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
and deep apprehensions a sense cousin-germane in the second degree to the words a sense involved implicit having traces and footsteps of reason hard yet investigable Fuga in persecutione is allowed this subterfugium verborum is but a branch of it I will not condemn David for acting the part of a frantick man to escape He changed his behaviour before them and feigned himself mad in their hands and scrabled on the doores of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard 1. Sam. 21.13 Neither will I wholly dislike a verball equivocation while the sense is transparent to the wise or learned though veiled to the ignorant Philip Cominaeus 4.11 reporteth that when the Constable of France Earl of S. Paul had played fouly and falsly on all sides King Lewis the eleventh said thus unto Rapine a trustie servant of the Constable I am busied with divers affairs of great importance and had need of such an head as thy masters is The servant interpreted all comfortably to the better sense but the King said softly to the English men and the Lord of Contay I mean not that we should have the bodie but the head without the bodie This manner of amphibolous speech our Saviour used when he said Destroy this temple which they understood of the temple builded with stones but he spake of the temple of his bodie John 2.19 20 21. And in the eighth of John Christ more then once made use of that homonymous verball equivocation But let him flee as from a serpent so from the delusions of the serpent who of late hath taught his locusts to make an answer consisting part in words expressed and intelligible part of thoughts reserved and unintelligible the speakers minde feigning framing and new-coyning a wilde sense which had no correspondence with the words at all So that for example if the Devil should ask of a Jesuite Wilt thou give me thy soul the Jesuite may by their doctrine safely and soundly answer him I will give thee my soul provided alwayes that he keep in the hollow of his heart this mentall reservation If thou be God Almighty Thus the Jesuite thinks that he can cozen the Devil himself because indeed he is not able to finde out that unexpressed thought of the Jesuites heart Yet the Angel of darknesse perhaps laugheth perhaps wondereth to see himself out-gone in his own wilinesse and depths by his own children though time will declare the truth that by such subtilties they undermine and blow up as with gun-powder their own and their adherents salvations I conclude the point I will not condemn the man who handsomely and artfully without lying or mentall reservation unconceiveable can shift off danger and trouble from himself or his friends but he condemneth himself who useth such double dissimulation such leger du coeur who plougheth with an ox and an asse making up a mixt linsy-woolsy proposition of words sensible and thoughts heterogeneall and incomprehensible incomprehensible I say by any power or powers created since the thoughts strangely vary from the words lurking in the vaults of the heart and can not be fished or hooked out from antecedents or consequents or any other circumstances But if he be put to his oath what shall he do If the matter concern not his life let him answer exactly Bishop Andrews seems to dislike That a man should be sworn against his own life because the Prophet by Gods direction made that particular exception Jeremy 38.15 and for other reasons by that most Reverend Prelat mentioned pag. 95. in his Opuscula Yet my opinion is If the life of Kings or Princes or if the welfare of the Commonwealth be in danger or any extraordinary mischief be like to ensue which was not the case of Jeremy a Prophet no traitour an holy man no plotter contriver or partaker with wicked ones a man may lawfully by the Magistrate be put to his oath though it cost him his life or to the rack and torture Unusuall harms must have unusuall remedies The particular nature will destroy it self to uphold the universall Rather then there shall be a vacuum fire will descend g Vbi scelera per abruptum eunt per praerupia in the African phrase of Tertullian iniquum est justitiam ad gradus teneri Where sinnes runne headlong it is not fit that justice should be tied to go by degrees saith Seneca If the matter concern his life he may be silent he may appeal It is h 2.2 quaest 63. art 1. in corpore artic Aquins judgement on a case not much unlike If a Judge ask any thing beyond what he ought in law the accused is not bound to answer he may appeal or otherwise avoid it lawfully but he may not lie And again i Art 2. in corpore It is one thing to conceal a truth another thing to propound a falshood It is lawfull to conceal a truth in some cases as when a man is not bound to answer and when he is not bound to confesse it k Per aliquos convenientes modes by any convenient means Yet a man may not either say an untruth or conceal a truth which he is bound to confesse l Neque etiam licet aliquam fraudem vel dolum adhibere quia fraus dolus vim mendacii habent Neither is it lawfull to use any fraud or deceit because fraud and deceit are equivalent to a lie But may not one equivocate when he is put unto his oath I answer That not so much as verball equivocation much lesse that lately invented and cursed Chimaera of mentall reservation is to be allowed m Fraus non dissolvit sed distringit perjurium Deceit doth not excuse but aggravate perjurie said Cicero long since n De summo Bono 2.13 Isidore thus With what art of words soever a man swears yet God the Judge of conscience so esteemeth it as he to whom the oath is made doth understand it S. Hierome on Ezekiel 17.19 thus o Sententia secularis est Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat It is an opinion of the world that it matters not whether a man overcome his enemie by guile or by valour But this himself resolveth p Quamdiu non jures pactum non ineas sub nomine Domini prudentiae est fortitudinis vel decipere vel superare adversarium utcunque potueris cùm autem te constrinxeris juramento nequaequam adversarius sed amicus est qui tibi credidit sub occasione jurisjurandi Dei nuncupatione deceptus est As long as thou dost not swear and enter into a covenant using Gods name it is wisdome and valour either to deceive or overcome thy adversarie any way thou canst but when thou hast bound thy self with an oath then he is no longer thine adversarie but thy friend who hath trusted thee and is deceived through thy oath and using of Gods name A little before on vers 15.
place of a skull as it is Matth. 27.33 or as it is varied by S. John He went forth into a place called the place of a skull which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha John 19.17 Even in the Hebrew * GOLGOTHA Syrum est non Hebraeum GOLGOTHA is a Syriack word not an Hebrew one saith Hierom on the word in his exposition of the Hebrew names used by S. Matthew He is seconded by h De verbo Dâ—i 2.4 Bellarmine who is confident that the vulgar tongue spoken and written in the Apostles dayes was the Syriack and not the pure and sacred Hebrew instancing in Golgotha The truth is though the termination be Syriack yet it is an Hebrew word of the radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circuire To compasse from whence comes GALGAL Sphaera An orb and GULGULETH or GOLGOLETH which the Caldeans and Syrians expresse by addition of Aleph Caput ob ejus rotunditatem An head for its roundnesse Mercer and Cevallerius adde in the Italick letters The skull is properly so called i Pars pro toto imò pro toto homine dicitur ut cùm Latinè dicimus Per capita Part is taken for the whole and not for the whole bodie onely but for the whole man as when after the Latine guise we say By the heads meaning By the people So also in the common proverb k Quot capita tot sententiae So many heads that is men so many mindes From Golgoleth cometh Golgoltha or Golgotha the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being taken away by Syncope l Ex consuetudine illius temporis As was then usuall saith Drusius yea and m Euphoniae gratiâ for a sweet and pleasant sound sake saith Lucas Brugensis For as the Syriack omits the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reading it Gogultha or according to Drusius Gagultha though Mercer and Cevallerius say it is Golgolta in the Syriack tongue so the Greek and the Latine leave out the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reade it Golgotha Now since none of the Evangelists have the exact Syriack word and S. John saith The place is called Golgotha in Hebrew let Golgotha passe not for a Syriack but an Hebrew word especially since the Syrians have an other word by which they signifie a skull viz. Karkaphto and let us come up close to Heinsius If he could prove that Cranion a skull being the word which all the Evangelists insist upon is taken collectivé for many skuls in the Hebrew Syriack or by the Hellenists if one skull could belong to many men I would say his proof were sharp and pointed but since it is harsh to conceive or to write or say not the places but the place not of skulls but of a skull the place of a skull of men it being a very Solecism in the Hebrew and the Syriack in the Greek whether sacred or profane and indeed in all languages I must take libertie to say Heinsius his argument is too weak and blunt to hurt Nonnus though we adde this his other exception n Quia in isto loco crania fuerunt Adam hoc est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ità dictus est locus The place was called a skull because mens skuls were there I answer Though many were there buried and many other skulls were there extant as in other Polyandriis or Ossaries Church-yards or Charnell-houses yet since Adam was there buried also how followeth it that the place was called so from the ignoble many rather then from the first Adam To speak truely Golgotha was not an ordinarie dormitorie there were no caves for buriall there were no places of sepulchres All malefactours even amongst them at that time were not there executed onely some for some offences and all that there were executed were not there interred but some were removed to their private buriall-places If from the multitude there congested the place had its denomination the three Evangelists who have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The place of a skull might most easily and in likelihood one of them would have varied it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The place of skulls but because the Scripture is expresse it was one single skull from which the place was so called and constant Tradition hath delivered that Adam was there buried and divers Ancients besides Epiphanius have both beleeved and written that Adams skull was there found Nonnus had reason in his paraphrase to apply the Text unto Adam neither is it a fable errour or absurditie The Scripture saith The place of a skull Nonnus saith with Antiquitie The place of Adams skull Heinsius saith It was called Golgotha or the place of a skull from the skuls of many men there buried Who hath most likelihood Nonnus or Heinsius 6. Mr George Sands in the relation of his journey pag. 163. reporteth that on the left side of an altar in mount Calvarie there is a clift in the rock in the which they say that the head of Adam was found and as they will have it there buried others say in Hebron that his bones might be sprinkled with the reall bloud of our Saviour which he knew should be shed in that place by a propheticall fore-knowledge And in the next page he picturing out the chappels and severall monuments hath honoured that clift where they say the head of Adam was found with a locall delineation Now because it may be thought that the floud did overthrow sepulchres houses and monuments and Adams among the rest Moses Barcepha in his book de Paradiso excellently secondeth Theophylact and saith That Noah fore-knowing the floud took into the ark with him the bones of Adam And having tripartitely divided the world unto his three sonnes saith Epiphanius in Anchorato neare the end all Asia even to Egypt unto Sem Africa unto Cham Europe to Japheth he gave to Sem the head or skull of Adam who burying it in the old grave called the place Calvaria Not farre from the beginning of the first book Oraculorum Sibyllinorum Sibylla Babylonica saith She was with her husband in the ark at the generall undage or cataclysme which some do thus expound that by Sibylla is meant the Kabala which is nothing els but the constant belief and knowledge of the Fathers delivered by Tradition so Kabala or Sibylla might be in the ark at the universall inundation and in a sort may be said to be married to Noah or to Sem with whom there remained out of doubt the most certain agraphall Traditions and among those this might be one of the grave of Adam and his head there after the floud buried See Baronius ad Annum Christi 34. numero 112. sequent Lastly S. Hierome is fully and exactly for us Epist 17 ad Marcellum 7. The Romanes have a storie somewhat resembling this Suffer a digression not unworthy your reading In Rome there was an hill called first Mons Saturninus from Saturn who dwelt there saith Terentius
Titus Bostrenus died saith Bellarmine Thirdly both Titus and Theophylact say That Christ resumed the circumcised part at his resurrection If they had but one authour of that antiquitie that Christ left it on earth as a relique of his how would they triumph After this Innocentius the third somewhat above 400 yeares since enquiring whether Christ did arise with his foreskin saith Some beleeve it to be kept at S. Johns of Laterans others say Charles the great translated it to Aquisgrane and afterwards it was left at Carosium and determineth nothing but this b Melius est totum Deo committere quà m aliquid temerè definire It is better to referre all unto God then rashly to determine any thing Yet in the sixth book of the revelation of S. Briget cap. 112. it is said That the glorious mother of our Lord kept it about her wheresoever she went I yet do question if it were so Who kept it till Brigets dayes and Which is the true prepuce that at Rome or that which Charles the great received from an Angel and left in Germanie not at Rome But these books of revelations may want credit with us when the learned Francis Collius de sanguine Christi lib. 5. disput 8. cap. 5. saith thus of a revelation in the very chapter c Etsi ea sit maximi ponderis tamen non tanti támque efficacis censenda est ut ab ea discedere impium irreligiosum fuerit Though it be of most especiall moment yet it is not to be so thought of as that it is impious or irreligious to differ from it If it be maximi ponderis of chiefest account and of greatest weight it is impious and irreligious to depart from it But since he departs from one Legend we may from the other After this the prepuce of Christ was stoln buried lost found torn in two pieces and is now in high esteem if Cardinall Tolet on Luk. 2. may be beleeved The summe of his narration is this That 1527 when Rome was sackt by the souldiers of the Duke of Burbon one of them stole away among other reliques the prepuce of Christ and buried it in a cellar and as he was dying revealed what he had done Pope Clement the seventh caused it to be searched for yet it was not found Thirty yeares after a Priest findes it carrieth it to the land-ladie of the place she thrice trieth to untie the things wherewith it was covered and thrice by a miracle is inhibited Clarix a young virgin her daughter untieth all and puts the prepuce first in a silver bason then in a silver casket Thus it is placed in the Church of Calcata then removed into the Chancel Miracles are wrought The Pope sends Commissioners to search the truth One of the Priests ere he was aware tore the prepuce in two pieces Is it still eadem numero membrana the same numericall skinne O learned Collius the Commissioners certifie it was the true relique of Christ and it is kept at this day at Calcata in the temple of S. Cornelius and Cyrian where God daily works miracles In the yeare 1584 at a womans request Sixtus quintus granted plenarie indulgence for ten yeares in the same Church of Calcata upon the day of our Lords Circumcision Thus farre Tolet. You may observe that from 1527 when it was stolne by the souldier to 1584 or perhaps so long as the indulgences lasted the prepuce of Christ was not in S. John of Laterans and so besides the prepuce at Caresium there are two other fore-skinnes of Christ on the earth One at Calcata 20 miles from Rome kept to this day saith Tolet commenting on Luke And the book was printed 1611. Of the other Collius the Millanoise de sanguine Christi lib. 5. disput 7. cap. 2. saith It is now kept at S. John of Laterans in that place of the Church which is called THE HOLY OF HOLIES as Innocent the third and the Cardinal S. Petri ad vincula and Carthagena and all and every of the writers of this age who have handled this point do say Collius might have excepted Tolet whose preceding narrative checketh him The same Collius ibid. thinks it very credible d Salvatoris prâ—putium non resurrexisse idem numero quod in circumcisione ceciderat sed divinâ virtute aliud suisse comproductum That Christ rose not with that self same fore-skinne which was cut off at his circumcision but by a divine vertue another new one was comproduced Christ being in heaven uncircumcised but yet he upholdeth the gainfull vanitie of Impostours who deserve to be branded yea to be burnt to ashes for feigning two or three fore-skinnes on earth of our Saviour I cannot forget their vaunts That they have intimam vestem the smock or at least the peticoat of the most gracefull Virgin and her milk honoured almost as Christ his consecrated bodie The breeches of Joseph The combe of S. Anne and her very head saith Sleidan Comment 15. fol. 170. And so many pieces of the crosse as would almost lade a ship of burthen saith Erasmus on Matth. 23.5 Calvin de inventor reliquiarum proveth some of the Romish Saints to have three heads some three bodies shewn in severall places The Rhemists on Matth. 14. annot 2. say Honour is now done to the Baptists head at Amiens in France Fulk addeth The same part that is at Amiens is at S. Angely the rest of his head from his fore-head to his neck is at Malta yet the hinder part of his skull is at Nemours his brain at Novium Rastroviense another part of his head is at Jean-Morien his jaw-bone at Vesalium at the Church of S. John the greater another part at Paris a piece of his eare at S. Floride his fore-head and hairs in Spain at S. Salvadores another piece of his head at Naion another at Luke in Italie and yet for all these pieces his whole head is at S. Sylvesters Abbey at Rome to be seen and worshipped Half of S. Peters bodie is at S. Peters at Rome half at S. Pauls yet he hath an head at S. John Laterans and his nether-jaw with the beard upon it is in France at Poyters at Triers are many of his bones at Geneva was part of his brain saith Fulk in Rom. 16. annot 1. See Sleidan Comment 15. pag. 169. summing up a book of Calvins to the same purpose I could make you laugh in disdain at what a chief printer at Paris hath written in his preface to the defence of Herodotus touching these horrible impostures and the sudden quick-cousening wits of the Friars as how a strange feather was promised to be shewn for a holy relique as being one of an Arch-angels feathers and when a cunning hand had stoln it away and placed a coal in the room of it the nimble jugling Friar perswaded his besotted auditorie that they were unworthy to see so great a relique as an Arch-angels feather but
〈◊〉 is taken Ezechiel 24.16 t Ecce ego aufero 〈◊〉 te desiderium oculorum tuorum Behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes Salmanticensis Judaeus in lib. Johasin 98.2 saith u Mortuus est Rabbi Emmi quia rapuit eum mors Rabbi Emmi died for death snatched him away And so it is in the Latine phrases Rapio and Aufero what in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quis Deus Octavi te nobis abstulit te Raptum Romanam flebimus historiam What God Octavius Took the away from us We will bemoan the death of thee And of our Romane historie So farre Drusius in the preface to his book called Henoch But this is no good exposition since God took away by death all the rest of the Patriarchs as well as Enoch and yet it is most singularly spoken of Enoch He was not found for God took him By death saith the shallow Jew but our divine Apostle saith He was translated that he might not see death What Christian or rationall man will doubt but we are to incline to the Apostle Again the third answer brought by Drusius against his own opinion as himself professeth to prove that VIDERE MORTEM To see death doth not signifie to die a naturall death where there is a true separation of the soul from the bodie and that NON VIDERE MORTEM Not to see death on the contrary doth not signifie To be kept alive from death which I with Drusius do say was the true intent of the Apostle draweth to this head Enoch saw not death that is died not because the holy Scriptures where they make mention of his rapture mention not his death I answer If all were true yet it followeth not that Enoch is dead or shall die which is the point questioned Moreover if Enoch were dead or to die the wisdome of the Divine Inspirer would never have singled out such a phrase among so many other thousand as should leade men to think the clean contrary He was translated that he should not see death For there resteth the period If it had been meant he should die it would have been added He should not see death for a long time or He should not see death till toward the end of the world or the like But He was translated that he should not see death Therefore he shall never see death Suarez in tertiam partem summae quaest 59. artic 6. sect 1. saith directly S. Paul meaned that Enoch should not die in that place into which he was translated True But why should he die in any other place or indeed why should he die at all who above other men was rapted purposely That he might not see death Surely the deferring of death for a time is not so great a favour The exempting one wholly from death is a blessing above ordinary Again it is said of Enoch Genes 5.23 All his dayes were 365. where dayes are taken for yeares as otherwhere in Scripture But these are not all his dayes if either he remove from one place of the earth into an other which Salianus fondly imagined or live now in a mortall corruptible bodie It is said of our blessed Saviour Hebr. 5.7 He poured out prayers in the dayes of his flesh that is whilest he lived on earth the life of nature in an elementary terrene humane passive bodie And of some other Patriarchs All the dayes of them were such and such Genes 5.17 20 c. that is all the dayes while they breathed on the earth the breath of life in mortall bodies Therefore even from the very phrase concerning Enoch All his dayes were 365. we may inferre He lived not in a mortall bodie any longer on the earth He liveth not now any where in a mortall bodie Somewhat must I say also of Elias severally Rabbi Solomon on the 5 of Genes saith When Elijah was hurried up in a fiery chariot his bodie was burnt up of that fire and Other Jews agree with him saith x De Romano Pontifice 3 6. Bellarmine For my part I say I will not embrace an unlikelihood though it runne toward my opinion I think the cloke might have been burnt as well as his bodie and Elishah could not have escaped scorching when the fire parted them Again the ashes might have fallen as well as his mantle And the Jew would account it no great favour to be burnt alive That fire certainly was rather conservative then destructive not penal and consuming as the fire from heaven drawn down by Elias 2. Kings 1.12 not punitive and conserving as the fire of hell Everlasting Matth. 25.41 Vnquenchable Mark 9.43 but like the fierie furnace in which the three children sang Daniel 3.25 or the fire in the bush Exod. 3.3 harmlesse yea gracious or the fire at the consummation of the world which one calleth Ignem rationalem The phrase then 2. Kings 2.11 importeth no lesse Elijah went up by a whirlwinde into heaven Elijah All Elijah Whole Elijah Soul and bodie His soul had no need of a whirlwinde Elijah went up It is varied 1. Maccab. 2.58 He was taken up into heaven His rapture excluded not his willingnes his willingnes had been insufficient without his rapture his ascension being grounded on assumption the power being Gods not his or his passively and Gods actively If it be true what Bellarmine avoucheth That some other Jews agree with Rabbi Solomon in this that Elijah was burned Yet I am sure y Bibliotheâ—â— Sanctae lib. 2. pag. 65. Sixtus Senensis citeth the opinion of other Jews to the contrarie For they said that the length of time from the beginning of man till the end of the world hath been and shall be measured by the severall lives of seven men and that there was never houre from mans creation to the generall resurrection but some one of these seven men did or shall live in it Adam lived to see Methuselah Methuselah was alive in Sems time Sem died not till Jacob was born Jacob lived till Amram Moses his father was born Amram expired not till Ahijah the Shilonite lived Ahijah lived with Elijah Elijah shall live till the end of the world Therefore they thought Elijah was not burnt is not dead But first the Papists themselves say that Elijah shall be slain by Antichrist before the end of world Therefore this maketh not for them Secondly the Jews might have tucked up the time shorter on this fashion Adam lived in the dayes of Enoch and Enoch to the end of the world And so their number of seven might be reduced unto two But let us leave these Rabbinicall speculations concerning Elijah and say somewhat of him not as he was in a Paradise of phansie but as he was with our blessed Saviour on the mount at that glorious transfiguration And this I set down for certain No passage in the Gospels proveth demonstratively that his bodie was immortall It is true it is said of
Likewise in the two other before-recited places the same phrase is used The Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Ignorabat Moses quòd glorificatus esset aspectus faciei ejus Moses knew not that the splendour of his face and countenance was glorified as Vatablus translateth the Seventy Which he saith more fully expresseth the Hebrew and is accordingly followed by the Apostle 2. Cor. 3.7 for the glorie of his countenance Indeed the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie an horn from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is splendere radiare fulgere to shine Because saith Vatablus from a learned Jew when man beholdeth earnestly and intentively the Sunne or any luminous bodie the rayes seem to be sent forth of it like horns in some sort But saith Vatablus out of the false or ill-understood version of the Vulgat they who were no linguists made the people falsly beleeve that Moses had two horns on his head which is most false So farre Vatablus though a man of their own against the brain-sick faction of the Jesuit who will maintain the people in any errour if it be old rather then suffer reformation The Caldee hath it Multiplicatus est splendor gloriae vultûs Mosis The brightnesse of Moses his face increased in glory more and more Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit though he strive for the truth of the Vulgat yet saith Moses had no horns in his forehead d Vtì affingunt ei pictores as painters place on him Little perhaps did he think that his fellow-Jesuit Hieronymus Natalis was one of these painters yea and that in one of the costlyest editions of the storie of the Gospels that ever was set forth But the wiser and more succinct Sa hath it HORNY e Cornuta id est radios emittens Hebraicè radians that is glistering in the Hebrew resplendent And Cajetan better then he f Nihil cornutum ad literam signâ—ficatur c. In the litterall signification we have nothing to do with horn though perchance there is some allusion to it by a Metaphor Concerning which Moses his face I will end with two observations The first is a very idle one out of Bellarmine De Sanctorum reliquiis 2.4 g Valde credibile est Mosis corpus licèt mortuum conservâssâ— adhuâ— splendorem vultû◠decorem quem antea habebat siâ—ut multis Sanctorum accidit It is very credible that the dead bodie of Moses preserved the radiant comelinesse and beauty of his face which he had in life as it hath happened to many of the Saints But he nameth no Saint And if he did we should hardly beleeve him And Moses himself died privately and was buried secretly no man saw him dying or dead I acknowledge that some of the Ancients have inclined to this viz that Moses his face did shine all his life time when he spake to the people So Ambrose in Psal 118. h Quamdiu vixit Moses alloquebatur populum velamen habuit iâ— facie So long as Moses lived and spake to the people he had a vail before his face not after death as Bellarmine thinks probable Besides the Apostle 2. Corinth 3.7 termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glorie of his countenance which was to be done away Therefore it continued not after death if it did till then whensoever he spake to the people And our late translation seemeth in part to accord Exod. 34.33 Till Moses had done speaking with them he put a vail on his face Yet the word Till is not in the originall but it may be probably expounded That when Moses had done speaking he put a vail on his face for so the Hebrew Greek and Latine runne And though Moses ordinarily put off the vail when he went to speak with God and put it on when he returned yet once and at the first of all he might speak unto the people with face open for more reverence and majestie The second observation is from Origen Homil. 12. in Exod. circa medium and it is a good one In the Law saith he Moses his face was glorified though vailed but his hand put into his bosome WAS LEAPROVS AS SNOW Exod. 4.6 i In vulâ—u ejus sermo legis in manu opera designantur In his shining countenance was a figure of the Law by his hands are works signified Now because no man can be justified by the works of the Law his hand was leprous His face was glorified but vailed therefore his words were full of knowledge yet secret and hidden Yea in the Law Moses had onely a glorified face hands and feet were unglorified for Moses also put off his shoes that an other in after times might have the bride k Et illa vocarâ—tâ—r domus discalceati usque in hodiernum diem and she be called to this day the house of the unshod l In Evanâ—eliis autem Moses totus glorificatur ex integro Gaudere â—tiam mihi pro hoc videtur Moses quia ipse quodammodo nunc dâ—â— ponit velamen conversus ad Dominum cùm evidenter quae praedixit implentur But in the Gospels all Moses is wholly glorified It seemeth also to mee that Moses rejoiceth in this point because himself in a sort now layeth aside his vail being converted to Christ when those things are plainly fulfilled which he foretold By which glorification you cannot necessarily interpret such a glorification as the Saints shall have after judgement which never shall have end where m 1. Cor. 15.53 corruptible shall put on incorruption immutable but onely of a temporarie glorification for Moses layd down his bodie again as is held most probably The authour of that book which is intituled Altercatio Synagogae Ecclesiae cap. 21. S. Paul and Gamaliel being interlocutours thus Jesus Christ after his transfiguration n Mosis corpus sepulturae commendavit buried Moses A strange honour if true that the same who was buried by God himself in the Old Testament should be thus glorified for a while and after buried by Christ himself in the New Testament Furthermore that there is no absolute necessitie that either Moses or Elias though they were seen in glorie had immortall and impassible bodies by the transfiguration appeareth by this That our blessed Saviour himself after that his transfiguration had a mortall bodie and did die especially if we consider that his glorie was greater then theirs as the Masters is above the Servants and the Lords above the Attendants Barradas on the transfiguration saith o Transfigurationi suae transfiguratos gloriâque ae singulari majestate ornatos voluit Christus adesse servos suos sic solent in nuptiis festisque aliis diebus nobiles viri pretiosis ornati vestibus Regibus adesse Christ would have his servants present transfigured as well as himself and adorned with singular glorie and majestie as at marriages and other festivall dayes the