Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A04032
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The secrets of numbers according to theologicall, arithmeticall, geometricall and harmonicall computation. Drawne, for the better part, out of those ancients, as well neoteriques. ... By William Ingpen, Gent.
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Ingpen, William.
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1624
(1624)
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STC 14089; ESTC S107425
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91,591
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122
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Commandement did flee from the face of God so the second by bearing Christ in her womb and being made obedient vnto the Word for Irenaeus must not otherwise be vnderstood hath been a principall means or instrument to reconcile vs again to God which was Christ the second Adam For whereas hee saith that the second Eue was made an Aduocate for the first it is meant that her obedience to the Word was acceptable before God bearing him in her womb that should be the Redeemer of his people that as by the disobedience of the one sin entred into the world so by the obedience of the other an vniuersall restauration should be looked for again So that if any thing were admirable and praise-worthy in that virgin to make her an Aduocate for the other to vse Irenaeus word it was surely her obedience to the Word spoken by the angell conjoyned with a liuely faith that she should bear a Sauiour and no otherwise I could insist vpon many others of this kinde as The blessing bestowed vpon Abraham In semine tuo benedicentur omnes nationes the song of the three children praising the Lord in the fiery furnace the Song of Simeon the Farwell of Stephen couched in these seuen words Som will haue the 7 words that Stephen spake at his departure to signifie those 7 heauenly graces that shined in him In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum and those spoken by the Prophet Ecce ex tribu Iesse meant by that victorious Lion of Iuda all which contain no vulgar representation or signification of Numbers included in them But leauing them we will come to those words of Christ vpon the Crosse expressing the most happy most courageous and triumphant conflict that euer was endured since the world began Neither doe I think that those words were vttered by any kinde of lamentation as some imagine but rather from inuincible courage and magnanimity if a famous and learned Cardinall of Rome in his exposition deceiue mee not That which I am to insist vpon as especially seruing my purpose are those two Hebrew words Eli Eli containing the duall Number in form as they lie but in their proper signification representing the two Persons in Trinity making this parcell of Scripture to the vnfolding of which many learned men haue imployed their wits to be farre otherwise vnderstood than the bare elements seem to import Now because this Cardinals exposition as seemeth to me wresteth not the sense of Scripture but fitteth my purpose and of all others that euer I read setteth out most liuely the victory of Christ vpon the Crosse I thought it good word for word to set down as followeth After he had repeated the words of Christ expressed by the Euangelist thus he commenteth If our Lord Iesus Christ was not forsaken if he fell not from the strength of his minde if not from hope if he knew assuredly that his soule should not be left of his Diuinity but should be ioyned with his body again if he left his momentary life willingly it is not fit that Christ should vtter those words in any lamentable sort My God my God and so forth And therefore I think beer lies a mystery Marcus Vigerius which I had rather bear and learn than expresse or teach yet I will say something not far from our Sauiours meaning as I think Our Lord Iesus Christ was the Sonne of God and trui God the second Person in Trinity God with the Father God with the holy Ghost all three as one God and by that vnion altogether impartible indiuisible and wholly inseparable the one from the other and yet the Son suffred on the Crosse not the Father nor the holie Ghost When the work of our redemption was taken wholly in the Person of the Son all three together the Father Sonne and holy Ghost worked All three appeared in his natinity The Sonne was born alone His peregrination his doctrine his miracles his Passion his death following all three worked and effected the Son alone suffred This mystery this ineffable Sacrament this inaccessible Secret hid in darknes the Lord Iesus would haue open by these words that if we may not ascend to the same wholly yet in part wee may learn with sobriety and trembling My God my Father my God my holy Spirit who hitherto haue laboured in all things with me but I only haue suffred all things wherefore haue you forsaken me and are now separted from â—â—ee in bearing this Crosse So that these words of Christ shewed forth the magnitude of his minde and no fear at all Hitherto that Cardinall out of his book cald Decachordum Christianum The Scape-goat mentioned in the old Testament hath cuer been accounted a figure of the Passion of Christ written vpon the life and Passion of Christ To whose words may be added for the further explaining of this secret Symbole As a man that in the midst of his enemies being forsaken of his friends fighteth the more valiantly vnder hope of victory so Christ in this agony hiding his Diuinity or laying it aside for a time forsaken of his two friends that so long had worked with him God the Father and God the holy Ghost all alone and in his owne proper person did manfully and victoriously vndergoe the terrors of death So that whether we consider the word Eli from his tripled element representing the whole Trinity or the word doubled expressing but two persons the Father and holy Ghost it cannot choose but stirre vs to an exceeding admiration and contemplation as often as we reade them but far more if from our dull senses and feeble vnderstanding wee were able to comprehend them I must confesse that the Cardinalls doctrine seemeth directly opposite to the common torrent of some English Diuines but my protestation is not to ouer sway the opinions of others better learned then my selfe to build my faith which is the anchor of a Christian man vpon the fancie-full opinion of any priuate man Onely this I must say by way of iust defense that hee was learned religious exceeding deuout from whom I borrowed it Who although hee sauour Popishly affected by reason of the corruption of those times he liued in yet he is nothing so superstitiously giuen as many of his fellowes were Their doctrine then who maintaine that Christ vpon the Crosse did suffer paines of the damned and reprobate seemeth very harsh to me And I would haue them take heed Al the Fathers doe speake but of Christs bodily sufferings If therefore one drop of his bloud was enough for the redemption of mankinde much more so many streames of bloud issuing from all the partes of his body as if it had beene a precious ointment that whereas Christ at his natiuity his circumcision in all his works and miracles he did in his life time was both God and Man vpon the Crosse and in his Passion by a strange kinde of diuinity neuer dreamed of in the
thirty foure But in this computation which cannot be done without exact Numbring we must obserue one singular Note How that the Euangelists attributing the space of Christs death to the Ablatiue sense will not haue whole dayes meant heereby but part of whole dayes By this wee may learne how needfull the vse of Numbers is to the right vnderstanding of diuers passages in Scripture whether they be doctrinall or historicall Now in Chronologie or iust supputation of yeeres that is to knowe how long those antient Kings mentioned in Scripture did raigne there is nothing so needfull as the Art of Numbring And if you marke it well in all their seuerall Raignes or Regiments no Number occurreth so often as the fortith Number as though God had appointed vnder this Number the whole race or period of their kingly succession to haue beene concluded and determinated As for example Moses gouerned forty yeeres Othoniel 40 Barac and Debora 40 Gedeon 40 the Philistins interregnum consisted of 40. Saul Dauid raigned as many which I haue collected from the computation of Canus I.o. Theo. lib. 11 cap. 5. who hath joyned Theology and Chronologie together the best of any Popish Writer that I knowe The Rabbines in their Thalmud speak much touching those forty two diuine letters such as had them in venerable estimation Lemnius holdeth that men children are perfectly formed in their mothers belly in the space of 30 dayes but women in 42 or 45 Lib. de Mira. natura 4 cap. 23. but what they signifie and to what vse they serue I could neuer yet learne from them It is holden by those learned searchers of naturall Phylosophy confirmed by many famous Physicians that the whole Fabrick of mans body in the space of forty fiue dayes is perfectly and absolutely framed in Embrio or the mothers belly Epimenides slept for the space of fifty yeeres This Number must needs bee vertuous and famous for that it representeth those fifty gates of intelligences mentioned before For according to those Rabbines notable for their Symbolicall doctrine there was nothing before the creation but God and his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his onely wisdome gotten from all eternity So that the gate of the first creation being shut from Moses notwithstanding he sought out the Law by the other nine and forty Iâ—sue did inquire it by one lesse Salomon by two who as Rabbi Akib expoundeth labored aboue measure to reduce the same but could not Hence saith Rabbi Iacob Cohu our antient Fathers walked through many waies that in the and they might put their feet in these admirable steppes of wisdome deliuered them by Zadkiel to Abraham our Father I dare not wade too far among those Iewish Doctors lest I should wander out of my way For they are mysteries and I beleeue if Sphinges interpreter were here he would scarce vnfold them Now besides the enquirie of these fifty gates and thirty two paths The yeere of mans age 63 hath euer been accounted perilous because that wher euerie 7 9 yeere meet together they make seuen nines or nine seuens being 63 in the whole and therefore it is called of the Philosophers Climactericus In which yeer and in 70 ther haue died the most famous men of the world Christ when he was here on earth had his 72 Disciples they were very curious in searching out the Number of Gods name called Tetragrammaton which if it bee well expounded say they will arise to fifty two according to the Number of Angells And this Number they slick not to call The colledge of letters The fiue and fiftith Number hath his excellencie in this in that according to Callippus and other antient Astronomers their calculation all the Planets with their Spheres either retrograde or Stationarie containe iust the quantity of this Number The last Number that I meane to speake of is the seuenty two famous for so many yeeres together from the translation of the Bible out of the Hebrew into the Greeke Language by those seuenty two interpreters by commandement of Ptolomy the Ægyptian Emperour beeing a worke that could not haue beene done with the helpe of man if the holy Ghost whose interpreters no doubt they were had not seconded them beyond their owne expectation Of these and their diuers celles appointed them with certaine questions propounded before the Emperour you may reade in Aristoas a Greeke Author though I am not ignorant how that Vines vpon what warrant I know not hath laboured to empeach his credit by counting him for a counterfeit as elsewhere I haue noted CHAP. XIIII Happy vnhappy Numbers ITearm them happy or fortunate which either in their syllables or elements exclusiue or their sense inclusiue bring some notable or joyfull tidings either present or future or otherwise beeing as vttered by God's owne mouth or by his Prophets haue been esteemed holy venerable of hie account vntill this day In Genesis we finde it written Ipse conteret caput Serpentis referred to the seed of the woman and not to the woman herself as some Popish Interpreters will haue it This was sure an happy promise made representing the quaternary Number being vttered in so many words For Christ which was the seed of the woman hath plaid the Conquerer foure manner of waies By freeing vs from originall sinne wherein Adam and Eue both were first polluted by breaking the snares of Satan who had tempted them by triumphing ouer the power of hell by trampling death and his sting vnder his feet This quadruple blessing beeing a pledge of his promise made to our first parents could not chuse but bee acceptable to them and their posterity The Angell Gabriel for the confirmation of this promise in his salutation vnto the Virgin Marie spake two words more powerfull more ponderous more remarkable in their few elements than of euery man can be well vnderstood What are those Aue Maria containing the binarie Number euery letter almost including within it some secret mysterie Which no man doth better expound than that antient Father Irenaeus in this similitude As Eue was seduced by an Angelicall Speech hee meaneth Lib. 5. cap. vlt. the temptation of that Serpent whereby she might flee from GOD hauing preuaricated his Word so this Eue by the Angels salutation was euangelized whereby she might bear Christ being obedient to the Word And as the one was tempted to forsake GOD so the other was perswaded to obey GOD that one Virgin might be the others Aduocate And as mankinde was subiect to death by the means of a Virgin so it was restored again by a Virgin the virginall inobedience of the one beeing equally poized with the virginall obedience of the other Now Irenaeus hath not onely alluded to the Angels salutation by calling her Blessed but vnto the bare elements aswell typically to be vnderstood wherein this message was deliuered for Aue by inuersion of the letters is Eua. As then the first Euâ— by preuaricating God's