abortives Balthasar Bambach answered The Hebrew vowels not written at first when the consonants were Never any wrote till God had written the Two Tables 98 5. The manner how the soul contracteth originall sinne pointed at Bodily things may work upon the soul 103 6. Righteous men have unrighteous children The contagion of originall sinne is quickly spread 106 7. No sinne or sinnes of any of our parents immediate or mediate do hurt the souls of their children but onely one and that the first sinne of Adam 109 CHAP. VII 1. A Review of the last point Zanchius not against it Bucer and Martyr are but faint and rather negative then positive 112 2. Bucer and Martyr make the state of the question to be voluble not fixt and setled Their objections answered The place of Exodus 20.5 examined 113 3. S. Augustine appealed unto and defended 116 4. God justly may and doth punish with any temperall punishment any children like or unlike unto their parents for their parents personall sinnes 118 5. God doth and may justly punish some children eternally and all temporally for originall sinne whether they be like their parents in actuall aversion yea or no. 121 6. God justly punisheth even eternally wicked children if they resemble wicked parents ibid. 7. God oftentimes punisheth one sinne with another ibid. 8. The personall holinesse of the parent never conveyed grace or salvation to the sonne ibid. 9. God never punished eternally the reall iniquities of the fathers upon their children if the children were holy ibid. 10. No personall sinnes can be communicated The point handled at large against the errour of Bucer and Martyr 123 11. The arguments or authorities for my opinion The new Writers not to be overvalued Zanchius himself is against Bucer and Martyr 133 CHAP. VIII 1. ORiginall sinne came not by the law of Moses but was before it in the world 138 2. God hath good reason and justice to punish us for our originall sinne in Adam Gods actions defended by the like actions of men 139 3. Husbands represent their wives The men of Israel represented the women Concerning the first-born of men and beasts The primogeniture and redemption of the first-born 140 4. The whole bodie is punished for the murder committed by one hand Corporations represent whole cities and towns and Parliaments the bodie of the Realm Their acts binde the whole Kingdome Battelling champions and duellists ingage posteritie 144 5. S. Peter represented the Apostles The Apostles represent sometimes the Bishops sometimes the whole Clergie The Ministers of the Convocation represent the whole Church of England The authoritie of Generall Councels Nationall Synods must be obeyed 147 6. Private spirits censured Interpretation of Scripture not promiscuously permitted An Anabaptisticall woman displayed 149 7. Another woman reproved for her new-fangled book in print Scriptures not to be expounded by anagrams in Hebrew much lesse in English but with reverence How farre the people are to beleeve their Pastours 152 8. Saul represented an entire armie Joshua and the Princes binde the Kingdome of Israel for long time after 183 9. Christ represented us Christ and Adam like in some things in others unlike Christ did and doth more good for us then Adam did harm 184 The Contents of the second book CHAPTER I. Sect. 1. THe question propounded and explained Fol. 1. 2. Armenius or rather his sonne Zoroaster dead and revived ibid. 3. Antillus dead and living again because the messenger of death mistook him in stead of Nicandas Nicandas died in his stead 2 4. A carelesse Christian died and recovered life lived an Anchorite twelve yeares died religiously ibid. CHAP. II. 1. A Division of such as have been raised They all died 3 2. The widow of Zarephath her sonne raised yet died again supposed to be Jonas the Prophet The Shunammites sonne raised not to an eternall but to a temporary resurrection A good and a better resurrection 4 3. Christ the first who rose not to die again 5 4. The man raised in the sepulchre of Elisha arose not to immortalitie ibid. CHAP. III. 1. WHilest Christ lived none raised any dead save himself onely 6 2. The rulers daughter raised by Christ died again ibid. 3. So did the young man whom Christ recalled to life 7 4. Many miracles in that miracle of Lazarus his resurrection ibid. 5. Christ gave perfect health to those whom he healed or raised 8 6. Lazarus his holy life and his second death 9 CHAP. IIII. 1. TAbitha died again 9 2. So did Eutychus 10 3. They who were raised about the Passion of Christ died not again as many ancient and late Writers do imagine Mr. Montague is more reserved ibid. CHAP. V. 1. VVHo were supposed to be the Saints which were raised by such as maintain that they accompanied Christ into heaven 12 2. A strange storie out of the Gospel of the Nazarens ibid. 3. Adams soul was saved Adams bodie was raised about Christs Passion saith Pineda out of diverse Fathers Thus farre Pineda hath truth by him That the sepulchre of Adam was on mount Calvarie so say Athanasius Origen Cyprian Ambrose Basil Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustine Euthymius Anastasius Sinaita Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople ibid. 4. It was applauded in the Church in Hieromes time 13 5. Theophylact thought Adam buried in Calvarie Drusius unadvisedly taxeth the Fathers Tertullian consenteth with other Fathers and Nonnus who is defended against Heinsius 14 6. At Jerusalem they now shew the place where Adams head was found Moses Barcepha saith that Sem after the floud buried the head of Adam 17 7. The Romane storie of Tolus and Capitolium much resembling the storie of Adam ibid. CHAP. VI. 1. HIerom saith Adam was not buried on mount Calvarie Both Hierom Adrichomius and Zimenes say he was buried in Hebron Hierom censured for doubling in this point by Bellarmine 19 2. Hieroms arguments answered 20 3. The Originall defended against Hierom in Josh 14.15 ADAM there is not a proper name but an appellative Arba is there is a proper name of a man Adrichomius erreth in Kiriath-Arbee and the words signifie not Civitas quatuor virorum The citie of foure men New expositions of Kiriath-Arbee ibid. 4. It may signifie as well Civitas quatuor rerum The citie of foure things as Quatuor hominum Of foure men The memorable monuments about Hebron 22 5. It may be interpreted Civitas quadrata quadrilatera quadrimembris quadricollis A citie fouresquare of foure sides
Assumption most honoured among the Papists and yet there is monstrous disagreeing among them who favour her Assumption The last instances concern not our question ibid. 8. Pineda presumed too farre upon uncertainties Lorinus dareth not name any particularly that were raised It cannot be known certainly 136 CHAP. XIIII 1. MY conjecture that none of the Patriarchs or old Prophets were raised 137 2. An objection concerning Peters knowing of Moses and Elias on mount Tabor answered ibid. 3. A conjecture that the Saints who lived in Christs time and died before him were raised at his Passion Who they were in most likelihood When Joseph the reputed father of Christ did die 138 4. The end why they were raised To whom they appeared 139 5. A crotchet concerning the wives of dead men which have been raised 140 CHAP. XV. 1. THe raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ as is proved by Scripture and reason Suarez his shallow answer Epiphanius strengthening my former positive conjectures 141 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 142 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull ibid. 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 143 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles ibid. CHAP. XVI 1. ANgels taken for men Angels representing men are called men 144 2. The name JEHOVAH ascribed to an Angel representing JEHOVAH say Estius and Thyraeus Picking of faults in the Apocryphall Scriptures to be abhorred ibid. 3. Drusius his povertie The Apocrypha is too little esteemed The Angel who guided young Tobie defended 145 4. The great difference between Christs manner of rising and Lazarus his 146 CHAP. XVII 1. THe place of Matth. 27.53 is diversly pointed and according to the pointing is the diversitie of meaning The first implieth that the Saints arose with Christ though their graves were opened before This interpretation is not so likely though received generally 148 2. The second inferreth that they arose before Christ though they went not into the citie till after his resurrection This is favoured by the Syriack and is more agreeable to reason ibid. 3. That the raised Saints died again proved by reasons and Heb. 11.40 149 4. Christ the first-fruits of the dead and of the raised Angelicall assumed bodies were seen and heard much rather should mens bodies ascending with Christ 150 5. S. Augustine Aquinas Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Euthymius Prosper Soto Salmeron Barradius Pererius Valentian affirm that the raised Saints died again Franciscus Lucas Brugensis holds it likely 151 CHAP. XVIII 1. THe arguments of the contrarie opinion answered Suarez and especially Cajetan censured 152 2. That by the holy Citie Jerusalem below was meant proved at large Josephus and the Jews erring about the name of Jerusalem Hierom uncertain 154 3. How the raised appeared A difference between appearing as men And appearing as newly raised men Franciscus Lucas Brugensis rejected 156 4. An argument of Maldonat answered by the prodigious Legend of Christina who died twice No hurt is to man if God will send his soul from an heavenly place to live a while on earth again 157 5. No harm to die twice The difference between death compleat and incompleat 159 6. God can dispense with his own laws 160 CHAP. XIX 1. STrange conceits concerning Nero from Suetonius Tacitus Hierom Augustine Nero supposed to be Antichrist 161 2. Another incredible relation of the Armenian who is said to have lived at Christs passion The Armenians have their holy frauds ibid. The Contents of the third book CHAPTER I. Sect. 1. MAny Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 165 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 166 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 169 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death ibid. CHAP. II. 1. THe third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 173 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 174 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 178 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think Enoch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 180 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truely The materiall remaineth not the formall Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 194 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transfiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies
in heaven The place of Revel 11.7 concerning the two Witnesses winnowed by Bishop Andrews Enoch and Elias are not those two witnesses 200 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 wicked in that 224 2. By the words of the Creed is proved that some shall never die The same is confirmed by other places of Scripture with the consent of S. Augustine and Cajetan The definitions Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum of the sentences and tenents of the Church leave the words doubtfully Rabanus his exposition rejected 227 3. The place of S. Paul 2. Corinth 5.4 evinceth That some shall not die Cajetan with us and against Aquinas Doctour Estius and Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit approve Cajetan S. Augustine is on our side and evinceth it by Adams estate before the fall which state Bellarmine denieth not Salmerons objections answered 228 4. Some shall be exempted from death as is manifested 1. Corinth 15.51 The place fully explicated The common Greek copies preferred The Greek reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall not all sleep standeth with all truth conveniencie probabilitie and sense The other Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall therefore all of us sleep and the more different Vulgat Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur Indeed we shall all arise but we shall not all be changed justly exploded as adverse to sense 230 5. The Pelagians though accursed hereticks yet held truely That some shall not die S. Augustine dubious Others stick in his hesitancie Yet other Fathers and late Writers are constant That some shall be priviledged from death yet that change may be called a kinde of death 235 FINIS A Catalogue of the severall Authours quoted in these three books of MISCELLANIES A ABen Ezra Abraham de Balmis Abulensis Adrichomius Cornelius Agrippa Albericus Gentilis Albertus Magnus Alchabitius Alexander ab Alexandro Ambrosius Bishop Andrews Anselmus Apollinaris Appianus Alexandrinus Aquila Aquinas Petronius Arbiter Arboreus Franciscus Aretinus Aretius Arias Montanus Aristoteles Athanasius Avenarius Augustinus B BAlthasar Bambach Moses Bar Cepha Baronius Barradius Basilius Beda Bellarminus Bernardus Bertram Beza Bilson Boëtius Bolducus Bonaventura Bosquier Brentius Broughton Lucas Brugensis Bucer Bullinger Busaeus C Coelius secundus Curio Caesaris commentaria Cajetanus Calvinus Melchior Canus Carafa Carthusianus Casaubonus Cassander Cassiodorus Catharinus Centuriatores Cevallerius Chaldee Targum Christopher Castrensis Chrysostomus Cicero Clemens Romanus Clemens Alexandrinus Joannes Climachus Philip de Comines Concilium Elibertinum Concilium Milevetanum Franciscus Collius Coverdale Cusanus Cyprianus Cyrillus Alexandrinus D DAmianus à Goës Rabbi David Del Rio. Demosthenes Petrus Diaconus Didymus Dionysius Areopagita Dorotheus Drusius Andreas Dudithius Durandus E ELias Levita Epimenides Epiphanius Erasmus Espencaeus Estius Eugubinus Eusebius Eustathius Antiochenus Euthymius F FAber Stapulensis Felisius Fernelius Ferus Festus Feuardentius Dr. Field Dr. Fox Fulgentius Dr. Fulk G GAgneius Galenus Gasparus Sanctius Genebrardus Gerson Gorranus Gregorius Greg. Nyssenus Greg. de Valentia Gretser H HAlensis Haymo Heinsius Helvicus Hermogenes Hieronymus Hilarius Hippocrates Hippolytus Holcot Homerus Horatius Hugo Cardinalis Hugo Eterianus I JAcobus de Valentia K. James Jansenius Ignatius Illyricus Irenaeus Isidorus Isidorus Pelusiota Josephus Justinus Benedictus Justinianus K KEmnitius Kimchi L LAertius Cornelius à Lapide Laurentii historia Anatomica Joannes Leo. Rabbi Levi. Libavius Livius Lombardus Lorinus Ludolphus Carthusianus Ludovicus de Ponte vallis Oletani Ludovicus Vives Lutherus Lyranus M MAjoranus Maldonatus Marianus Scotus Marsilius Andreasius Martin Marre-prelate Martinus Cantipretensis Justin Martyr Masius Matthew Paris Melchior Flavius Rabbi Menachem Mercer Minshew Mollerus Bishop Mountague Lord Michael de Montaigne Montanus Peter Morales Mr. Fines Morison Rabbi Moses Peter Moulin Muncer Musculus N HIer. Natalis Nazianzenus Nicephorus Nicetas Nonnus O OCkam Oecolampadius Oecumenius Jofrancus Offusius Olympiodorus Origenes P PAcianus Pagninus Paracelsus Paulinus Pererius Peter Martyr Petrus Pomponatius Philo Judaeus Photius Pighius Pineda Plato Plinius Plotinus Plutarchus Polybius Julianus Pomerius Porphyrius Postellus Primasius Procopius Gazaeus Propertius Prosper Ptolomeus R Dr. Raynolds Ribera Richeomus Jesuita Rodulphus Cluniacensis Monachus Rosinus Ruffinus Rupertus S EMmanuel Sa. Salianus Mr. Salkeld Salmanticensis Judaeus Salmeron Rabbi Salomon Mr. Sands Sasbout Scaliger Scharpius Dr. Sclater Scotus Mr. Selden Seneca Septuaginta Mr. Sheldon Barthol Sibylla Sixtus Senensis Sleidanus Socrates Sohnius Sophronius Soto Stapleton Robertus Stephanus Stow. Strabo Suarez Suetonius Suidas Surius Symmachus T TAcitus Tertullian Theodoretus Theodosius Theophylactus Petrus Thyraeus Tichonius Titus Bostrensis Toletus Tostatus Solomo Trecensis Tremellius Trelcatius Historie of the councell of Trent Turrianus V VAlla Terentius Varro Vasques Vatablus Didacus Vega. Ludovicus Vertomannus Blasius Viegas Joannes Viguerius Godfridus Abbas Vindocinensis Virgilius Vorstius Bishop Usher Leonardus de Utino W WHitakerus Willet Z ZAnchius Zimenes O Blessed God Father Sonne and holy Ghost whose deserving mercie to me hath been so infinite that nothing in earth which I enjoy is worthy enough to be offered unto thee yet because thou hast so plentifully rewarded the widow of Sarepta for sharing that little which she had unto the Prophet and hast promised even the kingdome of heaven to them who in thy name give a cup of water of cold water and hast most graciously accepted the poorest oblations both of the goats hair toward thy Tabernacle and the widows two mites into the treasurie receive I most humbly beseech thee the free-will-offering of my heart and weak endeavours of my hand in this intended service and as thou didst fill Bezaleel and Aholiab with an excellent spirit of wisdome and subtill inventions to finde out all curious works to the beautifying of thy Tabernacle so I most meekly desire thee to enlighten my soul to elevate my dull understanding that I may search for such secret things as may be found and finde such things as may be searched for lawfully and modestly and that I may like Joshuahs good spies acquaint my self and others with the desert wayes and the severall tracts and paths which our souls immediately after death must travell and passe over toward the Celestiall Canaan O God my good God grant me to accomplish this through the safe conduct of Him who is the faithfull Guide the onely Way the Light and Joy of my soul my Lord and Saviour JESVS CHRIST So be it most gracious Redeemer So be it MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THe subject of the whole Work The reason why I chose the Text of Hebrews 9.27 to discourse upon The division of it 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 3 The Kingdome of Death reigning over all Bodily death here meant and onely once to be undergone 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth not necessarily the longinquitie of future times intercurrent but rather a demonstration that other things were precedent Tò after doth often signifie an immediate succession Judgement here taken for an act of justice 5 The generall Judgement here understood by Oecumenius Bellarmine The second book of Esdras apocryphal and justly refused More then the generall Judgement is meant Even the particular judgement also is vouched by many authorities Three questions arising from the former part of these words SECT 1. BEcause I intend by GODS gracious assistance to explain at large the nature both of humane souls and bodies so farre as concerns a Divine and to bring to light things hidden secret and strange and more especially to unfold the estate and passages of mens souls in their origination and likewise in their separation from their bodies also in their particular judgement and their conduct or conveyance to pleasure or pain with all the known occurrences which present themselves ab instanti terminativo vitae from the last minute of life till the said souls shall discern the approach of CHRISTS second coming And because I may if GOD grant me life in a second Tractate write of the Resurrection and generall Judgement and of the same humane souls from the first instant of CHRISTS glorious appearing till they are placed with their bodies in their eternall mansions and of their blisse or punishments with other particularities which concern that new World In these regards I have chosen this Text Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these are words of great force and moment serving aptlie to my purpose as including and containing whatsoever may be expressed or conceived concerning this subject under these two Propositions 1. It is appointed unto Men once to die 2. After this is or cometh Judgement First the particular Judgement immediately upon Death Secondly the generall Judgement in that great day of Retribution of which in due time hereafter if it please GOD. 2. Now because whatsoever is ambiguous and of divers significations is an enemie to the understanding and that we are counselled by Luther to avoid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in matter of Religion as we would flee from a Devil let me remove doubtfulnesse from the words and drawing away the overshadowing veil or curtain of ambiguity seek for the true sense of each term questionable And first of the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is appointed Some things man appointeth and GOD some others This appointment is the sanction not of Man but of GOD. Of things appointed by GOD some are so Lege naturae institutae some destitutae some primitively some occasionally This appointment came lege naturae destitutae saith Gorranus à DEO ultore saith Bosquier in his Terror Orbis the Elements having permission to destroy themselves and the things compounded of them GOD not onely driving Adam out of Paradise but by fire and sword fortifying against his approach the way of the tree of life even whilest Adam lived saith Epiphanius Haeres 64 yea till the Floud if Saint Chrysostome misguide us not with strange and uncouth assistance of armed spirits which were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrible and horrible visions of affrighting fire in one place of fire in the fashion of a flaming sword in an other place of dreadfull shapes of beasts otherwhere as Theodoret and after him and from him Procopius Gazaeus do fancie but indeed there were true Angels or Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way Genes 3.24 More then one Angel and more then two I know not how many and perhaps many swords every Angel having at least one sword a two-edged sword as some will have it which they brandished and flourished with to the terrour of our sinfull parents For what should more Angels do with one sword onely Therefore the flaming sword is to be understood for more swords the singular for the plural by a Synecdoche the certain number for the uncertain which is usuall in Scripture or els besides the astonishing sight of Angels prepared by an unknown manner and means to defend the straits and passages unto EDEN there was a sword also which turned it self every way * Acies gladii sese vibrantis vertentis The edge of a sword brandishing and turning itself as Tremellius and the Interlineary Bible do read and that most agreeable to the Original Again of things appointed by GOD consequentially first some have been wholly abrogated as the Leviticall ceremonies which now are not onely * Non tantùm mortuae sed etiam mortiferae Vide Aquin. 1.2 quaest 103. art 4. dead but also deadly causing just damnation to the users of them because they deny in effect that Christ who is the substance of those types is incarnate It is true that awhile after Christs resurrection the Jewish rites continued for the Synagogue was to be brought honourably to her grave and at Jerusalem especially S. James advised S. Paul to observe the Ceremonial Law yea there were fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem after Christs time who all successively were of the circumcision and one Mark was the first uncircumcised Bishop in the time of Adrian after the destruction both of the Temple and Citie saith * Niceph. lib. 3. cap. 25. Nicephorus But in other places it was otherwise for though S. Paul did circumcise Timothie because of the Jews which were in those quarters * Acts 16.3 which he might well do by reason the mother of Timothie was a Jewesse yet Titus * Gal. 2.3 being a Greek was not compelled to be circumcised no though he was at Jerusalem Yea S. Paul telleth the Gentiles with great majestie and solemnitie * Gal. 5.2 Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Secondly the things appointed by GOD have been redeemed as the first-born Exod. 34.20 and tithes Levit. 27.31 and these being instituted by GOD to one end were by their redemption purchased to other uses yet made they no gain but redeemed them at a dearer rate see Numb 18.16 and Levit. 27.31 Thirdly some other things appointed by GOD have been dispensed withall Thus circumcision while the Israelites travelled in the wildernes and awhile after was omitted above fourtie yeares and again resumed into practice Jos 5.2 Thus the Passeover by one that was not clean or was in his journey might be forborn Numb 9.13 To this third kinde and sort of things by GOD appointed do I reduce this in my text This appointed death is not wholly abrogated it is not redeemed and yet sometimes it hath been sometimes it shall be dispensed withall
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie a vast and immense longitude of time but there are also besides them other evident words arguing such pawses and spaces of times As also because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or post itself is so expounded by Pererius on John 5.4 * Post motionem aquae significat idem ac st dictum fuissâ—t Postquam coepta erat motio turbatio aquae After the troubling of the water signifieth as much as if it had been said After the moving and troubling of the water was begun saith he for the infirm did wait and expect the moving of the water ver 3. and the impotent man said to Christ ver 7. I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled that is so soon as the water beginneth to be troubled for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first descendant into the water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the troubling was healed Therefore you must expound the word after for immediately after instantly there upon For if he had first stepped in he had been healed whereas if you expound after the motion that is a long while after he might indeed have been put into the water but never the nearer to be healed So also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 5.19 and divers other places evince that the phrase implieth not length of time intervenient but rather an historicall narration of things succeeding and sometimes depending one of the other So here first death after that i shortly after that cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicium judgement Judgement is taken two wayes first for the assenting or dissenting of the intellect in this sense we say I like or like not such a mans judgement so judgement is taken for ones opinion perswasion or determination The Text is not meant of judgement in this sense Secondly it is used for an act of justice giving to every man what belongeth to him Thus is it here taken An act of justice not proceeding from man but from GOD and terminated upon man The judgements of GOD upon man are manifold both in this present life and in the life to come The judgement here mentioned is the judgement after death And of judgements after death there are two Private of souls Publick of bodies and souls Whether of these two judgements is to be understood we hope to finde out when we have considered the last thing propounded the words in a lump together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After that the judgement 5 That there are two judgements after this life we take it here for granted but by GODS assistance it shall be in a fitter place of this discourse demonstrated at large But whether the generall judgement of souls and bodies be especially here meant or the private and particular judgement of souls or both of them is the question now and must be determined by authority and reason Oecumenius is for the first way and wittily interprets these words as if it had been said When all and every one which ever were in the world are dead then followeth after the universall death universall judgement To him assenteth * Bell. de Purgat lib. 2. cap. 4. Bellarmine and the book of Esdras long before either of them * 2. Esdr 14.35 After death shall the judgement come when we shall live again c. where the generall judgement is pointed at and not the particular And from hence S. Paul may be thought to have borrowed the words I answer that the Apostle had them not from that author for there is neither Greek nor Hebrew copie of that book of Esdras * Bell. de Verbo Dei lib. 1. cap. 20. saith Bellarmine from S. Hierome onely it is preserved in Latine and no Councel ever held it as canonicall saith Bellarmine Again I can finde no passage of either of these books of Esdras cited in the New Testament though out of other apocryphall books there be divers things taken And though Ambrose cited the second book of Esdras commonly called the fourth book of Esdras in his book de Bono mortis and in his second book on Luke and in his second epistle to Horatianus yea though * Sixt. Sen Bib. Sanct. lib. 1. Sixtus Senensis saith of Ambrose that Ambrose thought Esdras wrote this book by divine revelation and that S. Paul did follow Esdras in those things which he hath concerning the diversitie of order of glory of brightnes in the elect when they shall be raised yet Sixtus Senensis himself esteemeth not the book to be either canonicall or deutero-canonicall but meerely apocryphall and in it he saith are * Quaedam suspecta dogmata regulis orthodoxae fidei apertè contradiceutia some suspected doctrines manifestly gainsaying the rules of orthodox faith and he instanceth in the * 2. Esdr 4.35 36 39 41 42. fourth chapter maintaining * Omnes animas detineri quibusdam abditis promptuariis in inferuo that all souls are kept in certain hidden floores or chambers in hell till the generall judgement Sixtus Senensis addeth that S. Ambrose seemeth to approve of this opinion Also saith he in chap. 6. vers 49. there are fabulous Jewish fooleries of Henoch and Leviathan two fishes Upon these grounds I may confidently say that though some ignorant people might be seduced by this book and thence perhaps arose the error of the souls not being judged till the resurrection yet S. Paul would never take a testimony from that book which hath such palpable untruths and is not extant in Greek or Hebrew Moreover it hath no place vouchsafed in Arias Montanus his Interlineary Bible nor doth Emanuel Sa comment on any word of it and Bellarmine himself marvelleth why Genebrard would have it held canonicall Estius saith * Liber ille non habet autoritatem in Ecclesia Est in 2. Sent. Dist 19. num 4. That book hath no authoritie in the Church But I return to the first exposition The generall judgement may be meant and is involved I will not deny it Yet these reasons perswade me that the particular judgement is not excluded First if the Apostle had intended it onely of the generall judgement it is likely he would as he doth in other places have used fittest expressions and terms properly advancing to that sense as thus At the second coming of Christ or At the end of the world or When the corruptible hath put on incorruption or After the resurrection cometh judgement But since it is written It is appointed for men to die and after that cometh judgement to interpret it onely of the generall judgement is in my opinion to leave a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf between death and judgement which hiatus will handsomely be filled up if there be reference to the particular judgement Secondly what if I say that the words do denote rather the not passing of judgement while we live and the beginning of it to be shortly
after death excluding judgement in this life and placing death rather before judgement then any great distance betwixt death and judgement according to the native use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which before The second exposition is of Gregory de Valentia * Tom. 4. Disp 1. quaest 22. punct 9. who applieth the words to the particular judgement immediately upon death So doth Ludovicus de ponte Vallis Oletani * Part. 1. Meditat. medit 9. who sets it down as a veritie of faith * De particulari judicio animae quod sit proximè post mortem judicium singulorum exerceri invisibiliter statim post eujusque mortem Concerning the particular judgement of the soul which is done immediately after death every one is judged invisibly presently after his death and evinceth it by this Text. So doth Joannes * Viguer Instit pag. 692. Viguerius * Bus initio Panarii Antidotorum spiritual Busaeus the Jesuite likewise accounteth * Secundum novissimum est judicium particulare mortem proximè consequens the second last thing to be the particular judgement following death immediately the severitie whereof saith he Job the holy patient feared Job 31.14 What shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him S. Ambrose on this place hath it thus * Post mortem judicabitur unusquisque â—uxta userita sua Every one shall be judged after death according to their own deservings Which words do point at the particular judgement saith Suarez Lastly lest I may seem too eager against the second book of Esdras let me borrow a testimony or two from thence 2 Esdr 9.11 12. They that lothed my law while they had yet libertie and place of repentance open unto them must know it after death by pain And 2. Esdr 7.56 While we lived and committed sinne we considered not that we should BEGIN to suffer for it AFTER DEATH Whence we may probably collect That the beginning of punishment is immediately after death upon the particular judgement and the increase or additament at the generall judgement 2 That some are in torments before the generall day of retribution 3 That the beginning to suffer is not after a long time GOD onely knoweth how long but after death yea presently after it All these proofs on each side make way for the third and best interpretation That the Apostle meaneth not onely either of these judgements but both of them Benedictus Justinian on these words thus * Post eujusque obitum sequitur judicium privatum in quo quisque suarum actionum reddit urus estrationem post finem mundi erit judicium omnium tum hominum tum daemonum After every ones death private judgement follows in which every one is to give an account of his actions after the end of the world shall be the judgement of all both men and devils Of both the Apostle may be understood saith he So also Salmeron and Hugo Cardinalis and Carthusianus Oecolampadius thus * Sive speciale judicium intelligas sive generale uihil refert Whether you understand the speciall judgement or the gener all it matters not Thus have I brought you back to the point where I first began That this text is fitted to my intentions affording me just liberty to write whatsoever may be conceived or expressed concerning the estate of humane souls in their animation or in death or after it in the life future because the words must be expounded of both judgements And now the text being cleared from ambiguities the termes explained the state being made firm and sure not rolling and changeable and being fixed upon its basis and foundation three questions do seem to arise from the first words of the text and each of them to crave its answer before I come to my main intendment First How and when Death came to be appointed for us Secondly Whether Adam and his children all and every one without priviledge or exception must and shall die It is appointed for men to die Thirdly Whether they that were raised up from the dead at any time did die the second time It is appointed to men once to die O Gracious LORD who orderest all things sweetly and who dost dispose whatsoever man doth purpose I humbly implore thy powerfull guidance and enlightning assistance in all this work for his sake who is Alpha and Omega the Way the Truth and the Life thy onely SONNE my blessed SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Amen CHAP. II. 1 How GOD is immortall how angels and the souls of men how Adams body was mortall and yet immortall though compounded of contraries 2 Aristotles last words his death Holcot or the Philosophers pray for him Aristotle canonized by his followers Plato and Aristotle compared Vives taxed Adams body was not framed of â—he earth or dust of Paradise 3. Adam should not have been subject to any externall force he was Lord of the creatures inward distemper he could not have Adams bodily temperature Christs who was fairer then the children of Adam the helps for Adams body meat drink and sleep 4. Divers opinions of the tree of life If Adam had eaten of the tree of life before or after his fall he had lived for ever If he had not sinned he had not died though he had not tasted of the tree of life To what use the tree of life should have served 5. The Councel of Millan Cardinall Cajetan Richeomus the Jesuite Julianus Pomerius and S. Augustine think that Adam could not have died if he had not sinned The book of Wisedome Holcot Doctor Estius and two passages of Scripture Canonical are authorities evincing that Adam had in the state of innocency an immortall body 1. TO the full answering of the first question how or why Death was appointed for us I shall need to cleare but these two points That Adam for sinne was appointed to die That Adams sinne and punishment was propagated to us Thus sinne was the mother of death thus we were appointed to die because of sinne As a preparative to the first of these two points I hold it fit to demonstrate that Adam at first was made an immortall creature Concerning Adams soul and the spirits of all men descended from him that they are immortall I hope to prove it so soundly in an other part of this tractate that I will fear no other reproof but this that I bring too much proof for it Therefore supposing or rather borrowing that truth which by GODS grace shall be repayed with interest I now come to shew that Adams bodie was created immortall Immortall I say not as GOD is immortall who neither had beginning nor shall have end with whom is no shadow of change much lesse any reall substantiall change who hath as all other good things else so immortalitie eminently and so eminently that our Apostle in some sort excludeth all others and appropriateth it to him saying 1.
Tim. 6.16 GOD onely hath immortalitie Neither was the body of Adam immortall as the Angelicall spirits and souls of men which had a beginning but shall have no end Nor immortall as the counsels of GOD which had no beginning but shall have an end His bodie was not eternal but eviternal or immortall not absolutely immortall but conditionally it should never have tasted death if he had not first tasted of the forbidden fruit Immortall not as if it could not die but because it might and could have lived ever He had not non posse mori and so he was mortall he had posse non mori and so was immortall As mortall is taken for earthly animall and contra-distinct to spirituall so his bodie was mortall and terrene not spirituall or celestiall As he could not possibly die unlesse he had sinned his very bodie was immortall In the Schoole-phrase thus both mortall and immortall are taken two waies Mortall for one who must needs die thus Adam was not mortall in innocency but by sinne was made mortall who can die thus was he mortall yet onely in sensu diviso because he could sinne therefore could die Immortall for one who cannot die so Adam in innocency was not immortall save onely in sensu conjuncto * Adam in natura sua habuit mortalitatem quandam scilicet aptitudinem moriendi it à aliquam immortalitatem in natura sua habuit id est aptitudinem quâ poterat non mori he was immortall and could not die unlesse he sinned upon whom there is no necessity laid that he should die thus was he simply immortall Lumbard thus Adam had in his nature some mortalitie an aptnes to die so he had in his nature some immortality that is * Pet. Diac. de Gratia Christ lib. 1. cap. 6. Fulg. lib. 2. cap. 13. Max. Profess Fidei snae cap. 8. to wit an aptnes by which he might not die 2. Sent. dist 19. lit F. Further as some have said Adam was neither mortall nor immortall for thus wrote Petrus Diaconus and Fulgentius * Corpus Adae ante peccatum mortale secundum aliam immortale secundum aliam causam dici poterat De Genesi ad literam lib. 6. cap. 25. and Maxentius so others have written that Adam was made both mortall and â—â—mortall and all and every one of these in some sense is most true Augustine saith that Adams body before sinne may be said to be mortall in one respect and immortall in another as he there proveth at large Hierome hath a different strain and an unusuall phrase in one of his * Epist ad Paulum Concordiensem epistles wherein he maketh the body to be eternall till the serpent by his sinne prevailed against Adam and ascribeth a second kinde of immortality to the body because some of the first ages lived so long a time as about or above 900 yeares Even they who say Adams body was mortall agree in sense with me They distinguish thus It is one thing to be mortall and another thing to be subject to death If they grant to us that he was not obnoxious to death and could not die without finne I will not be offended much though they say he was mortall As this our flesh which now we have is not therefore not to be wounded because there is no necessitie that it should be wounded so the flesh of Adam in paradise was not therefore not mortall because there was no necessitie that it should die De peccat Meritis Remis l. 1. c. 3. saith Augustine So that this is but a meer logomachy They who call him mortall expound themselves that he could not mori unlesse he had sinned and I mean no more when I say he was immortall that is he could not have died in the state of innocencie without a precedent transgression he could not have been subject or obnoxius to death They say though he should not have died yet he was mortall I say he was therefore onely immortall because in that blessed estate he could not die Whether of these two contraries Mortall or Immortall do best fit Adam before he sinned let the reader judge As bodies are compounded of contrarieties they are subject to dissolution to the evidencing whereof let me recount what Holcot saith on Wisedome 12.22 upon these words We should look for mercy 2 Aristotle saith Holcot spake these his last words IREIOYCE THAT I GO OUT OF THE WORLD WHICH IS COMPOUNDED OF CONTRARIES BECAUSE BACH OF THE FOURE ELEMENTS IS CONTRARY TO OTHER AND THEREFORE HOW CAN THIS BODY COMPOUNDED OF THEM LONG ENDURE Then he dyed and the Philosophers prayed for him saith Holcot And because he did scorn to be behinde the Philosophers in love to Aristotle Holcot himself secondeth their prayers thus * Ille qui suscipit auimas philosophorum suscipiat animam tuam He that receiveth the souls of Philosophers let him receive thy soul This he speaketh to Aristotle by a part of that little Rhetorick that Holcot had or was used in his dayes or otherwise it might be the prayer of the Philosophers related by Holcot for the words are doubtfull No marvell therefore if after this our Christian Peripateticks the Divines of Culleyn have made Aristotle a Saint as they did if we beleeve * Corn. Agr. De Vanit Scient Cornelius Agrippa and perhaps prayed to him as devoutly as others prayed for him * Dinis annumerant They count him among the Gods saith Agrippa in his 45 Chapter though Agrippa himself be of a contrarie opinion for he saith * Ipsis Daemouibus dignum factus sacrificium Aristotle killed himself being made a sacrifice worthy of the Devils Sure I am I have read in a book Of the life and death of Aristotle in the beginning whereof the Poët prayeth to GOD from heaven to help him to write concerning Aristotle acceptable things and to speak in his words De sapiente viro cujus cor lumine miro Lustrâsti Divae super omnes Philosophiae Quem si non fractum lethi per flebilis actum Adventus prolis Divae veri quoque Solis Post se liquisset fidei qui vi micuisset Creditur à multis doctoribus artis adultis Quòd fidei lumen illustrans mentis acumen Defensatorem vix scivisset meliorem From whence the commenting questionist examineth Whether Aristotle would have been in an high degree the great champion of the Christian faith if he had lived after Christs time And he resolveth affirmatively because Aristotle had the best intellect among all the creatures under the sunne for supernaturals saith he are given according to the disposition of naturals * Cum conatu hominum with mens endeavour grace distilling on man according as he well useth the talent of nature But at the end of that book the Expositor strikes all dead in these words * Concludendo finaliter cum veritate dico c. Concluding
finally and with truth I say that Aristotle who heartily implored the mercy of GOD praying * ENS ENTIUM MISEREREMEI O BEING OF BEINGS HAVE MERCY ON ME by an holy and bodily death is translated * Ad solium aeternae beatitudinis to the Chair of Estate the Seat-royall and Throne of everlasting blisse Yea he holds the man mad who doubts hereof because Aristotle had the knowledge of the Almighty because he loved GOD as the fountain of all goodnesse because Aristotle was as necessary before the incarnation of Christ as the giving of grace necessarily presupposeth nature Whereupon he presumeth that Aristotle was * Praecursor Christi in uaturalibus sicut Joannes Baptista fuit praecursor ad praeparandam ipsiplebem perfectam in gratuitis fuit unus ex iis in Lege Veteri qui per gratiam personalem fuerunt de Lege Nova the forerunner of Christ in naturals as John the Baptist in supernaturals and that he was one of them in the Old Law who by a personall grace were of the New Law Just as the Fathers say David was a man in the Old not of the old Testament If Aristotle had grace if he be the fore-runner of Christ if he be placed in eternall happinesse it is a question not unworthy these curious times Whether they sinned most who prayed unto him or Holcot or the Philosophers cited by Holcot who prayed for him And without just offence to Aristotles Lycaeum I hope I may say though Jofrancus Offusius that great Mathematician in his preface to Maximilian which is before his book Of the divine power of starres saith that Aristotle was the High-priest of Philosophers yea * Vir coelestis Hens Prolegom in Nonnum an heavenly man saith Heinsius others have deified him Yet there were divers Philosophers from Aristotles death till some hundreds of yeares after Christs time who were in greater estimate among all the learned of those times then ever Aristotle was and perhaps there may be a farre perfecter body of Philosophie compiled from the dispersed tenents of other ancienter Philosophers and more accordant to truth and Scriptures then ever could be gathered from Peripatericall principles Theodoret in his fift book De curandis Graecorum affectibus as some have it or De Graecarum affectionum curatione lib. 4. which some do intitle De Naturâ hath these words * Aristoteles animam corruptibilem esse impudenter asseruit aequè ac Democritus Epicurus Aristotle hath impudently affirmed that the soul was corruptible as much as Democritus and Epicurus Again Who be now the Presidents of the Stoicall sect and who are the defenders of the doctrine of Aristotle the Stagiritan c. And as for Plato who made many speeches of the immortalitie of the soul he could never perswade that assertion no not to Aristotle his own hearer Concerning Plato Augustine saith he was most eagerly studious and Vives there addeth that Justin Martyr Eusebius and Theodoret report that Plato translated many things out of Hebrew books into his own And Numenius a Philosopher said * Quiuam hodie inveniuntur Stoicae sectae praesidentes quive etiam sunt qui Aristotelis Stagiritae doctrinam corroborant c. Aâ— Plato quidem qui complures sermones de animae immortalitate disseruit nè Aristoteli quidene auditori suo persuasit eam positionem Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 8. cap. 11. What is Plato but Moses atticizing Moses the Athenian Hierome Dialog adversus Pelagianos lib. 1. bringeth in the Orthodoxal though personated Atticus against the feigned hereticall Critobulus saying thus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I care not what Aristotle but what Paul teacheth And on Ecclesiastes 10.15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them * Neque enim mihi curae est quid Aristoteles sed quid Paulus doceat Reade saith he Plato peruse the subtilties of Aristotle * Lege Platonem Aristotelis revolve versutias and That text is fulfilled upon them Though there he nibble at Plato aswell as he biteth Aristotle yet others have stiled him The divine Plato And when Plato so often in his works saith thus * Antiqui perhibent In priscis habetur Oraculis The ancients do affirm It is in the old Oracles and the like he points not at his master Socrates or the preceding Pythagoras but to those learned Sages and ancient Magi who delivered these depths to the Egyptians as they did to him Augustine thus Therefore I was willing to treat of this point with the Platonicks because their books are better known For both the Greeks whose tongue excelleth among the Gentiles have highly extolled them and also the Latines being moved hereunto either by their excellency or by their glory and renown or by their sweetnesse c. So much for the great esteem of Plato hath Augustine Ludovicus Vives on this place addeth that from the dayes of Plato and Aristotle till the reigne of Severus the Emperour Aristotle was rather named then read or understood Then arose Alexander Aphrodisaeus to expound Aristotle yet Plato was more in request * Ideo cum Platonicis placuit hanc causam agere quia eorum sunt literae uotiores Nam Graeci quorum lingua in Gentibus praeeminet eos magnâ praedicatione celebrârunt Latini permoti earum vel excellentiâ vel gloriâ vel gratiâ c. Aug. De Civit. 8.10 untill Schools were publikely erected in France and Italy that is so long as the Greek and Latine tongue flourished Then falleth an heavy censure * Crebrior in manibus hominum notior usque ad Scholas in Gallia Italia publicè constitutas id est quamdiu Graeca Latina lingua viguerunt After that sciences began to be theatricall * Postquam theatricae coeperunt esse disciplinae omnisque earum fructus existimatus est posse disputando fucum faâ—ere os obturare pulvereÌ„ ante oculos jacere idque imperitissim â peritiâ nominibus ad libitum confictis accommodatiores ad rem visi sunt libri Logici Physici Aristotelis and all their profit was thought to be able to deceive in disputing and throw dust before the eyes by a most ignorant dexteritie and with words coyned at pleasure the Logick and Physick books of Aristotle seemed to be more fit And now was Plato not named and though Vives confesseth he thinketh Aristotle no lesse learned then Plato yet he calleth Plato the most holy Philosopher nor can endure to have him neglected And when Scaliger saith * Mancipia paucae lectionis qui in rebus divinis an eferunt Platonem Aristoteli Jul. Scal. Exercit. 365. sect 3. They be slaves of small reading who in divine things preferre Plato before Aristotle he speaketh partially neglecting diviner words of Plato then those cited out of Aristotle and straining the words cited to a more celestiall sense then ever they were intended as if Aristotle
may seem probable certain it is Christ wanted no comelines nor beautie though he had no womanish or effeminate shape Tom 4. Disput 1. quaest 14. punct 2. but such as was most befitting a man saith Gregorie de Valentia Thou art beautifull O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem Cant. 6.4 and Thou art all fair there is no spot in thee Cant 4.7 In which regard perhaps it was that though the humors of Christs body did increase with the increase of his bodie and grew up from infancie to puerilitie from it to juvenilitie thence to virilitie yet there was so harmonious a proportion if not of weight yet of justice that we read not any one part of Christs bodie to have been out of tune excepting in his Agonie and Passion when his very bones were out of joint nor is he recorded to have been sick at any time nor so much as inclining to sicknes all his life Non suscepit infirmitates individui sed speciei He took not upon him the infirmities of particular men but of mankinde as to be weary to mourn to weep to be hungry thirstie to suffer to die As for sinne and diseases flowing from sinne he was subject to none nor to personall defects but onely to the generall defects of humane bodies Indeed it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Reguâ—is breviorâ—â—us quaest 177. Esai 53.4 Surely he took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses but Basil expounds it thus He bare our sicknesses not that he did transferre them upon himself but because he healed those that were sick Where he semes to remove all sicknes from Christ Besides Adam his excellent temper consider his food he had all the trees of the garden for meat except the forbidden one The healthie waters about Paradise he had for drink Wholsome things he knew from hurtfull if any hurtfull things were His giving them names doth prove that he was acquainted with their natures As for taking too much or too little it could not be whilest his soul was innocent and spotlesse For he had originall justice which in the use of lawfull meats should subject his senses and his appetite unto reason As for clothing he needed it not Innocency apparelled him till he put off the robe of righteousnes and so it should have continued Lastly as Adam in Paradise had a deep sleep which fell upon him Genes 2.21 which I confesse was extraordinarie so Augustine Aug. De Civ t. 14.16 Tertul. De Anima cap. 24. Tertullian and the School after them do yeeld that ordinarie sleep was not excluded out of Paradise but in the night he was allowed sleep So that Adam enjoying all things necessarie delightfull or convenient which concerned his bodie we may safely conclude the first reason That since neither outward force nor inward distemper could befall Adams body if he had continued in innocencie his body should never have tasted of death and so was and so should have been immortall And this will yet more plainly appeare if we will weigh the reasons following 4. Among the trees of the garden there was the tree of life which Adam had libertie freely to eat of Some think it was appointed as a means to translate Adam to immortalitie without sicknes or death Others say it would hinder the losse of naturall heat and radicall moisture whereby though yeares or age yet weaknes or de crepitnes should not come nigh him Others say that it being once tasted should bring perfect immortalitie even such immortalitie as we should have after the Resur rection See Bellarmine de Gratia primi hominis cap. 28. and Mr. Salkeld in his Treatise of Paradise where in some whole Chapters he hath laboriously collected and copiously explained the various opinions concerning the tree of life Take my gleanings after their full vintage and taste what I have gathered Though Lumbard Sent. 2. Dist 29. Lit. F. questioneth Whether Adam before his sinne did eat of the tree of life and out of Augustine concludeth there That they did eat as it was commanded that they should eat of every tree fave one yet I can no way agree with him This his errour is grounded on an other which he hath cited Distinct 9. of the same book in the letters B and C That Adam was commanded to eat of the tree of life and that he should have sinned if he had not used it For first It was not a command but a permission God gave the use of the tree no otherwise to man Genes 1.29 then to the beasts and fowls the green herbs verse 21 but this was by way of indulgence not of command Secondly Genes 2.16 Of every tree of the garden thou may'st freely eat And though it be in the Hebrew Eating thou shalt eat yet it implieth no absolute precept Thirdly Genes 3.2 the woman saith We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden she saith not We musteat or We are charged much lesse presently so soon as we see them or before we do other things Fourthly Genes 9.3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things Are we commanded to eat every beast and every herb then whosoever forbeareth any one sinneth Or was there in this a difference between the grant unto Adam and the grant unto Noah and their posterities The second errour is of Lumbard That Adam did eat of the tree of life His proof out of Augustine falleth short even as it is cited though the place is mistaken by him and the words maym'd Indeed Augustine thus * Rectè profectò intelliguntur primi homines ante malignam persuasionem abstinuisse à cibo vetito atque usi fuisse concessis ac per hoc caeteris praecipuè ligno vitae De peccat Meritis Remis 2.21 Certainly it is well thought that our first parents before that malicious persuasion did abstain from the forbidden food and used such things as were granted them and consequently the rest specially the tree of life * Note first He saith granted not commanded as Noah ate not of every thing granted to him yet Noah spent many hundred yeares more time after the Floud then Adam did in Paradise Neither can I think Adam in that estate so addicted to his belly that he in so short a time would cat of so many of all and every tree Secondly Rupertus saith The eating of the tree of life but once Rup in Genes l. 3. cap. 30. had made them live for ever Augustine moreover addeth It is no where read in Genesis Aug. Cont. Adversar Legis Prophet 1.15 that Adam in Paradise did not eat of the fruit of the tree of life of which place by and by Now as Augustine is directly against me in the second point he is as directly against them in the first point * Vtendi ad escam omni ligno quod in Paradiso erat
acceperant potestatem Ibidem They had received power to eat of every fruit that was in Paradise To strengthen their side Augustine annexeth this reason What is more absurd then to beleeve that he would eat of other trees and not of that saith Augustine I answer perchance Adam thought that he had no need of that tree as yet as knowing both that he should not die if he did not sinne and that the time of his translation was not come Nor did those or the like thoughts savour of sinne or ignorance Augustine in this point is incoherent to himself saying * Gustus arboris vitae corruptionem corporis inhibebat The taste of the tree of life did hinder the corruption of the body Again * Vitae arbor medicinae modo corruptionem omnem prohibebat The tree of life by way of physick did prevent all corruption But say I if corruption seised not on Adam till he sinned what needed Adam till he sinned use that medicine since the sick have need of physician and physick and not the whole If Adam had eaten of the tree of life before he had eaten the forbidden fruit God would have kept him from the forbidden fruit as after he kept him from the tree of life or els the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good evill had not caused destruction the apple had not been deadly but Adam should have lived immortally This will not seem strange if you weigh what followeth If after Adam had sinned he had taken of the tree of life and eaten the fruit he had lived for ever Genes 3.22 for els what needed God to have placed such a watch and ward against him Again if Adam might have lived everlastingly for all Gods threat yea though he had now a dead body when God debard him from the tree of life if he had but eaten of it he should also have lived for ever if he had eaten of it before he sinned But saith Augustine * Post peccatum Adam potuit indissolubilis manere si à Domino permissum il li esset edere de arbore vitae Aug. lib. quaest Vet. Novi Testam c. 19. Tom. 4. After sinne Adam might have remained indissoluble if God had given him leave to eat of the tree of life The conclusion reacheth home against Augustine That Adam ate not of the tree of life before he ate of the forbidden fruit I think the malice of Satan egged Adam on to taste first of the unlawfull fruit the usher of death though the tree of life stood next unto it for both the tree of life was in the midst of the garden Genes 2.9 and the tree of knowledge of good and evill was also in the midst of the garden as appeareth in the same place and more plainly Genes 3.3 If any be so curious as to enquire what was the form and figure of the garden of Eden when two trees are just in the midst of it I answer We must not take the word Midst strictly or Mathematically but at large or Rhetorically When the Shunamite said 2. Kings 4.13 In medio populi ego habitans sum it is well rendred by our late Translatours I dwell among mine own people not as if the words inforced that she dwelt exactly in the midst of them The like Hebraism is used by Abraham Genes 18.24 Si fortè fuerint quinquaginta justi in medio civitatis that is Fiftie righteous within the citie not as if all the fiftie dwelt together in the exact middle of the citie David also useth the like phrase Psal 102.24 Take me not away in the midst of my dayes in which place as well as in the propounded difficultie we must not be too strict or rigorous upon the letter The like is in Esay 5.8 The last touch we will give at this point is thus God turned Adam and Eve out of Paradise and by Cherubims and a sword kept away the tree of life so that neither Adam nor his posteritie should be able to approach it And perhaps the Cherubims were purposely placed to confront Satan and his evill Angels lest they might bring to Adam and Eve or to their posteritie the fruit of the tree of life for if we had been immortally miserable cursed as Satan himself is was as much as he desired So great a vertue had the tree of life if once it had been eaten Let me adde in the third place If Adam had not sinned at all nor at all eaten of the tree of life yet he had not died for death was appointed for sinne and for nothing els Bonaventure saith * Impossibile est ' ut simul consistant innocentia corruptionis poena Bonav in 2. Sent. dist 19. art 2. It is impossible that innocencie and the punishment of corruption should stand together But to what use was then the tree of life The question was made of old by an adversarie to the Law and the Prophets * Ista arbor quae in Paradiso fructus vitae ferebat cui proderat That tree which bare fruit of life in Paradise to whom was it profitable I confesse Augustine answereth To whom but first to our first Parents the man and the woman placed in Paradise But that is the point to be proved Again Augustine there saith Enoch and Elias eat of that tree but saith he we must not hastily say that any other eateth of it but how unlikely are these things The adversarie of the Law and the Prophets might better have been answered That there was no more use of that tree then of others which were untasted for no man can think that they tasted of every one in so short a time Or what inconvenience ariseth if we say A profered curtesy not accepted came to nothing What can the adversarie conclude from thence for God profereth salvation and the means thereof to many who do not accept of it the fault being on Mans part and not on Gods To finish this point I resolve There was no use made of the tree of life as it fell out If it be further questioned What might have been the use thereof I answer That the exact specialties can not punctually be known Probable it is that the tree of life might have conferred much to the existence of life though not to the essence Adam should have lived howsoever and that immortally if he had not transgressed Gods commandement the tree of life might have been conducible to his better being yea to his best being by it he might have been changed from his terrestriall not-dying estate or immortall life to a celestiall and not onely an immortall but an unchangeable eternall life In which regard perchance the tree of life is stiled Genes 3.22 The tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hachajim of lives as profitable if tasted both to Adams present life which was in time to have its consummantem finem though not consumentem its end though not
troup may I put in somewhat unthought of by others Some have said truly that the divine providence and preserving power which extendeth to the least things in our declined estate as to the lives of birds and beasts and the fall of every hair God not being * Contra eorum dogmata qui primos homines si non peccâssent immortales futuros fuisse non credunt De Civit. 13.19 lesse in the least things then he was in the greatest and governing all things in number weight and measure would have much more watcht over Adam and his ofspring continuing perfect But this is that which I propose Whether the good Angels did immediatly minister unto Adam in his integritie and should have done unto us to keep mankinde from harm To which I answer That since the Prophet Psal 91.11 describing the blessed estate of the godly maketh this one especiall branch He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes and verse 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone I can not but think that the same Angels should have watcht over us and friendly conversed with us in our innocencie For God reduceth * Deus non minor est in minimis quâ—m in maximis the lowest things to the highest by the middle working by subordination of causes Yea * Infima ad suprema per media grant that this is spoken of the Sonne of God onely which by the Evangelists Matt. 4.6 and Luke 4.9 seemeth to be the Devils argute inference yet it excludes not their watching over us and their ministerie if we had not fallen whose very office and name consist in being ministring Spirits All being sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 which out of doubt both Adam and his issue continuing in perfection should have been But leaving these things Christs answer to Satan proves that unto whom these words were said He shall give his Angels charge over thee c. unto the same was also said Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Matt. 4.7 which was not spoken to Christ alone or principally but in the plurall number to the Israëlites and others succeeding them as appeareth Deuter. 6.16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God as ye tempted him in Massah They are deceived whosoever imagine the ministerie of Angels should not have been any way necessarie if Adam had not sinned since Christ the immaculate Lambe of God who sinned not nor could sinne refused not their ministerie Matth. 4.11 and comfort or strength Luke 22.43 and since one Angel strengthneth himself with an other Dan. 10.21 and Revel 12.7 and since they might have ministred more matter of joy unto us by their most familiar conversation in assumed bodies Unto these authorities let me adde two memorable places out of the Apocrypha The first is Wisd 1.13 God made not death Satan begot it sinne brought it forth Adam and Eve nurst it The other passage is in Wisd 2.23 God created man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be immortall made him an image of his own eternity On which words Holcot thus Corporeall creatures have onely a footstep of God Man is the image of God Again * Quantum fuit ex parte Dei creavit hominem inexâ—crminabile msecundum corpus On Gods part he created him unperishable according to the body And there he hath a large discourse proving howsoever Aristotle Metaph. 8. defineth Man to be a reasonable creature mortall that the opposite is true and he resteth in it For Aristotle knew not Adams innocencie but spake of us as we are in the state of sin Whosoever desireth to read more curiosities strange and learned concerning the bodily immortalitie of Adam at the Creation let him read Estius on the second of the Sent. Distinct 19. But to confirm the truth delivered in the book of Wisdome the last and the best kinde of authoritie shall be produced out of the unquestionable Canon death is stiled our Enemy 1. Corinth 15.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inimicus as Hierome on the 27. of Esai readeth it hostis saith Valla therefore death is not naturall or kindly to us but rather a consort and fellow-souldier of Satan and sinne who fight against us But the sharp-pointed places are in Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or dying thou shalt die Mortalis eris as Symmachus well translates it or morti obnoxius as Augustine well expounds it and Genes 3.3 Ye shall not touch it lest ye die therefore they should not have died if they had not touched the forbidden fruit And so they both were and ever might have been immortall When the woman of Sarepta said to Eliah * 1. Kings 17.18 Art thou come unto me to call my sinne to remembrance and to slay my sonne doth she not secretly intimate that sinne is a murtherer And if there had been no sinne there had also been no death * In 2. Sent. dist 19. quaest 1. in and by her evident confession that her sinne was the cause of his death Scotus shall determine the point Punishment can not be without fault but death is the punishment of sinne and during the state of innocency there could be no sinne therefore no death I have dwelt the longer on this part because every reason authoritie by which I have proved that Adams bodilie estate in the time of innocency was immortall affordeth also by way of preparative a binding argument to evince that Adam for sin was appointed to die which is the first of the two Propositions which I propounded In which words we intend to handle these things First somewhat concerning death Secondlie that Adam was appointed to die for one sinne onely Thirdly that it was for Adams own sinne onely and not for Eves Fourthly we will enquire what that sinne was O Onely-wise God who createdst Man in thine own likenes and madâ—st him the Image of thine own eternitie I beseech thee to renew in me that decaied Image make me like unto thee give me the favour to taste of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God and to drink of the pure River of the Water of Life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the LAMBE Heare me O blessed SAVIOUR for thine infinite Merit and mercies sake Amen 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 body 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 2. Man-kinde died the first minute of their sinne God draweth good out of evill Death in some regard is changed from a
of the souls of men saith The mercifull Father made them mortall bands Whether the particle Is aimeth at Plato or Plotinus appeareth not by Augustine Bartholomaeus * Barth Sib. Peregrin Quaest Decad. 1. c. 2. q. 2. Sibylla appropriateth the word Is to Plato I rather assigne it to Plotinus as the good Expositor of Plato Or it may be that S. Augustine taking some words from both of them into one sentence purposely left it doubtfull unto whom the Is must be referred Howsoever his collection as I said is ingenious and subtile * Ità hoc ipsum quòd mortales sint homines corpore ad misericordiam Dei Patris pertinere arbitratus est nè semper huâ—us vitae miseriâ teneantur So he thought that this very thing that men are mortall in body proceeds from the mercie of our divine Father lest they should be alwayes held with the miserie of this life Even as the very miserie of mankind from which no man is free could not pertain to the just judgement of the Almightie if there had been no originall sinne as Augustine saith otherwhere Gods judgement brought miserie and death for sinne yet in death God remembred mercie distilled good out of it I cannot omit this memorable speech of Gregory * Naz. Orat. 2. de Pasch Nazianzen Adam was expelled and extruded from this tree of life from Paradise at once by God for sinne And yet even in this case by death he gaineth the cutting off of sinne lest the evill should be immortall So was punishment turned into mercy He is excellently seconded by Rupert * Rup De Trinit 3.24 c. How should we turn away with deaf eares the care of the death of the soul and the generall judgement if we should never have died that are so proud to day dying to morrow Well therefore did our Lord God strike Man with the death of the flesh of the body lest he should be ignorant of the death of his soul and sleep securely in his pleasures till the dawning of the last day that at least Man might be waked even by the fear of the instantaneall death and that he might not like the immortall devil adde prevarication to prevarication but rather flee and avoid the pride height of sinne by humble repentance Let me adde Hence is the patience of the Saints Here are the crowns of the Martyrs saith Chrysostome This death causeth many vertues which had else never been * O munde immunde si sic me tenes breviter transeundo quid faceres diu permanendo O unclean World saith devout Bernard if thou holdest me so shortly passing what shouldest thou do long remaining If ye desire more proofs that death was appointed to Adam for sinne and that he was kept from the tree of life after he had sinned lest his miserable life should have been immortall consult with the authoritie of Irenaeus in his third book and 37. chap. of Hilarius in his commentarie on Psal 69.26 of Hierome on Esai 65. of Cyrill of Alexandria about the middle of his third book against Julian and they shall confirm you in this point That death is a bitter-sweet a compound of judgement and mercy a loathsom pill and a punishment yet wrapt up in gold and working out health and blessings for mankinde * A culpa natae sunt duae filiae Tristitia Mors quae duaefiliae pessimam matrem destruunt From the transgression two daughters are born Sorrow and Death which two daughters destroy their very ill mother Augustine against two Epistles of the Pelagians 4.4 * Quamvìs bonis conferatur per mortem plurimum boni unde nonnulli etiam DE BONO MORTIS Congruenter disputaverunt tamen hinc quae praedicanda est nisi misericordia Dei quòd in usus bonos convertitur poena peccati Although by death much good be bestowed on good men whereupon some have fitly discoursed even of the good of death yet what hence can we commend but Gods mercie that the punishment of sin is turned to good uses I will seal up all with the saying of Cicero in the beginning of his third book de Oratore where he spake wiser then he was aware of * Mihi non à diis immortalibus vita erepta sed mors donata est Life hath not been taken away from me by the immortall gods but death hath been given Death is a benefit though it was appointed unto Adam for sinne for one sinne onely which is the next point to be explained 3. It is true that the wages due to any one sinne is death and as true that we commit many sinnes which are rightly divided into originall and actuall Actuall sinnes are of a thousand kindes committed by us yet none of these our sinnes nor Adams after-sinnes but his first sinne onely produced death Likewise originall sin consisteth of two parts of Adams transgression of our corruption In Adams transgression were many sinnes involved our corruption consisteth both in the want of original justice in the positive ill-qualitie of our nature Adams sinne is imputed to us our corruption both inherent imputed His sin as a qualitie concerned himself as relation concerned us As he was an individual man it touched himself onely as a coÌ„mon person it drop't down upon us His actuall sin is not propagated his corrupting of our nature is deriv'd And this corruption is both a sin and a punishment of sinne Some late Divines have written Originall sinne is said to be twofold 1 Imputed which was inherently in Adam and charged upon his posteritie 2 Inherent which is naturally propagated to us So amongst others Scharpius pag. 463. But they speak improperlie for originall sinne is but one onely made up of two parts or branches indeed perchance parts constituent not ratione onely but re differentes yet not so natively to be call'd a double sinne as one sinne of two steps degrees sections composures parts or branches for originall sinne is not many not two but one onely viz for which death was inflicted And this is the point I must now insist upon and thus I prove it apodictically Rom. 5.12 Death entred by sinne and verse 21 Sinne reigned unto death Likewise Rom. 6.23 The wages of sinne is death and 1. Corint 15.56 The sting of death is sinne All in the singular number evincing it to be one onely sinne David complaineth Psal 51.5 I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me In sinne not in sinnes both the Hebrew and the Vulgar Translation have all these places in the singular number Concerning David it is observable lest any one might imagine that Davids mother was lascivious and that therefore he complained and so this complaint concerned David himself onely and personally and not us that it was no part of Davids intent to disparage his mother and Aquinas saith David was born of a lawfull
opineth * Tu es Diaboli janua tu es quae eum invasisti quem Diabolus aggredi non valuit Tert. lib. De Habitu muliebri That by that serpentine craft by which the woman was seduced Adam could not have been seduced Tertullian speaketh thus to womankinde * Probat quòd Diabolus non poterat seducere Adam sed Evam Hiero. lib. 1. adversus Jovinianum circa medium Thou art the Devils doore thou art she that hast invaded him whom the Devil could not set upon If he could not set upon him much lesse could he have overcom him Hierom saith * the Apostle doth prove that the Devil could not seduce Adam but Eve But then comes Eve in her simplicitie intending no hurt or deceit to her husband upon three other grounds specialized Genes 3.6 First she saw that the tree was good for food Secondly it was pleasant to the eyes Thirdly a tree to be desired to make one wise She I say upon these three motives did both eat and give Adam to eat So Adam was not deceived either first or immediately by the Serpent or serpentine deceit as Eve was neither doth Adam complain that the Serpent or Eve beguiled him but when he derived the fault from himself the worst that he said of Eve was this Genes 3.12 The woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree Neither doth the Scripture any where impute a malicious envious or guilefull intent to Eve in drawing Adam into the transgression Nor doth the Apostle say absolutely Adam was not in the transgression but Adam was not deceiv'd or brought into the transgression by fraud For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to be deceived by art and craft so the Devill perswaded Eve That God of envy unto man forbad him that tree saith * Aug. De Gen. ad lit 11.30 Augustine and perhaps told her it was no sin for her to eat because she received no immediate commandement whereas Adam knew it was a sinne but therefore might think it easilie pardonable because he had formerly known no experience of Gods severitie saith the same * Aug. De Civit. 14.11 Augustine And yet for all this Adam might be in a transgression in the transgression and the greatest transgression though not in that transgression of being seduc'd And for his transgression death is appointed for us For in Adam all die Abel was the first who died the bodily death yet Abel died in Adam and if for Adams sinne death had not been appointed to him first Abel had not died yet since Morte morieris was spoken to Adam alone before Eve was created and it may be it implieth that upon his sinne all that any way came of him either by avulsion of some part as Eve did or by propagation should die in him And so though Eve had eaten if Adam had not sinned neither Adam nor perhaps Eve herself had died And if Adam had eaten and Eve forborn yet perhaps Eve should have died for Eve was in Adam as well as we 1. Corinth 11.8 The man was not of the woman but the woman of the man And in him was she to stand or fall live or die as well as we In Adam all die and she among the rest since she was one and a part of that all If my above mentioned speculations require further proof consider Rom. 5.14 Death reigned from Adam where he is expresly mentioned as being in my interpretation the Idea of mankinde and we being in him tanquam in principio activo Satan sinned against God in tempting the woman the woman sinned against God in eating and offering the fruit unto the man If thou O Adam hadst not consented neither of these sinnes had hurt thee or mankinde * Adam erat nos omnes Adam was we all Give me leave to say so since S. Augustine saith * Omnes eramus ille unus Adam De peâ—cat Merit Remis 1.10 We all were that one Adam Nor did God first challenge Eve but Adam nor her so punctually as he did Adam Genes 3.9 And vers 22 it is not said of Eve but of Adam ironically Adam is become like one of us for he was the root of mankinde Eve was but a branch of Adam before or when she sinned and no root of mankinde actuall but potentiall for she sinned when she was a virgin Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Triphon thus Eve being an intemerated virgin and conceiving by the Serpent brought forth disobedience and by consequent death Theodoret on those words of the Psalmist Psal 51.1 c. The transgression of the commandment went before Eves conception for after the transgression and the divine sentence and the privation of Paradise Adam knew Eve his wife and she having conceived brought forth Cain Had Adam carnally known Eve before he sinned yea after herself sinned she had conceived and then the issue had had no originall sin yea he is no worse Divine then Aquinas who holdeth that at this instant if one by miracle were created an humane creature body soul he should not have originall sin 1.2 Quaest 18. Art 4. * Art sequenti And if Adam had sinned not Eve we had fallen into originall sin and if she had eaten and not he we had not been stain'd with originall sinne Scharpius saith * The cause of originall sinne was Adam not Eve and Adams sinne not Eves doth passe to the posteritie Tertullian proveth that Eve was neverthelesse a virgin because being in Paradise she was called a woman * A woman saith he pertains to the sex it self not to the degree of the sex One may be call'd a woman * Mulier ad sexum ipsum non ad gradum sexûs pertinet Tertull. lib. De velandis Virginibus though not a wife but a non-mulier a no-woman can not either be or be call'd a wife I adde she was a wife so called Genes 2.25 and yet till after Adam sinned she was a virgin espoused married yet not known carnally She was termed Isha or Issa Virago before the fall Genes 2.23 because she was taken out of Ish or Is out of man She was also stiled The female and wife but she was never called Eve during her creation and innocency or in the interim between her fall and Adams But after Adams sin he first called his wives name Eve Genes 3.20 because she was the mother of all living Not as if any did then live as from her or were born of her when Adam so called her but the great Calculator of natures the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Onomastick or exact and true Nomenclator of all things brought before him thought fit to name her Eve that is The mother of all living not before but after his fall because in my opinion she had not been Mater viventium if she alone had sinned Her sinne might have had other punishment her personall fault had ended
minde In the state of integritie it was farre otherwise Adam was new in his minde and holy and righteous as was proved before in which regard * Chrys Hom. 16. in Gen. Chrysostom saith Adam was a terrestriall Angel * Bas Homil. Quòd Deus non sit author malorum Basil reckoneth up as Adams chief good in Paradise His sitting with God and conjunction by love As all things els so Adams will was good and tended unto good there is the object his love in innocencie was entire and united to God there was his perfection Thirdly the object of his and our part concupiscible is moderate delight the perfection and felicitie of it was contentment As now this part is gauled with insatiable itchings and given over to lasciviousnesse to work all uncleannesse with greedines Ephes 4.19 But at the first Adam was free Augustine saith * Gratia Dei ibi magna erâ—t vbi terrenum animale corpus besâ—ialem libidinem non habebat There the grace of God was great where an earthy and sensuall body had no beastly lust The place he was in was a Paradise of pleasure a garden of delight nothing was wanting which might give true content Fourthly the object of his and our irascible part may in a sort be called Difficulty or rather Constancy whose glory of endeavours end and felicitie was Victorie This part now is much weakned with infirmitie In the best of us the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and alas we are often vanquished as being weak by nature But Adam was strong and could have overcome any temptation Augustine saith * Felices erant primi homines nullis agitabantur perturbatio ibus animorum nullis corporis laedebantur incommodis De Civit. 14.10 Our first parents were happy being neither shaken with any trouble of minde nor hurt with any infirmitie of body * Adam non opus habebat eo adjutorio quod implorant isti cùm dicunt Video aliam legem in membris meis c. Lib. De Corrept Gratia Adam had no need of that help which these crave when they say I see another law in my members c. Yea he is more bold there saying * Adam in illis bonis in quibus creatus est Christ morte non â—guit Ibid. Adam in those good things wherein he was created had no need of Christs death He had with libertie and will grace sufficient whereby he might have triumphed over all difficulties and temptations Augustine thus * In Paradiso etiamsi omnia non poterat Adam ante peccatum quicquid tum non poterat non volebat ideo poterat omnia quae volebat De Civit. 14.15 In Paradise before sinne although Adam could not do all things yet he then would not do whatsoever he could not and therefore could do all that he would Adam having these excellent endowments of nature and grace had also necessarily certain objects about which they should be conversant These objects were all the parts and branches of the Law of nature whereby he fully knew his dutie And all and every one of these he did for a while or at the least not break and he and his posteritie should and ought to fulfill as they were private persons and for the performance and non-performance thereof both he and we should and shall answer unto God at the high Throne and Tribunall of the just and righteous Judge 2. But there was one precept and onely one given to Eve perhaps to all Adams posteritie as private persons who if they had eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evill can not be imagined that they could have ruinated all mankinde but commanded to Adam onely as the publick person as the Idea of humane nature as the stock and root by whose obedience or disobedience all mankinde was to be happie or unhappie as the figure of Christ to come And this sin was not to be a sin of thought onely as the sin of the Angels who each of them sinned by his own expressed will but such a sinne as might bring a deserved blot and punishment upon all his posteritie who were in him which could not be unles it had been committed both by his soul and his body and thereby had power to infect all the parts and faculties both of souls and bodies Again the body of Adam could not sinne without the soul neither could this be a sinne of the soul alone without some concurrents of the bodily parts for then Adams sinning soul should have been damned and his innocent bodie saved but it was to be a sinne compounded of inward aversion and outward transgression So that if Adam had seen Eve eat and had himself lusted after the fruit and yet before the orall manducation had disliked his liking had feared the punishment and not proceeded to eat of it or touch it I do not think his posteritie had been engaged as they are Augustine citeth this out of S. Ambrose and approveth it * Si anima Adami appetentiam corporis refranâsset in ipso ortu extincta esset origo peccati Cont. Julian Pelag. lib. 2. If Adams soul had bridled the bodily appetite in the very beginning the originall of sinne had been quenched Catharinus thinketh there was an expresse covenant between God and Adam that Adam and his posteritie should be blessed or cursed according to the breaking or keeping of that one law What Catharinus saith is probable and may be most true though it be not so written For first if the prohibition had concerned Adams person onely since the precept was given before Eve was created Adam onely should have tasted of death and not Eve Secondly questionlesse that law and covenant included posteritie as is verified in the event When Morte Morieris was threatned unto Adam he was then Rectus in Curia and stood as a publique person representing all his branches If it concerned him as a private person he onely should personally have died and we escaped but our dying in him evinceth that he was reputed if I may so say a generall universall feoffee or person to whose freewill the happie or unhappie future estate of all his descendants was intrusted conditionally to live for ever upon the observance of one law or to die the death for the breach of it Life and death was propounded †Non uni sed universitati Not to one man but to all mankinde 3. And this law is registred and recorded Genes 2.17 Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eat for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Which words I verily beleeve that Adam understood either by his naturall wisedome which was very great or by divine conference or revelation which to him was not unfrequent to involve his posteritie as well as himself For if immediatly upon the creation of woman Adam could foresee and prophesie Genes 2.24 That a man shall leave
witlesse positions of Jovinian viz. * Omnia membra aequaliter diligimus nec oculum praeponimus digite nec digitum auriculae We love equally all our members neither do we preferre the eye before the finger nor the singer before the eare by which he would inferre a parilitie of sinnes besides what S. Hierom excellently answereth I can not chuse but oppose what Moses saith Deuteron 32.10 God kept the Israelites as the apple of his eye it being more guarded with the double coverlids of skins and hairs and more curiously then any other outward part which proverbiall similitude being also taken up both by David Psal 17.8 and by the Prophet Zecharie 2.8 significantly intimateth that one part of the body is more tender to us then any other Neither needed there such exact retaliation as is required Exod. 21.24 Eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot if all members were of like worth for a tooth might have been pluckt out for an eye and the foot might have stood for the hand Yea whatsoever Jovinian opineth or rather raveth Dives being in torment had more regard to the cooling of his tongue Luk. 16.24 then to the tip of his eare Where sinne is there is punishment also saith S. Chrysostom and Dives his tongue spake many proud things saith he and Dives was full of loquacitie as the Interlineary Glosse observeth even from his very speech to Abraham and perchance his tongue was most tortured as having been most delighted and addulced with his daily delicious fare If any of Zeno or Jovinian his partisans will not beleeve that one bodily member is better then an other I could wish it might be beaten into them and that they might endure sound raps or blows on their heads which any other man yea naturall fools by naturall instinct would rather beare off upon the arms as objecting unto danger the member of lesse worth to save and defend the part more principall which hourely experience ratifieth I passe by all other his objections because I have stood too long on this and I come to the main Question Whether all sinnes are equall The answer is plainly negative Reasons are these First diversitie of sacrifices prove the inequalitie of offences the greater offence being usually expiated with the most costly sacrifice The sinne of the Priest was in the estimate of God as the sinne of the whole congregation and the offering of his sinne was a young bullock without blemish Levit. 4.3 If a Magistrate sinned he was to offer a kid of the goats a male without blemish vers 23. If an ordinarie man offended a female served the turn vers 28. and 32. whether it were of goats or lambes Where the best greatest and costliest of oblations doth not prove that the estate or the person of the Priest was better and more noble then the estate or person of the King or supreme Civill Magistrate which the Papists impertinently would prove from thence but the Priests greater sacrifice evinceth his sinne to be greater by reason of his greater knowledge For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of hosts Malachi 2.7 A second Reason may be this Greater punishments both criminall and capitall are ordained by the Law for some people more then for others But this can not be justly appointed unlesse there be degrees of sinne Therefore sinnes are not equall Concerning the Major view it evinced in these instances He that stealeth a man shall die Exod. 21.16 If he steal an ox or a sheep he shall restore five oxen for anox and foure sheep for a sheep Exod. 22.1 He that kills a man unwillingly shall be protected Exod. 21.13 if willingly the very Sanctuarie at the horns of the Altar shall not save him he shall die vers 14. The adulterie of common people was punished with common death Levit. 20.10 But the daughter of any Priest if she profane her self by playing the whore she profaneth her father she shall be burnt with fire Levit. 21.9 that is she shall be burnt alive The Minor is proved because God is just and rewardeth every man according to his works Revel 22.12 Thirdly the Scripture saith some are more wicked then others Jerem. 3.11 The back-sliding Israel hath justified her self more then treacherous Judah Aholibah was more corrupt in her inordinate love then Aholah Ezek. 23.11 And some shal have sorer punishment then others Heb. 10.29 There is a sin remissible a sin irremissible Matth. 12.31 Tyre and Sidon were more inclining to repentance then Chorazin and Bethsaida Matth. 11.21 Accordingly It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom then for them vers 24. There are some sinnes of infirmitie some of presumption and great transgressions Psal 19.13 Reward Babylon even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Revel 18.6 7. Not double asmuch as she hath deserved that were injustice but double asmuch as others drink of the wrath of God The proselyte of the Pharisees is twofold more the childe of hell then themselves Matth. 23.15 and some shall receive greater damnation vers 14. Genes 4.15 Vengeance shall be taken seven-fold on him who slayeth Cain Not seven-fold more then such a deed as murder deserveth but seven-fold more then is taken on some other men perchance seven-fold more then was taken on Cain himself For though it be a greater sinne to kill an innocent then a bloud-guilty wretch or murderer and more offensive to slay a brother then one of lesse kindred or acquaintance which may seem to be the case between Cain and Abel on the one side and Cain and his murderer on the other side yet if we consider that God after an especiall manner forbad any man to kill Cain that God ordained life as a punishment to Cain that to kill Cain had been a courtesie saith Hierom that Cain was to live to be a terrifying example to all murderers Lastly if we remember that to deterre all men from the murder of Cain God set a notorious mark upon him such a oneas never any untill this day had the like by reason of the extraordinarines thereof whether it were a brand or stamp in his forehead or that the earth quaked under him wheresoever he went or a preternaturall and unusuall shaking of his head or dreadfull tremors or convulsions over all his body of which the particular is as uncertain as the generall can not be doubted of namely that unto his terrors of conscience and a vagrant unsetled minde some outward evident mark was annexed distinguishing him from other men and in a sort forbidding any to murder him I say he that now should have killed Cain might justly seven-fold deserve Cains punishment and an other
sinne were his Corruptio personae Reatus Poena as he was considered by himself till he repented but as he was the Referree and Representor of mankinde the effects were The corruption of our nature our fault our guiltines our punishment till we be freed The effects of our originall sinne are sinnes actuall with all the penalties or punishments due to them Moreover that we may more distinctly enlarge this point and remove the doubtfulnesse of termes know that in a larger sense the actuall sinne of Adam may in a sort be said to be originall sinne it may be called Adams originall sinne as it was first and originally in him It may be originall sinne both of Adam and all his posterity because our naturall defects and all manner of sinnes flowed originally from this onely sinne as from a defiled fountain Yet properly this sinne was in him actually in us potentially in him explicitly in us implicitly in him personally in us naturally in him perse in us per accidens And that his first sinne or aversion from God may both be said to be his originall sinne and the cause also of our originall sinne the cause not physicall or naturall for he doth not traduce by the vertue of that sinne any real thing which is properly sinfull unto his posterity but it was and is the morall cause of our originall sinne As originall sinne is by some described namely to be propagated to be in all alike and to be in the humane creature at the beginning of his being or to be an hereditarie transgression so Adam had not originall sinne but onely his posterity As originall sinne is defined to be That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transgression that totall aversion of mankinde from God whereby we incurre death and damnation so was Adams sinne our originall sinne and he had originall sinne 3. Which the fuller to demonstrate let me insist on this point namely That sinne of Adam we sinned this way as we were in him materialiter though not formaliter As the severall members of a mans body united to his soul make one individuall person so all the branches of Adams posteritie with himself make one humane nature and are as it were but one by participation of the species * Fuerunt omnes in Adam quando peccavit fuerunt quidem in illo sed nondum nati erant ipsi All were in Adam when he sinned they were indeed in him but they were not yet born themselves saith Augustine De Civit. 13.14 and more punctually in the same Chapter * Nondum erat nobis singillatim creata distributa forma in qua singuli viveremus sed jam natura erat nobis seminalis ex qua propagaremur The form in which every one of us should live was not yet created and distributed to us but the seminall nature was alreadie of which we were to be propagated Anselm saith * Infans qui damnatur pro peccato originali non damnatur pro peccato Adam sed pro suo nam si ipse non haberet suum peccatum non damnaretur Aâ—sel De Partu Virginis cap. 26. The infant that is damned for originall sinne is not damned for the sinne of Adam but for his own for if he himself had not his own sinne he should not be damned And therefore Augustine Retractat 1.13 * Originale peccatum in parvulis cùm adbuc non utantur libero arbitrio voluntatis non absurdè vocatur voluntarium Originall sinne in infants though they have not yet the use of freewill is not absurdly called voluntary And Confess 1.7 * Imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est non animus infantium The weaknes of infantine members not the soul of infants is innocent Lastly De Peccat Meritis Remiss 3.8 as he calleth originall sinne oftentimes Alienum peccatum to shew it began not in us alone but was delivered to us came from without so in the same place he termeth it Peccatum proprium our selves sinning in and with Adam and having corruption in us by him It can not sink into my head that God would have imputed unto us Adams fault by his absolute irrespective decretory will of good pleasure but that he whose foresight reacheth to things that are not yea to things that shall never be much more to things certainly future of which in another place did foreknow and preconsider that every one of mankinde if they had been in Adams state and place would have done as Adam did Therefore let us not accuse God or lay the fault onely on Adam our selves would have done so For as one said concerning the thief on the Crosse confessing Christ when Christ was on the Crosse nailed naked pained reviled scorned dying and forsaken of his own Disciples Profectò ego non sic fecissem I should not have made so glorious a confession as the penitent thief did at that time So on the contrary I say and am fully perswaded I should have done as Adam did Let God be just and all men faulty for it would have been the fault of all men Yea I must go one step further and without boldnes justifiably say by verdict of Scripture it was the fault of all men all men did sinne that sinne in Adam It is not said Propter hominem but Per hominem Mors 1 Cor. 15.21 and Rom. 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In quo in whom all sinned Of the first man Adam are all these words By man and in whom to be understood and by him and in him all died and sinned saith the Apostle and sinned that sinne by which death came into the world Though the father of the faithfull payed tithes of all unto Melchisedec before Leviwas born and Abraham alone personally discharged that duty yet for all this the Apostle saith Hebr. 7.9 Levi also who receiveth tithes payed tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loyns of his father So on the contrary though Adam the universall father of mankinde did actuate that great offence long before we were created yet we also concurred in our kinde and were partakers in that iniquity For he stood Idealiter for us and we were in him our will in his our good and hurt in his and so farre as he received a law for us so farre as he represented us so farre when he sinned did we sinne in him with him and by him And if the worthy S. Augustine may say as is before cited * De Peccat Merit Remiss 1.10 Omnes eramus ille unus Adam I hope I may as well say Adam ille erat nos omnes I am sure Prosper in his Sentences pickt out of Augustine saith that * Primus homo Adam sic oâ—im defunctus est ut tamen post illum secundu homo sit Chrisius cum tot hominum miilia inter illum hunc orta sint idâ—ò manifestum est pertinere ad illum omnem qui ex
illa successione propagatus nascitur sicut ad istum pertinet omnit qui gratiae largitate in illo renascitur unde fit vt totum genus kumannm quodam modo sint homines duo PRIMUS SEâ—VNDUS Prosp Sent. 299. The first man Adam so died in time past that yet after him Christ is the second man although so many thousands of men be born between that and this and therefore it is evident that every one who is born propagated from that succession belongs to that former as whosoever is born again by the liberalitie of grace pertains to this latter whence it comes to passe that all mankinde in some sort consist in two men THE FIRST and THE SECOND Yea the whole world except Christ onely as men are the first Adam and the first Adam as he beleeved in Christ to come is not now the first but a branch of the second Adam What Christ did for us we are said to do what Adam did misdo as he represented us we may justly be said to misdo with him Genes 4.10 The voice of thy brothers bloud crieth unto me Sanguinum yea Seminum saith the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Rabbins whom howsoever the Jesuit Cornelius à Lapide faulteth yet I will commend for their witty invention That God seemed as it were to heare the cries of all those many little ones which ever might have descended from Abel and them Cain killed and their bloud he shed even ere they were and their bloud cried in Abels So we consented with Adam and in him all sinned saith our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our latest Translation hath it For that all have sinned The Bishops Bible in as much as we have all sinned So Erasmus and some others yet our latest Translation alloweth a place in the margin for in whom it is rendred by the Vulgat In quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not here taken for a Preposition of whose various constructions see the Grammarians none of which constructions afford so full and punctuall a sense to this place as if we render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Preposition by it self and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the Dative of the subjunctive relative article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Genevian readeth it in whom and interprets the words in whom to be in Adam and so indeed it may be read and must be meant for though the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be otherwise rendred and used yet divers times it is confounded with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and necessarily is so to be understood View in one Chapter two places Hebr. 9.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solummodo in cibis potibus Which stood onely in meats and drinks as our very late Translatours have it And vers 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testamentum enim in mortuis ratum est so word for word is it construed So Demosthenes hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his acquiescere Basil in his Epistle to Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In hac solitudine So we usually say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In nobis and the like This reading being established let us search the meaning of these words In whom or in which and to what they are referred There are but foure things to which these words can possibly have relation First unto the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then the sense is By one man sinne entred into the world in which world all have sinned This exposition is very absurd For first it is nothing to the intent of the Apostle who proveth that we fell in Adam and are raised by Christ but how conduceth this unto that sense Secondly the senselesnesse of the words is most ridiculous being thus read As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men in which world all have sinned The Spirit of wisedome would not speak so nor the God of order so disjointedly The second exposition is as unlikely and that readeth it In which death all have sinned but as * In peccato moriuntur homines non in morte peccant Aug. Cont. duas Epist Pelag. 4.4 S. Augustine saith Men die in sinne not sinne in death The phrase is improper yet grant that some sinne in death yet it is most untrue That in death all sinne The third word to which In whom or which may be referred is Sinne In which sinne all have sinned and thus * Aug. De Peccat Merit Remis 1.10 Augustine did interpret it once And if it were so to be read it is all one in effect to say In Adam all sinned and In which sinne of Adam all sinned But * Vide Aug. Cont. 2. Epist Felag 4.4 Augustine afterward more accuratly examining the place rejecteth that exposition and confirmeth another by the authority of S. Hilarie And indeed Grammaticall construction overthroweth the sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the feminine gender to which the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can have no good reference Therefore the last exposition is best which renders it In quo In which Adam all have sinned So it is expounded by Hilarie Augustine and Ambrose by Origen Chrysostom Theophylact Oecumenius and generally both by the Greek and Latine Fathers and the Apostle strongly argueth for this sense verse 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners In him we sinned And whoso shall throughly weigh both the precedent and subsequent dependances must needs acknowledge that the words In whom or In which do point at Adam onely in whom as in a masse we were contained and in him sinned Photius thus * In hoc ipsi Adam commorimur quòd ipsicompeccavimus ille initium dedit peccato nos adjutores illi fuimus In this we our selves die with Adam that our selves have sinned with him he gave the beginning to sinne we have been helpers to him And Neither by the Devill who sinned before the woman nor by the woman who sinned before her husband but by Adam from whom all mortality draweth its beginning did sinne truly enter into the world and death by sinne So farre Origen Augustine likewise * In Adamo omnes peccaverunt quando omnes ille unus homo fuerunt Aug. De Baptismo parvulorum 1.10 In Adam all have sinned when all were that one man So punctually speaketh he For we were in Adam radically seminally representatively Adam was our head he did lead the whole body into evill he was our parent all the issue of him were disinherited by him Augustine thus * Peccavimus omnes in Adamo voluntariè non voluntate nostrâ propriâ— sed voluntate illius cum quo in quo eramus unus homo atque vna omnium voluntas Aug. Epist 23. Ad Bonifacium We have all sinned in Adam willingly not by our own will but by his will with whom and in whom we were one man and one will
the branches being saved the root also should not be saved But in his book De praescript advers Haereticos as it is cited by Bellarmine there is no mention of Tatian in Rhenanus his Edition Augustine saith of the Tatians and Encratites * Quòd contradicunt primorum hominum saluti Aug. De Haeresib cap. 25. That they gainsay the salvation of the first men Where Bellarmine used another Edition then Erasmus his or was mistaken in the collation He who will see more into this point let him consult with Bellarmine in the place above cited and Salianus ad Annum Mundi 930. where he justly taxeth Rupert for saying in this third book on Genes chap. 31. * Salvationem Adami à multit liberè negari à nullo satìs firmiter defendi That the salvation of Adam is freely denied by many and by none strongly enough defended And he bringeth many authorities and proofs to the contrary From Irenaeus he bids them blush for saying Adam was not saved and more vehemently That by saying so they make themselves Hereticks and Apostates from the truth and Advocates for the Serpent and Death God cursed not Adam and Eve but the earth and the Serpent Yea before God pronounced any punishment against Eve or Adam even in the midst of his cursing of the Serpent with the same breath he both menaced Satan and comforted Adam and Eve with the gracious promise of the Messiah Genes 3.15 Now there was never any unto whom God vouchsafed a speciall promise of Christ but they were saved Indeed the Apostle reckoneth not Adam among the faithfull ones Hebr. 11. but one reason of this omission is because he entreateth of such faithfull ones onely as were much persecuted which Adam was not so farre as is recorded If it be further objected That God is called THE GOD OF ABRAHAM ISAAC AND JACOB Exod. 3.6 Matth. 22.32 and is no where called THE GOD OF ADAM let it be answered That Adam is called THE SONNE OF GOD Luke 3.38 And I think he is too severe a judge who saith a sonne of God is damned The Targum or Chaldee Paraphrase set forth by Rivius on the Canticles chap. 1. vers 1. saith * Et veuit dies Sabbati protexit eum aperuit os suum dixit Psalmum Cantici diei Sabbati That the first song that ever was made was indited by Adam in the time when his sinne was forgiven him Damianus à Goes De Moribus Aethiopum makes this the belief of Zagazabo and the Ethiopians for whom he negotiated That Christs soul descended into Hell for Adams soul pag. 93. and that Adam was redeemed by Christ from Hell pag. 55. How glorious was it for Christ to save his first sheep and how would the Devil glorie if it were otherwise Adams fig-leaves may be thought to be sharp afflictive and penitentiall Epiphanius Haeres 46. calleth Adam Holy and saith We beleeve he is among those Fathers whom Christ reckoneth alive not dead God is not the God of the dead but of the living Irenaeus saith Adam humbly bare the punishment laid upon him Can humility be damned then may pride be saved Josephus 1.2 recordeth That Adam foretold the universall destruction of the World one by the floud the other by fire And can the first of Mankinde the first King Priest and Prophet of the World be condemned Others probably conjecture that before his death he called the chief of his children grand-children and their descendants and gave them holy and ghostly counsel as Abraham did Genes 18.19 and Jacob Genes 49.1 c. and Moses Deuteron 31.1 c. Salianus fits him a particular speech at his death and a witty Epitaph Feuardentius on Irenaeus thus relateth Nicodemus Christs Disciple in the History ascribed to him OF THE PASSION AND RESVRRECTION OF THE LORD reporteth That our Lord Jesus Christ when he descended into Hell in his soul spake thus to Adam and held his hand PEACE BE VNTO THEE VVITH ALL THY SONNES MY IVST ONES But Adam falling on his knees such spirituall knees as before his spirituall hand which Christ held while both their bodies were in the grave weeping-ripe thus prayed with a loud voice * Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti me nec delectâsti inimicos meos super me Domine Deus clamavi ad te sanâsti me eduxisti ab inferis animam meam salvâstime à descendentibus in lacum I will magnifie thee Lord because thou hast received me and hast not made glad mine enemies over me Lord God I have cried unto thee and thou hast healed me Thou hast brought up my soul from Hell thou hast saved me from those that go down to the pit Thus Salianus in his Scholia ad Annum 930. Another ancient Apocryphal book affirmeth that Adam repented Didacus Vega in his second Sermon on the fifth penitentiall Psalme pag. 443. thus Leonardus de Vtino in his Book De Legibus Sermon de Poenitentia saith That Adam repented not of his sinne but remained obstinate till the death of Abel but when he saw him lye dead at his feet wallowed in his bloud and yet pale and as in a glasse saw the deformity of death he began to repent Strabo saith He was so sorrowfull that he vowed chastity for ever and would have performed it if an Angel had not injoyned him the contrary And from the authority of Josephus he saith Adam was so sorry for Abel that he wept an whole hundred yeares But I beleeve saith Vega He rather wept for the cause which was sinne then for the very death of Abel Ludovicus Vertomannus in his sixth Book fourth Chapter of his journey to India hath recorded that a Mahumetan Merchant told him that at the top of an high mountain in the Iland of Zaylon subject to the King of Narsinga there is a den in which Adam after his fall lived and continued very penitently And though their tradition rests on an idle conjecture because there is yet seen the print of the steps of his feet almost two spannes long for how should they know they were his feet rather then some giants and because how Adam should come to this Iland and why cannot be shewed yet so farre as is probable we will joyn issue with their beleef to wit That he was penitent and so saved Thus much be spoken concerning the salvation of Adams soul Concerning Adams actuall sinne though I said truly before That as it was private and personall it was not imputed to us yet I must needs say as it was ideall and representative it was and is imputed to us He who denieth this let him also deny that Christs active and passive Merits are imputed to us Neither can the Divine providence be taxed with rigour much lesse with injustice for imputing Adams sinne unto us For first he imputeth not our own actuall and personall iniquities but forgiveth us both this sinne of Adam and all manner of
be a change of number as Vatablus stileth it And though the Interlinearie bible readeth it patrum eorum and Vatablus so expounds it but reads it patrum ejus why may it not be expounded patris ejus being accordant to that following peccatum matris ejus and whether it be patrum eorum or patrum ejus or patris ejus I see not but originall sinne may be meant in both places as being expressed onely in the singular rather then the many actuall transgressions especially since our singular originall sinne came to him by many fathers and it was not the intent of Gods Spirit in this Psalme to extenuate the sinnes of the wicked one's forefathers and to plaister this over with the title of one single iniquitie Indeed Theodoret on the place saith thus a Paterna virtus saepe siliis peccantibus prosuit ut fides Abrahae Judaeis Davidis pietas Solomoni The fathers vertue hath often profited the transgressing children as Abrahams faith did the Jews and Davids pietie Solomon So Cesar at his pardoning of those in Marseil and in Athens who took part with Pompey in the civill warres said They were excused for their ancestours sake as contrarily b Pravitas pattum filiis similibus poenam adauget The wickednesse of parents increaseth the punishment of like children saith Theodoret. I answer That all this speaketh of temporal chastisements none of eternall horrour infligible upon good children for the sinnes of their parents When God saith I will visit the sinnes of the parents if it implyed the visiting them with like sinnes as it doth not yet it is of them that hated him also and by their personall hating him deserved to have one sinne punished with an other for the hatred of the sonnes is meant as annexed to the sinnes of the fathers This any one may see that will read Ezekiel 18.14 Lo if a wicked man beget a sonne that doth not like his father he shall not die for the iniquitie of his father he shall surely live vers 17. God hath no pleasure that the wicked should die vers 23. And hath he delight that the righteous shall perish eternally for his wicked ancestours The drift of the whole chapter is against it and proveth his wayes to be equall because a wicked man repenting shall not die for his own transgressions vers 25. c. And shall a righteous man die or be condemned for he meaneth the death of the soul for the offences of others Who ever perished being innocent Even as I have seen they that plow iniquitie and sow wickednesse reap the same Job 4.7 8. and God rewardeth every man according not to the works of his forefathers but according to his own works Rom. 2.6 Mat. 16.27 which seemeth to be taken from the Psalmograph who ascribeth to the Lord not injustice not severitie but grace and mercie in his judicature Vnto thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou rewardest every man according to his work Psal 62.12 And Every one shall give account of himself Rom. 14.12 Every one shall receive the things done in his bodie according to that he hath done whether it be good or evil 2. Cor. 5.10 If this be not enough more may be added with an easie hand to the strengthening of this sixth Proposition now chiefly questioned God never damned a good childe for the fathers personall wickednesse I now come to the seventh Proposition 10. No personall sinnes can be communicated Indeed they who maintain the traduction of souls may if that be granted better defend the propagation of actuall iniquities But that opinion being false ridiculous exploded and hereticall of which otherwhere in this Tractate the superstructive is founded on slippery ice and these terms To propagate communicate derive transmit and transfuse sinnes personall are meerly amphibologicall and dubious phrases If they mean as the words do signifie let them say that the matter of sinne actuall is transfused or the form or both The matter is the action the form is the obliquitie thereof both these do vanish Doth the guilt of punishment passe over c Reatus est vinculum inter poenam peccatum quasi medium interjectum Guilt is a band joyning punishment sin as a thing coming between them And this band is rather in God then in man to tie or untie at his pleasure d Actus qui jam transiit dicitur manere quoad reatum non quia rectus sit aliquid sed quia à tali actu denominatur quis reus Reatus peccati non est aliqua res cùm non sit substantia vel accidens sed solùm maneat in occultis legibus Dei mentibus Angelorum An act that is past already is said to remain in regard of the guilt not that the guilt is any thing but because a man is denominated guiltie from such an act The guilt of sinne is not any thing since it is neither a substance nor an accident but onely remains in the secret laws of God and mindes of Angels as Holcot De Imputab pec truely gathereth from S. Augustine The guilt is not the personall sinne it self but the effect thereof and our question is not now of the descent of punishments Doth the guilt of sinne take hold of the childe they cannot say so unlesse here also they confound the effect with the cause and this is but Petitio principii in other terms Again how heterodoxall is it to say A man begetteth a sonne guiltie of all his actuall iniquities For then though the father may be saved by his after-repentance yet the sonne who knoweth not perchance nor ever heard inckling of his fathers horrid and secret sinnes according to their position may be damned for them Do they mean the stain and spot is communicated I answer The stain and spot is not the actuall sinne but the fruit of it inherent in the soul of the offender and not transmissible by the bodie and is onely metaphorically termed the stain having no positive realitie transmissible Zanchius himself relates their opinion thus e Peccatorum quae aliquis parens committit labem ceu contagium justo Dei judicio redundare in ejus corpus sanguinem per ejus porrò sanguinem semen in filios quos ex illo semine it à vitiosè affecto gignit transfundi That the spot and as it were contagion of the sinnes which any parent committeth doth redound by Gods just judgement upon his bodie and bloud and is further transfused by his bloud and seed into the sonnes whom he begets of that seed thus viciously affected I answer That justo Dei judicio is brought in tanquam Deus aliquis è machina to make things vast improbable seem likely passable but the vain impertinencie of these words is easily observable by any who knoweth that no manner of Gods judgements are any way unjust Secondly are not sinnes of omission personall sinnes and are they communicated
and involved in originall sinne which they either knew not or considered not Lastly when I had taken these pains to frame this chapter in defence of a point which I never held to be questioned it grieved me to heare my ingenious friend so much to defend the new Writers and to dance after the new pipe Candid and favourable expositions I shall love while I live and both use towards others and desire to be used towards me but violent forced farre-fetched interpretations as this hath been I can no way allow For since reformation hath been so sharp-sighted as to finde fault in all things to esteem the Schoolmen as dunses though they are thought dunses that so censure them to account the Fathers as silly old men or as children though they are but babes that admire them not to disregard Provinciall Councels yea Generall Councels as the acts of weak and sinfull men though they are the chiefest the highest earthly-living-breathing Judges of Scriptures controversed which cavils against former times I have heard belched forth by the brain-sick zealous ignorants of our times since we have hissed out the Papists and think they speak against their own consciences when they maintain the infallibilitie and inerrabilitie of the Pope May not Bucer and Martyr erre Must all new opinions needs be true and defended with might and main with wrested part-taking over-charitable defenses rather then a small errour shall be acknowledged If such milde dealing had been used against times precedent we could not have found as some now have done about two thousand errours of the Papists But thus much if not too much shall suffice concerning these men and this matter with this cloze That Zanchius himself in the place above cited saith thus against that new-fangled opinion t Neque enim aliud peccatum in posteros transfusum est quà m quod ipsius quoque fuit Adami fuit enim inobedientia cum privatione justitiae originalis totius naturae corruptione Deinde etiam non propter aliud peccatum nos sumus adjudicati morti quà m propter illud propter quod Adamus Ejusdem enim peccati stipendium fuit mors Illi autem fuit dictum Morte Morieris propter inobedientiam c. For no other sinne was transfused to posteritie then that which also was Adams for it was disobedience with a privation of originall justice and corruption of the whole nature Besides we are sentenced to death for no other sinne then for that for which Adam also was for death was the wages of the same sinne Now it was said to him THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH for disobedience c. Now let them say if they can that Adam was sentenced to death for any sinne of predecessour or successour or any other sinne of himself but one onely I have maintained and do resolve Death was inflicted for his first sinne onely Therefore by Zanchius his true Divinitie against Bucer and Martyr and their peremptorie defenders Not all not many sinnes of all of many of any of our predecessours but the first sinne onely of Adam is transfused to posteritie nor are they guiltie or condemnable for any other preceding actuall sinne or sinnes of others whosoever O Father of consolation O God of mercies who knowest that every one of us have sinnes personall more then enow to condemne us lay not I beseech thee the sinnes of our fathers or fore-fathers or our own if it be thy holy will to our charge to punish us in this life present or our originall sinne in and by Adam or our own actuall misdeeds to trouble our consciences by despair or to damne us in the world to come but have mercy upon us have mercy upon us according to thy great mercy in Christ Jesus our alone Lord and Saviour Amen CHAP. VIII 1. Original sinne came not by the Law of Moses but was before it in the World 2. God hath good reason and justice to punish us for our original sinne in Adam Gods actions defended by the like actions of men 3. Husbands represent their wives The men of Israel represented the women Concerning the first-born of men and beasts The primogeniture and redemption of the first-born 4. The whole bodie is punished for the murder committed by one hand Corporations represent whole cities and towns and Parliaments the bodie of the Realm Their acts binde the whole Kingdome Battelling champions and duellists ingage posteritie 5. S. Peter represented the Apostles The Apostles represent sometimes the Bishops sometimes the whole Clergie The Ministers of the Convocation represent the whole Church of England The authoritie of Generall Councels National Synods must be obeyed 6. Private spirits censured Interpretation of Scripture not promiscuously permitted An Anabaptisticall woman displayed 7. An other woman reproved for her new-fangled book in print Scriptures not to be expounded by anagrams in Hebrew much lesse in English but with reverence How farre the people are to beleeve their Pastours 8. Saul represented an entire armie Joshua and the Princes binde the Kingdome of Israel for long time after 9. Christ represented us Christ and Adam like in some things in others unlike Christ did and doth more good for us then Adam did harm IT hath been plentifully evidenced that death entred into the world by sinne and that both Adam and we were sentenced to die for one sinne the first sinne onely of Adam onely and not for any other sinne or sinnes of him or any other our remote propinque or immediate parents and that death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 I adde Death shall live fight and prevail though not reigne from Moses unto the end of the world For when this mortall shall have put on immortality then then and not till then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory 1. Cor. 15.54 and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1. Cor. 15.26 Aquine on Roman 5. lect 4. thus Because corporall death reigned from Adam by whom originall sinne came into the world unto Moses under whom the Law was given and death is the effect of sinne especially originall sinne it appeareth there was originall sinne in the world before the Law and lest we might say they died for actuall sinnes the Apostle saith Death reigned even over those who sinned not proprio actu as children So he 2. The things themselves then being unquestionable and before elucidated to the full That death is inflicted for originall sinne and that we all and every of us except Christ have contracted originall sinne it followeth justly by the judgement of God that death is appointed unto us for this sinne Tertullian lib. 1. contra Marcion a Homo damnatur in mortem ob unius arbusculi delibationem pereunt jam omnes quì nullum Paradisi cespitem nôrunt Man is condemned to death for tasting of a small
tree and now they all perish that never were acquainted with Paradise and let me adde They are most justly punished Neither let man cavill or cast aspersion of unrighteousnes upon God For though men be but of yesterday yea though the childe be born but this minute yet by reason of their originall sinne in Adam and with him they were justly sentenced in Adam unto death almost six thousand yeares ago For though God needeth no defence from the actions and behaviour of men yet from their usances and customes generally received from their right and equitie daily practised let us ascend to behold the blamelesse course in the like of the Almightie Do we finde a young snake viper or other venemous or hurtfull beasts birds or the egges of a cocatrice we destroy them not for the harm which they have done but for the kinde sake and for the spoil which they may do Do not prodigall great heirs waste and scatter abroad estates ensured to posteritie Do they not cut off intailes annihilate and void perpetuities draw inheritances drie in smoke and consume them wholly on gut or groin to the everlasting prejudice of their issues Did not the disobedience of Queen Vashti unto her husband do a wrong not to the King Ahasuerus onely but to all the princes and all the people Esther 1.16 and as being exemplarie was punished accordingly If the whordome of the High-priests daughter be a profanation of her father Levit. 21.9 and therefore she was to be burnt alive though other whores were put to milder deaths if an evil done to a brother striketh up to the abuse of the father as it doth for God rendered the wickednesse of Abimelech which he did unto his father in flaying his seventie brethren Judges 9.56 then why might not the wickednesse of a father descend in some sort upon the children in a storm of wrath and punishment 3. The husband representeth the wife what bargain he maketh she maketh they are one flesh The great commandment to keep the sabbath was given to sonne and daughter to servants and to strangers but not to the wife She was forbidden in her husband which the rest were not but dividedly so was Eve forbid in Adam not inhibited her self but in him who represented her The men of Israel represented the women and the women had good by the actions or passions of the men The females were redeemed in the males every male gave a ransome for his soul unto the Lord all and every one rich and poore alike even half a shekel and they gave this offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their souls Exod. 30.15 Women were partakers of this benefit and in the mens atonement was the womans comprized Neither were the females presented to the Lord but the males the males onely and the women in them and by them but not in their own persons In Gods due claim to the beasts these three conditions were to be observed First that the beasts should be clean and so not swine not horses camels dromedaries elephants or the like but onely these three kindes sheep ruther-beasts and goats were the Lords unlesse you will make up the number foure with an asse which was to be redeemed with a lambe or his neck to be broken Exod. 13.13 For though it be said Exod. 13.2 Sanctifie unto me all the first-born whatsoever openeth the wombe among the children of Israel both of man and beast it is mine Yet you must not extend the words to dogs or cats or things unclean but onely to such clean beasts as God hath appointed for sacrifices Yea though it be said Numb 18.15 The firstling of unclean beasts thou shalt redeem You must know there is a double uncleannesse First that which is unclean throughout all its species as swine and horses and the like Secondly that which is unclean by accident and is contra-opposed to perfect and unblemished Levit. 22.22 23. as blinde or broken or maimed or having a wen or scurvie or scabbed or which hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts such beasts even of clean beasts as sheep goats c. the Lord counted unclean and claimed them not Those that were thus unclean by accident were to be redeemed and so that place of Numb is to be understood and not to be wire-drawn as if God did claim the unclean beasts to be his The second condition That those clean beasts should be first-born Thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix and every firstling that cometh of a beast Exod. 13.12 Thirdly these clean first-born or sirstlings must not be the females though they first open the matrix but the males 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagints have it Exod. 13.12 The males shall be the Lords Semblably in the case of mankinde women were not the Lords claim but the men onely and the women included in the men For though it be said in generall terms Exod. 13.13 All the first-born among thy children thou shalt redeem yet the women were not redeemed but in the men and the men onely were offered Luke 2.23 Every male that openeth the wombe shall be holy Openeth the wombe by extramission and ejection not by intromission and injection as the Hebrew phrase importeth the Greek is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnis masculus primogenitus as Beza reads it Omne masculinum as the Vulgat hath it according to that Exod. 22.29 The first-born of thy sonnes thou shalt give unto me From whence let me inferre this conclusion That the first-born had his denomination from the mothers first birth or parturition as well as from the fathers first generation Exod. 11.5 From the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the maid-servant that is behinde the mill The Septuagints stile the first-born not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with reference to the fathers act but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the mother and Christ is not called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a carnall father for he had none or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.18 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 2.7 her first-born sonne Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ill interpreted by the old Bishops bibles Mat. 1.25 first-begotten and by the Genevean translation as ill rendered Luke 2.7 forsaking their good rendering of it Mat. 1.25 But our late translation in both places aptly hath it the first-born and not first-begotten Though Jacob saith Genes 49.3 Reuben thou art my first-born yet Leah might have said the same words as well for he was the first-born of both Yea I dare say if a man had more wives at once as Jacob had or successively as many others the first male childe of each of these women by the same man may justly be called his first-born and every one of these first-born children if they had lived under the Leviticall law had been consecrated to God And therefore Reuben having lost his birth-right the double
immediately divine and infallible revelation there is none at all or if any be it is in some of those learned ones who are lawfully called to be the members of our Church representative And if any defects be in learned men there are more in unlearned But of this point otherwhere 8 Another observation there is That kings and supream Officers do represent the people committed to their charge And here I will tell you in honour of the Royall Majesty what z Lib. 2. contra Appionem Flavius Jose phus saith We offer daily sacrifices for the Emperours and that not onely on ordinary dayes of the common cost of all the Jews but also when we offer no other sacrifices of the common charge no not for our children We give this high honour to the Emperours onely which we do not give to any other man This he saith they practised in the behalf of heathen Emperours different from them in Religion how much more ought we by all lawfull means exceed them in the honouring of our Kings Espencaeus calleth a Prince columbam Dei Gods dove Saul is termed the beauty of Israel 2. Sam. 1.19 David is styled the light candle or lamp of Israel 2. Sam. 21.17 Josiah was the breath of our nostrils saith Jeremy Lament 4.20 Are not these two latter phrases ideall are their persons themselves onely Again is not Saul called the head of the Tribes of Israel 1. Sam. 15.17 and David the head over Nations 2. Sam. 22.44 a Hom. 2. ad popul Antioch Chrysostom intituled Theodosius The head and supream over all men on earth And therefore as the people reap benefits extraordinary by their Kings for Saul clothed you in scarlet with other delights he put on ornaments of gold upon your apparell saith David 2. Sam. 1.24 so for their Kings offences they justly may be punished 2. Sam. 24.17 Lo I have sinned saith David but these sheep what have they done Yet the pestilence worse then the bane or rot fell upon those sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Apollo being incensed against the King Agamemnon sent an evil disease upon his army and the people perished The story is memorable of Saul 1. Sam. 14.24 c. He took a foolish and rash oath hurtfull to his own souldiers profitable for the enemy Neither Jonathan nor the Captains nor the people did swear with him but in him and by him and through his oath yet it bound both the people and himself yea tied aswell Jonathan who heard it not and knew it not as those who were present and heard it for the lot from God drew Jonathan out as faulty and punishable for his fathers adjuration who sware expresly by name the death of Jonathan if he were faulty vers 39. yet the love of the people delivered him and as I think the father did not much care to break his oath In this fact Sauls person represented the whole army and the people for their own particular held themselves wrapped up to obedience in his oath But what do I instance in slighter matters when a proof is pregnant That the chief governours oaths binde the whole nation their posterity for evermore while their Polity lasted Joshua unadvisedly without counselling with God made peace and league with the Gibeonites the descendants of Canaan that servant of servants to let them live in the lowest rank of slaves and the Princes of the congregation sware unto them Josh 9.15 And though all the congregation murmured against the Princes vers 18. from whence I conclude that the people consented not to the treaty much lesse were sworn to it yet the Princes resolved justly and conscionably We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them vers 19. And vers 20. thus We will even let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we sware unto them And accordingly Joshua freed them from the intended slaughter of the angry Israelites vers 26. That this oath concerned not the people then living onely but reached also unto posterity is apparent 2. Sam. 21.1 c. When for the breach of this oath committed about foure hundred yeares after the Lord himself taxeth Saul and his bloudy house because he slew the Gibeonites and therefore sent purposely a trienniall famine upon the land and Gods wrath was not satisfied till the Gibeonites were appeased by the death of Sauls posterity And these 5 things are yet observable First Saul sought to slay the Gibeonites in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah v. 2. Secondly God commanded Moses to destroy all the inhabitants of the land whereof the Gibeonites were part as they themselves confessed Josh 9.24 Thirdly what was the oath of the Princes onely is said to be the oath of the children of Israel as it is 2. Sam. 21.2 because it concerned them for ever Fourthly after the punishment for this cause inflicted God was intreated for the land Fifthly it was about foure hundred yeares after the oath of Joshua and the Princes when God thus severely vindicated the breach thereof by Saul upon Sauls posterity 9 Lastly let us diligently consider how much Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour hath done for us representing as it were our persons and what we perform and shall obtain in him and by him Isa 53.4 Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows which is applied to him Matth. 8.19 The force of which words is expressed by the Apostle 1 Peter 2.24 Christ his own felf bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree or to the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by his stripes ye were healed S. Paul saith Christ died for our sinnes 1. Corinth 15.3 Christ tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 And in the next verse We be justified by his bloud and We shall be saved from wrath by him He hath blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary unto us and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse Coloss 2.14 And By him God hath made peace through the bloud of his crosse and reconciled all things unto himself by Christ Coloss 1. vers 20. He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight vers 22. He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Ye are buried with him in baptisme wherein also ye are risen with him and you being dead he hath quickned with him as it is most divinely expressed Coloss 2.12.13 In Christ we are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes 2.22 Our life is hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 And in the verse following Christ is our life Ye be risen with Christ Coloss 3.1 God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here whereas in the place of Exodus it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also in the Septuagint the first place is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Leviticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well be expounded one manner of pleading their causes as there was one law This I am sure of the verb is so used Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill he plead my cause Why may not then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the pleading of ones cause And why may not the meaning of our Apostle be That as Adam was ostium mortis The doore of death so Christ is clavis resurrectionis The key of the resurrection as Tertullian sweetly calleth him And as by Adam all and every one was guilty of death and damnation so by Christs merit every one shall arise to free himself from it if he can and to plead wherefore he should not be condemned to defend himself and answer for himself as Paul did Acts 26.2 to apologize And herein Adam and Christ to be like That as every one was made guilty by one of condemnation so every one for Christs all-sufficient condignity shall be permitted yea enabled to speak for himself why the sentence shall not be executed But these things I leave to the Professours of the Greek tongue and suo quisque judicio abundet So much for the second exposition of the words and for the similitudes and dissimilitudes between Adam and Christ from which resulteth That Adam representing us did not so much hurt us as Christ representing us did do good unto us And therefore since we are acquitted from sinne from all sinnes originall and actuall since we are acquitted from eternall death and have grace and abundance of grace and the gift of righteousnesse and shall have life eternall and shall reigne in life by ones obedience by one onely Jesus Christ who in his life and on the altar of the crosse merited all these things for us it is no hard measure no iniquity of God if for Adams sinne and disobedience when he sustained our persons both himself and his posterity in his loyns implicitly consenting with him be appointed to die And thus much shall suffice for the first generall Question upon the words of the Text. The second followeth Drusius towards the end of his Preface before his book called Enoch thus * Haec alia quae hoc libro continentur ut in aliis omnibus à me unquam editis aut edendis subjicio libens Ecclesiae Catholicae judicio à cujus recto sensu si dissentio non er◠pertinax These and other things which are contained in this book as also in all other books which have been or shall be set forth by me I willingly submit to the censure of the Catholick Church from whose right judgement if I dissent I will not be pertinacious O Deity incomprehensible and Trinity in Unity in all respects superexcellent and most admirable with all the faculties of my soul and body I humbly beg of thee to shew thy mercy upon me for Jesus Christ his sake and O blessed Redeemer accept my prayer and present it with favour to the throne of grace where thou canst not be denied If thou O gracious Jesu art not able to help me and to save my sinfull soul let me die comfortlesse and let my soul perish but since thy power is infinite I beseech thee to make me one of those whom thou bringest to more happinesse then all our enemies could bring to miserie Heare me for thy tender mercies sake and for thy glorious name O great Mediatour Jesu Christ AMEN AMEN MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THe question propounded and explained 2. Armenius or rather his sonne Zoroaster dead and revived 3. Antillus dead and living again because the messenger of death mistook him in stead of Nicandas Nicandas died in his stead 4. A carelesse Christian died and recovered life lived an Anchorite twelve yeares died religiously SECT 1. THe second Question which from the words of my Text I propounded is this Whether such as have been raised from the dead did die the second time yea or no because it is said It is appointed for men once to die I speak not of those who have been thought to be dead and have been stretch't out and yet their soul hath been within them though divers for divers daies and upon severall sicknesses have had neither heat nor breathing discernable but onely of such who have suffered a true separation of their souls from their bodies Whether these have again delivered up the ghost and died I make my question 2. Before I come to mention those whom the Scripture recordeth to be truly raised I hold it not amisse to propound to your view a few stories out of other authours Theodoret lib. 10. de fine judicio hath two strange relations The first is out of Plato of one Armenius but Clemens Alexandrinus Stromat 5. relateth from Zoroaster himself that it was Zoroaster the sonne of Armenius He who onely of all the world laughed so soon as he was born saith Plin. 7.16 and was so famous a Magician One of these two either father or sonne the twelfth day after he and others fell in the battell and was to be buried ante pyram constitutus revixit and being come to himself told what he had seen apud inferos namely that his soul being divided from his bodie came with many others who died with him to an admirable and incredible place in which there were two gulfs opes or ruptures of the earth and two open places of heaven right over them In the midst of these hiatus or gulfs judges did fit who when judgement was ended bade the just souls ascend by the heavenly opennes and gaps the judges sowing on their breasts the notes of their judgement But the souls of the wicked men were commanded to go on the left hand and to be hurried to hell carrying with them on their backs the memoriall of their passed life But as for himself being now come in fight the judges bade him diligently heare and see all things and tell all those things which were done when he revived These are sayings worthy of Philosophy saith Theodoret. 3 A second storie is cited in the same place by Theodoret from Plutarch among those things which he wrote De anima Sositiles Heracleon and I saith Plutarch were present when Antillus told us this of himself The Physicians thought Antillus to be dead but he came to himself as one out of a deep sleep and neither said nor did any other thing * Quod emetae mentis signum possit censeri which might argue him to be crazy or light-headed but he told us that he was dead and that he was again revived and that his death upon that sicknesse
was not altogether irrevocable but that the messengers who brought him to judgement were sharply blamed by their governours because they brought Antillus in stead of Nicandas Within a while after Nicandas died and Antillus recovered life and health And Plutarch in my opinion seemeth to insinuate that he was present at the recovery of him Of both these if each particular were true that they were dead and relived we may boldly averre that they died again Neither doth Plato Plutarch or Theodoret doubt of it As strange a storie though more remote from our subject you shall finde in Alexander ab Alexandro Genialium dierum 6.21 4 An other istance you shall finde in Bellarmine De arte bene moriendi lib. 2. cap. 1. taken out of Joannes Climachus in scala sua grad 6. who relates thus of a man that died twice In his first life saith he he lived most negligently but dying and his soul being perfectly separated from his bodie after one houre he returned again and he desired Climachus and the rest to depart Whereupon they walled up the cell and he lived as an Anchoret within the cell twelve yeares speaking to no man till he was ready to die again eating nothing but bread and drinking water sitting so he astonishedly revolved those things onely which he had seen in his separation with so earnest a thought that he never changed countenance but continuing in that amazement secretly wept bitterly When he was at deaths doore the second time they forced open the entrance into the cell and coming to him humbly desired him to speak some words of doctrine He answered nothing but this onely b Nemo qui revera mortis memoriam agnoverit peccare unquam poterit The serious remembrance of death will not consist with sinne The like storie you may finde in Venerable Bede All these if they lived again died again and rose not to life immortall And in this sense is that averred Wisd 2.1 Never was any man known to have returned from the grave viz. not to die again for otherwise some were known to have been raised From these I come more especially to speak of such whom the word of God reporteth to have been raised MOst gracious God who didst breathe into the face of man the breath of life and at thy pleasure drawest it forth again out of his nostrils grant that we make such use of this present life that we may see love and enjoy thee in the life eternall through Jesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour Amen CHAP. II. 1. A division of such as have been raised They all died 2. The widow of Zarephath her sonne raised yet died again supposed to be Jonas the Prophet The Shunammites sonne raised not to an eternall but to a temporary resurrection A good and a better resurrection 3. Christ the first who rose not to die again 4. The man raised in the sepulchre of Elisha arose not to immortality 1. ANd because divers have been raised up of whom there is not the like doubt and answer in each kinde to be made I will therefore distribute them in regard of their times into three sorts Such as were raised 1. Before Christs death 2. After he was ascended 3. About the time of his death Which inverted method I purposely choose because I will reserve the hardest point to the last The first sort again is subdivided into such as were raised either before Christ was incarnated or by Christ himself They who were raised before Christ was born were three 1. The widow of Zarephath her sonne 1. King 17.22 2. The Shunammites sonne 2. King 4.35 3. A dead man who was cast into the grave of Elisha and when he touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood upon his feet 2. King 13.21 All these three were raised up to live and lived to die again Neither did the intention of such as requested to have them raised or of such as raised them aim once that they should live immortally but live onely on earth again as other men did and then die again Neither did I ever reade any who held these to arise to immortall glory neither stands it with reason For that they were once dead and raised to life the Scripture saith and that they must either live to this time or be translated to immortall glorie in their bodies or die is as true as Scripture Now because there is no ground to say that they yet live or were translated bodily into heaven there is good ground to conclude that again they died 2. Concerning the first of these the Jews think he was Jonas the Prophet and S. Hierome in his Prologue on Jonas citeth their opinion and dislikes it not Tostatus also saith Dïvers others think so If Jonas were the widow of Zarephath her sonne we know that Jonas died afterward for the Prophets are dead Joh. 8.53 and he was one of the Prophets And concerning both the first and second instance it is thought by many good Authours that they are pointed at Heb. 11.35 The women received their dead raised to life again or the Prophets delivered to the women their dead as the Syriack reads it that is to converse with them as formerly being raised not to an eternall but a temporary resurrection and so to die again at their appointed times And to this truth the Text it self giveth in evidence for it is said in the same verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might obtain a better resurrection Of holy men there is a double resurrection the first and the last the good and the better The resurrection mentioned in the beginning of the verse was good and with reference to the former saith Chrysostom the latter resurrection is called the better For the former was temporary the latter eternall called also The holy resurrection in our book of Common Prayer in the Epistle on the sixth Sunday after Trinity though there is no substantiall ground for the word holy either in the Latine or Greek Rom. 6.5 Of the former Aquinas in his Comment on Hebr. 11.35 saith it was rather a resuscitation then a resurrection and again c Isti sic resuscitati sunt iterum mortui Christus autem resuegens ex mortuis jam non moritur Rom. 6.9 These being raised died again but Christ rising from the dead dieth no more Rom. 6.9 3. And therefore Christs resurrection was as Aquinas saith and as it is indeed the beginning of the future resurrection Then must they needs die again who were raised before him He was the first Guide that lead the way to the eternall resurrection He abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light 2. Tim. 1.10 Life and immortalitie to light which were before in darknesse And I think that the Apostle may well be thus paraphrased in that place to the Hebrews The women desired that their dead children might be raised again 1. King 17.18 2. King 4.22 c. and as a gift
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.
Therefore he arose not at all as yet Lastly should we grant that Adam did bodily arise with Christ yet hath Pineda neither Authour nor reason that Adam ascended with Christ into heaven as I said before which is the main point now in question Thus much if not too much touching Adam 3. Eve also arose saith Dionysius Carthusianus on Matth. 27. but voucheth no authoritie nor produceth any reason or probabilitie and therefore I passe it over the more slightly adding onely this that in the Original it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that except 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be understood either no women arose or more then one or two though Pineda mentioneth not one woman and Carthusian but onely and soly Eve But why Eve should rather arise then Sarah or the mother of Moses who were singled out for famous Heroinae Hebr. 11. or other Prophetisses in the Old and New Testament as old Anna and the like I see no reason or that Eve in her raised bodie should be translated into heaven and not Adam her husband nor Abraham nor David is both foolish and fabulous This have I said as supposing the words to be understood of women alone as indeed they are not nor probably can they be applied to women mixt with men so far as any likelihood could present it self to the great conjecturer Pineda who would have balked none of them 4. Abraham arose saith Pineda on Job 19. and annexeth this colour because Abraham rejoyced to see Christs day and saw it and was glad John 8.56 I answer Whatsoever is meant by these words of the Text My day either Christs Godhead which Abraham saw a Quia mysterium Trinitatis agnovit Because he acknowledged the mysterie of the Trinitie saith S. Augustine Or the day of Christs nativitie which Abraham might have notice of in his life time by supernaturall inspirations and then did remember being dead and desired that day for separated souls have both remembrance and appetite intellectuall as I shall evidence hereafter Or it may be Abraham being in blisse might first know it by divine illumination so soon as the day came and thereupon rejoyced as the Angel did and the heavenly host Luke 2.13 of which host Abraham might be one for even the souls of men are also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 19.14 saith Gregory Moral 31.12 In the foresaid place of Luke mention is made of an Angel and the heavenly host whereas if onely Angels were the heavenly host it might have been onely said The Angels or onely The heavenly host but The Angel and the heavenly host may give us cause to think that there were some of the heavenly host which were not Angels though Angels onely be mentioned If so humane souls were part of that quire and then Abraham in likelihood was one of them Now as the chief Angel like a chaunter began the Evangelisme of Christs birth so might it be answered by the heavenly host viz. as is probable partly by the Angels singing Glory to God in the highest partly by Abraham and the souls of men concluding the Anthem On earth peace good will toward men I say Whatsoever is meant by the words My day they cannot be expounded of Christs resurrection Some there are who interpret My day of the time of Christs passion whom Maldonate justly misliketh because saith he it is added ABRAHAM SAW IT AND REJOYCED but then when Christ said these words Abraham could not see Christs passion because it was not yet come I may say the same or more against Pineda who will have it expounded of the day of Christs resurrection for Christ speaketh of the day that was past he did see it he was glad and rejoyced so that day was ended when Christ said this but Christs resurrection was not accomplished when he uttered these words therefore they cannot be understood of Christs resurrection And if they were so to be interpreted yet it is not written Abraham arose or Abraham was partaker with Christ or Abraham ascended bodily into heaven this being the issue which we joyned in this controversie but Abraham rejoyced he saw it and was glad which words differ farre from Pineda his ridiculous interpretation 5. An other which rose at the same time was Isaac saith Pineda ibid. for he was a parable of the resurrection and this was done to recompense the fear which possessed Isaac of being slain when he represented Christ To this puncto I answer Pineda himself will not say that every one who was a parable or pledge of the resurrection or who figured it was raised as Samson from his sleep arising in strength and carrying away the gates of Azzah in type of Christ who brought away the gates both of death and hell or those who were raised by the Prophets or by Christ himself or the like for he mentioneth none of these Secondly what proof what consequence what shadow of truth is there that Isaac his fear which was past he being dead one thousand seven hundred yeares before should just now be recompensed and recompensed by being raised to a temporall life which was a poore reward if he ascended not into heaven which Pineda proveth not nor can prove Lastly though it be truth it self that Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac Genes 31.53 yet it is not meant as Pineda fancieth the fear that Isaac was in when he was to be offered For I suppose he knew by Abraham that it was Gods especiall appointment and that he also willingly offered himself and might think as Abraham did that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Hebr. 11.19 that in his voluntarie condescent and free-will-offering he might be a type of Christ who layed down his life John 10.17 But the fear of Isaac was either the filial fear by which Isaac reverenced worshipped God as Aben Ezra and Cajetan say or the pious and humane fear wherewith Jacob revered his father Isaac or rathest of all Fear is here taken for the object of fear Metonymically for God himself as it is also taken Esa 8.13 Let God be your fear let God be your dread as Cornelius Cornelii à lapide hath observed after Augustine and divers others for not Isaac his fright or Jacob his pietie is to be sworn by but God Deuter. 6.13 O God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of the living and not of the dead I beseech thee make me to die to my self and live to thee through him whom the Fathers looked for and whose day Abraham rejoyced to see even Jesus Christ thy onely Sonne my alone Saviour Amen CHAP. VIII 1. Pineda his fancie that Jacob then was raised 2. The reason why the Patriarchs desired the Translation of their bones was not to rise with Christ as Pineda opineth but upon other grounds and to other ends 3. Where Joseph was first buried where secondly 4. The great difficultie
in a long narration especially if it be sudden he hath mingled and confounded some things a In quibusdam etiam memoriâ lapsus fuerit And forgot himself in some things to wit in such things as belonged little or nothing to the purpose for he was busily musing and intent upon the main matter But saith he S. Luke writing the historie changed not one jot but writ as Steven spoke Now we need not defend Steven from all errour and fault saith he but we must quit the Evangelist For onely the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists did never labi memoriâ or erre in any matter great or small other men did His proofs are these Jephthah in Judges 11.26 pretendeth 300 yeares possession when they were not so many and the divine Pen-man or Historiographer writeth as Jephthah pretended and established not the truth of the thing it self I answer that Salianus in his Annales Anno Mundi 2849 maketh one account wherein the time of the Israelites coming out of Egypt to the instant of Jephthahs arguing is 377 yeares and from the death of Sihon king of the Amorites 337 yeares But the truth is if we will hit the exact number both Salianus and Tremellius and many others say That from the coming out of Egypt and from the giving of the Law unto this present controversie of Jephthah with the King of the Amorites there were 305 or 306 yeares expired And Tremellius well observeth that Jephthah began his narration from their coming forth of Egypt vers 16. Therefore thence beginneth the number and the reckoning Now the shortning of an account is an usuall Ellipsis both in Scripture and in other Authours The 70 Interpreters are cited for 72. Among the Romanes the Centum-viri consisted of one hundred and five men Judges 20.46 all which fell of Benjamin that day were 25000. yet there fell that day 100 more vers 35. So 2. Sam. 5.5 the account is shortened by six moneths lesse then was set down in the precedent verse it being b Synecdoche frequent ad rotunditatem numeri A frequent Synecdoche to make a round and smooth reckoning saith Tremellius If any shall yet contend that Jephthah saith expresly v. 26. Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns and in Aroer and her towns and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon 300 yeares Peter Martyr on the place answereth That the Scripture-account often followeth the greater number Now because the yeares from Sihons death were nearer 300. then 200. Jephthah reckoneth not the refract but the whole number and accounteth them 300 yeares as inclining to the greater number For Sihon was overcome and slain the last yeare of Moses his life being to the present debate 266 yeares saith Abulensis 267 saith Lyranus 270 yeares saith Peter Martyr If Peter Martyrs answer be sleighted I adde that the perfection of Scriptures stands not so strictly on exactnesse of number but that it puts a certain number for an uncertain Instances are obvious So while we plead too much for number we shall as S. Augustine saith forget or neglect both weight and measure Lastly grant that Jephthah either mistook or mispleaded the yeares in a braving fashion and say that the holy Ghost hath penned not what was truth in it self but what Jephthah alledged erroneously or covetously for his prescription for Jephthah had more then one errour yet it followeth not that S. Steven was deceived for he was full of the holy Ghost when he spake this Act. 7.55 and before he spake this he was full of faith and of the holy Ghost Act. 6.5 Full of faith and power vers 8. and they that disputed with Steven were not able to resist the wisdome and the Spirit by which he spake v. 10. Therefore he spake wisely truely and by the Spirit as well as S. Luke wrote by the Spirit and neither of them could in this passage erre though Jephthah be held a man of imperfections 2. Secondly saith Canus the Evangelist hath it Matth. 2.6 That IT IS WRITTEN BY THE PROPHET AND THOU BETHLEHEM IN THE LAND OF JUDAH ART NOT THE LEAST AMONG THE PRINCES OF JUDAH when it is not so written by the prophet who saith Micah 5.2 BUT THOU BETHLEHEM EUPHRATA THOUGH THOU BE LITTLE AMONG THE THOUSANDS OF JUDAH the sense being very different almost contrary In which place S. Matthew reports the words not as they are in Micah but as the chief Priests and Scribes recited them to Herod c Quod testimonium nec Hebraico textui nec 70 Interpretibus convenire me quoque tacente perspicuum est Which testimonie saith Hierome on Micah 5.2 agreeth neither with the Hebrew nor the Seventie as is plain though I say nothing Then followeth his opinion d Arbitror Matthaeum volentem arguere Scribarum Sacerdotum erga divinae Scripturae lectionem negligentiam sic etiam posuisse ut ab iis dictum est I think that S. Matthew being willing to reprove the negligence of the Scribes and Priests toward the reading of holy Scriptures related the words as they were cited by them So that though the Scribes and Pharisees were blinde and seeing the Prophet through a vail took one thing for an other and though the Evangelist purposely reciteth their mistaking that we might discern the fault of these ill guides and ignorant teachers yet it no way followeth that S. Steven did erre or was mistaken or that S. Luke misreported the words of S. Steven But enough of this to testifie my dislike of the second opinion and of such who excusing the Greek Text from corruption wherein I wonderfully applaud them do impute an errour and slip unto the holy powerfull gracefull truth-speaking and dying Protomartyr S. Steven which I cannot endure in them And certes both these former rejected opinions are built on a false ground and idlely do presuppose that there is no reall historicall truth in the words as they are in the Greek and in the Latine Text. But truth there is and though truth lie deep hid as in a well said he of old yet by Gods help we shall winde her up and draw her above ground that every eye may see her though we have many turnings 3. Which that I may the better accomplish I must straggle awhile after two most learned men Cardinall Cusanus and Daniel Heinsius especially Heinsius whom when I have overtaken and wrung and wonne from him some holds which are offensive to the majestie of sacred Scripture then shall I return and descend to the most difficult place of Acts 7.16 c. The learned worthie Heinsius whom I name not without honour though I dissent from him in his Exercitations upon Nonnus and in the Prolegomena beats out certain paths which never any on the earth trode upon before him pag. 27. making the Hellenisticall language to be the best interpreter of the Hebrew and Chaldee and the Hebrew and Chaldee interchangeably the best interpreters of it Before all his
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
raised the tombe-stone was first removed and Lazarus arose tied with the grave-clothes and his face bound with a napkin yea came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes Joh. 11.44 by a new miracle walking being bound and bound with grave-clothes to shew that though he did live he did live to die again In which respect also perhaps the graves were opened at Christs passion when he yeelded up the ghost and continued open till his resurrection yea till the ends of their rising were fulfilled and after his resurrection many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves Matth. 27.52 53. O Blessed Lord God who hast commanded that we shall not adde to thy Word nor yet take from it Grant I beseech thee that I may neither think thy certain true Scriptures to be doubtfull nor the uncertain to be Canonicall but possesse me with awfull and reverent thoughts concerning thy holy writ that I adoring the fulnesse thereof may avoid all hastie supine forced and uncharitable expositions and fetch my little light and candle of knowledge from that first shine and prime rayes of thee the onely Light my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. XVII 1. The place of Matth. 27.53 is diversly pointed and according to the pointing is the diversitie of meaning The first implieth that the Saints arose with Christ though their graves were opened before This interpretation is not so likely though received generally 2. The second inferreth that they arose before Christ though they went not into the citie till after his resurrection This is favoured by the Syriack and is more agreeable to reason 3. That the raised Saints died again proved by reasons and Hebr. 11.40 4. Christ the first-fruits of the dead and of the raised Angelicall assumed bodies were seen and heard much rather should mens bodies ascending with Christ 5. S. Augustine Aquinas Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Euthymius Prosper Soto Salmeron Barradius Pererius Valentian affirm that the raised Saints died again Franciscus Lucas Brugensis holds it likely THose last cited words of Matth. 27.53 being differently pointed will bear a double and different interpretation Our late Translation hath it thus The Saints came out of the graves after his resurrection there is one pause and went into the holy citie there is another pause so is it in the Vulgat and in most Greek copies This sense in those words is involved That the Saints arose not till Christ arose and that their resurrection was a little after or almost contemporary with Christs which also is evidently foretold Isaiah 26.19 if the prophet prophesieth there of Christ or speaketh in Christs person Thy dead men shall live together with my dead bodie shall they arise c. For Christs bodie ariseth not from the earth at the generall resurrection and therefore they punctually signe out the resurrection of other Saints with Christ and with his dead bodie But if Isaiah speaketh of his own resurrection and not of Christs nor in Christs person but in his own by these words and the words following he pointeth out the generall resurrection and so Vatablus Hierom and Lyra expound the place Now if he point at the last day of the world the argument is demonstrative that either Isaiah arose not with Christ though he was the most Evangelicall Prophet and in no likelihood to be secluded from those benefits which other Prophets are said to enjoy or if he arose that he died again to rise with others at the day of judgement which they who ascended bodily into heaven did not Therefore Isaiah is not bodily ascended into heaven and if not he why others 2. The second way of pointing that place of S. Matthew is this Many bodies of the Saints arose there is one Colon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and coming out of the graves after his resurrection went into the holy citie there is the full period and no other pointing of the words And thus it is read in the edition printed at Geneva by John Vignon 1615. and illustrated with Casaubon his notes but I take it that a pause should be immediately after the word Graves and then they might arise before Christ but not enter into the holy citie till after his resurrection I am sure the Syriack translated by Tremellius thus readeth and pointeth it and Lucas Brugensis disliketh it not a Et egressi sunt post resurrectionem ejus ingressi sunt in urbem sanctam And they came forth and after his resurrection went into the holy citie In the Syriack you have these steps Obdormierant surrexerunt egressi sunt post resurrectionem ejus ingressi sunt in urbem From which second reading the resultance is That those Saints arose before Christ arose Neither is it against reason for at Christs passion the graves were opened vers 52. Shall the graves be opened and nothing be raised No for it is added immediately Many bodies of Saints were raised Shall the bodies be raised and either lie down or sit still in the graves To what end Many bodies arose of the Saints which HAD SLEPT 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in the preterperfect tense Now were they waked now were they raised now went they forth out of their monuments and between the time of Christs passion and his resurrection perhaps the raised conferred with themselves perchance they communed with others without the citie or being rapt with divine speculations might either on mount Olivet or rather on mount Calvarie spend that time in solitary devotions expecting the triumphant return of their captain Jesus Christ from hell and the grave and after his resurrection they came into the holy citie 3. The summe is These reliving Saints arose at Christs passion and before him but none ever arose before him unto an eternall resurrection for in that regard Christ was the first fruits of them that slept 1. Corin. 15.20 and it is Christs priviledge which the Apostle toucheth at Rom. 6.9 That Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him of which hereafter though I have spoken of it also before Death had power over others who were raised before him Therefore they ascended not into heaven with their bodies nor were partakers of the eternall incorruption and immortalitie Let me adde That as the sepulchres were opened that they might come forth and continued open till the resurrection and perhaps after so in that they were opened to their hand and did not shut again I take it as a figure that they did as it were expect the return of their bodies and as a probable argument that they did lie down again in their old repositories or dormitories And that you may the sooner give credit unto this in the next place consider the generall law That all of us shall have glorie and immortalitie together for Hebr. 11.40 God hath prepared a better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect If
answered by the prodigious Legend of Christina who died twice No hurt is to man if God will send his soul from an heavenly place to live a while on earth again 5. No harm to die twice The difference between death compleat and incompleat 6. God can dispense with his own Laws THus having beaten down the opposite authorities if they were fully on that side with weight and number the third and last point which I propounded to handle was the answering of all their reasons and arguments Some are so weak that I need not to answer For Suarez himself who alledgeth them confesseth their weaknesse and answereth them These three proofs following he alledgeth but answereth not First It was decent and behovefull DECUIT saith Suarez that Christ who had both bodie and soul should have companions of his glory in their bodies as well as in their souls For his delight is to be with the children of men Proverb 8.31 Which Suarez it may be took as an hint from Cajetan for he on Aquin. parte primâ quaest 53. art 3. hath it thus a Rationale videtur quòd sucrexerint perfectè ad vitam penitus immortalem ut beatitudo corporis in Christo haberet socios minus enim corporalis felicitas aliquid habere videretur it desit corporalis societas est enim homo secundùm vitam corporcam animal sociale c. It standeth with reason that they arose perfectly to a life fully immortall that the bodily blessednesse of Christ might have some fellows For the bodily happinesse seems not perfect and compleat if bodily societie and company be wanting for man is according to the corporeall life a sociable creature or good fellow not onely for want of necessaries unto life as happeneth in this world but for naturall delight consisting in bodily conversation saith Cajetan dissenting in this from the great Summist his master I answer that Cajetans argument is ridiculous for it holdeth chiefly in children or babies in fools and in striplings who love play-mates or in worldly factours whom businesse forceth into societie and commerce But that the Saints in heaven yea Christ himself the all blessed Saviour of the world both God and Man should not have the full of delight or have too little of bodily felicity if other humane bodies be not present savoureth rather of the Turkish Coran and the Arabian school then of the sacred Text and that Christ in heaven is animal sociale naturally delighting in bodily conversation for so much the application of that Axiom importeth or els he saith nothing to the purpose doth imply his brutish conceit of our most holy Redeemer The sweet singer of Israel saith Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore If this befall other holy Saints much more it belongeth to Christ from whose fulnesse all the whole bodie of his Church receiveth comfortable influences But grant we that such bodily companie might be desired by Christ yet he needed not these Many but he might have had Enoch and Elias or Moses and Elias with whom he conferred at his transfiguration Secondly unto Suarez his words Barradas his fellow-Jesuite answereth Christ needeth not men indued with bodies now in heaven As for the place of the Proverbs the precedent words give light unto them I rejoyced in the habitable parts of the earth saith the Text So his delights were with the sonnes of men in and upon the earth but of his delight in them with their humane bodies in heaven Before the last resurrection there is no inkling or intimation given Suarez argueth thus secondly b Animae gloriosae connaturale est c. It is very naturall for a glorified soul to be united unto an immortall and glorious bodie But their souls were glorious Therefore their bodies also And the glorie of a blessed soul of its own nature redounds upon the bodie I answer It doth so naturally if it be not hindered But the blessed souls of these Many Saints were in bodies not immortall not blessed not glorious for a few dayes or houres and that by miracle saith Barradius Besides whilest Christ lived on earth unlesse at his Transfiguration or some such especiall occasion the glorie of his most happie soul which was then beatified as much as any of the souls of the Saints are now and more did not impart visible glorie to his bodie but it was passible and mortall for it died Then why may not these Saints have the glorious light of their souls eclipsed from their bodies Again the assumed bodies of blessed Angels ever did resolve into their first principles when the ends why they assumed them were fulfilled the like might be in the Saints whose souls were hindered from communicating incorruptible and glorious qualities to their bodies and so they were partakers not of the perfection of the last eternall resurrection but of the imperfections incident to the temporarie and mortall resurrection Thirdly saith Suarez Corah Dathan and Abiram are in hell with their bodies therefore some to shew Gods mercie must now be in heaven with their bodies and therefore these Many I answer that both the sequences are lame though we should grant the ground or antecedent of the Argument For first was not Gods mercie seen in heaven from the houre of Corah and his companies descent into hell till these Many ascended Then why may it not still be seen though these ascended not especially since that Christ is there in a most blessed incorruptible bodie as they are in hell in cursed bodies which would take corruption for a favour Lastly why must these Many Saints be the counter-pattern in heaven rather then Enoch or Elias or Moses being the Magistrate against whom Corah and his complices combined themselves 2. Others there are who object It is said THEY ENTRED INTO THE HOLY CITIE But the holy citie is the new Jerusalem Jerusalem above Revel 21.2 Therefore they died not but went into heaven I answer Jerusalem below the materiall Jerusalem the seat of the kings of Judah because of Gods worship there especially to be performed in that glorious Temple was also called the holy citie GLORIOUS THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF THEE THOU CITIE OF GOD Psal 87.3 Amongst others thou art styled holy Rev. 11.2 The holy citie shall the Gentiles tread under foot but the Gentiles shall never trample on the new Jerusalem above On the one side of a shekel of the Sanctuarie which once I saw was stamped in Hebrew characters Holy Jerusalem Again Tobit 13.9 O Jerusalem the holy citie he will scourge thee but he will never scourge Jerusalem above which is the Mother of us all therefore Jerusalem below must needs be this holy Citie Bellarmine himself de Pontifice Romano 3.13 accordeth with us and interpreteth the strife of the two Witnesses against Antichrist in Jerusalem below And before him Hierom in his answer to the eighth question of Hedibia Tom. 3. fol. 50. saith Of these words
things but if he turned it to the back side of his hand he was as conspicuous as an other man So Cicero in the third book of his offices out of Plato 4. The same Maldonat presseth us sore with an other argument What should they do here living again in mortall bodies who had a taste of Gods glory surely they had been in worse condition then if they never had been raised out of the bosome of Abraham where they were quiet to come to a turbulent life again Because this Maldonat is an importunate snarler at our religion I give him this bone to gnaw upon and for my first answer I will call to minde the prodigious Legend which divers eminent men of their own side have recorded of one Christina called by them by way of eminency e Mirabilis Wonderfull To omit what Surius and others relate I will speak in the words of Dionysius the Carthusian f Cùm defuncta esset in pueritia ducta erat in paradisum ad Thronum Majestatis Divina Domino congraiulante ineffabiliter gavisa est Dixitque Dominus Revera hac charissima filia est Christina died young and was carried into paradise to the throne of the Divine majesty and she was ineffably glad God congratulating with her And the Lord said Truly this is my deerest daughter And then he telleth That God gave her choice either to stay with him or to return unto her bodie and by penitentiall works to satisfie for all the souls in purgatorie and to edifie those who lived and to return to God b Cum meritorum augmentis with increase of her merits She answered the Lord presently that for that cause she would return to her bodie And so she did and because sinnefull men by their stench did too much afflict her O tender-nosed virgin she did flie or the Papists did lie and sit on the top-boughes of trees pinacles or turrets since noisome smells ascend it had been her farre better course to have crept into some dennes and caverns of the earth or vaults and tombes as he said she did sometimes and when her neighbours or kindred thought her mad and kept her from meat she prayed once to God and milk came out of her breasts was not she an intemerate rare virgin and so she refreshed herself This and a great deal more hath that Carthusian holy and learned above many of their side de quatuor novissimis part 3. Artic. 16. Let censorious and maledicent Maldonat ponder these things well and it will stop his mouth for ever from barking at the belief of us whom they style Hugonets Calvinists Hereticks though none of us think or say otherwise then the good Pacianus did of old in his first epistle to Sempronius CHRISTIAN is my name and CATHOLICK is my surname The Turks indeed have some strange figments of this nature but though the Mahumetan priests have devised and feigned many superstitious miracles concerning their great Saintesse Nafissa as is confessed by Joannes Leo in his African historie lib. 8. yet the Papists have surmounted both this and other their impostures with this their mirabilarie Christina Secondly concerning these Many raised I answer unto Maldonat They continued not long in this life but as I guesse shortly after Christs ascension laid their bodies down to sleep again in the earth Thirdly what thinks Maldonat of Lazarus Was not his soul in Abrahams bosome as well as the other poore Lazarus his soul who was so tenderly beloved of Christ and his Apostles and yet he lived long after and whatsoever can be objected against these Saints holds stronger against Lazarus Fourthly I denie that they by their return into the flesh were in worse condition Lorinus on Acts 9.41 saith c Non affert molestiam ut Deo vocanti mortuus obtemperet reviviscendo It is no trouble to a man if being dead he obey Gods call and live again And Salmeron saith No reason but holy men at Gods command may put on and put off their own bodies as well and as contentedly as the Angels do their assumed bodies which I do the rather beleeve because I do say with Tostatus on the 2. King 4. Quaest 56 Though it cannot be certainly proved yet it is probable That none of those that ever were raised did perish everlastingly nor that any reprobate had the favour of an extraordinary resurrection for a separated soul that hath been partaker of these unspeakable joyes will esteem worse then dung or salt that hath lost its savour all the pleasures and profits of this life though their severall excellencies were distilled into one quintessence of perfection So that as Lorinus saith well in the place above cited Whosoever hath once escaped the perill of damnation he shall not come into the same danger again 5. The last objection that I have met withall is this That to die the second time is no favour but a punishment and a punishment iterated I answer If a righteous man should die thrice or oftner death is no punishment unto him yea to passe seven times through hell to come once and everlastingly to heaven a despairing soul would hold to be a cheap blessednesse Secondly Suarez himself saith It is no punishment to die the second time no more then it was to Moses to die twice as saith Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3.10 though others dissent from Augustine Nay saith Suarez To lay down their bodies the second time is more acceptable and pleasing to God To this doth Peter Martyr agree in 1. King 4.22 If by mans hurt or losse God be glorified it is no injurie to man But in truth it is no hurt or losse to man for saith Barradius Perchance without any pains they might redeliver their carcases to the earth And if the pains be any the pains both of the latter and former death may be so tempered and diminished that they both shall not exceed the pains of one death saith Peter Martyr ibid. Which learned Peter Martyr out of S. Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3. ult hath an excellent observation or two First That to every man is setled and appointed a prefixed time of death Secondly That before the last prefixed time some do die that they that raise them up to life may be more famous and God more glorified And this is proved by the very phrase which Christ used concerning Lazarus John 11.4 This sicknesse is not unto death Yet did he die and besides the time intercedent between his death and his buriall he was foure dayes buried But his sicknesse was not d Ad mortem plenam in qua Lazarus maneret to an intire death in which estate he should remain Neither is that so properly called death e Quando praeoccupat ultimum terminum when it is abortive and cometh before its time So Luke 8.52 She is not dead but sleepeth and yet verse 55. her spirit came again Therefore it was gone and she was
one hundred yeares he is taken with a seeming incurable disease and is as it were in an ecstasie then growing better redit redivivus returneth young lively and lusty to the state of thirty yeares After Christs death he was baptized by Ananias who baptized S. Paul and was called Joseph he is reputed to be a man of a most austere and continent life humble and patient and liveth in both the Armeniaes among Clergy men Thus farre Matthew Paris who was a Monk of Saint Albans at that time And in the like words the storie is reported by Thomas of Rudbourn a Monk of Winchester in his Chronicle which is a manuscript as the great searcher of antiquities Mr Selden my very worthy friend assured me If this Joseph redit redivivus he hath not died twice onely but very often I have recounted these narrations for their pleasant varieties perhaps I may say rarities But as S. Augustine branded the former storie and the beleevers of it saying e Multùm mihi mira est hae◠opinantium tanta praesumptio The great presumption of these opinionists makes me much marvell So I will not be afraid to tax the latter of imposture both because of the varietie of Names by which he is called as you may finde in the learned Mr Seldens illustrations on Polyolbion pag. 15. where he also citeth the incredible fable of Ruan which is cousin-german to the relation of the Eastern Cartaphilus and because the Armenians as well as the Romans have their holy frauds as was seen by our men laught at by the Turks and beleeved by the silly Laicks of Armenia whilest their Priests would strive to fetch false fire from Christs sepulchre on Easter even See Mr Sands in his third book pag. 173. Lastly if this storie of the Armenian could be an undoubted truth the Greek Church would ere this have produced him to justifie the practise and opinions of the Eastern Church against the Western wherein they dissented But no such thing was ever attempted And therefore let this be cast into the number of fables Soli DEO gloria FINIS MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. 1. Many Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death THe third question is Whether Adam and his children all and every one of them without priviledge or exception must and shall die It ariseth also from the same fountain from which the two former questions did proceed It is appointed unto men to die The answer consisteth of three parts That there may be an exception of some That some have been excepted That others shall be excepted And so the answer is returned with the negative thus All and every one shall not die For though it be appointed for men to die yet the appointment may be hath been and shall be reversed Neither fear I the saying of Aquinas part 3. quaest 78. artic 1. a Est communior securior sententia Theologorum Vnumquemque moriturum It is the more common and more safe opinion of the Divines That every one must die And this opinion is maintained with stiffe and peremptory obstinacie by our adversaries the Papists Bosquier in his Terror orbis Salmeron upon the 1. Thessal 4. Gregory de Valent. with others are resolute That none can be dispensed withall but all mankinde and every childe of Adam must die But Melchior Canus is more moderate b Locorum Theologic 7.2 Num. 3. Though it be appointed for all men to die saith he yet that one or two out of that generall law by priviledge be exempted is not so against Scriptures that it may not be questioned And Locor Theol. 7.3 Numer 9. he proveth that it is no way against Scripture That the thrice-blessed mother of our Lord may by singular priviledge be exempted he had erred if he had said Is priviledged from the universall law of all being born in sinne and further confirmeth it by this instance Because the Scriptures say in generall Exod. 33.20 NO MAN SHALL SEE ME AND LIVE and John 1.18 NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME yet Moses and Paul saw God And though ordinarily there is no return from death to life and the Saints come not back again from heaven to dwell on earth yet Augustine saith in lib. de Cura pro mortuis Cap. 15. c Mitti quoque ad vivos aliquos ex mortuis ut Mosem ad Christum sicut è contrario Paulus ex vivis in Paradisum rapius est Divina Scriptura testatur The Scripture witnesseth that some from the dead have been sent to the living as Moses to Christ and on the other side Paul being living was carried into Paradise Again I say the words of the Apostle are onely indefinite not generall it is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is appointed to all men but It is appointed unto men whether all or onely some is not here determined Now because this place wants its strength and nerves to prove that point and neither in the Greek nor Vulgat nor Syriack is the universall expressed the Jesuits have amassed up together many places of Scripture to confirm their opinion 2. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 In Adam all die 1. Corinth 15.22 Death is the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 Death passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 He shall be brought to the grave and remain in the tombe The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him Job 21.32 MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 was threatned to Adam and all his and therefore God who cannot lie will see it accomplished To the last place I answer first It is well rendred and expounded Mortalis eris Obnoxius eris morti Thou shalt be mortall and subject to death as Lyra and Vatablus have it Beda on Genes 2. Morti deputatus eris Thou shalt be condemned to death Chrysostom on John Homil. 27. d Adam mortuus est si non Re tamen Sententiâ Adam died by guilt and judgement though execution was suspended And to say truth In the midst of life we are in death Man is dying till he be dead Infirmities and sicknesse pursue men till they perish Deuteronomie 28.22 The wicked shall finde no ease nor rest but shall have trembling hearts fayling of eyes and sorrow of minde verse 65. Thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life vers 66. To all the other alledged places of Scripture one answer fitly serveth viz. That the holy Writ speaketh of the ordinary course of Nature and hath no intent to limit Gods power or to binde the Lawmaker but he may exempt from death whomsoever he pleaseth For generall rules are not without exceptions It is most true what Aristotle de Histor Animal 7.10 generally avoucheth d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No childe crieth in the mothers wombe and yet extraordinarily it may be true what Libavius in lib. de vagitu uterino and Albertus Magnus lib. 10. de Animalibus and Solinus in his third chapter report to wit Quosdam embriones plorâsse in utero That some Embrioes have wept and cried out in their mothers wombe As on the contrary what Livie lib. 24. recordeth namely Infantem in utero matris IO TRIUMPHALE clamâsse That an infant in the mothers wombe sang the Outcrie used in triumphs And what Appian of Alexandr de bellis civilibus Roman lib. 4. almost in the beginning relateth That a childe spake so soon as it was born which was a prognostick of sorrow against the erection of the TRIUMVIRI Petrus Pomponatius in lib. de incantationibus cap. 10. goeth one step further and though it be a little out of my way yet suffer me to follow him e Haly Aben-Ragel scientiâ syderum scivit praedicere puerum natum statim prophetaturum sicut refert Conciliator Haly Aben-Ragel saith he by Astrologie knew and foretold that a new born childe should presently prophesie as Conciliator relateth So the universall law of all mens dying may stand in full force and vertue and yet be abridged by some extraordinary exceptions through the unlimited command of the most free Lawmaker My proofs that universall propositions do not alwaies exclude some particular contraries shall be of such generall rules as are limited by the Papists themselves because the controversie now in agitation is onely against them The great master of Controversies Bellarmine himself de Purgatorâ—o 1.12 speaking of the taking up of the good thief into Paradise saith f Privilegia paucorum legem uon faciunt A few mens priviledges establish not a law Gerson that learned Chancellour of Paris in his Sermon on the birth of the thrice blessed Virgin the third part thus settleth g Constat Deum misericordiam salvationis suae non ità legibus communibus traditionis Christianae non ità Sacramentis ipsis alligâsse quin absque praejudicio legis ejusdem possit pueroâ— nondum natos intus sanctificare Gratiae suae baptismos vel virtute Spiritus sancti It is apparent that God hath not tied his mercifull salvation to the common laws of Christian veritie no not so to the Sacraments themselves but without prejudice of that law he may sanctifie children in the wombe with the baptisme of his grace or power of the holy Spirit Matthias Felizius pag. 184. acknowledgeth that extraordinarily the souls of good and bad men do sometimes come out of heaven and hell yet are there generall statutes and the ordinary course opposite and contrarie By an argument drawn from speciall priviledge Petrus Thyraeus de locis infestis part 1. cap. 9. maintaineth That humane souls may return out of Purgatorie yea out of Hell h Bonum publicum Legislatori semper propositum est hoc si lege praeteritâ obtineri potest legis ratio magna non habetur The Law-maker saith he hath an eye still aiming at a generall good which generall good if it take place and succeed without the law it is no great detriment or wrong to the law Cardinal Tolet on John 1.3 i Aliquando solemus generatim loqui ad mulâ—itudinem significandam quamvìs non omnes partes multitudinis comprehendantur Sometimes we speak generally to signifie a numerous multitude though we do not mean to comprise all and every parcell of that multitude 1. Cor. 9.25 Every man that striveth for the masterie is temperate in all things But neither do all abstain nor do they who abstain abstain from all things Which truth in the mouth of Tolet might be confirmed at large by the Fathers Let S. Hierom onely give in his verdict Hierom Tom. 3. Epist ad Damasum de Prodigo thus k Canon Scripturarum est Omnia non ad totum referenda sed ad maximam partem It is even a rule in Scripture that the word ALL hath not reference to the whole comprehending every singular particular but to the greatest part And as OMNIS All so likewise NVLLVS None is restrained 1. Kings 18.10 where the words No nation or kingdome extend not through the whole world but are to be reduced and confined to those Nations or Kingdomes which were Achabs subjects or tributaries to whom he might and could administer an oath which he did not could not do in the dominions of other absolute free Princes I must yet come up closer to Bellarmine Gen. 7.18 Repleverunt aquae Omnia in superficie terrae as it is in their Vulgat though it be not so either in the Hebrew or Greek And All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered vers 19. Yet Bellarmine in lib. de Gratia primi hominis cap. 4. excepteth Paradise which being on earth was not overflown Genes 7.21 All flesh died and every man and vers 22. All in whose nostrills was the breath of life died and vers 23. Every living substance both man and cattell c. Yet for all these generalities Bellarmine in the place cited excepteth Enoch who then lived upon earth in Paradise as he imagined Rom. 5.12 Death passed upon all for that all have sinned But l Praeventa fuit Maria singulari gratiâ privilegio Dei ut simul esse justa esse inciperet The Virgin Mary was prevented by Gods speciall grace so that she was free from sinne so soon as she had any being saith Bellarmine Tom. 3. de amissione grat statu peccat 4.16 He exempteth her by speciall priviledge from sinne Why may not we by the force of his reason exempt an other from death Moreover Enoch and Elias at what time S. Paul wrote these words were not dead though the Apostle speaketh of things past nor are dead yet as the Papists hold Gorran on the place answereth appositely Death went over all REATV non ACTV by way of guiltinesse not actually 1. Corinth 15.51 c. We shall all be changed at the last trump Yet Bellarmine de Romano Pontifice 3.6 saith that Enoch and Elias shall die and rise again before the generall resurrection till which time the last trump bloweth not And Christ was risen before though the words be large and not Christ alone but if Holcot be not deceived on Wisd 2.5 m De Matre Christi benedicta piè credit Ecclesia quòd sit in
ea resurrectio completa It is an holy belief of the Church that the blessed mother of Christ hath obtained a full and perfect resurrection Which words suffice to crosse other Papists who denie that any exception is to be made to the generall axioms though by us they are held as fables 3. Let us take a view of some indefinites and we shall not finde them to be universally applied The Prophets are dead John 8.53 yet Enoch was a Prophet Jude vers 14. and Elijah was chief among Prophets Notwithstanding these were not dead Revel 14.13 The dead rest from their labours yet divers have been raised from a true death and have returned again into this world of labour My very Text is fertile of more particulars to this purpose It is appointed unto men to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—MEL UNO TEMPORE as it is in the Syriack word for word yet some have died twice It is appointed unto men once to die and after that cometh JUDGEMENT but Christ was not judged after he died That he was judged in the particular judgement of souls cannot be since himself is there the Judge So shall he also be judge in the generall judgement But let us return to the universalls Matth. 26.33 Though all men shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended yet was he a man and if the words there be restrained to all Christs Disciples or Apostles yet Peter accounts himself none of that all and exempts himself from the number of them that would be scandalized 1. Corinth 15.27 He hath put all things under his feet But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him Heb. 11.13 These All died in faith Yet Aquinas truely there excepteth Enoch Aquinas in 4. lib. Sentent dist 43. artic 4. thus By the same reasons by which we shewed that all should arise from the dead may we shew also that all shall arise A CINERIBVS in the generall resurrection unlesse by especiall grace the contrarie be granted to some as the hastening of the resurrection is granted to some Where Aquinas confesseth that some are dispensed withall both for incineration that their bodies should not be turned into dust and some also shall have a speedier resurrection by an especiall grace Why then by the especiall grace of the same God may not some be freed from the stroke of death 4. Salmeron tuggeth it out hard by the teeth to uphold that none shall be acquitted from death but without exception all must die Hearken to his reasons n Si Christo matri Christi mors non pepercit cui parcet If death spared not Christ and his Mother whom will death spare I answer Death spareth none so that no one can say I will not die Death spareth none but he that hath the power of death may spare whom he pleaseth Fire and water have no mercie yet the three children were preserved in the fire and S. Peter walked upon the sea The rivers have divided themselves yea the Red sea gathered it self together and was as a wall on the right hand and on the left in the passage of the children of Israel toward Canaan God above the pitch of humane reason may free whom he will from death and shut up the mouth of the grave that it shall not swallow some as he did the mouthes of the lions when he saved Daniel Again saith Salmeron o Qui cum Christo mortui non sunt non resurgent nec erunt membra ejus Who die not with Christ or as well as Christ shall not arise nor be members of his bodie All the Jesuits in the earth cannot demonstrate that proposition If they use S. Augustines reason p Resurrectio est solummodo mortuorum At omnes resurgent Ergòomnes morientur Onely the dead shall arise But all shall arise Therefore all shall die I answer with S. Augustine and many more what is handled at large in the third part q Immutatio erit vice resurrectionis Change shall be a kinde of resurrection and in the proposition The dead are not taken strictly but largely for any such as have changed their first life But take we the dead properly and natively for such onely as indeed have died the proposition is false and must be denied since we shall not all die but some shall be changed and yet both the one and the other sort shall be raised Salmeron again on 1. Cor. 15. thus objecteth r Tardante Sponso dormitaverunt omnes dormierunt While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbred and slept Matth. 25.5 Did not Salmeron sleep slumber and dream when he produceth these words to prove that all shall die when the words have apparent reference to the supine securitie of their mindes and perhaps if you will to their bodily sluggishnesse drowsinesse and sleep if there were any realitie in the parable Death was never meant in these words for Christ doth not there that is at the resurrection tarrie but he that shall come will come and will not tarrie Heb. 10.37 He continueth objecting thus f Stulte quod seminas non vivificatur nisi mortuum fuerit Ergò Omnes morâ—entur quia Omnes vivificabuntur THOU FOOL THAT WHICH THOU SO WEST IS NOT QUICKENED EXCEPT IT DIE 1. Cor. 15.36 Therefore All shall die because All shall be quickened I answer The Apostles drift in that place is not to shew whether any shall remain alive or all die but he onely proveth by naturall reason that resurrection may grow out of putrefaction Secondly even they themselves who say All must die cannot take the words exactly as they sound For then as the seed hath time to rot and rotteth ere it quicken so the bodies of men should suffer corruption and putrifaction as the seeds do which they dare not say Lastly seeds do not die properly there is no separation of a soul from a bodie they die analogally and improperly and so do even those who shall not die but shall be changed An other objection is Genes 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Peter Martyr answereth t Id est Quamdiu orbis durare pergat nisi dies judicii cursum naturae intercipiat That is whilest this world lasteth and till the day of judgement break off the course of nature But I say that even such as maintain that every one must die will not say they shall reverti in terram Be incinerated and turned into dust and earth for they allow a very short time till the bodies reunion If any will still urge the generality and presse the extent of the words and force of the decree It is appointed unto men to die I answer with Bellarmine himself u Decreto satisfieri videtur si omnes Adae posteri morti obnoxiâ— sunt Tom. 3. de amissione grat stat
pec 4.15 The decree is performed if all the posterity of Adam be obnoxious to death Or as S. Augustine answered the Pelagians concerning those which shall be alive at Christs coming x Satìs est illos fuisse morti destinatos 〈◊〉 quae subsecuta esset si seculum processisset Quòd eximantur à morte erit casus neque privilegium paucorum universali causae derogat It sufficeth that they were appointed to die and die they should if the world had endured By casualty they are freed from death nor doth the dispensation with some particular ones infringe the universall cause as I vouched in the second book And as S. Augustine goeth on when they have lived a life full of miserie and calamitie who can say they have not tasted death especially since thirst hunger cold heat infirmities crosses sicknesses are nothing else but a daily dying In which regard the wise woman of Tekoa in her subtile oration saith not We shall all and every one die but 2. Sam. 14.14 We die MORIENDO MORIMUR so runneth the Hebrew and are as water spilt on the ground when immediately both before and after she had spoken of outward crosses y Etiam dum crescimus vita decrescit Even whilest we are growing our life decreaseth saith Seneca Which S. Augustine in libro Soliloq cap. 2. thus enlargeth z Vita mea quantò magìs crescit tantò magìs decrescit quantò magìs procedit tantò magìs ad mortem accedit My life in going forward groweth backward and by how much it advanceth forward by so much it maketh a nearer approach to death As the fire it self consumes its fuell and is nourished by the consumption of it so mans age is fed and nourished by the consumption of his life and of the age he liveth in Man at the same time begins to live and die for LIFE is but the way tending to DEATH a Nascendo morimur imò longè ante nativitatem morimur In our birth we die yea long before it From the instant of the souls infusion we begin to die Lastly I say in that Christ died for all Although some be extraordinarily dispensed withall every one may be said to die Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man Hebr. 2.9 Thus much shall serve for the first part of the answer O Blessed Saviour who art life in thy self and the fountain of life unto others Grant I humbly beseech thee that when I shall passe from this present world from this dying life or living death I may evermore live by Thee in Thee and with Thee Amen Amen CHAP. II. 1. The third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think E. noch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and of his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truly The materiall remaineth not the formal Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transsiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies in heaven The place of Revel 11.7 concerning the two Witnesses winnowed by Bishop Andrews Enoch and Elias are not those two witnesses THe main third question being Whether all men and every one must of necessitie die the first part of the answer was That there was no absolute necessitie but there might be an exception The second part of the answer touched at was this That some have been excepted who never did die nor shall die If I be further demanded Who they be I will onely insist in Enoch and Elias The controversie concerning which two men is so exquisitely handled by the most learned Monarch our late Soveraigne King James in his monitory Preface and by his Second the reverend Bishop Andrews in his answer to Bellarmine his Apologie cap. 11. that the most scrupulous inquisitour may be satisfied After I have selected some matters of moment from that unanswerable Prelate I will take leave to glean after the gathering of their of their full sheaves and to discover a few clusters after their plentifull vintage and to bring to your taste some remarkable passages concerning Enoch and Elias which perhaps they thought fit to omit as affecting brevitie or tying themselves most strictly to the question whilest the nature of my Miscellanies give me licence to travel farre and neare 2. Bellarmine Tom. 1 de Romano Pontifice 3.6 makes it his third Demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Because Enoch and Elias are not come who yet do live and must oppose Antichrist Bellarmines first place is from Malach. 4.5 and sixth
marginali 2. thus Sixtie eight yeares from Christs death S. John died at Ephesus as Hierom hath it de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis in Joanne And Polycrates a most ancient Divine writing to Victor then Bishop of Rome as Eusebius hath it 1.25 saith of S. John h Ephesi obdormivit He died at Ephesus Tertullian i Obiit Joannes quem in adventu Domini remansurum frustra fuerat spes in lib. de Anima cap. 5◠S. John died of whom some conceived a vain hope that he should live till Christ came again Eusebius 3.33 saith There were two Johns in Asia John the Apostle and John the Disciple and both their sepulchres were at Ephesus Chrysostom Homil. 26. in Epistolam ad Hebraeos saith The sepulchre of S. John is manifest as of other Apostles therefore he speaketh of S. John the Apostle But k Non nisi mortuorum solent esse sepulchra Sepulchres belong properly to them who are dead as Baronius well inferreth So much obiter concerning some unusuall passages about S. John occasioned by Holcots testimonie of the strange relation of his painlesse death but this I shall by Gods grace handle much more plentifully in my succeeding books wherein against Cardan and his Indian apples the procurers of death without any pain as he saith I shall I say under the tuition of the Almighty prove that the separation of the soul from the bodie is painfull that all death is bitter in one degree or other And now I return to our Enoch whom the Jewish Rabbin feigneth to have been dead without any pain against whom and all other Jewishly-affected I hope to demonstrate that Enoch did not die but is now living Heb. 11.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enoch was translated that he should not see death Ad non videndam mortem saith Montanus Nè videret mortem saith the Vulgat The end why he was translated was that he might not die and the reason is annexed why he did not die for God translated him Shall God intend to keep Enoch from death and did he yet die shall God be frustrated of his end shall things come to passe contrary to his will where is then his Omnipotencie It holds firmly God translated Enoch that he should not see death therefore he died not but liveth as yet A second argument though not so sharp-pointed is this Of the other Patriarchs it is said They died so it is recorded of Adam Mortuus est Genes 5.5 of Seth vers 8. of Enos vers 11. of Cainan vers 14. of Mehalaleel vers 17. of Jared Enochs father vers 20. of Methuselah Enochs sonne vers 27. of Lamech Enochs grandchilde vers 31. even of the whole holy Genealogie from Adam to Noah of every one it is said Mortuus est He dyed except onely when mention is made of Enoch and then it is not said He dyed but it is remarkably varied thus vers 24 Et non ipse which our later translation hath And he was not which words you must not take in too strict a sense for if he had died yet had he had a being but consisting of soul and bodie we may truly say He was How then shall we interpret Et non ipse I named you the Rabbin who expounds it He died not with pain as other men but died sweetly Others thus He was not on earth after the same manner as he was before This is true and well strengthened Ecclesiasticus 49.14 Vpon earth was no man created like Enoch for he was taken from the earth DE TERRA SVBLIMIS ASSVMPTVS EST He was lifted up on high from the earth saith Vatablus This is also certain that from the divers expressions used concerning Enoch and of others in the same Chapter that were not translated but died there is more signified of Enoch then of others and in that speciall unusuall phrase some speciall unusuall thing is involved concerning Enoch But no speciall unusall thing is spoken if it be onely meant of him as it is of others that he died Therefore certainly Enoch died not I will not recount more diversitie of opinions In all humblenesse I will present before you mine own conjecture First I say that there is an hiatus in the Hebrew and somewhat to be understood The Spirit would leave some things doubtfull and put us to the search Secondly a supply must be made one way or other if we will fix any sense on the place Thirdly I would have wary and probable supplements not of imagination and aire onely Scaliger Exercitat 81. Parag. 2. saith thus e In tabulis Mosis fractis dimidiati Samech pars altera erat in extrema ora tabulae altera in aere videbatur In the tables which Moses brake one halfe of the letter Samech was in the utmost brink of the table the other part of it was seen in the aire Or els Scaliger told an untruth say I give me fair likelihood and not the vastnes of a phansie Fourthly I say the words Et non ipse may commodiously be thus interpreted He was not found If any one ask where I finde ground for this Commentarie I answer first it is in the seventy Genes 5.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non apparuit saith the Interpreter in Vatablus or as himself commenteth Nusquam comparuit but it is better rendred Non est inventus He was not found And so it is rendred Hebr. 11.5 where S. Paul hath taken the same words letter for letter from the seventie whose authoritie by themselves considered I esteem somewhat above the ordinary humane and made them divine By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death And was not found because God had translated him Concerning Enoch these things I do further observe with some of the Fathers with Aquin and Cornelius à Lapide That he was a type of Christ so also was Elias and both their raptures or translations were figures of Christs ascension Again Hebr. 11.5 Enoch before his translation had this testimonie that he pleased God He did not onely please God but it was published and proclaimed and as it were letters testimoniall from heaven or a divine certificate was made that he pleased God And therefore I hold it very probable that as Elijahs assumption was known before-hand to the sonnes of the Prophets that were at Beth-el 2. Kings 2.3 and to the sonnes of the Prophets that were at Jericho vers 5. as well as to Elishah himself so was the translation of Enoch also known to those of his time unto whom God testified that Enoch pleased him And it is conformable also to the Antitype because Christ before told his Disciples concerning his departure John 14.28 c. John 16.5 c. and vers 16 c. and more punctually concerning his ascension John 20.17 I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God
a tempestuous winde did he make him to ascend including an intimation that in a whirlwinde they were both rapted If the Scripture had used the very words in describing the nature of Elias I should the sooner have liked the conceit but the Rabbinicall speculations conclude not therefore I will Lastly it is improbable but divers of the Disciples or Apostles who saw Christs ascending might and would have sought and looked for him but that they were in a sort dehorted by two Angels who told them That Christ was taken from them into heaven Act. 1.11 and therefore it was vain to seek him any longer on the earth And most certain it is that when the sonnes of the Prophets saw Elijah snatcht up and Elishah parting Jordan with Elijahs mantle they said unto Elishah There be with thy servants fiftie sonnes of strength let them go we pray thee and seek thy master 2. Kings 2.16 and accordingly they sent fiftie men and they sought three dayes but found him not vers 17. Semblably we may well imagine that some also did seek for Enoch after he was translated yea it approacheth nearer to belief then to imagination upon this fair resultance He was not found say the Septuagint He was not found saith the Apostle therefore he was sought after therefore he was searched for TV NON INVENTA REPERTAES I have found thee whom I could not finde when I sought thee saith the old Poet but it is harsh to say TV NON QVAESITA REPERTA ES Thou art found and wast never lookt after Finding implieth precedent search or going after most ordinarily but Not being found necessarily implieth a former inquirie Elias was not found by Ahab therefore Ahab sought for him Enoch was not found therefore they made enquirie after him So much be spoken in defence of my Comment upon the words Et non ipse which I have supplied from the Septuagint and most especially from the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was not found And with it is also ended and terminated the second Quaere by me propounded Whether Enoch did ever die with its Answer That Enoch died not either a sweet death or a sowre an easie death or a painfull 5. The third Question followeth Whether Enoch and Elias now live in and with their bodies in Paradise Bellarmine is for the affirmative That Paradise is now extant and Enoch and Elias live in it More particularly concerning Elias Rabbi David in his Comment on 2. Kings 2. reports it as the common opinion of the Jews That Elias went with his bodie into Paradise and there liveth in the same estate that our Parents did before the fall Others have taken upon them to describe and circumscribe exactly the place of Paradise in an Island now called Eden not farre from Babylon as certain Nestorians of the Greek Church have fabled I say fabled because millions of learned men both Heathen Jews and Christians have seen Babylon and lived in it and round about it who never had such a thought or belief or tradition so farre as may be gathered by any ancient extant records Of which Paradise whosoever desireth to see more at large let him have recourse to my learned friend M. John Salkeld in his Treatise of Paradise I will onely adde somewhat which he omitteth Salianus the great Annalist from the creation of the first Adam to the death of the second Adam or rather to his resurrection and ascension Ad annum mundi 987 saith Cyprian Ambrose Hierom Tertullian Gregorie Epiphanius and Hippolytus acknowledging the translation of Enoch and Elias are silent concerning the place of their being Augustine leaves it as doubtfull and disputable Chrysostom and Theodoret like not the enquirie Rupert saith The Scripture is silent neither are the words of Paradise or Eden in the place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 in the Greek text but onely in the Vulgat So farre Salianus But indeed first me thinks that the old Translatour should have been constant to himself and adding somewhat to the words of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 should not have added In Paradisum as he doth without any shadow of ground from any other place but In coelum because it is so written 1. Macc. 2.58 Elias was taken up into heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In coelum receptus est as the Vulgat it self hath it Secondly the Jesuit Salianus is somewhat too favourable in that point for S. Ambrose in lib. de Paradiso cap. 13. saith expressesly Enoch was r Raptus in coelum caught up into heaven and S. Hierom on Amos 9. saith Enoch and Elias were carried into heaven Bellarmine and other Papists distinguishing COELVM into AERIVM COELESTE ET SVPERCOELESTE Aëriall heavenly and supercelestiall say Enoch was carried into the aëriall heaven I must confesse that the region of the aire that Expansum the aëriall orb is sometimes called Heaven The Lord thundred from heaven 2. Sam. 22.14 God gave us rain from heaven Act. 14.17 and birds are called the fowls of the heaven Psal 104.12 The Lord cast down great hailstones from heaven Josh 10.11 and they were more which died with hailstones then they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword These hailstones came from the middle region of the aire I confesse also that Enoch was carried up into the aëriall heaven but with this distinction He was taken into it as his way not as the end of his journey not as his habitation or resting place The case of Enoch and Elias is so like so one in this puncto that you are not to marvell if sometimes I use the name of one sometimes of the other what is said of one is meant of both f Qui unum rectè nôrit ambos noverit Who knoweth one is not ignorant of the other Chrysostom in his oration of Elias is expresse that he resteth not in the aire and bringeth in Satan as wondring at Elias his riding through and above the clouds neither is his reason to be contemned Elias is not there where the devil is Prince and what should he do among lightning and thunder hail snow storm and tempest This is the portion of the wicked to drink If you flee to the miraculous omnipotent hand of God why may not I say the like concerning Gods extraordinary clothing him with immortalitie and that by dispensation unusuall in the act of translating him God did not let him continue on the earth or in the aire but assuming him into the highest heaven did glorifie his bodie For concerning coelum coeleste Bellarmine will not say that he resteth there nor did ever any afford patrocinie to that conceit Indeed Seneca De consolatione sheweth that the Stoicks thought that the souls of men departed hovered about their bodies and in the end were carried up t Ad ipsos orbes astrâ—s ornatos to the starry heaven And Cicero De somno Scipionis placeth that heroïcal soul among the starres Besides that the conceit is heathenish it
flcut sua eisque propter seipsos hoc velit quod sibi They say that an happy life is a sociable life which loveth the welfarre of friends as it doth its own good and wisheth as well to others as to it self Ludovicus Vives on the place saith They were the Stoicks who said so but I rather guesse they were the Peripateticks and Aristotle their cheif Chaunter Which blessed life the heathen meaned not of eternall blessednes after the resurrection but of a blessed naturall life in this world and on this earth such an one cannot Enoch and Elias have though they were in Paradise because they have no more companie of their kinde Enoch more especially had lesse happines by this argument if he be supposed to be in the earthly Paradise because he was long by himself ere Elias came to him by the space I say of above two thousand yeares To the further illustration of the former point I may truly say If Adam and Eve had lived in Paradise by themselves alone without any other companie at any other time I should not much have envied or wished that felicitie yea though he had not fallen whereby he became Radix Apostatica in the phrase of Augustine Yea such a blessednes there is in communication of happines that the all-blessed onely-blessed ever-blessed Deitie of the Vnitie would not be without the conjoyned happines of the Trinitie The singlenes of Nature would not be without the pluralitie of Persons Thirdly do they see those men and women and their actions who now live in the bounds of old Eden whilest themselves in their bodies are invisible Fourthly here is a multiplying of miracles daily that Angels shall keep them yet so that they cannot be seen From Enochs assumption which is now above 4000 yeares since have Angels kept him that he hath not been once seen Besides no one place of Scripture Canonicall saith they are in Paradise and it is so farre from a favour as it is rather a durance and captivitie if they be kept from all other parts of the world within the bounds of old Paradise since many places are now more delightfull then the place or places whereabouts Salianus himself now holdeth Paradise to be situated Moreover Elijah was taken up into heaven Suppose that to gratifie Bellarmine we grant Coelum aerium is there meant yet must he needs be taken up from the earth and so not abide on earth in the circuit of old Paradise as Salianus foolishly conceiveth Likewise Ecclesiasticus 49.14 Enoch was taken from the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Vatablus hath it and rendreth it De terra sublimis assumptus est He was taken up on high from the earth the Vulgat hath it Receptus est à terraâ— Eâ—terra had been more pithie When the Apostle saith He was translated Heb. 11.5 was he left on the same earth on which he was before Or after he was in heaven did he come again on the earth It was an excellent and true observation of our learned Whitaker That Bellarmine sometimes confuting his fellows answers confuteth farre better answers then himself bringeth And I will be bold to say of Salianus though he doth justly deride them who make Paradise in the aire as Cornelius à Lapide and Bellarmine or in the orb of the Moon as others Yet his crotchet is as foolish as any of theirs For in what part of Paradise were they kept when the floud was or was not all the earth overflown The Angels then kept them in the aire or else by an other miracle kept the water from over-flowing that place That the Angels kept people from entring into Paradise I have read that they kept any from going out of it and kept them in it I have not read k Nemiui conspicul esse possunt None can see them saith Salianus They may say I by the same divine power by which they are invisible if invisible they be Can they be seen by none How was Elias seen by our Saviour and his three Disciples at the Transfiguration Or were all they within Paradise or was Elias out of the bounds of the old Paradise when Christ was transfigured on the mount But these and greater inconveniences must these men run into who will maintain against Scripture that Enoch and Elias are in earthly or aeriall Paradise that they may uphold an other crotchet worse then this namely That Enoch and Elias shall hereafter die and be slain by Antichrist and are not l In coelo supercoelesti in the highest heaven which is the last question 6. Let us speak of them severally then joyntly Concernning Enoch the first of them who were rapti it seemeth to me that the Apostles words Heb. 11.5 not onely do reach home to that point unto which before I applyed them viz. That Enoch died not but evince also that he shall never die For it is not said Enoch was translated that he should not die for a good while but he was translated that he should not or might not see death Therefore he cannot he shall not die hereafter since the holy Ghost hath expressed and signed out the end of his translation Nè videret mortem That he should not see death Some may answer to that place of the Apostle first that he speaketh of THE DEATH OF SINNERS as if he had meant with the book of * Wisd 4.11 Wisdome to say NE MALITIA MVTARET INGENIVM EJVS LEST HE SHOVLD BE CHANGED TO THE WORSE for sinners are called DEAD MEN according to that saying l Improbi dum vivunt mortui sunt WICKED MEN EVEN WHILE THEY LIVE ARE DEAD So farre Drusius To whom let me adde that Christ saith Luke 9.60 Let the dead bury their dead And 1. Timoth. 5.6 She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilest she liveth And to the Angel of the Church of Sardis the Spirit saith Revel 3.1 Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead In all which places wicked men are taken for the dead yet in the place of the Apostle it cannot be so for he was speaking of the true lives and deaths of Gods Saints And if the literall sense can be admitted we must not flee to the mysterie but here is no inconvenience in the letter Moreover the same God who mercifully placed him in the state of Grace could as easily have kept him so without inflicting death on him Lastly the Apostle said Hebr. 11.4 Abel is dead and then descending to Noah and Abraham at the 13. verse These all died in faith I hope no man will say the word died is here taken for sinned but it is taken literally that their souls were parted from their bodies So the words That he should not see death prove that Enochs soul was not parted from his bodie Indeed he is one of them that are mentioned between Abel and Abraham but yet singled out by expresse words That he was translated lest he should or might see
corporum non animarum You shall discern by the manifest circumstances of the place that Moses meaneth some place under the earth fitted or appointed as receptacles of bodies not of souls saith Doctour Raynolds Herein I must needs dissent And first I say What is this a Locus corporum place of bodies It must be either the grave or hell or let him designe us out a third place A third place he cannot name especially for humane bodies Some held concerning infants That in regard of their innocencie they are to have eternall life but because they were not baptized they should not be with Christ in his kingdome But Augustine saith That Christ himself confuted b istam nescio quam medietatem De peccator Merit Remis 1.28 this new-invented middle or third mansion and as he said a little before more generally c Nec est ulluâ— ulli medius locus ut possit essâ— nisi cum diabolo qâ—â— non est cum Christo It is impossible for any man to be in any middle place but he must needs be with the devil who is not with Christ so do I say of this Locus corporum It is either hell or the grave Tertium locum penitus ignoramus We know no third place The Papists erre to establish a Purgatorie for the soul besides hell and heaven And Doctour Raynolds doth not well to mention so often a Locus corporum where he ought to name Where it is and What bodies go into it Secondly it is plain that their souls did sinne their souls were punished and went down to hell Doth not the Apostle S. Jude vers 11. speak of such as perished in the gainsaying of Korah to whom not the wo of a sudden death is denounced but vers 13. the blacknesse of darknesse for ever is reserved doth not the place stand fair for the damnation of Korah and his fellows Though Doctour Raynolds minceth it in this doubtfull manner d Non inflcior quin eorum auimae si sint mortui pertinaces in scelerata sua obstinatione adjudicatae sint inferis cum Divite I denie not but their souls if they died obstinate in their wicked rebellion were adjudged to the hell where Dives was Again when the Scripture saith Si creationem creaverit Dominus Numb 16.30 If the Lord shall make a new thing or a strange thing as new almost as strange to sight almost as is the creation for I take so much to be implyed in that unusuall phrase what reason hath that grave Doctour to say e Illud quod propriè notatur in verbis DescenderÃntque viventes in infernum nihil est aliud quà m horribile tremendum judicium Dei divinitus illis inflictum iri ut cùm alii priùs moriantur quà m sepeliantur ipsi quasi vivi sepeliantur That which is properly meant by the words IF THEY GO DOWN QVICK INTO HELL is nothing else but that the horrible and dreadfull judgement of God divinely shall be inflicted on them viz. in such sort that whereas others first die and then are buried these shall be buried as it were alive Why so reservedly and cautelously is it added As it were alive Again e Locus fuit corporum non animarum in quem descenderunt Corah Dathan Abiram It was the place of bodies and not of souls into which Korah Dathan and Abiram descended as if their souls were in the place appointed for bodies which he further parallelleth with the burying alive of the deflowred Vestall virgins though he ought to distinguish between the extraordinary miraculous hand of God and the ordinary justice of men in such cases And the Vestall virgins were farre longer ere they died then Korah and his companie ere they were swallowed up Let the judicious reader ponder these words of that famous Doctour Is nothing else and Shall be buried as it were alive and Korah Dathan and Abiram descended not into the place of souls though the souls of all wicked men do so and their souls by his reason should have more priviledge then other wicked mens and I dare say he will think that Doctour Raynolds might more safely have held the other opinion That their souls and bodies went alive to hell properly so called That Moses denoteth the place of bodies I denie not for even that place is in hell for all the bodies of the wicked in due time and for these mens bodies extraordinarily before the generall judgement But I am loth to say Moses meant not the place of souls I am loth to entertain a thought That the Rebels themselves did repent for if they did so they are saved I would be loth to flee from rationable probabilitÃe to possibilitie which hath a farre-stretched almightie arm and to say as he doth g Fieri potest ut quidam eorum aut offines illi culpae non fuerint aut si fuerint poenitentiam egerint It may be that some of them were not faultie or if they were repented That they repented who were swallowed up alive seems not agreeable to S. Jude who ver 11. pronounceth a fearfull wo against such as are like unto them and perished in the gainsaying of Korah In which wo not temporall bodily punishment alone but eternall torment of the soul is included Compare the words with 2. Pet. 2.12 Moreover none dares denie the possibilitie of repentance but who can think it probable That God would send such an extraordinarie punishment on such as were innocent or repented when as the children of that Luciferian Arch-rebel Korah were exempted from that destruction Numb 26.11 Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not yea were eminent and famous among the Levites Were over the work of the service keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle and their fathers were over the hoste of the Lord and the Lord was with them 1. Chron. 9.19 c. And they were either excellent Musicians or Singers or Pen-men for Divine Service as may be collected from many Psalmes intituled To the sonnes of Korah as Psal 42. Psal 44. Psal 87. And when the Scripture saith They descended alive into the pit I would be loth to varie the phrase as he doth h Si sint mortui pertinaces If they died in their obstinacie I denie not but in a large sense they may be said to die and the Scripture saith They should not die the common death of all men Numb 16.29 yet also They descended alive into the pit which cannot be better reconciled then to say The state of their bodies was changed immortalitie swallowed up their mortalitie in the act of their descending or passion rather if you will so call it There was no true separation between their souls and their bodies and therefore they died not their change notwithstanding may be reputed for a death which perhaps also shall be the case of all the wicked who shall be alive at Christs second and glorious coming
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
wicked in that 2. By the words of the Creed is proved that some shall never die The same is confirmed by other places of Scripture with the consent of S. Augustine and Cajetan The definitions Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum of the sentences and tenents of the Church leave the words doubtfully Rabanus his exposition rejected 3. The place of S. Paul 2. Corinth 5.4 evinceth That some shall not die Cajetan with us and against Aquinas Doctour Estius and Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit approve Cajetan S. Augustine is on our side and evinceth it by Adams estate before the fall which state Bellarmine denieth not Salmerons objections answered 4. Some shall be exempted from death as is manifested 1. Corinth 15.51 The place fully explicated The common Greek copies preferred The Greek reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall not all sleep standeth with all truth conveniencie probabilitie and sense The other Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall therefore all of us sleep and the more different Vulgat Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur Indeed we shall arise but we shall not all be changed justly exploded as adverse to sense 5. The Pelagians though accursed hereticks yet held truely That some shall not die S. Augustine dubious Others stick in his hesitancie Yet other Fathers and late Writers are constant That some shall be priviledged from death yet that change may be called a kinde of death 1. THe third main question being Whether Adam and his children all and every one of them without priviledge or exception must and shall die I have first answered and proved that there may be an exception of some who shall not die Secondly I have instanced in Enoch and Elias That they have been excepted and that they shall not die I am now come to the third branch of my answer That others also hereafter shall be excepted In the avouchment of this truth consisteth the labour till the end of this Chapter And first of all it must needs be acknowledged That all and every one of those who might have been or have been or shall be excepted may yet be said in a sort to die a Loco mortis erit momentanea commutatio The change which shall be in the twinkling of an eye shall be in the room and stead of death saith Aretius b In illis qui repentè immutantur immutatio illa erit species mortis The immutation of them who shall be suddenly changed shall be a kinde of death saith Beza Bosquier in his Terror Orbis maketh rapture to be a kinde of death we may more safely and properly call that sudden change by the name of death For in this it shall be like death That it shall take away from our bodies all corruptibilitie and mortalitie together with the defects now annexed to them and because it altereth if not abolisheth the former state or nature it shall go for a kinde of death But because this change doth not separate the soul from the bodie doth not dissolve the compositum we are bold to say It is not a true proper reall death The Papists will not be content with this immutation but urge a perfect naturall death a very disjunct separation of the soul from the bodie Aquinas goeth further and will have an incineration of the bodies from which dust and ashes incorruptible bodies shall arise But this is confuted by the Apostle 1. Thess 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Nos viventes relicti simul cum illis rapiemur in nubibus in occursum Domini in aera We who remain alive shall be hurried together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the aire as Montanus hath it The Vulgat differeth but in word not in sense d Qui vivimus qui relinquimur c. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up That the Apostle speaketh not this of himself and of his own person is confessed Occumenius citeth Methodius his opinion thus and addeth his reason For S. Paul was not alive corporally to that time But it cometh more home if we say as well we may that the blessed Apostle S. Paul knew that himself was none of them who were to endure alive on earth till the day of the generall judgement because he saith 2. Tim. 4.6 I am now readie to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Yea 2. Thess 2.2 he exhorteth the same Thessalonians That though seducers should pretend his message or his letter yet they should not beleeve that Christs day was at hand His own time was at hand but Christs day was not The English translation jumpeth verbally in the contradiction At hand and Not at hand The Originall varieth but a little and that not in sense nor in the Verb it self but the Preposition and Montanus hath the word Instat by way of exposition in both places e Sed suam personam verbi gratiâ profert But he instanceth in his own person saith Methodius That he speaketh it onely of the godly is also apparent by the context for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we the remainder sheweth that a few shall be left at that time and if he had spoken of the wicked perhaps he would not have put in himself and other holy ones he would not have said Rapiemur We shall be taken up but Rapientur They shall be taken up Again when he saith Rapiemur cum illis We shall be taken up with them who are meant in those words save they onely who sleep in Jesus and whom God will bring with him 1. Thess 4.14 which are not the wicked but the godly onely They are the Saints with whom the Lord cometh Jude ver 14. The Rhemists themselves confesse that the Apostle speaketh of all the faithfull then living when Christ cometh to the last judgement Diodorus as it is in Hierom saith The Apostle f Apostolus Nos dixit pro eo quod justos de quorum ego sum numero said WE that is they who are just out of whose number I am not excluded A powerfull reason may confirm this because the wicked will wish mountains to cover them will quake and tremble at that houre and would not be willing to come to judgement if they could avoid it Therefore it is not likely that they would spring forth and put themselves forward to meet the Lord. The summe is The godly which shall be then left and be alive shall be taken up into the aire The Papists say this is not to be done g Sine media morte without intercurrent or intercedent death whereas the words are expresse We living and remaining shall be snatched up The argument of Gregorie de Valentia hath pith in it For he saith If the live men do die h Sequitur justos aliquantò pòst resurrecturos quà m alios fiquidem morientur atque adeò resurgent it followeth that the just shall arise somewhat after
made quick But as I said the specializing of two sorts quick and dead evinceth that some shall not die and some have died These words of the Creed did much move Cajetan as himself confesseth and they are brought by S. Augustine to establish this point That some shall not die but shall be changed though I confesse the definitions Ecclesiasticorum Dogmatum cap. 8. leave it doubtfull For thus they say a Quod dicimus in symbolo in adveÌ„tu Domini vivos mortuos judicandos non solùm justos peccatores significari credimus sed vivos eos qui in carne invenienâ—i sunt qui adhuc morituri creduntur vel immutandi sunt ut alii volunt ut suscitati continuò vâ—l reformati cum antè mortuis judicentur What is said in the Creed That Christ at his coming shall judge the quick and the dead we beleeve doth signifie that not onely the just but the sinners also shall be judged And even those also who shall be found alive in their bodies of flesh of whom our belief is that they shall yet die or as others think be changed that being raised immediately or changed they may be judged with those who died before And yet me thinks another exposition of Ruffinus is as bad for quick and dead he understandeth of souls and bodies As if the souls were not sentenced before in the particular judgement as if the bodies were then dead or to be dead when they are judged 3. I have not yet ended with the words of the great S. Augustine but from the phrases used by him out of the Holy Writ of Expoliari Superindui To be unclothed and clothed upon I thus frame another argument S. Paul saith 2. Corinth 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We would not be unclothed but clothed upon that mortalitie might be swallowed up of life He who is not unclothed but clothed upon holdeth what he had layeth down nothing and hath somewhat added to him But by this garment Metaphorically is the bodie meant which shall not be cast off from the soul or the soul from it but in the change shall be arayed with immortalitie Now if there be not an expoliation if there be not a separation of the soul from the bodie there is no death But there is no such expoliation therefore they who have other clothing put upon them shall not die Cajetan upon the words SVPERINDVI CVPIENTES DESIRING TO BE CLOTHED VPON c. saith The same shall truly befall us b Si in die Domini vestiti corpore non nudi inventi fuerimus id est si tunc residui futuri sumus nondum mortui if at Christs coming we shall be found clothed with our bodies and not naked that is if we shall then remain alive and not be dead before And the same Cajetan confuteth Aquinas his exposition on the place Doctour Estius approveth Cajetan and so doth Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide on the words Lorinus on Act. 10. and Justinian upon these passages of S. Paul will by no means censure our opinion as Catharinus and Soto do and this they professe though they be Jesuits For indeed our opinion is confirmed by S. Augustine de peccatorum meritis remiss 1.2 c Si non peccâsset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortalitate incorruptione ut abscrberetur mortale à vita id est ab animali in spirituale transiret If Adam had not sinned his soul had never been disunited from his bodie but he had been clothed upon with immortalitie and incorruption so that the mortall part should have been swallowed up of life that is should be changed from a carnall life into a spirituall Otherwhere S. Augustine saith Adam had a state by which he might passe from mortalitie to immortalitie without tasting or partaking of death Bellarmine speaking of Adam citeth this and liketh it Why therefore may not they that shall be residui left be also without death translated into glorie If the Jesuits had had such an argument they would have said It were convenient for God so to do it yea necessarie that by plain demonstration mankinde might see and know what estate they had and what estate sometimes they lost in Adam and that all mankinde should have been so translated if sinne had not hindered and thrust death among us I will onely say It may be that some are therefore kept to be translated to shew the manner how Adam without death should have been changed Salmeron objecteth Children found alive at that time if they die not shall continue in the same stature which may not be beleeved I answer he derogateth from the power of God as if he were not able to make children to be men by the change as he is able by death Can God make children of stones and can he not make men of children Did he create Adam to be a full grown man of earth and will his hand be shortned in the immutation God out of the little dust of little children raiseth up by Salmerons confession intire perfect bodies of men therefore the same God may as well as easily and perhaps more easily if God doth such things more easily then other of the same living bodies of little children by that mysterious change produce and ampliate every member to the full growth of perfect men God caused the rod of Aaron to bud and it brought forth buds and bloomed blossomes and yeelded almonds Numb 17.8 and yet it was severed from the root and laid up in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the testimonie free from water or earth to nourish it and this was done the morrow after it was there laid though it would not have born almonds if it had been still united to the stock perhaps for many moneths after Did the same God restore unto Jeroboam his hand which was dried up before so that he could not pull it back to him again 1. Kings 13.4 and that on a sudden at the prayer of the Prophet And will Salmeron think that if children do not die they shall continue still children although they be changed Who knoweth not that the change is as great a part of Gods power as the resurrection Salmeron again objecteth If the living or quick at that day shall not die The wicked ones d Ignem conflagrationis evadent shall avoid the fire of conflagration I answer first That the fire of conflagration shall be after judgement Secondly if they should escape that fire they cannot flee from the fire of hell Thirdly the wicked ones shall arise with the just all together The wicked ones may be changed also at the same instant that the just are and that is at the same instant of the resurrection Christ is the resurrection and the life John 11.25 The resurrection to them that are dead perhaps the life to them that are changed and die not The resurrection of the dead
Saints is called the resurrection unto life The resurrection of the dead wickâ— ones is called the resurrection unto damnation John 5.28 Likewise say I The change of the wicked if changed they be as I hold it most likely may be called the change unto shame and pain eternall as the change of the godly may be called a change unto glorie For the wicked shall reap no benefit by that change nor shall they meet Christ in the aire by any extraordinarie rapture as I conceive And since they die the second death it mattereth not if they avoid either the first death by immutation or the fire of conflagration Lastly if they shall meet Christ in the aire it is to their greater terrour They shall be hurried to their judge and haled toward their punishment they meet him not as he is a milde Saviour but as an angrie and just God And this is a sufficient answer both to the second and third objection of Salmeron as the learned who reade him can testifie 4. Another argument and that of moment and validitie to prove that some shall hereafter be excepted from death is taken from that memorable diversly read diversly expounded place of the Apostle 1. Corinth 15.51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Omnes autem non dormiemus omnes autem immutabimur We shall not all die but we shall all be changed as the Interlinearie hath it And this is the first and best reading Let us examine first the words and the severall translations and so approach to the exposition The Greek cited by me at large is in all the Greek copies so saith Peter Martyr and Doctour Estius confirmeth the same so likewise doth Chrysostom and Theophylact reade it and Theodoret and Justinus ad Orthodoxos quaest 61. quaest 109. and Origen in tertio volumine enarrationis Epistolae primae ad Thessalonicenses as also in his book against Marcion Which is a manuscript in the Vatican saith Estius So Oecumenius Prognost 3.48 So Theodorus Heracleotes reades it saith S. Hierom in Tom. 3. Epistolarum pag. 198. and in the end of the same Epistle to Minerius and Alexander S. Hierom acknowledgeth that even in his dayes the Greeks did not reade it as the Latines Salmeron on the place findes fault with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes quidem non dormiemus All of us shall not die f Quod juxta verborum proprietatem perinde est ac dicere Nullos dormituros non enim dicitur Non omnes dormiemus quà declararet aliquos non morituros Est grande discrimen apud Logicos inter Non omnes dormiemus Omnes non dormiemus which according to the proprietie of the words is as if he had said NONE SHALL DIE. For it is not said NOT ALL OF VS SHALL DIE by which words is meant and declared that some shall not die And there is a great difference among Logicians between these two propositions NOT ALL OF VS SHALL DIE and ALL OF VS SHALL NOT DIE. So farre he First I say Estius a learned Doctour and Popish Divine doth sleight this subtiltie g Sâ—ito sensum non mutari sive legas Omnes quidem non dormiemus qui ordo verborum est in Graeco sive Non omnes quidem dormiemus quomodo legit Hieronymus plerique Lat ni vertunt Know saith he that the sense is no whit changed or altered whether you reade it thus ALL OF VS SHALL NOT DIE as the order of the words is in the Greek text or thus NOT ALL OF VS SHALL DIE as Hierom reades it and most of the Latines interpret it Secondly I say if we should maintain that none shall die of them that are residui then remaining alive but that both good and bad shall all be changed without death I see no inconvenience to arise from that opinion Catharinus in his Commentaries findes fault with those who follow the first reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Estius findes fault with him for his fault finding condemning him of inconsideration and rashnes The Arabick accordeth with the Greek Nos omnes non moriemur sed nos omnes mutabimur We all shall not die but we all shall be changed The Syriack also is in harmonie with both Greek and Arabick though Salmerons nicetie may think it a jarre Non omnes nos obdormiemus omnes autem nos immutabimur Not all we shall sleep but all we shall be changed yea an old vulgat translation which is in Basil in the librarie of the Predicants saith Erasmus agreeth with our Greek Aquinas himself in the end of his 8. Lect. confesseth that our Greek reading is in sense consonant to that which the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians the first Epist 4 chap. and 17 verse Scriptures sweetly expound Scripture We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed saith the Apostle here and to the Thessalonians We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together The very Prefaces have a correspondence in substance and are more then ordinarie This we say unto you by the word of the Lord 1. Thessal 4.15 and here 1. Corinth 15.51 Behold I shew you a mysterie And then doth he in both places evince an immutation without death Therefore there can be no danger in our opinion as may be evinced from Aquinas his free acknowledgement Yea there is not onely no danger but great reason for it for How excellently doth this agree with that which presently followeth verse 52. The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed Doth he not plainly discriminate and diversifie those which shall be raised from those which shall be changed He doth not say We shall be raised incorruptible and We shall be changed as he must have done if all are to die and then to be changed And to shew that the change is not by laying down of the bodie he addeth immediately This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortalitie vers 53. phrases implying no losse no decay no separation but a superinduction and superaddition to what before was enjoyed And when this is done he saith most pertinently vers 54. Then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victorie as if he had said When both these things are accomplished the raising of the dead and the change of the living so that they shall be no more mortall then shall death be overcome O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING vers 55. So much for the first and best reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I come to the second which is varied by the addition of one letter but it makes a contrarietie in the sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes non dormiemus All of us shall not sleep saith the former Omnes dormiemus All of us shall sleep saith the latter And this latter way it seemeth to have been read in some few copies even in S. Hieroms time But this Greek lection is
justly suspected saith the worthy Estius the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being so easily turned into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a little dash And he findeth just fault with Acacius in Hierom for saying it was so read in most Greek copies when as certainly it was read so but in verie few copies whereof there is scarce one now extant and not many proofs that ever there were many copies of that extant Neither indeed doth the reading stand with sense For the Apostle solemnly premizeth Behold I shew you a mysterie and then subjoyneth immediately according to this new-fangled mis-writing We shall all therefore sleep or die Is this a mysterie that all shall sleep or all die Doth he promise mountains and bring forth a molehill Every Heathen knows that we shall die every Christian Turk and Jew that we shall be raised again But when God justly for sinne sentenced man to death with a morte morieris That some sinfull men should be excepted is a mysterie deserving such a watchword as Behold Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed Secondly from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thus argue That death if such a death there be any which is so speedily begun by separation of the soul from the bodie and ended as I may so say by the swift and momentanie reuniting of the same soul to the same bodie cannot handsomely be called a sleep Doth he sleep who in the twinkling of an eye is changed from mortalitie to immortalitie yea from being alive is made dead and from being dead is made alive and that incorruptibly Was ever sleep confined to an instant till now or may one be said to sleep in the midst of these great works It is not so much as Analogicall sleep The greatest sleepers have more then an instant ere they can begin to sleep Sleep creepeth or falleth on men by degrees heavinesse and dulnesse usher it and the spirits have a time to retire to their forts and cittadels the senses are not locked up nor do they deposite the use of their faculties in a moment And may that be called properly rest or sleep which resteth not above an instant and is as quick as thought Rest and sleep do couch upon the bed of time likewise it is as much as possibly can be done if so much can be done to awake one in an instant The Scripture useth the phrase of sleeping towards them who rest as it were in death in the earth in the grave Our friend Lazarus sleepeth saith Christ John 11.11 when indeed he was buried Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 Let one place of holy Writ be produced where one and the same instant beginneth sleep and endeth awaking and then I may say there may be some shadow for that reading But here is no pause no rest no quiet therefore no sleep therefore the word sleep in this place is applied to such as died before and not to such as are alive and shall die as the second lection implieth Thirdly it wanteth force to say in the whole conjoyned sentence We shall therefore all sleep or die but we shall all be changed If the Apostle had intended any such thing he would not have used the adversative particle But but the implicative word And We shall all therefore sleep AND we shall all be changed This had been sense if thus it had been but not being so we may the more confidently shake off the second lection of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent from reason and cleave to the first of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes quidem non dormiemus c. All we shall not die but all we shall be changed And so from the varietie of Greek copies I come to the Vulgat the Translation in Latine Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur Truely we shall all of us arise but we shall not all of us be changed First I say this differeth from all Greek copies whereas if it had been according to any sort of them it might have swayed us much that way Secondly the same argument toucht at before may also give a side-blow to this translation The Apostle raiseth up their considerations by promising to tell them a mysterie But it was no mysterie to tell them that they should all be raised when he had told it so pithily so divinely and so often beat upon it before by so many kindes of arguments as he did Thirdly where the Vulgat saith Non omnes immutabimur it is not true for Omnes immutabimur We shall all be changed from mortalitie to immortalitie from naturall bodies to spirituall If you say We shall not be all changed to glorie I say so with you I adde That is no mysterie all know that Therefore the Apostle speaketh not of a change to glorie eternall in the heavens whereunto some onely shall be changed but he speaketh of a change from mortalitie to immortalitie from corruptible bodies to incorruptible which even the wickedest men shall have And perhaps he meaneth that this generall immutation shall be made sine media morte without intercurrent or intercedent death even in the wicked that shall be then alive yet in the change you must alwaies make this diversitie The wicked shall be singled out to shame to losse to punishment eternall with their raised or changed bodies for even in their raising also there is a change from corruption to incorruption but in the change of the godly there is glorious incorruption joyfull immortalitie pleasurable eternitie The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a change of a thing from place to place as when we take a piece of wood from the earth and cast it into the water Thus the wicked shall be hurried from their graves to the judgement seat and shall be placed on the left hand of our Saviour and after sentence shall be haled and cast from earth into hell On the other side the righteous in their change shall be mounted up from their graves or from the earth into the aire to meet Christ and shall be at his right hand and after sentence be carried or ascend up into heaven in most glorious manner to live with Christ eternally Fourthly if we reade it with the Vulgat We shall all arise but we shall not all be changed we must also immediately annex the words In a moment in the twinkling of an eie at the last trump for there is the pause and stay to be made there is the full sentence The Vulgat hath done very ill to make the stay and full point at immutabimur for then the words following bear no construction at all if they be considered by themselves In a moment in the twinkling of an eie at the last trump For then cometh in new matter For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption c. What coherence subsequent then shall you make unto these words None at all The coherence must be with the antecedent words But say I take the antecedent words as the Vulgat hath them and reade as you must the connexion in this sort We shall indeed all arise but shall not all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound c. I say even in this reading there is little sense also yea much untruth Is it not certain that we shall be changed in a moment Or how long shall the time of change be There is no way to avoid this foul absurditie which cometh by the Vulgat edition unlesse it be by a greater that is by saying that you will make an Hyperbaton and include these words We shall not all be changed in a Parenthesis and then the sense will be We shall arise in a moment c. For though it be true that we shall arise in a moment yet there is no ground that we shall not be changed in a moment In all likelihood a change may rather be more speedie which is without death then that change which is made through death and resurrection If they may be and shall be raised and changed in a moment they may in a moment be changed and not raised Secondly no authoritie that I know runneth for such a needlesse Parenthesis and I deem it as a violence offered to the Text so to strain it when the sense will runne fairly otherwise according to the best Greek copies We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump Let this also serve to have been spoken against the Latin Vulgat edition and its bad reading Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur In momento in ictu oculi in novissima tuba canet enim tuba mortui resurgent incorrupti c. By how much the lesse sense is in this by so much the more are we bound to adhere to the Originall and the most common and best copies of it This I may be bold to averre That if some shall not die and yet be changed there shall be an infallible yea demonstrative proof unto sense That the very self same bodie which man had shall inherit eternall glorie For if they die not they must needs keep and have the same bodies from which they are not parted by immutation Yea the identicall resurrection of the same very bodies which were dead may thus farre be proved That if the changed bodies shall be still the same in substance though differing in qualities the raised bodies also shall be no otherwise nor any way different and Pythagoras will then disprove his * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transmigration of souls into diverse bodies and his heathenish * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regeneration to which Nicodemus seemed to have an eye Joh. 3.4 when every soul cometh arayed with its own bodie and when they who by change put not off their bodies shall come alive to judgement 5. The Pelagians were wont thus to argue If sinne came in by Adam then all must needs die But some shall not die namely those y Qui reperientur vivi who shall be found remaining alive Therefore sinne came not into the world by Adam S. Augustine answereth this argument very sufficiently otherwise and it may easily and briefly be answered All shall die reatu though not actu Yet that holy Father and that great just enemie of the accursed Pelagians z In majorem cautelam for the greater and better securitie and safetie would seem to rest doubtfull of their assumption which he needed not Whereupon de Civitat 20.20 he saith a Dormitio praecedit quamvìs brevissima non tamen nulla Death goeth before a most short and speedie one yet a death And in the same place b Per mortem ad immortalitatem mirâ celeritate transibunt They shall slip sail or passe over by death to immortalitie with wonderfull speed Again de peccat merit remiss 2.31 c Hoc quibusdam in sine largietur Deus ut mortem istam repentiuâ commutatione non sentient God at the end of the world shall grant this priviledge unto some That by reason of their sudden change they shall not feel death And Retract 2.33 d Aut non morientur aut de vita ista in mortem de morte in aeternam vitam celerrimâ commutatione tanquam in ictu oculi transeundo mortem non sentient Either they die not or otherwise they glide from this life into death and from death into eternall life as it were in the twinkling of an eye by a most speedie alteration taking no notice or sense of death He leaves it doubtfull as you see in these his last books though sometimes before he thought That all should die and otherwhere as ad Dulcitium quaest 3. That they should not die The Master of the Sentences saith concerning the question Whether the change be by death or without it e Horum quid sit verius non est humani judicii definire Man cannot determine certainly which of these is truest Rabanus lib. 4. de sermon proprietat having alledged the consent of divers Fathers to establish his own opinion That all must die yet annexeth this Because there are others alike Catholick and learned men who beleeve That the soul remaining in the bodie those shall be changed to immortalitie who shall be found alive at the coming of our Lord f Et hoc eis reputari pro resurrectione ex mortuis quòd mortalitatem immutatione deponant non morte c. and that it stands them in stead of rising from the dead that they cast away mortalitie by change not by death Let any man rest on which opinion he pleaseth c. Which very words also you shall finde in the book de Ecclesiast Dogmat. cap. 7. Now though S. Augustine was dubious and some with him and though some also have imbraced the contrary opinion yet equally Catholick and learned men have been constant to maintain That some shall not die but be changed as you have heard confessed If you please you may take a view of some more particularly The afore named Theodorus Heracleotes cited by Hierom in his epistle to Minerius and Alexander hath it thus i Sancti qui in die judicii in corporibus reperiendi sunt non gustabunt mortem erúnt que cum Domino gravissimâ mortis necessitate calcatâ The Saints who in the day of the last judgement shall be found to be alive and remain in their earthly bodies shall not see death or taste of it and shall be with the Lord kicking and spurning at death and the greatest inforcing necessitie thereof Apollinaris cited in
the same epistle said Some shall not die but be snatcht out of this life that with changed and glorified bodies they might be with Christ Chrysostom on the 10. to the Romanes and on 1. Thess 4. and upon this place to the Corinthians saith Some shall escape death With him agreeth Epiphanius Haeresi 64. saying k Qui rapitur nondum mortuus est Who is suddenly snatched up is not yet dead And before them Origen lib. 2. contra Celsum so opineth Theophylact on 1. Corinth 15. thus l Etiam qui non morientur ad incorruptibilitatem transferentur Even they who shall not die shall be transchanged out of this corruptible life to incorruptibilitie And again m Nonnulli nè morientur quidem Some indeed shall not die at all To that effect S. Hierom in his epistle to Marcella quaest 3. num 148. and in his epistle to Minerius and Alexander bringeth the saying of Christ Matth. 24.37 c. of the dayes of Noah when the floud swept them away as they were eating and drinking to prove that at the last judgement some shall not die Theodoret evinceth the same truth producing the passage of Matth. 24.40 of two in the field one assumed the other rejected And Chrysostom in his Sermon de Ascensione Domini instanceth in the verse following of two in a mill one refused the other accepted which proofs aim at this That all shall not die Cajetan is rich in proofs That all shall not die See him on Act. 10. upon Timoth. 4. upon 1. Corinth 15. upon 1. Thessal 4. Tertullians words must not be omitted in his book de resurrectione carnis n Hujus gratiae privilegium illos manet qui ab adventu Domini deprehendentur in carne propter duritias temporum Antichristi merebuntur compendio mortis per demutationem expunctae concurrere cum resurgentibus This gracious priviledge belongs unto those who at the coming of our Lord and Saviour to judgement shall be found alive upon earth and for the grievous afflictions and pressures of the times under Antichrist they shall have granted unto them this indulgence That they shall not die but shall be suddenly changed and so go to meet Christ together with those which shall then be raised from the dead Salmeron being peremptorie That all and every one shall die properly upon 1. Thessal 4. hath a wilde crotchet That all who shall be alive toward the end of the world shall be consumed with the fire of conflagration which shall go before Christ and so dead and raised shall be snatched up But S. Augustine de Civitat Dei 20.16 setting down the order of the last judgement saith The fire of conflagration shall be after the last judgement I will close this point with the sound and learned words of Calvin which fully accord with what I rested on in the beginning of this chapter upon 1. Corinth 15. o Cùm mutatio fieri nequeat quin aboleatur prior natura ipsa mutatio meritò censetur species mortis sed cùm non sit animae à corpore solutio non reputatur in morte ordinaria Since there cannot be a change saith he but the former nature must be abolished the very change on good grounds may justly be accounted a kinde of death but since there is not a separation of the soul from the bodie it is not to be reputed as if it were the common and ordinarie death Upon 1. Thessal 4. he wittily observeth that they p Qui dormiunt aliquo temporis spatio exuunt corporis substantiam qui innovabuntur non nisi qualitatem who are dead or do die for some space of time or other longer or shorter their souls put off the substantiall clothing of the bodie or flesh but they who shall be changed shall put off onely the qualitie not the substance The summe of all is this The third main question by me at first propounded was Whether all and every one without exception must and shall die The Papists are obstinate for the affirmative I have proved the negative That some may be some have been and some others shall be excepted and not die And so I end my third and last Chapter of my third book of Miscellanies O Most gracious Lord God who hast committed all judgement to thy onely sonne our onely Lord and Saviour I beseech thee to have pitie upon me and for Jesus Christ his sake receive me into thy especiall favour O blessed JESU accept of these my poore and weak endeavours and receive my prayers and present them with mercie to the throne of Grace hasten thy coming and thy kingdome Come sweet JESU come quickly and prepare my soul to meet thee with joy If it be thy holy will let me be one of them that shall be changed and changed to the better from pain to comfort from sicknesse sorrow and labour to rest and blessednesse eternall Amen Amen Amen VNI-TRINO DEO LAVS ET GLORIA FINIS An Alphabeticall Table of the principall things contained in these three Books of Miscellanies A ABortion is a curse Book 1. pag. 103. Two kindes of Abortives ibid. pag. 98 99. Adams body was created immortall and how ibid. p. 11. Adams body was framed of other dust then the dust of Paradise ibid. p. 16. viz. out of the red earth of ager Damascenus ibid. p. 85. Book 2. p. 23. The contrarie disposition of Elements had not caused a dissolution of Adams body had Adam stood Book 1. p. 17 to 28. The naturall temper and constitution of Adams body in state of innocencie ibid. p. 18 and 20. Whether if Adam and Eve had stood confirmed in innocencie any of their children could have sinned ibid. p. 44 to 54. The endowments of Adam in state of innocencie ib. p. 55 56. Whether Adam and Eve foreknew their fall ibid. p. 59. Whether Adam and Eves sinne were the same ibid. p. 61. Whether of their sinnes were the greater ibid. p. 62 65 to 73. where also of Adams first sinne by which he fell ibid. Adam mourned 100 yeares for the murdered Abel ibid. p. 85 87. Adam was a type of Christ therefore saved ibid. Adam was buried in Golgotha and his skull found upon mount Calvary Book 2. from p. 13 to 29. Whether Adam could naturally understand all languages ibid. p. 47 48. Amphibologie prejudiciall to truth Book 1. p. 2. Angels fell the second instant of their creation ib. p. 108 and 126. Christ merited for Angels ib. p. 189 190. Angels representing men are called men in the Scripture Book 2. chap. 16. Apocryphall books too much slighted Book 2. p. 145. They are to be preferred before any other humane Authours Book 3. p. 183. Of the diverse Appointment of things by God Book 1. p. 2 3. The Apostles represented the whole body of Christs Ministers ibid. p. 147 148. The Apostles were none of them learned before their calling Book 2. p. 87 88. Aristotle and Plato