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
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
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
punishment to be a favour and blessing of God 3. Not many or more sinnes but one caused death One onely David begotten in lawfull wedlock That this one sinne is not lesse in the godly nor greater in the wicked Death was appointed for one sinne onely of one person onely 4. This one person onely was Man this Man that sinned that one sinne was Adam Strange and curious speculations that Eve sinned not that sinne for which man-kinde was appointed to death 5. Two Schoole-speculations propounded The second handled at large as expounding the former and determined against the Schoolmen themselves viz. That the children of innocent Adam had been born confirm'd in grace The censure of Vives upon these and the like points A part of his censure censured 1. COncerning Death I mean in this place to touch onely the strange medly that is mixed in it of Sower Sweet The sowernes or bitternes of death is discerned because that manner of secession or departure is onely painfull whereas all other approaches unto glorie all other stairs steps and means inducing to blessednes are void of pain Let us see it exemplified in Enoch He walked with God and was not for God took him Genes 5.24 His manner of not-being as he was before whatsoever it were or howsoever was never held painfull Secondly the chariot of fire and the horses of fire which parted Eliah and Elisha both asunder 2. Kings 2.11 hurt neither of them Elijah saith the place went up by a whirlwinde into heaven the very form of words implying a willing-easie ascent nor did the whirlwinde molest him or pain him though Ecclesiasticus 48.9 it is said it was a whirlwinde of fire Christs Transfiguration comes next to be considered It was a true representation of that bodilie glorie which at the recollection retribution of all Saints God will adorn and cloth the faithfull withall Christ shewing them the mark at which they ought to shoot for we also are to be fashioned or configured to his transfiguration Philip. 3.21 * Qualis futurus est tempore judicandi talis Apostolis apparuit As he is to be at the time of judging such did he appeare to the Apostles saith Hierom on Matth. 17. And let not man think he lost his old form and face saith he or took a body spirituall or aëriall the splendor of his face was seen and the whitenes of his vestments described * Non substantia tollitur sed gloria commutatur The substance is not taken away but the glory is changed Or that I may utter it in Theophylacts words on Mark 9.2 By the transfiguration so Oecolampadius should translate it understand not the change of character and lineaments but the character remaining such as it was before an increase was made of unspeakable light This admirable light not coming from without to him as it did to Moses but flowing from his divinitie into his humane soul from it into his body and from it into his very clothes will you say his clothes were changed saith S. Hierom His raiment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no fuller on earth can white them Mark 9.3 And his face did shine as the Sunne Matth. 17.2 What S. Chrysostom saith of the spirituall bodies of the Saints I will much more rather say of Christs body transfigured for if starre differeth from starre in glorie man from man much more shall Christ shine above all other men by infinite degrees They shall shine as the Sunne not because they shall not exceed the splendor of the sunne Aquin part 3. q. 45. art 2. but because we see nothing more bright then the sunne he took the comparison thence And this shining saith Aquinas * Fuit gloriae claritas essentialiter licèt non secundum modum cùm suerit per modum transeuntis passionis was essentially a claritie of glory though not in the manner seeing it was by way of a transient passion as the aire is inlightned of the sunne whereas * Ad corpus glorificatum redundat claritas ab anima sicut qualitas quaedam permanens to a glorified body claritie from the soul doth accrue as some permanent qualitie Which essentiall claritie Christ had from his nativitie yea from his first conception yet by dispensation he ecclipsed it ever till he had accomplished our redemption except at this time when appeared a brightnes of glory though not a brightnes of a glorious body not imaginary unlesse you take imaginary as synonymall with representative but reall though transitorie Can any one think that herein was any pain or rather not infinite pleasure The beholders rejoyced they could not do so at the pain of Christ If there were any pain or grief it would rather have been so at the withdrawing of his unusuall claritie which not being likely the manifestation of this claritie at this transfiguration was lesse likely to be painfull The fourth and last kinde of degree to happines is translation not onely as Enoch was translated from one life to an other kinde of life but such a translation as should have been of Adam if he had not sinned and shall be of such as shall be alive at Christs coming Adams translation had been sine media morte Nor was his slumber painfull nor solutio continui at the drawing out of his rib nor the closing of the flesh again nor is it likely there was in Adams side any scar the badge of pain and sorrow much lesse should he have had pain at his translation Pain is the grand-child of sinne the daughter of punishment from both which the estate of innocency was priviledged Every thing in the Creation was very good Genes 1.31 Every tree was pleasant to the sight and good for food Genes 2.9 and could the tree of life cause pain By tasting the fruit thereof Adam and his ofspring had come to an higher and more unchangeable happines The middesse was then proportionate to the beginning and to the end Sorrow was part of the curse innocency could not feel pain much lesse shall eternall happines and should the tree of life have caused pain Then were there little difference between it and the tree of knowledge of good and evill Or what difference in that point would there be between Adams death which was painfull and his translation if it should have been painfull As concerning the translation of them that shall be found alive at the last day I am thus conceited That there shall be no true and reall separation of their souls from their bodies at least so much as concerneth the righteous That they shall be changed That they shall put on immortalitie If it be delightfull now to our bodies to receive ease shall it be painfull to be clothed with incorruptibility It shall be done in a moment in the twinkling of an eye 2. Cor. 5.4 Nolumus expoliari saith the Apostle shewing the unwillingnes of men to die sed supervestiri
quòd pueri in statu innocentiae nascerentur in justitia confirmati it seems not possible that in the state of innocencie children should be born confirmed in justice So Aquine and Gregorie de Valentia on him A second way is taken by * Abul in Gen. 3. quaest 6. 7. Abulensis and followed by * Cath. in locum Catharinus viz. That if Adam had not sinned his posteritie should have been confirmed in originall justice but not in gratia gratum faciente in saving grace Where they do very ill to set such inward friends so much at odds for originall justice and gratia gratum faciens differ onely ratione not re and none could have one that had not both they being in the state of innocencie glued inseparably but they had been born in gratia gratum faciente saith * Aquin. part 1. quaest 100. art 1. ad 2. Aquine Therefore do I conclude both with Aquine against them that the posteritie of innocent Adam had been born in gratia gratum faciente and with them against Aquine that they had been confirmed in originall justice Scotus seeing the inconveniences of Aquin's position takes a third way namely That the posterity of just Adam should have been born both in justice and grace but not confirmed till they had overcome their first temptation Before I come to grapple with Scotus I must first trie my strength against Aquinas from whose position these three consequences do necessarily flow as * Est in 2. Sent. dist 20. Parag. 5. Estius his great disciple confesseth First that some of Adams children might have continued obedient others might have been disobedient to God Secondly That the just children of innocent Adam should have been tempted by Satan not once onely but often Thirdly That without temptation they might have sinned by their own will onely Against the first consequence I thus argue If some of innocent Adams children had sinned should they have had any children or none Not none for the blessing of Crescite Multiplicamini reached to all Should their children then naturally have been good or bad Not good and innocent for that is not the issue of actually disobedient offenders If they had been born wicked then had their generations so been and the generations from them to the Worlds end and millions of souls had perished which fell not in Adam but in and by their other parents which crosseth the main current of Divinitie For Adam onely represented all mankinde and in him onely were we to stand or fall Adam in Paradise even before his sinne was a Type of Christ compare Genes 2.24 with Ephes 5.30 c. and stood idealiter for us all See Rom. 5.12 c. He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adamerat nos omnes nos omnes eramus ille unus Adam By Aquins consequence more first Adams are set up by which mankinde might have fallen and so more second Adams to restore them But by one man came death and by the bloud of onely one are we redeemed Again if innocent Adams just children though unconfirm'd had begot just unconfirmed children yet after that generation these unconfirm'd fathers had sinned what children should they have begot after their sinne should the same father have brought forth life and death good children and bad and seen some of his children happie and himself and other children miserable And suppose the mothers had sinned and not the fathers should the mothers have been in the stead of the first Adam should the children have fallen in them or no A third absurditie followeth from Aquins position namely That the righteous should have begotten not one constantly righteous from the beginning to the Worlds end but everie one that had sinned should have begotten sinfull children for ever And so for one that had continued righteous and been tranlated millions might have been sinners and died Lastly no one man had been certain of his salvation any time of his life though he had lived never so long and never so justly which yet even in statu lapso hath been granted to some few Against the second consequence from Aquins doctrine viz. That even the just children of innocent Adam should have been tempted by Satan not once but often I oppose these demands How many times are included in the word often or when should there have been an end of tempting If at any set time of their life why at that time and never before nor after If they should have been tempted all the dayes of their life the felicitie of Eden might have been more troubled and fluid then the waters of it and I might justly say O poore Paradise unsetled integritie provoked or tempted innocence tremulous estate where Satan the stronger had power alwaies to tempt and malice enough to charge home with cunning and man the weaker had power alwaies to fall The third consequence is somewhat questionable as inferring that all and every of Mankinde even without any temptation might have sinned by their own will onely making the happines of Paradise worse then our present unhappines where man sinneth not but being tempted either by Satan or his own concupiscence Jam. 1.14 For all the evill thoughts of our will are truly divided into * Immissas ascendentes injected and ascending and none of the ascending have been in the will before they were in the understanding and nothing hath been in the understanding that hath not been in the senses Besides death was to be inflicted not for the sinne of the will onely or meerly but for the eating of the forbidden fruit These or the like or worse inconveniences perhaps made Scotus to varie from Aquine and more probably to defend That upon triumph over their first temptation every one of the children of innocent Adam had been confirmed in grace We may not yeeld this saith Estius And it is not true and there is no reason for it and it little agreeth with the commination In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Genes 2.17 saith Gregorie de Valentia I answer That the words In the day may prove that they might not have been tempted the first or second day or in a short time but they hinder not but upon overcoming of their first temptation they might every day after have been confirmed Again the commination was not spoken to Adam as an individuall person but to him as the Feoffee of mankinde If every one should have stood for himself and his posteritie what is Adams sinne more to me then Cains or my last and immediate fathers first actuall sinne if neither Adam nor any of his children had sinned before mine own father But since we did fall not personally in our selves not in our immediate parents not in any but Adam by the breach of that commination so on the contrarie not by any other parents obedience not by our own obedience but by the obedience of that one man unto that one
in her without the help of man or sinne and was even then Lord of all things 5 Another point followeth towit We sinned that sinne in Adam not by imitation onely For Adam sinned and in a sort imitated Eve who sinned first and ate of the forbidden fruit before him yet it is not said That in Eve Adam died or many died in Eve or Adam sinned through Eve So likewise the Devill offended before Adam was and Adams sinne did nearly in many particulars resemble the Devils yet Adam died not by the sin of the Devil though after a fashion he did imitate it But it is said Rom. 5.15 Through the offence of Adam many be dead and thereabouts In Adam all die Therefore this sinne of ours must needs be more then by imitation And this is S. Augustines argument against Pelagius If it had been by imitation onely * Apostolus peccati principium non fecisset Adamum sed Diabolum The Apostle had not made Adam the beginning of sinne but the Devill Against Julian 6.10 he useth this other argument in effect Who almost yea who at all thinketh of Adam when he sinneth whereas the imitator propoundeth himself a pattern to follow and imitate Or what is Adams eating of an apple like unto witchery blasphemy murder lying or the like and how there have been yea are yet many millions in the world who never heard of Adam much lesse of his sinne and did they intend to imitate or did they imitate him Thirdly * De Peccat Merit Remiss 1.9 Augustine thus argueth As the second Adam besides this that we are to follow him and imitate him giveth hidden grace unto the faithfull so contrarily we are faulty and die not by the imitation onely of the first Adam but by the secret blot and spot by which he hath infected us Fourthly he thus disputeth in his 89 Epistle to Hierome The Apostle saith Rom. 5.16 The fault is of ONE offence to condemnation but he must have said It had been of MANY offences and not of ONE if all are condemned for their actuall personall imitation of Adam since the offences of many men must needs be more then the ONE offence spoken of by the Apostle Lastly let me reason thus Rom. 5.14 Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression But death was the wages of sinne Therefore some died who did not resemble Adam in finning And there is a sinne not like to his for Adams sinne was actuall most voluntary and personall Children in sinning of originall sinne do not imitate Adam for their sinne was onely implicit in and with him and they have not that absolute freedome of will that he had and their sinne is rather naturall then personall Yet children die for sinne and for such a sinne as is not after the similitude of Adams transgression and so originall sinne cleaveth unto us not by imitation onely * Aug. De Peccat Merit Remiss 1.15 Augustine thus If imitation onely make sinners by Adam onely imitation should make us just by Christ and then not Adam and Christ but Adam and Abel should be compared For Adam was the first wicked man and just Abel Hebr. 11.4 the first just man But these things are not thus Therefore we sinned not onely by imitation of Adam 6 I come to a new point namely to prove That this sinne of Adam is not ours by imputation onely as if Adam alone had offended and we were wholly cleare from that great sinne Indeed Adams actuall first sinne or his other sinnes after his repentance as they were personall and private are not imputed to us For he was to answer for himself as well as we are If we repent what doth our repentance help him If he had not changed his minde and turned to God himself alone should have been condemned as himself alone was saved by his own repentance That Adam was by divine wisdome brought out of his fall is said Wisd 10.1 * Veniae redditus est He hath been restored to pardon saith S. August And in the Tribe of Judah there is to this day a den or hole called Spelunca Adam The Cave of Adam in it a rock in which are two stony beds of Adam Eves and here they mourned as is delivered by Tradition saith Adrichomius an hundred yeares for the murdered Abel why not rather for their own sinnes say I This place is not farre from either Ager Damascenus where they say Adam was made of that Red earth which is mire tractabilis saith Adrichomius or from that place which to this day is shewen and recorded to be the plat of ground which drank up Abels bloud when Cain slew him And though I deny not but they might mourn for the death of Abel yet they were more bound to mourn for that sinne of theirs which brought death both upon Abel and themselves and all their posterity That Adam was a Type of Christ is expressed Rom. 5.15 and unfolded in many excellent particulars by * Sal. Ad annum 930◠Salianus That the more eminent Types of Christ should be saved is evinced because of their resemblance and conformitie unto the Antitype nor can it be proved that ever any of his figures were condemned For the shadow must follow the substance and Christ that Proto-type being not onely saved but called Jesus because he shall save his people from their sinnes Matth. 1.21 They are his people especially who in principal things resembled him and wherein can they better resemble him then in being blessed and saved as he was But I return to Adam Concerning Adam Augustine saith thus * De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quòd eum ibidem solverit Ecclesia ferè tota conseutit Aug. Epist 99. Ad Euodium As for that first man the father of mankinde almost the whole Church agreeth that Christ being in hell he there delivered him Concerning his body that it arose if other Saints of the Old Testament arose and that it was besprinkled with the bloud of Christ dying shall be shewed hereafter And if God had such care of Adams body or part of it he shall be impudently unreasonable that shall say his soul is not in blessednesse Now as his personall repentance saved himself onely and not one of his ofspring so if he had died unrepentant his sinne or sinnes as they were personall should not have prejudiced one of his posterities salvation Bellarmine * Bell. De Amiss Gratiae 3.12 saith It was one of Tatianus his errours That our first parents were damned Indeed Irenaeus 1.30 ascribes this opinion to Saturninus and Marcion and chap. 31. to Tatianus the first founder of it Tertullian in his book De Haeresib towards the end taxeth Tatian for the same opinion and confuteth him thus * Quasi non si rami salvi fiunt radix salva sit As if
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
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 6. Our conversation is in heaven Philip. 3.20 From which positive proofs and doctrine that Christ stood in our stead and that almost all if not all his actions and passions as he was the Mediatour between God and man were representative of us let us descend to the comparative and shew that Christ hath done and will do more good unto us then Adam hath done harm Which point I have more enlarged in my Sermon at the re-admitting into our Church of a penitent Christian from Turcisme being one of the two intituled A return from Argier where these five reasons are enlarged First that Adam conveyed to us onely one sinne but Christ giveth diversities of grace and many vertues which Adam and his posterity should never have had as patience virginity repentance compassion fraternall correction martyrdom Secondly Adams sinne was the sinne of a meer man onely but the Sonne of God merited for us Thirdly by Adams offence we are likened to beasts by the grace of Christ our nature is exalted above all Angels Fourthly Adams disobedience could not infect Christ Christs merit cleansed Adam saving his soul and body Fifthly as by the first Adam goodnes was destroyed so by the second Adam greater goodnes is restored and all punishments yea all our own sinnes turned to our further good To which I will annex these things following By Adams sinne we were easily separated from God Satan the woman and an apple were the onely means But I am perswaded saith the Apostle Rom. 8.38 that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God Again Rom. 5.13 c. the Apostle seemeth to divide the whole of time in this world into three parts under three laws the law of Nature of Moses of Christ In the first section of time sinne was in the world Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses saith the Apostle In the law of Moses though death was in the world yet sinne chiefly reigned and the rather for the law Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimúsque negatum This the Apostle confirmeth often especially Rom. 7.8 Sinne taking occasion wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The third part of times division is in the dayes of grace under Christ and now not so much death not so much sinne as righteousnes and life do reigne or rather we in them by Christ and the power of both the other is diminished and shall be wholly demolished If Adam hurt all mankinde one way or other Christ hath helped all mankinde many wayes In this life he giveth many blessings unto the reprobate his sunne shineth on all his rain falleth both upon good and bad and I do not think that there ever was the man at least within the verge of the Church but had at some time or other such a portion of Gods favour and such sweet inspirations put into his heart that if he had not quenched by his naturall frowardnes the holy motions of the Spirit God would have added more grace even enough to have brought him to salvation For God is rich in mercy Ephes 2.4 The Father of mercies 2. Corinth 1.3 Thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made for never wouldest thou have made any thing if thou hadst hated it Wisd 11.24 What thou dost abhorre or hate thou dost wish not to be what thou dost make thou dost desire it should be saith Holcot on the place In our Common-prayer-book toward the end of the Commination this is the acknowledgement of our Church O mercifull God which hast compassion of all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made which wouldest not the death of a sinner but that he should rather turn from sinne and be saved c. God is intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amator animarum A lover of souls Wisd 11.26 Holcot on the place confirmeth it by Ezek. 18.4 All souls are mine saith God Men commonly love the bodies saith Holcot but God the souls b Amat Deus animas non singulariter sic quòd non corpora amet sed privilegialiter quia eas ad se in perpetuum fruendum praeparavit God loveth the souls not onely as if he did not love the bodies but principally because he hath fitted them for the eternall fruition of himself It is not the best applied distinction for whose soever souls shall enjoy God their bodies also shall and that immortally for ever If he had said that God had loved humane souls privilegialiter because man had nothing to do in their creation or preservation he had spoken more to the purpose Nor think I that God forsaketh any but such as forsake him but Froward thoughts separate from God Wisd 1.3 c. For into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sinne For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding Concerning the souls of infants dying without the ordinary antidotes to originall sinne baptisme and the pale of the Church though they may most justly be condemned yet who knoweth how easy their punishment may be at least comparatively as some imagine For that some drops of mercy may extraordinarily distill upon them they cannot deny who say That the rebellious spirits of actually sinfull men and Angels are punished citra condignum But to leave these speculations I dare boldly affirm that if there be any mitigation of torments in any of them it is not without reference to Christ Moreover the redeeming of man was of more power then the very creation for this was performed by a calm Fiat but the redemption was accomplished by the agony passion and death of the Sonne of God c Aug. in Joan. Tractatu 72. post medium Augustine on those words John 14.12 Greater works then these shall he do saith thus It is a greater work to make a wicked man just then to create heaven and earth Therefore much more doth Christs merit surmount the fault of Adam In the first Adam we onely had posse non peccare posse non mori A possibility of not sinning a possibility of not dying We should have been changed though we had not died posse bonum non deserere A possibility of not forsaking goodnesse and should by his integrity and our endeavours have attained at the utmost but bene agere beatificari To do well and be blessed By Christ we have not onely remission of sinnes and his righteousnes imputed but rich grace abundance of joy and royall gifts Not a more joyfull but a more powerfull grace saith d Non laetiorem sed potentiorem gratiam Aug. de Correp Gratia cap. 11. Augustine and we shall have non posse peccare non posse
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
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
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
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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
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
maintain That Adams representation of us and his obedience should have done us equall good to our resisting of the first temptation More might pertinently be said of this matter but besides the precedent tediousnesse of it Ludovicus Vives aurem vellit endeavouring to restrain such speculations to modest bounds Thus he saith on Augustine De Civit. 13.1 Of things which might or might not have happened to man if Adam had not fallen * Quid factum sit magno nostro malo nemo ignorat quid fuisset nescio an ipsi Adam ostensum fuit quantò minùs nobis misellis Nam quid prodest uti conjecturis in re quae conjecturas omnes superat humanas What fell out to our great harm no man is ignorant of what should have befallen I know not whether it was revealed to Adam himself how much lesse to us poore wretches For what availeth it to use conjectures in a thing which is above all humane conjectures But Vives himself is to blame First for his nesciencie or timerousnesse as if Adam knew not what estate he and his should have had if he had persevered in innocency The ignorance of a point so nearely concerning him had argued imperfection which the fulnes of knowledge in which he was created did clearly dispell For if God said to the corrupted World Deut. 30.19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death could uncorrupt Adam be ignorant of the life that was set before him Or did Adam understand the miseries and punishments the orts and effects of Morte Morieris expressely threatned against him in a future contingent estate and could he be ignorant of his present condition of blisse and certain blisse to be increased upon his obedience Did he know the natures of beasts and other creatures could he know the strange production of Eve could he prophetically intimate the strict union of Christ with his Church by his own conjunction with Eve and was it not shewed unto him what state he should have had and we in him Secondly though these things be taxed of nicetie yet the impartiall Reader overviewing this Book perhaps will say It was profitable and delightfull to problematize even upon this very point But other matters invite me hence forward to them and therefore having cleared That it was the sinne of Adam of onely Adam and not of Eve for which Death was appointed Let us proceed to examine Which and what this sinne of Adam was which is next and necessarily to be handled O Most glorious Creator who did'st make us in the First Adam excellent Creatures and wouldest have made us better if he who undertook for us had not brought upon us death and destruction Grant I beseech thee for thy mercies sake in the Merit and Mediation of the Second Adam Jesus Christ our onely Saviour That we may recover our lost Image and be made like unto him here and reigne in Life with him hereafter CHAP. IIII. 1. Adams perfection in Innocencie Our imperfection after his fall contrarie to his both in understanding and will and in the parts concupiscible and irascible 2. Adam had other laws given him but one above all and one onely concerning posteritie 3. What this Law was Adam knew the danger to himself and his of spring The first sinne was against this Law 4. Eve sinned before How she sinned the same and not the same sinne with Adam 5. Zeno the Stoicks and Jovinian confuted Sinnes are not equally sinfull 6 Adam sinned farre more and worse then Eve 7 This sinne of Adam was not uxoriousnesse as Scotus maintained but disobedience or pride The branches of Adams sinne 1 LOmbard saith * Quibusdam videtur quòd Adam ante lapsum non habuerit virtutem Lomb. Sent 2. dist 29. lit B. Some are of opinion that Adam before the fall had no vertue He had not justice say they because he despised Gods commandement nor prudence because he provided not for himself nor temperance for his appetite extended to the forbidden fruit nor fortitude for he yeelded to suggestion We answer saith Lombard He had not these vertues when he sinned but before and in sinning losed them For Augustine in a certain Homily saith Adam was made according to the Image of God armed with shamefastnesse composed with temperance splendent with charitie Otherwhere he saith Adam was endued with a spirituall minde Ambrose saith * Beatissimus erat auram carpebat aetheream He was most happy and led an heavenly life and addeth a good observation * Quando Adam solus erat non est praevaricatus When Adam was alone he transgressed not Which may teach us to fear the enticements of companie This point deserveth not to be so speedily cast off and therefore attend this further enlargement Many very many precepts were graven in the heart of Adam and every branch of the naturall Law was there written by the finger of God at his Creation nor was he ignorant what was to be done or omitted in any businesse Eccl. 17.1 The Lord created man of the earth and verse 2. he changeth the singular into the plural He gave them power over the things therein and verse 3. He endued them with strength by themselves and made them according to his image And then followeth an excellent description of their gifts I conceive and explain the matter thus Foure faculties he had and we have of our souls Two superior Two inferior The two superior are understanding and will The two inferior the part irascible and part concupiscible First the object of his understanding was truth the perfection of it was knowledge but now as we are in the state decaied this truth is darkned with ignorance 1 Corinth 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not nor can know the things of the Spirit of God Eph. 4.18 Their understanding is darkned and their hearts are blinde Psal 49.20 Man in honour understandeth not As Adam was in innocencie he was partaker of the truth The Apostle Ephes 4.23 24. saith Be renewed in the spirit of your minde New we were once in Adam and in him also we grew old we are commanded to be renewed as new as once we were and put on that new man which was created in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth therefore the first Adam was created in truth You have the object Truth the perfection was Knowledge Ecclesiasticus 17.7 God filled them with knowledge and understanding and this is seconded by the Apostle Colos 3.10 The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Renovation necessarily implieth precedent oldnes and oldnes precedent newnes of knowledge in the first Adam Secondly the object of mans will was and is Goodnesse the perfection Love In the decayed estate the will is infected with vanitie Genes 6.5 Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely evill continually Ephes 4.17 We walk in the vanitie of our
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
his Father and Mother and cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh and by the same words perhaps understand Christ and his Church and that mysterie explained by S. Paul Ephes 5.31 c. those being the words of Adam as †Epiph. Contr a Ptolemaîtas Epiphanius saith of Adam speaking unto God speaking the truth of God and in this respect as I conceive Christ saith Matth. 19.4 c. these words are the words of God of the Creator as all light is from the Sunne so all truth from God as on the contrarie all lies are from the Devill I say if Adam could foresee marriages generations cohabitations mysteries and future usances he could not be ignorant that that law was given him to keep to the blisse of all mankinde and the contempt thereof would draw on the destruction of his posteritie And I think I shall not erre if I collect from the correlative correspondencie which must be between the Type and the Antitype the shadow and the substance That the first Adam knew his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disobedience was sufficient to bring destruction on all mankinde as the second Adam knew that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or obedience was a sufficient redemption for the sinnes of all the World Durand foolishly presupposeth that the will of Adam sinning was ours onely concomitativè interpretativè because we lost originall justice when Adam finned beyond his thoughts or intentions * Stap. De Originali Peccato 1.9 Stapleton saith truly If Adam intended no such thing with an actuall intention yet he did it with a virtuall intention But I rather think that the word If may be cut off and we may say Adam did as Esau afterward prefer temporals before spirituals and as all the sonnes of Adam do at one time or other for he was not ignorant of the danger yet embraced it and he might say within himself Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor * Aug. De Gen. ad lit 11.18 Augustine hath this wittie Quaere Whether Adam and Eve foreknew their fall For if he did before hand know that he should sinne and that God would revenge it whence could he be happie and so he was in Paradise yet not happie If he did not foreknow his fall then by this ignorance he was either uncertain of that blessednesse and how was he then truly blessed or certain by a false hope and not by a right knowledge and then how was he not a fool I answer They did not know that they should fall or sinne for there was no necessitie laid upon them and to know the unalterable certaintie of a thing contingent as their future estate was is to take away the nature of its contingencie and to make it unavoidable But for all this ignorance they were certain enough of blessednesse if they would themselves and their wills and persons were in Paradise blessed though changeable though not so wholy blessed as good Angels are or as the Saints shall be For if we say Nothing is blessed but what hath attained absolute certainty and the height of blessednesse the very blessed Spirits of heaven shall not be said to be blessed especially if they be compared with God who onely is blessed And so Adam and Eve were beati modo quodam inferiori non tamen nullo that I answer in Augustines words Again to the former part of this Question I answer That they knew before hand that they could sinne and that God would punish them if they did sinne and yet for all this they had the grace given to stand if they would and so to avoid both sinne and punishment and withall they knew that they had that grace But if before hand they had known or could have known that they should have sinned they could not have been happie in Paradise yet as they were in Paradise they were happie though they knew not that they should fall For if men on earth may be called Saints Saints of light Blessed as they are often and Spirituall Galat. 6.1 though they were in their bodies to passe through both temptations and tribulations and can not divers times but fall much more Adam might be termed Blessed in Paradise who though he saw he might fall yet he saw also he might have stood and so rejoyced saith Augustine himself for the reward to come that he endured no tribulation for the present Lastly to S. Augustines three-headed Dilemma I answer by distinguishing There is a threefold ignorance The first is pravae dispositionis when one is prepossessed with a false opinion excluding knowledge this may be called positive ignorance or plain errour The second is ignorantia privationis when a man knoweth not what he is bound to know neither of these can consist with blessednesse nor was in innocent Adam But there is a third viz. ignoratio simplicis nescientiae when we know not such things as we need not to know This was in Adam and is in good Angels yea Christ himself knew not some things This ignorance is not sinfull nor erronious not making either imaginarily happie or foolish This great law in Tertullians phrase is stiled * Lex primordialis generalis quasi matrix omnium praeceptorum Dei The Mother-law breeding all other laws which had been sufficient for them if they had kept it saith he * Aug. De Civit. 14.12 Augustine and * Chrys Homil. 41. in Acta Apost Chrysostom agree in this That Adams first sinne onely maketh us culpable †Chrys in Ephes 6. Chrysostom calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first sinne Augustin saith that * Prima duntaxat Adae transgressio transit in posteros quia illo primo peccato universa naturae corrupta est Cont. Julian 3.6 Onely the first transgression of Adam is passed upon the posteritie because the whole nature is corrupted by that first sinne Therefore when a childe is born he hath originall sinne and death the wages thereof annexed as due to it not because he is a creature not because he is a person not because he is a person of mankinde or humane nature not because he descended from his immediate or mediate parents not because they came from Eve not onely because he was in the loyns of Adam of sinning or sinfull Adam but because he was in Adam when he first sinned and implicitly gave his consent to the committing of that first transgression and that primarie aversion which hath led us astray ever since 4. Some have held that Eve sinned before she talked with the Serpent So * Rup lib. 3. De Operib Trinit in Gen. cap. 5. Rupertus and * Ferus in Gen. 3. Ferus But certainly she sinned before Adam being carried headlong with the Bonū apparens did little imagine to work so much mischief Had she known that her husbands yeelding should necessarily and infallibly bring forth death to him and all his posteritie and after
that is sought out and drawn into judgement and answereth as he ought to do truly without mentall reservation modestly and as befitteth him to answer unto his superiours if he receive no satisfaction in his conscience and his Judges doom him worthy to die what shall he now do Shall he be over-ruled by his superiours both spirituall and temporall doing as they do and thinking as they think shall he go against the dictates of his own conscience or shall he adventure his bloud and life What my self would do by Gods grace I will prescribe unto another First before I would sacrifice my life I would once more recollect my former thoughts for humblenesse and diligently consider whether the matters for which I am to suffer death be abstruse depths beyond my reach or capacity If they be very intricate I have cause to think that I am an unfit man to judge of things which I know not and cannot comprehend 2. Cor. 10 13 c. Secondly I would in this case before expense of bloud bring my intentions to the touchstone call to minde that good intentions alone cannot excuse me before God but good intentions well grounded and regulated S. Paul with good intentions persecuted the Church and was injurious but he did it ignorantly in unbelief 1. Tim. 1.13 where an ill belief though meaning well is counted unbelief In a good intention S. Peter would have disswaded our Saviour from death but he was called Satan for it Matth. 16.23 though Christ had blessed him before and promised him excellent gifts vers 17 c. I cannot think but they who offered their children unto Moloch did think they served God rightly though indeed they served the Devil yet God saith Levit. 20.3 I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people The priests of Baal who cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancers till the bloud gushed out upon them 1. King 18.28 did they not follow the ill guide of a misled conscience did they not think they were in the right do not millions of Turks Jews and of Pagans go to the Devil though they perswade themselves they be in the onely true way do not many think that to be constancie which in truth is obstinacie and that to be knowledge which is ignorant self-love There is great resemblance and manifold likely hood between some truth and some errour and the mistake is easie and there is a great difference between opinion and sound belief Thirdly I would endeavour to think humbly of my self and as the Apostle adviseth to preferre others before me I would ruminate on that which the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 13.3 Though I give my bodie to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing And shewing what he meaneth by charity addeth Charity suffereth long and is kinde charity envieth not charity is not rash or vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly So that he who behaveth himself unseemly who is puffed up who vaunteth himself or is rash who envieth and is unkinde and hasty hath not charity And though he give his bodie to be burned his death profiteth him nothing saith the Apostle Examine therefore and again I say examine thine own heart if thou finde any one of these sinnes beforenamed reigning in thee then know there is a spot in the sacrifice And till that be washed away rased out or reformed thou must suspect thy self and mayest well be dubious Self-conceit is a branch of pride pride never agreed with charity and no death profiteth a man any thing who hath not charity Oh but this enfeebleth the resolution of confessours and stoopeth down the constancy of martyrs to pendulousnesse it maketh them draw their hands back from the plough and to look backward to Sodom with lots wife No no my discourse intends onely to dull the edge of singularity to stop the mouths of pridie undertakers and ignorant praters to put a bridle into the teeth of such as revile Magistracie to reduce people to humblenesse and such thoughts as these If many may be deceived how much easier may I If the more learned be awrie how shall I be sure I am right They have souls to answer as well as I and charity bids me think they would not damn their own souls by damning mine have I alone a sound rectified conscience Self-deniall is a better schoolmaster to true knowledge then presumption An acceptable martyr is a reasonable sacrifice and an acceptable sacrifice is a reasonable martyr A conscience not founded on good causes not strengthened with understanding is like a fair house built on the sands a very apple of Sodom a painted sepulchre which appeares beautifull outward but is within full of dead mens bones and of all uncleannesse Matth. 23.27 My cautions are not remoraes of staying or withdrawing any man so farre as his knowledge can or doth aspire unto for so farre I allow them a judgement of discretion but necessary preparatives to the true perfect and glorious martyrdome He shall be no martyr in my estimate who without great motives runneth to death and posteth rashly to destruction But when pride with all her children singularity self-love vaunting rashnesse unseemly behaviour is cast out of the soul and the contrary graces the children of charitie possesse it then if thy conscience can no way be convicted if thou knowest thy cause to be good and the contrary to be apparently amisse follow not the multitude conform not thy self to the world keep thy conscience untainted poure out thy bloud unto death offer thy life and body as a reasonable sacrifice die and be a martyr be a martyr and be crowned crowned I say not onely with glory and immortality but with those gifts and aureolae which are prepared above others for true martyrs In this sort Whosoever shall confesse Christ before men him will Christ confesse also before his Father which is in heaven Matth. 10.32 The judgement of jurisdiction which is in superiours having authoritie and the judgement of direction which is in Pastours by way of eminency forbid not in this case the judgement of discretion which is and ought to be in every private man so farre as he hath discretion and knowledge or immediate inspirations of all which I would not have a man too presumptuous That which our Divines do term the judgement of discretion is in the words of z Contra Marcionem 4. post medium pag. 269. Tertullian Clavis Agnitionis He must never contrary this for this must he die What he knoweth let him as a good witnesse seal with his bloud if need be But in things beyond a simple mans capacitie I will say once more with a Serm. 20. de verbis Apostoli Augustine b Melior est fidelis ignorantia quà m temeraria scientia A faithfull ignorance is better then a rash knowledge In such things is he to be guided by his Pastours
to minde the miracles of Christ and born witnesse to his innocency rather then to set themselves forward in things beyond their reach and knowledge Philip de h Lib. 8. cap. 19. Commines telleth of two Franciscans who offered themselves to the fire to prove Savanorola to be an heretick and not to have had revelations divine and an other Frier a Jacobin presented himself also to the fire to uphold Savanorola though Savanorola did not then expose himself to that purgation by fire Which intendments of theirs seem rather to be the fruits of evil then of Christian fortitude For i Mater martyri est fides Catholica in qua illustres Athletae sanguine suo subscripserunt The mother of martyrdome is the Catholick faith to which those famous champions have subscribed with their bloud saith Aquin out of Maximus But those bravadoes of the Friers savoured of the transalpine and cisalpine factions some inclining to the French king with his adherents the other to the Pope and Venetians and their partakers Some drew death upon them when they needed not in the Primitive Church and the holy Fathers and Councels have disliked them for it The Elibertine Councel chap. 60. k Si quis idola fregerit ibidem fuerit occisus quia in Evangelio non est scriptum neque invenitur ab Apostolis unquam factum placuit in uumerum eum non recipi martyrum If any one break idols and be killed in the act we think it not fit that he be received into the number of martyrs because for his so doing he had neither warrant of Scripture nor example of the Apostles The Cicumcellions thrust themselves into the mouth of dangers ambitious of martyrdome to that height of infatuation that if no body would kill them they would murder and massacre themselves There were also certain women who to keep their chastity hastened their own deaths Sophconia killed her self lest the Emperour Maximinus should abuse her saith Eusebius Pelagia flung her self headlong into a river lest a souldier should violate her Such things ought not to be done and are sinfull and unlawfull to be done And yet because the Church hath accounted them martyrs we must conclude that the Church did think they had divine inspirations directly animating them to that course as Samson had in the Old Testament l Cùm Deus jubet séque jubere siue ullis ambagibus intimat quis obedientiam in erimen vocet When God commands and plainly intimates that it is his command who can blame him that obeyeth saith m De Civit. 1.26 S. Augustine Aquinas 2.2 Quaest 124. Artic. 1. in the third objection hath these words n Non est laudabile quòd aliquis martyrio se ingerat sed magìs videtur esse praesumptuosum periculosum It is not commendable for a man to offer himself to martyrdome but seems rather to be presumptuous and dangerous And in the answer he intimateth That a man ought not to seek death and saith expresly o Non debet homo occasionem dare alteri injustè agendi sed si alius injustè egerit ipse moderatè tolerare debet A man ought not to give occasion of doing unjustly but if another do unjustly he ought to endure it patiently The third and last sort of learned men in a Church and State full of errours are thus qualified They are pious towards God charitable towards men zealous according to their knowledge knowing so much as they can well learn mourners for sick and dead in Sion signing their cheeks with teares for the backsliding of the people having cornea genua knees hardned like horn by their frequent bendings at prayers that God would shew mercy to the misguided singing to God in their hearts when danger stoppeth their mouths not petulant or immodest against the Magistrates no prompt proterve undertakers no railers censurers or rash damners of others no factionists or disturbers of Commonweals avoiding the storms of persecution so farre as conveniently and conscionably they may keeping the unity of truth as much as is possible in the bond of peace thus farre flexible and pliable that they would willingly exchange any old errour if such be setled in them for apparent truth thus farre constant and irremoveable that they preferre the naked truth above their lives and can in all humblenesse and patience write the confession of their faith with their own bloud Such a life may I live such a death may I die greater glory then such shall have I desire not This is the true character of a martyr so perfect as usually flesh and bloud affords The last point concerneth unlearned men who live in a defiled Church Shall these be ruled by their Pastours leaving the dictates of their own consciences unpractised unbeleeved I answer There is not the simplest of the people to whom I will denie a judgement of discretion which he is bound to follow even unto death according to his conscience And among the unlearned there are some of excellent wits quick capacities and some endowments both of nature and grace surpassing divers learned men Yet let every one of these take this advice from me let them learn to be Christi-formes conformable to Christ which is a point that the godly and learned Cardinall Cusanus often and excellently inculcateth and let them labour to be every way equall to that famous martyr whom immediatly before I characterized and described By how much the lesse they have of knowledge let them have the more of humilitie and conformablenesse Lastly let them ponder how mercifull the Lord is to such as sinne of ignorance and on the contrarie that not onely divers of the unlearned but such as have had a fair competency of knowledge have been transported with self-love and treading out paths of singularity have runne headlong into damnation Witnesse divers Arians burnt in the dayes of Queen Elisabeth witnesse Hacket seduced by the Devil under a shew of long extemporary prayers and extraordinary holinesse till at the end he grew blasphemous and in the heat of it died Let him think of Sir John Oldcastle who intimated not onely a possibility but a likelihood of his rising again the third day after his hanging and burning if Stows chronicles had sufficient ground to write to that effect If I should repeat the like monsters in other Churches and Commonwealths I might much more enlarge this discourse which is too long already I conclude The simple unlearned good man who is bound up in invincible ignorance and is misled by his Pastours to whose guidance he hath subjected his conscience is lesse sinfull by many degrees then he who casteth himself violently singularly and proudly into the same errours or as bad And if it be dangerous to take from the people their discerning power in any cause as some imagine let them ponder whether it be not more dangerous to let every one of them to runne loose like the
mori An impossibility of sinning or dying An unchangeable and immortall life Non posse deserere bonum vel adhaerere malo An impossibility of for saking goodnesse and cleaving to evil and not onely beatitudinem gloriam but coronam gloriae Not onely blessednesse and glory but a crown of glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An immarcescible crown of glory 1. Peter 5.4 Lastly if we go to the numbring of them that were hurt by Adam and the number of those who receive benefit by Christ the greatest number is on Christs side I would be loath to say what the e Apud Sleidan pag. 293. Franciscane preached publickly at the Councel of Trent f Eos qui nullam haberent Christi cognitionem alioqui vitam egissent honestè saluteâ—â— esse consecutos That they who had no knowledge of Christ and yet had lived honestly had obtained salvation Nor will I conclude with others that Aristides Cato yea Julius Cesar himself is saved though according to the fertility of the Italian wits divers of them have found quaint passages and conceits tending that way Nay in these dayes of presumption wherein by all likelihood a thousand surfet and perish in the hope of mercy in comparison of one soul ship-wracked on the rock of despair I am afraid to confirm what Coelius secundus Curio hath writ in his books de Amplitudine regni Christi or Marsilius Andreasius of Mantua de Amplitudine misericordiae Christi before him who maintaineth That farre more are saved by Christ then are condemned For though Christ saith Matth. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat and vers 14. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it and though divers other passages of Scripture by the little flock and few labourers with the like phrases seem to import the paucity of humane souls saved in comparison of the many condemned yet he restraineth all those places to the dayes of Christ when indeed few beleeved in respect of the unbeleevers and the emphasis may accordingly be set upon that word YE Enter YE And perhaps the antithesis is observable Many there be which GO in to the wide gate and broad way but it is not said Few SHALL go in at the narrow gate nor Few SHALL enter in but Few there BE that finde it And it may be expounded Few there be that finde it by themselves or by their own naturall power without patefaction divine But what they cannot finde without a guide they may finde by a guide and many may enter in at Christ the Doore and many may walk in Christ the Way Where sin abounded grace may much more abound As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one may many be made righteous Concerning which places with the precedent verses Rom. 5. we shall treat by and by But I return to their answer That respect was had to the primitive dayes of Christs Church and That we are to consider that when Christ likened the Kingdome of God to a grain of mustard seed which waxed a great tree and to leaven which leavened the whole lump Luke 13.18 c. he spake not without reference to his own dayes in which they were generally perswaded as the Papists are now that many were easily saved in their Church whereupon one wondering at Christs doctrine of the hardly obtaining of heaven and that by few saith Luke 13.23 Lord are there few that be saved And Christ answereth not without respect to those times Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able because they sought awry and refused the right way offered Yet many might be saved and more in after-times then at that present time more by farre in the Church of Christ growing and increasing then in the Church of the Jews waning and decreasing Yea at this present though a diligent computer shall not finde much fault with me for saying that if the world were divided for places and people into thirty parts Nineteen thereof are Infidels six of the Mahometane Religion and five of the Christian the Romane Church and the Reformed Churches making but one part of the five so that the Greek Churches may more brag of their Catholicisme then the Romane and the scabbed petite flock and schismaticall parlour-full yea scarce hand-full of Separatists of Amsterdam may cease to claim themselves to be the onely Church by their paucity which the least number of the never-agreeing and subdivided Brethren may appropriate to themselves excluding by that argument all the Churches of the world besides yea even their own fellow-schismaticks yet this I will be bold to say that many places of the Prophets in the old Testament and many in the New did and do fore-signifie that great abundance of men women and children of all nations of all places shall be saved by Christ that there shall be as it were Mundus hominum electorum A world of elect men a great multitude of men which no man could number Rev. 7.9 Unto which number of humane souls if we annex those thousand thousands of Angels and ten thousand times ten thousand Daniel 7.10 even that innumerable host also we may confidently averre what Elishah said of the blessed Angels in an other case 2. Kings 6.16 They which be with us are more then they that be with our enemies or more then our enemies More in number enjoy eternall life by Christ then are condemned to eternall death by Adam For though Christ be not a Mediatour of redemption unto the Angels yet was he a Mediatour of confirmation in grace and whatsoever blessings they did or do or shall enjoy they had it for and by the merit of Christ foreseen For he is the head of the Church and they be but members and all the vertue or happinesse in the body or in any part of it is derived from the head All things visible and invisible thrones dominions principalities powers were created by him and for him Coloss 1.16 In him all fulnesse dwelleth vers 19. From him the whole body is fitly joyned together Ephes 4.16 In him all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple Ephes 2.21 And of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace John 1.16 And not we alone but the good Angels also were predestinated created confirmed and glorified by his means as Suarez well concludeth in his Commentaries on the third part of Aquine his Summe Tom. 1. pag. 656. g Dico Christum meruisse Angelu gratiam gloriam quae illis data fuerat propter merita Christi praevisa I say saith he that Christ merited for the Angels grace and glory which was given them for the merits of Christ foreseen So Aquinas Cajetan Albertus
h Sentent 3. Distinct 13. Artic. 2. Marsilius i In illud Psal 102. BENEDICITE DOMINO OMNIA OPERA BIUS Jacobus de Valentia k Lib de Regno Christi Melchior Flavius l Theosophiae 3.13 Arboreus And again the same Suarez pag. 65.8 m Christus Dominus meruit sanctis Angelis omnia dona gratiae exceptis iis quae ad remedium peccati pertinent meruit iis electionem praedestinationem vocationem auxilia omnia excitantia adjuvantia sufficientia efficacia denique omne meritum augmentum gratiae gloriae The Lord Christ hath merited for the holy Angels all gifts of grace except those which belong to the remedy of sinne He hath merited for them election predestination vocation all means exciting helping sufficient and effectuall Lastly all merit and increase of grace and glory As the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron ran down upon his beard and thence descended to the skirts of his garments Psal 133.2 so all vertue distilleth from Christ the Head upon every member of his Church Angelicall or Humane Triumphant or Militant neither have they ought but what they received and from him onely In brief we have exchanged and bartred our brasse for gold n Periissâ—mus nisi periassemus We had perished if we had not perished as Themistocles said of old o O felix culpa quae tantum talem meruit Redempterem O happy fault that hath obtained so great and excellent a Redeemer Christ hath done us more good then Adam did himself or us hurt If these my humble private speculations or rather relations of other mens opinions give not satisfaction I desire you to have recourse unto the Apostle who hath put the first and second Adam into the balances and behold the first Adam is found too light In which comparative being like in the genus and unlike in the species as Origen soundly and wittily observed First let us see the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they are like Rom. 5.12 As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne the Apodosis is not expressed but thus to be conceived So by one man grace came into the world and life by grace See the same confirmed v. 19 20. Secondly As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The third thing wherein they were like is set down in the 18. verse of which hereafter Concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they differ they are set down in the 15 verse and so downward Not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many An other dissimilitude is in the 16 verse And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification And verse 17 If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reigne in life by one Jesus Christ After this he returneth to the third point of their comparison the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things wherein they differ being involved in a Parenthesis which indeed may seem at the first sight more strange Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnes of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life vers 18. But the true meaning is this according to the way of S. Augustine As none cometh to death but by Adam and none to Adam but by death so none cometh to life but by Christ nor to Christ but by life Thus the free gift came on al as the offence came on all As when we say All entred into the house by one doore it is not intended or included that all that ever were farre or nigh came thither into the house but that no man entred into the house save by the doore So though the Apostle saith Omnes in the application he meaneth not that all and every one are justified but that all that are justified are not otherwise justified then by Christ and this is S. Augustines exposition against Julian the Pelagian 6.12 As if he had said Christ is the Α and Ω the beginning means and end There is none other name by which we must be saved Acts 4.12 He perfecteth them for ever who are sanctified Hebr. 10.14 And they are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is my love delight said Ignatius And I professe I desire not heaven or the blessednes of heaven without him as I undeserving ill-deserving poore I hope to reigne in life by him onely who giveth spirituall birth life and increase till he bring us unto blessednesse even all them who are saved even the universality of the chosen in Christ The limitation of the word Omnis is frequent in Scriptures not comprehending generally or universally every one in all and all with every one but being put for a great number for many Luke 6.26 Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you where All must not be tentered and stretched to its utmost extent for all and every did never do never and never shall speak well of them So Acts 22.15 Thou shalt be witnesse unto all men saith Ananias to S. Paul which was not accomplished if All have no restraint Again Titus 2.11 The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men and yet there were then and now are many who never saw or knew that salutiferous or saving grace So here you are to reduce the word Omnes to omnes sui All that are in Christ saith the Glosse Again why may not All be aswell taken for Many in this our 18 vers as Many is taken for All in the 19 verse where it is said By one mans disobedience many were made sinners when all and every one that descended ordinarily and naturally from Adam sinned in him and by him as is expressed verse 12. and proved before Genes 17.4 Thou shalt be a father of many nations which is repeated word for word Rom. 4.17 and is thus varied Genes 22.18 In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and this is confirmed Galat. 3.8 where Many and All differ not in sense and substance By Omnes homines All men you may understand Humanum genus Mankinde and because all mankinde must be distinguished into two sorts goats and sheep and considered according to two estates fallen and repaired and their different receptacles the two cities the one the city of God the other of the Devil in the first member the word All must be interpreted generally without
number weight and measure which the School-men call Meritum siecum a drie merit and I Meritum candidum a white merit which actions and performances of his are as the fine linen with which the Saints are properly clothed and apparelled when they are imputed to us And thus to return to my old matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the place of the Revelation is taken for the merits of Christ clothing us with fine linen as Jacob was with his elder brothers clothes when he was to receive the blessing Genes 27.15 so we with his righteousnesse which is ascribed unto us as if it were our own and now called ours because it was given unto us by Him Yet thirdly and lastly besides these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle useth another verball differing from both and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which under correction I opine is not to be translated either with the Bishops Bible righteousnesse of life for that is coincident with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor yet justification or Christs righteousnesse for then it were all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was immediately before ascribed to Christ But what is then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how is it to be translated It is but twice used in the New Testament First Rom. 4.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was raised again for our justification But some Greek Copies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place and then the sense altereth of it self Beza saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fifth to the Romanes signifieth more then it doth in the fourth and seemeth thus to difference it That in Romanes the fourth the passive obedience imputed is understood and in Romanes the fifth the active obedience imputed is meant And though in both places he doth Latinize it Justificatio yet the new coined words of Justificamen or Justificamentum seem better in his judgement to expresse the sense in the latter place In this he saith wittily that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is the onely argument of worth against the following opinion Yet thus it may be answered That though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be expounded damnation or condemnation or a sentence damnatorie as Beza calleth it yet Beza himself will not translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p Sententia absolutoria vel salvifica a sentence absolutorie or saving For there is no necessitie that a direct opposition in all parts should be between those terms neither doth the nature of the antithesis necessarily require such an exact contradiction But how doth Tolet render and interpret these words q Putat justificationem vitae bîc appellari actionem eperationem quâ Deus ex justitia merito Christi omnes homines etiam reprobos à morte suscitabit ad vitâ—m perpetuò duraturam He thinks saith Cornelius à Lapide of him that by the words jusTIFICATIO VITae The justification of life which in the Vulgat is the exposition of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here meant that action or operation whereby God through the righteousnesse merit of Christ will raise up all men even the reprobate from death to a life for ever to endure And so the similitude between Adam Christ is every way compleat for as by Adams sinne all every one die so by Christs merit all every one shall be made alive And certainly for the truth of Tolets opinion it is a part of our Creed denied of none it is expresly avouched even in the same comparative form 1. Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive But my opinion herein differeth from Tolets That I do make not onely Gods power the merits of Christ concurring to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more commonly then properly rendred justificatio to be an act of man defending and pleading for himself at the resurrection As if the Apostle had thus balanced Adam and Christ As by the offence of the one judgement came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of the other the free gift came upon all that they shall all without exception be raised up to know the cause why they deserve wrath to excuse themselves if they can to plead in their own defence if they can justifie their lives and free themselves from condemnation For God condemneth no man without reason nor without suffering him to come to his answer nor without letting him see and know the just cause of his condemnation The substantiall truth whereof is confirmed Rom. 14.10 We shall all stand before the judgement-seat of Christ and every one of us shall give an account of himself to God vers 12. The end is specialized 2. Corinth 5.10 That every one may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad As for the objection of our adversaries and their demand where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so used in Scripture I first retort it thus Let them prove the use of the word in Scripture as they apply it Secondly I say It is iniquum postulatum An unjust demand on either side since the word is onely once onely here in the New Testament without variation of reading so farre as I remember Thirdly I think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crosse-pleading and all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as * Apud Lysiam Suidas expounds it and what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but causificatio causae suae defensio juris sui in medium prolatio 2. Maccab. 4.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They pleaded the cause before him Yet nearer to the purpose Psal 43.1 Plead thou my cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Litiga litem meam as it is in the Interlineary Disceptando tuere causam meam as Vatablus interprets it And Psal 35.23 Awake to my judgement even unto my cause The Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Symmachus readeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where David makes God a Judge and Umpire between David himself pleading his own cause and Davids adversaries who pleaded against him and opened their mouth wide against him vers 21. So that with Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is exactly the pleading of ones own cause as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the defence of a mans thoughts words and deeds in this world and may in a good sense be called a justification of his life Moreover it is said Exod. 12.49 Lex una erit indigenae peregrino One law shall be unto him that is home-born and unto the stranger Which is diversified Levit. 24.22 Ye shall have one manner of law Judicium unum erit vobis as the Interlineary readeth it it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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.
x Putáne piures baeresâ—â— sectas exerituras fuisse fi nuila pâ—nitus Sâ—riptura extitisset quà m nunc cùm Scritura mortalibus à coelo data est Ego certè propior sum existimanti paucioreâ— fuisse futuras Do you think that more sects and heresies would have bubbled up if there had been no Scripture at all then now are when God hath sent us the holy Writ I rather incline to that side who think there would have been fewer divisions saith Gretser in his defence of Bellarm. de Verb. Dei 4.4 Pighius de Eccles Hierarch 1.2 saith y Apostolos quaedam scripsisse non ut scripta illa praeossent Fidei Religionâ— nostrae sâ—d ut suâ—essent potiús That the Apostles wrote some things not that they might rule over our Faith and Religion but be subject rather and concludeth that the Church is not onely not inferiour nor onely equall but in a sort superiour to the Scriptures The Carmelite Antonius Marinarus in the second book of the Historie of the Councel of Tâ—ent pag. 118. is confident z Ecclesiam fuisse perfâ—ctissimam prius â—uam Sanctorum Apostolorii ullas sâ—ripsisset neq Ecclesiam Christi perfectiâ—â—e ullá carituram etiamsi nihil unquam scripto fuisset mandatum That the Church was most perfect before any Apostle wrote and that the Church of Christ had never wanted perfection though never any thing had been written Majoranus Clyp 2.28 thus a Vnus Ecclesiae consensus qui nunquam caruit Spiritu Dei pluris apud nos esse debet quà m omnes eâ—ingues muti codices quoiquâ—t sunt crunt unquam sâ—ripta volumina quae hominum ingemis semper materiam contentionis praebuerunt The uniform consent of the Church which never was destitute of Gods Spirit ought more to be esteemed by us then all the dumbe writings and volumes which are or shall be written which have ministred matter of debate to the wits of men These are accursed errours and easily confuted because traditions are inconstant and their number was never yet determined by themselves but the Scripture is certain and our Saviour both rebuketh the Pharisees for holding of traditions Mark 7.8 c. Luk. 11.39 Matth. 23.18 and commandeth them to search the Scriptures John 5.39 and referreth himself and the whole course of his life and death to be examined by Scripture Luke 24.25 c. The other extream is of such who neglect or deride the Church and the very name thereof because they have the written word and these do as much glory in it as the Jews did in the materiall Temple of Solomon when in truth their contempt of the Church and its power turns to their damnation without repentance and if the frequent divine immediate revelation had been imparted by God to us as it was to the Patriarchs it had been better for us for in that illumination there was no errour no mistaking no doubtfulnesse but an impossibilitie of being deceived So that my discourse endeth in the point in which it began The Scripture was not absolutely necessarie to be written but ex hypothesi conditionally and supposing the divine decree it was necessarie yea upon corruption of manners and doctrine it was not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convenient but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessarie not onely the most convenient way but the most necessarie means Otherwise God would never have written it It is necessarie if not as a cause yet as a concause The word as a cause the writing as a concause saith Trelcatius The Scriptures are not simply necessarie ad esse Eclesiae to the being of a Church whatsoever Scharpius saith but ad bene esse to the wel-being for nothing was written of the New Testament in Christs life-time nor in some yeares after Away with the Popish vilifying of Scripture c Materia litis non vox judicis Matter of strife say they and not the voice of the judge Away with the Puritanicall cut disdaining the Church and the interpreters thereof to wit their thrice-reverend Bishops and Priests and priding themselves in their own senselesse private Spirit The second question followeth viz. Whether the holy Penmen or Actuaries wrote the Scripture casually I answer If we take casually for fortè fortunâ for sole chance or onely bare contingencie they wrote not casually Te facimus Fortuna deam coelóque locamus Men think they make Fortune a goddesse a giddie one like the people themselves but indeed God worketh that which we call Fortune amongst men Augustine lib. 80. quaest quaest 24. divinely reasoneth in this sort What is done by chance is done suddenly or rashly what is so done is not done providently but whilest providence administreth all things nothing falls by chance in this world if through it we look up to God as to the universall cause by his providence For nothing falls under our senses but was commanded or permitted from the invisible and intelligible Hall of the highest Emperour saith Augustine de Trin. 3.4 1. Kings 22.34 A certain man drew a bow at a venture or in his simplicitie and smote the King of Israel between the joynts of the harnesse What the 32 Captains of the King of Aram could not accomplish though this were their Commission Fight neither with small nor great save onely with the King of Israel vers 13. that this roving arrow did by chance accomplish and slew the bloudie Ahab yet so by chance as the hand of the Lord did guide it Nec erranti Deus abfuit and it might have been written on the shaft before it was drawn out of the quiver Deus Achabo more certainly then what was written on the arrow that stroke out the eye of Philip of Macedon Astur Philippo A wealthy merchant sendeth two of his Factours one to the East Indies the other to the West each of them not knowing the others employments after certain yeares he appointeth each of them to be at such a port on such a moneth and day if they so can They both meet both wonder both at the first hold it a strange chance when the deep wisdome of their master providently determined all this There is no chance where providence reigneth If we take casually as importing counsel meerly humane led by opportunitie onely and excluding inspiration as men consilium capiunt ex tempore pro re nata Advise according to the fresh occurrences or as bonae leges ex malis moribus oriuntur Good laws are made upon former mis-behaviour thus the holy Prophetâ— Evangelists and Apostles wrote not casually for as the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 so both for the Old and New Testament S. Paul saith All Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2. Tim. 3.16 Is that casuall If we conceive the matter thus The holy penmen wrote casually that is
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
you expound this of the Fathers of the Old Testament and of the stola animae the robe of honour for the minde yet you shall finde Revel 6.11 that in regard even of stola corporis the glorious garment of the bodie the Saints themselves are commanded to rest yet for a little season untill their fellow-servants also and their brethren either then alive or perchance not then born that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Now against this generall rule you must not make a particular exception without expresse warrant from the word of God But there is no testimony at all from the word of God either direct or inferentiall that any of those Many who arose arose to glorie or immortalitie or ascended into heaven Therefore we may boldly conclude They died again This argument is of such force that Suarez leaveth it unanswered and untouched Lastly if the bodies of these Saints ascended into heaven either they ascended after Christ or before him or with him If after him When and how long after and why after him They ascended not presently after him for the Apostles who looked stedfastly toward heaven even after he was taken out of their sight might have then perceived their bodily ascent If you say So soon as the Apostles left their serious viewing and hearkened unto the Angels then they ascended I answer I would say so also if I saw any proof or if I could think that God sent the Angels just at that moment to hinder the Apostles from seeing the Saints mount up to heaven which would have been so joyous a sight Briefly there is no reason to say they ascended long after Christ ascended and certainly lesse reason is there to think they ascended before him 4. Moreover Christ as man shall be Judge at the last day and God hath given assurance of it to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17.31 If any other were raised up in the same manner before him or with him to an eternall resurrection what assurance doth God give by this place of S. Paul that Christ shall be the Judge rather then others But indeed the raising of Christ was more then ordinary was more then temporarie Let him have the preeminence in all things Christ is the first-fruits of them that slept 1. Cor. 15.20 The first-fruits of them that are raised vers 23. He is Primitiae mortuorum Revel 1.5 resurgentium Act. 26.23 Christ is the first who shall arise from the dead viz. to an eternall resurrection his bodie opening as it were the gates of heaven for our bodies which if Enoch and Elias did by priviledge especiall anticipate though these were not properly raised but rather taken up yet if more if so many should before him arise to an everlasting resurrection it destroyeth the nature of a generall rule b Gratia quae omnibus datur non est gratia sed natura privilegium gaudet paucitate Grace given alike to all is no longer grace but nature and a priviledge is properly confined to a few That they ascended not with Christ I proved before and for a Corollarie do repeat this That if assumed and Angelicall bodies were to be seen and were seen and heard at Christs ascension out of doubt the bodies of Saints had been visible yea seen if they had then ascended 5. If any desire to see more reasons let him reade S. Augustine Epist 99. ad Euodium de Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae whose reasons c In tertia parte Summae quaest 53. artic 3. Aquinas preferreth and subscribeth unto You may now perceive that I am gently fallen upon the second head in vertue of which I undertook to prove That the Saints who miraculously arose and here arose did not ascend into heaven but died again for the second head was Authoritie Among Authours you have alreadie two of the chiefest for depth of learning Augustine and Aquinas Hierom is of their minde on Matth. 27. Chrysostom Hom. 89. on Matth. compareth those Saints resurrection unto Lazarus his rising to a mortall life though Beza directly contradicteth it The same Hierom Epist 150. ad Hedibiam again confirms it To the same purpose Theophylact on the place and Euthymius chap. 67. on Matth. so Prosper in his book de promissionibus praedictionibus Dei. In the middle school you have Soto in 4. lib. Sentent Distinct 43. quaest 2. artic 1. Yea even among Jesuites Salmeron and Barradius are on this side and Pererius on the 6 chapter of the Revelation Disput 24. and Gregorie Valentian Tom. 4. Disput 2. Quaest 5. where he sleighteth Cajetans arguments and saith that our is the more probable opinion and that Aquin from Augustine doth most excellently confirm it In the last place cometh that learned Franciscus Lucas Brugensis who having set down the ends why these Many were raised to wit To be praecones criers or trumpetters of Christs resurrection which was experimentally evidenced by their own and that Jesus was that Saviour and that he ought thus to suffer and thus to enter into his glorie closeth in these words d Hoc officio quando isti defuncti fuerant verisimile est cos iterum dormivisse in sepulchris suit quievisse quemadmodum Aloses When they had performed this duty it is likely that they slept again and rested in their sepulchres like Moses Yea say I much rather did they sleep in their graves then Moses for though he was buried yet being raised he appeared in glorie Luk. 9.31 which apparition being in bodie principally for his soul was not seen we may not imagine that a glorified bodie is so subject to corruption or a second dying which Brugensis himself will not say of these raised Many for he hath an odde crotchet and singular conceit That those Many were raised neither to an immortall nor to a mortall life but to a middle and mean betwixt both not to a perpetuall one nor yet to a terrene life but heavenly without the use of meats or drinks without fear or pain of death O Fountain of mercie inexhaustible sweet Jesu who being the Sonne of God didst become Man that we the sonnes of Men might be the sonnes of God who didst die that we might live suffering for our sinnes and rising again for our justification Have mercie O have mercie upon me passe by my transgressions I beseech thee and present me blamelesse to the Throne of Grace for thine own merit sake to which I ascribe all power and from which I expect all my glorie So be it CHAP. XVIII 1. The arguments of the contrary opinion answered Suarez and especially Cajetan censured 2. That by the holy Citie Jerusalem below was meant proved at large Josephus and the Jews erring about the name of Jerusalem Hierom uncertain 3. How the raised appeared A difference between appearing as men and appearing as newly raised men Franciscus Lucas Brugensis rejected 4. An argument of Maldonat
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Samson and how Book 2. p. 31. Compare Book 3. p. 220. at the bottome of the page Why all men shall rise again at the last day Book 1. p. 195. Whether such as have been raised from the dead did die the second time Book 2. p. 1 to p. 12. Of holy men there is a double resurrection ib. p. 4. The raising of the dead was an act appropriated unto Christ himself no way communicated to his Apostles in his life time ib. p. 6 9 10. Who they were that rose at Christs death ib. p. 12. wherwith compare ib. chap. 8.11 12 13 14. throughout The raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ ib. ch 15 16 17 18. throughout Christs resurrection was typified in Elias 2. King 2.13 ib. p. 146. The figure of Rome at its first building ib. p. 24. S THe whole Scripture is but one though penned by divers Book 2. p. 38 39. The Penmen of the holy Scriptures as such could not forget ibid. p. 40 41 c. Whether how it was necessarie that the Scripture should be written for mens instruction ibid. p. 68 69 70 c. Whether the holy Penmen of the Scriptures understood all that they wrote ibid. p. 80 to p. 86. Whether they read profane Authours ibid. p. 86 to p. 90. They did cite Poets or profane Authours ibid. p. 89 to p. 93. Whether they studied the things they wrote before-hand ib. p. 92 to p. 96. There was no difference between the Penmen of the divine Writ of the Old and New Testament in the point of conceiving and writing in different languages ib. p. 96. We must have recourse unto the allusions of Scripture which are not rest on what the Apostles conceived in their mindes onely ibid. p. 97. The Pen-men of Scripture had no libertie to put in their own conceits or in writing to adde or blot out what they had done ib. p. 98 to p. 104. They had no power to clothe their inward apprehensions with words of their own ib. p. 104 105 106. The Penmen of Scripture wrote their heavenly dictates in the same language in which they conceived them ibid. p. 107 to p. 112. Whether the holy Penmen of Scripture wrote the Scripture casually ibid. p. 71 72. When the New Testament began first to be written and upon what occasion ibid. pag. 73. Whether the Penmen of Scripture were commanded to write ibid. p. 73 to page 76. Whether the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles were compelled to write ibid. 76 to p. 80. Whether Christ wrote any part of Scripture himself immediately ibid. p. 64 65 c. Why Sinne is called Originall Book 1. p. 129. Styles given to originall sinne ib. p. 36. Some sinnes are greater then other ibid. p. 62 63 64. The greatnesse of a sinne is two wayes considered ibid. p. 66. Of originall sinne as conveyed unto us from Adam ib. p. 74 to pag. 90. Originall sinne is matter of repentance ib. p. 76. How we sinned originall sinne in Adam ib. p. 78 79 80. Not by imputation onely nor onely by imitation p. 84 85. Originall sinne is propagated to mankinde ib. p. 90 91. p. 129. When originall sinne beginneth ib. p. 91 92 93. The manner how the soul is by it made sinfull ib. p. 103 to p. 109. Adams actuall sinne was private and personall ideall onely and representative therefore not imputed unto us ib. p. 88 89. p. 129. The foure principall faculties of our Souls with their severall objects Book 1. p. 56. T A Twofold kinde of Temperature the one of weight the other of justice Book 1. p. 18. Tithes are by an everlasting law due to the Priesthood of Melchisedech ibid. p. 83. Curses that follow those who sacrilegiously rob the Church of Tithes Book 2. p. 50 51. The Transfiguration of Christ with the manner of it and how it was not painfull to him B. 1. p. 29. Of the Translation of them who shall be found alive at the last day ibid. p. 30. The use of the Tree of life in Paradise unto Adam ibid. p. 20 23. Whether Adam did eat of the tree of life before he fell ibid. p. 21 22. V VIator is considered according unto a twofold estate Book 1. page 51 52. FINIS The severall places of Scripture explained in these three Books of Miscellanies The first book GEn. 3.20 pag. 40. Gen. 4.15 64 65. Exod. 13.2 140. Exod. 20.5 110 116 127 128. Job 14.4 95 96. Ps 51.5 92 93 94. Ps 91.11 25 26. Ps 109.14 121 122. Ps 131.1 161 162. Isa 53.2 18. Vers 4. 20. Jer. 25.26 153 unto 157. Matt. 15.14 174. Joh. 8.44 37. Joh. 9.2 132. Act. 23.5 168 169. 170 c. Rom. 5.12 79 80. vers 13. 186. ver 18. from page 190 to the end of the first book Rom. 11.16 106. 1. Cor. 3.1 2. 158. 1. Cor. 7.14 106. 1. Cor. 15.47 42. Ephes 4.23 24. 56. Heb. 9.27 from the 1 to the ninth The second book GEn. 22.5 p. 83. Gen. 31.53 32. John 8.56 30 31. Joh. 20.7 146 147. 1. Cor. 9.16 78. 1. Cor. 16.22 48 49 c. 2. Cor. 5.14 78. Gal. 6.11 67 68. Heb. 11.35 4. The third book EXod 34.29 p. 210. Mal. 4.5 6. 174 175 c. Matt. 17.11 177 178 c. ¶ Faults escaped in the first Book thus to be corrected Page 18 line 11 for proportion reade proportio Page 20 line margin for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 24 line 2 for tree life reade tree of life Page 29 line 13 for not reade no. Page line 39 for ecclipsed reade eclipsed Page 30 line margin for tran-seuntis reade trans-euntis Page 32 line margin for laborantos reade laborantes Page 44 line 20 for yae reade yea Page 57 line 20 for he did for a while reade he did fulfill for a while Page 62 line 22 for Cittien reade Citizen Page 65 line 30 for Wheter reade Whether Page line 43 for Gensis reade Genesis Page 82 line 41 for lisienesse reade likenesse Page 86 line 20 for this reade his Page 96 line margin for doctus nec doctus reade doctus nec indoctue ¶ In the second Book Page 2 line 39 for istance reade instance FINIS
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