contracting of sinnes and undergoing punishment for them Fourthly weigh this strong inconvenience which he toucheth at That the latter born in time is still the worse in nature worse then any that went before as followeth necessarily if the sinnes of our forefathers are communicated to us Fifthly he seemeth to conclude the unreasonablenesse That they who were never regenerated should be overburdened with eternall damnation if they should be compelled from the beginning of mankinde to contract the sinnes of all their progenitours and be punished for them And therefore he questioneth Whether it reacheth onely to the third and fourth generation I would also question Whether if the threat reach onely to the third and fourth generation upon supposall that from Adam all the predecessours of a man were wicked till the fourth generation that man shall have none of those sinnes imputed to him before his progenitours in a fourth ascent Or if an others progenitours were all good from Adam till the foure last generations and from it all and every of his parents in a lineall descent were stark-naught till we come to himself who is good Whether he shall have communicated to him the sinnes of these foure last progenitours and no goodnesse for a thousand generations of holy and repentant forefathers himself also being a holy man since God sheweth mercy unto thousands that love him that is more mercy to more good men then severitie which extendeth even towards his haters but to the third and fourth generation which number is short of thousands The last objection from the place of Exodus is this q Consequi videtur Deum permittere ut pâ—ccata parentum in filios transeant It seems to follow that God doth permit that the sinnes of parents passe unto their children and the sonnes imitate the sinnes of their fathers that God may justly punish sinnes which are not so proper to the parent as to the parent and childe I answer He doth well to mince it with It seems to follow But Quaedam videntur non sunt Some things seem to be and are not Bucer and Martyr do float too much in generalities they neither mention what sinnes all or some neither what parents good bad or all nor what they mean by passing when they say r Peccata parentum in filios transeunt The sinnes of parents passe unto the children There are also nets and ginns in these their words Å¿ Peccatorum labes cou contegium redundat in patris corpus per ejus sanguinem semen in filios The spot and as it were contagion of sinne overspreadeth the fathers body and by his bloud and seed redoundeth upon the children Before they said sinnes now the spot of sinnes though there be a great difference between them two for the sinne is past before the spot cometh and the latter is the effect of the former Again because it is easie to prove that t Macula patris non redundat in filios the stain of the father redoundeth not on the children it is added u Labes ceu contagium the spot and as it were contagion Moreover how unaptly do they bring the place of Exodus to prove the sinnes of the next parents to be communicated if by them they understand onely the immediate father and mother when in that place there is expresse mention of the third and fourth generation If they stretch the words of the next parents to the third and fourth generation onely why not to the fifth sixth and so upward Sixteen generations since Christs time are the next parents if you compare them to the thirty nine generations which in the law of Nature and of Moses preceded Christ Lastly note their wilde inference God permits the fathers sinne to passe unto the childe and the childe to imitate the father that he may punish as if God could not justly punish the sinnes of the fathers in the children unlesse they be like them in personall transgressions as if the communication of original sinne onely were not cause enough to punish children for the sinnes of their parents as if the evil of sinne were ordained to justifie the evil of punishment Away then with this fishing in troubled waters this delighting in amphibolous terms Which censure that I may the rather justifie I will endeavour to explain all things necessary to the knowledge of this point to salve all doubts to unfold all intricacies in these seven propositions 4. God justly may and doth punish with any temporall punishment any children like or unlike to their parents for their fathers personall sinnes Horat. Epod. 7. Immerentis fluxit in terram Remi Sacer nepotibus cruor And Carminum 3. Ode 6. Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane For the children are a part of the fathers and in the childes punishment the father himself is punished For as a sonne receiveth under God life and the things of this life by the father so it is no injustice if he lose the same for him The widow of Zarephath her sonne was in her apprehension dead for her sinne 1. King 17.18 So 2. Sam. 12.15 God stroke the childe that Uriahs wife bare to David and it was sick and died Both father and childe endured a punishment of seven dayes the father in sorrow fasting a fast lying on the earth in a holy sordiditie weeping and praying the childe by sicknesse tormenting him to death Ahabs children were punished for his offence 1. King 21.21 and among the rest Jehoram his sonne who although he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord yet was not so bad as his father or mother 2. Kings 3.2 The passage is very observable Jer. 16.3 4. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sonnes and daughters that are born in this place and concerning their mothers and fathers They shall die of grievous deaths Both the great and small shall die vers 6. The punishment of Gehazi his posterity is more exemplarie for though they sinned not nor could sinne the sinne of Gehazi yet the leprosie of Naaman did cleave unto him for that his personall simonie and unto his seed for ever 2. Kings 5.27 The case of Jobs children surpasseth this for they were not stricken with death for their own sinnes or the sinnes of their father Job so much as for the triall of his patience and for the experimentall confutation of Satan yet was it not unjust that they should lose their lives for their fathers good which they had by him since he also suffered in their sufferings and might easily see Gods especiall hand against himself For the greatest winde in the world naturally cannot smite the foure corners of an house and if it should yet one corner would uphold the other but this whirlwinde did so and the house fell Job 1.19 1. Sam. 15.6 the Kenites are spared because they shewed kindenesse to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt but because Amalek had fought with
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.
yet his repentance could not wipe out the sinne of his posteritie because his repentance was by an act personall which could not extend it self beyond his person So farre Aquinas But let discourse give way to Scripture Jer. 31.29 30. They shall say no more The fathers have eaten a sowre grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge but every one shall die for his own iniquitie every man that eateth the sowre grape his teeth shall be set on edge They had occasion to use this proverb in reference to Adam who ate one sowre grape in whom we sinned and are punished But as I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel Ezek. 18.3 Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so also the soul of the sonne is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die vers 4. And when God said Exod. 20.5 I visit the sinnes of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me I answer First the place speaketh not of the sinnes of children for the fathers personall iniquitie maketh not the sonne inique or wicked it is onely spoken of punishments Secondly even punishment eternall doth not reach from the father to the sonne unlesse the sonne communicate with the sinne of the father for if a wicked father beget a sonne that seeth all his fathers sinnes which he hath done and considereth and doth not such like he shall not die for the iniquitie of his father he shall surely live Ezek. 18.14 17. In this sort you may object A man shall not be punished at all for the sinnes of his forefathers but for his own sinnes onely I answer He may be punished temporally but not eternally for in temporall chastisements as there be many causes producing one effect so many sinnes even of diverse men may be corrected by one punishment and the father is often more grievously punished in his sonne then in himself Now having spoken what I thought convenient concerning the propagation of originall corruption unto all the posteritie of Adam I am in the last place to shew the just consequent That as he did die for that his sinne so we his offspring for having that sinne should die and in regard of this sinne It is appointed for men to die and to undergo that punishment For original sinne is in one regard a fault of transgression and the same originall sinne in a different respect is also a punishment b Aug. de baptismo parvulorum As every man was in Adam and his corrupted nature was propagated to us it is a sinne as originall sinne is considerable in every man without reflecting on the common nature it is a punishment It is so a sinne or such a sinne that it is also a punishment and we have spoken of it as a sinne let us now descend to handle it as it is a punishment MOst Prepotent Eternall and onely Wise God I a poore dejected sinner with an humble and contrite soul devoutly beg pardon at thy Mercie-seat confessing from the bottome of my heart my manifold personall and actuall sinnes from all which if thy Grace had prevented me yet my offence in Adam and with him had justly condemned me But I meekly beseech thy Divine Majestie that I may be one of those many to whom the bloud of thy deare Sonne shall do more good then the fault of Adam did hurt Grant this I beseech Thee for the Al-sufficient merit of thy onely Sonne our onely deare and gracious redeemer Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. VII 1. A review of the last point Zanchius not against it Bucer and Martyr are but faint and rather negative then positive 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 3. S. Augustine appealed unto and defended 4. God justly may and doth punish with any temporall punishment any children like or unlike unto their parents for their parents personall sinnes 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. 6. God justly punisheth even eternally wicked children if they resemble wicked parents 7. God oftentimes punisheth one sinne with an other 8. The personall holinesse of the parent never conveyed grace or salvation to the sonne 9. God never punished eternally the reall iniquities of the fathers upon their children if the children were holy 10. No personall sinnes can be communicated The point handled at large against the errour of Bucer and Martyr 11. The arguments or authorities for my opinion The new Writers not to be overvalued Zanchius himself is against Bucer and Martyr 1. HAving thus farre proceeded and as I thought without the contradiction of any I found by the discourse of a loving learned friend that diverse late Writers were otherwise minded in the point last handled in the former chapter whereupon I betook my self to review it Zanchius in locis commun Theolog. upon the second chapter of the Ephes loc prim toward the end bringeth this objection against one part of his definition of originall sinne Some say that if therefore Adams sinne was transferred to posteritie because we were in his loyns by the same reason the other sinnes of Adam and our other parents should be likewise traducted which is absurd and cometh not alwayes to passe since of evil parents oftentimes the best children are born He answereth first The reason is not alike for the first sinne was not so proper and personall to Adam as common to humane nature his other sinnes and others after him are truely personall Which answer is excellent and he confirmeth it at large Then cometh he to a second answer which is not his own but onely barely related without his approving or open disproving of it a Deinde negant multi viri docti absurdum esse si dicatur peccata pronimorum parentum communicari liberis ità ut similes parentibus nascantur filii vitiosi vitiosis Besides many learned men denie that it is absurd to say that the sinnes of the next parents are communicated to the children so that sonnes are born like their parents vicious and perverse sonnes of vicious and perverse parents which they confirm by experience by examples of Scripture by Exod. 20.5 And Augustine truely in Enchirid. cap. 46. saith it is probable for that place of Exodus For saith he if the sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father but the soul that sinneth shall die and yet God visit the sinnes of the fathers upon the children it seemeth to follow that the sinnes of the parents passe over to the sonnes and the sonnes follow the sinnes of the parents that those sinnes may be justly punished in them which are not so proper to the parents as common both to parents and children And for this
corporum non animarum You shall discern by the manifest circumstances of the place that Moses meaneth some place under the earth fitted or appointed as receptacles of bodies not of souls saith Doctour Raynolds Herein I must needs dissent And first I say What is this a Locus corporum place of bodies It must be either the grave or hell or let him designe us out a third place A third place he cannot name especially for humane bodies Some held concerning infants That in regard of their innocencie they are to have eternall life but because they were not baptized they should not be with Christ in his kingdome But Augustine saith That Christ himself confuted b istam nescio quam medietatem De peccator Merit Remis 1.28 this new-invented middle or third mansion and as he said a little before more generally c Nec est ulluâ— ulli medius locus ut possit essâ— nisi cum diabolo qâ—â— non est cum Christo It is impossible for any man to be in any middle place but he must needs be with the devil who is not with Christ so do I say of this Locus corporum It is either hell or the grave Tertium locum penitus ignoramus We know no third place The Papists erre to establish a Purgatorie for the soul besides hell and heaven And Doctour Raynolds doth not well to mention so often a Locus corporum where he ought to name Where it is and What bodies go into it Secondly it is plain that their souls did sinne their souls were punished and went down to hell Doth not the Apostle S. Jude vers 11. speak of such as perished in the gainsaying of Korah to whom not the wo of a sudden death is denounced but vers 13. the blacknesse of darknesse for ever is reserved doth not the place stand fair for the damnation of Korah and his fellows Though Doctour Raynolds minceth it in this doubtfull manner d Non inflcior quin eorum auimae si sint mortui pertinaces in scelerata sua obstinatione adjudicatae sint inferis cum Divite I denie not but their souls if they died obstinate in their wicked rebellion were adjudged to the hell where Dives was Again when the Scripture saith Si creationem creaverit Dominus Numb 16.30 If the Lord shall make a new thing or a strange thing as new almost as strange to sight almost as is the creation for I take so much to be implyed in that unusuall phrase what reason hath that grave Doctour to say e Illud quod propriè notatur in verbis DescenderÃntque viventes in infernum nihil est aliud quà m horribile tremendum judicium Dei divinitus illis inflictum iri ut cùm alii priùs moriantur quà m sepeliantur ipsi quasi vivi sepeliantur That which is properly meant by the words IF THEY GO DOWN QVICK INTO HELL is nothing else but that the horrible and dreadfull judgement of God divinely shall be inflicted on them viz. in such sort that whereas others first die and then are buried these shall be buried as it were alive Why so reservedly and cautelously is it added As it were alive Again e Locus fuit corporum non animarum in quem descenderunt Corah Dathan Abiram It was the place of bodies and not of souls into which Korah Dathan and Abiram descended as if their souls were in the place appointed for bodies which he further parallelleth with the burying alive of the deflowred Vestall virgins though he ought to distinguish between the extraordinary miraculous hand of God and the ordinary justice of men in such cases And the Vestall virgins were farre longer ere they died then Korah and his companie ere they were swallowed up Let the judicious reader ponder these words of that famous Doctour Is nothing else and Shall be buried as it were alive and Korah Dathan and Abiram descended not into the place of souls though the souls of all wicked men do so and their souls by his reason should have more priviledge then other wicked mens and I dare say he will think that Doctour Raynolds might more safely have held the other opinion That their souls and bodies went alive to hell properly so called That Moses denoteth the place of bodies I denie not for even that place is in hell for all the bodies of the wicked in due time and for these mens bodies extraordinarily before the generall judgement But I am loth to say Moses meant not the place of souls I am loth to entertain a thought That the Rebels themselves did repent for if they did so they are saved I would be loth to flee from rationable probabilitÃe to possibilitie which hath a farre-stretched almightie arm and to say as he doth g Fieri potest ut quidam eorum aut offines illi culpae non fuerint aut si fuerint poenitentiam egerint It may be that some of them were not faultie or if they were repented That they repented who were swallowed up alive seems not agreeable to S. Jude who ver 11. pronounceth a fearfull wo against such as are like unto them and perished in the gainsaying of Korah In which wo not temporall bodily punishment alone but eternall torment of the soul is included Compare the words with 2. Pet. 2.12 Moreover none dares denie the possibilitie of repentance but who can think it probable That God would send such an extraordinarie punishment on such as were innocent or repented when as the children of that Luciferian Arch-rebel Korah were exempted from that destruction Numb 26.11 Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not yea were eminent and famous among the Levites Were over the work of the service keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle and their fathers were over the hoste of the Lord and the Lord was with them 1. Chron. 9.19 c. And they were either excellent Musicians or Singers or Pen-men for Divine Service as may be collected from many Psalmes intituled To the sonnes of Korah as Psal 42. Psal 44. Psal 87. And when the Scripture saith They descended alive into the pit I would be loth to varie the phrase as he doth h Si sint mortui pertinaces If they died in their obstinacie I denie not but in a large sense they may be said to die and the Scripture saith They should not die the common death of all men Numb 16.29 yet also They descended alive into the pit which cannot be better reconciled then to say The state of their bodies was changed immortalitie swallowed up their mortalitie in the act of their descending or passion rather if you will so call it There was no true separation between their souls and their bodies and therefore they died not their change notwithstanding may be reputed for a death which perhaps also shall be the case of all the wicked who shall be alive at Christs second and glorious coming
cannot be executed without the glorifying of souls and bodies of his servants we may well think it pleased God to give to the old world a pledge or two of the generall glorification of the bodies of his Saints by the particular performance of the same to the bodies of Enoch and Elias whom he assumed up into heaven by way of especiall favour To this I may adde That Enoch and Elijahs raptures being types of Christs ascension since Christ ascended in a glorified and immortall bodie the shadows must be like the substance and therefore they ascended in glorified immortall bodies Suarez is driven to a great exigent They were onely saith he n in statu merendi potuerunt in gratia crescere c. in a state in which they might merit and increase in grace till the time in which they were translated And as they were translated they were so confirmed in grace that they can commit no sinne And to their old estate of meriting shall they return when they shall live again amongst men But who ever heard of such turnings and returnings in any other men or Angels or that their estate shall be changed from o A non posse peccare ad posse peccare an estate wherein they cannot sinne to an estate in which they may sinne and so backward For supposing they shall live again and die again if they can merit they can also sinne whilest they live among men and so when they die and have their reward in heaven this shall be no small part of it p Non posse peccare To have no power to sinne But this opinion somewhat resembleth the diversified estate of devils who shall be saved after the generall judgement as Origen feigned and fabled and which the Church hath branded for erroneous And now I see I have fallen before I was aware upon the fourth and last question by me propounded Whether Enoch and Elias shall ever die or do live with glorified bodies in the highest heavens which also I have answered at large That they never shall die but do and shall live in glorified bodies Tertullian I confesse said concerning Elias at the Transfiguration q Apparuit in veritate carâ—is nondum defunctae He appeared in true flesh which had never been separated from its soul and more punctually de Anima cap. 50. r Translatus est Enoch Elias nec mors eorum reperta est dilata scilicet Morituri reservantur ut Antichristum sanguine suo extinguant Enoch and Elias were translated nor is their death recorded or known it being adjourned they are kept and preserved that they may die hereafter and by their bloud overthrow and extinguish Antichrist as Baronius cites him And the more common opinion of the Papists is That they two shall be slain and they prove it by Rev. 11.7 When the two witnesses shall have finished their testimonie the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall overcome and kill them The three other places of Scripture on which Bellarmine built his third demonstration that Antichrist is not come because Enoch and Elias are not yet come are answered before This last place and passage of Scripture used by Bellarmine de Romano Pontif. 3.6 cometh now to be examined and you shall finde it thus well winnowed by Bishop Andrews in his Answer to Cardinall Bellarmines Apologie Cap. 11. That the two witnesses are the two Testaments as Beda Primasius Augustinus and Ticonius are Authours S. Hilarius rejecteth Enoch and puts Moses in his room and that very peremptorily Though many have substituted Jeremie in Enochs room saith Hilarie on Matth. Can. 20. S. Hierom the next Father cited by Bellarmine is not constant enough for Elias which I touched at before and Rupertus on Malach. 4. testifieth so much of Hierom and Bullinger in Apocal. lib. 3. v. 3. saith S. Hierom esteemeth them to be Jews and Jewish hereticks who think Elias shall come again Lactantius cited by Bellarmine in his Apologie nameth neither Enoch nor Elias And Chrysostom Theodoret Origen and Primasius say nothing of Enoch Hippolytus for the two witnesses brings in three one whereof is S. John the Divine and indeed he is more likely to be one of the witnesses then Enoch for unto him it was said Revel 10.11 Thou must prophesie again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings but no such thing was said to Enoch Others say Elizeus shall be one of the two witnesses Hieronymus saith r Nisi quis spiritualiter intelligat hunc locum Apocalypsews Judaicis ei fabulis acquiescendum est In Epist ad Marcellum Vnlesse a man understand this place of the Revelation spiritually he must needs settle and rest on Jewish fables Maldonate on the 17 of Matthew and his learned Interpreter saith It is so cleare a matter that Moses and Elias shall come that none but a rash and impudent man can denie it Thus much Bishop Andrews in his Answer to the place of the Revelation against Bellarmines Apologie who vaunted of a cloud of Fathers which cloud is vanished almost into nothing Much more of great worth and consequence hath that Reverend Bishop in the same 11 chapter concerning Enoch and Elias living in glorified bodies to whom I referre the Reader And this shall suffice to have spoken of Enoch and of Elias against Bellarmines third demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Every part and parcell of which proof is so weak and so farre from concluding apodictically that they scarce deserve a place among probable arguments And thus is the second main branch of my answers made good and manifested That some have been excepted from death viz. Enoch and Elias though it be objected that It is appointed for men to die The third part of my answer followeth That others also shall be excepted O Fountain of life and preserver of men to whom belong also the issues of death I have deserved to die the first and second death I have provoked thy long-suffering I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Lord make me as one of thy hired servants and put me to what labour to what pain soever within me without me so long as pleaseth thee onely I beseech thee for the blessed mediation of thy dearely beloved onely Sonne Jesus Christ my Saviour give me grace not to faint under the burthens appointed and at the end of the day at my lives end vouchsafe to give me a penie among thy labourers and eternall life among thy chosen Amen CHAP. III. 1. Some others hereafter shall be excepted from death The change may be accounted in a generall large sense a kinde of death The Papists will have a reall proper death Aquinas an incineration This is disproved 1. Thessal 4.17 which place is handled at large The rapture of the godly is sine media morte without death The resurrection is of all together The righteous prevent not the
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
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
lapis Dontinus Salvator sine manibus id est absque coitu humano semine de utero virginali Hâ—eron in Dan. 2.34 Quid est Praecisus de monte sine manibus Natus de Gente Judaeorum sine opere hominum Omnes enim qui nascuntur de opere maritali nascuntur ille de Virgine natus sine manibus natus est per manus enim opus humanum significatur quò manus humanae non accesserunt ubi maritalis amplexus non fuit foetus tamen fuit Aug. in Psal 99.5 ipsi 70 secuto 98 sub finem a stone cut out without hands Daniel 2.34 without the help of man as he was if he had not been conceived by the Holy Ghost if the Blessed Virgin had not been over-shadowed by the power of God onely if Christ had been begotten by one of the sonnes of Adam with an ordinarie and naturall generation even Christ himself had had both originall and actuall sinne and had died for himself by and through Adam and had wanted a Redeemer for himself much lesse could he be our Redeemer But Christ was that STONE This Stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner Psal 118.22 A tried stone a precious corner-stone asure foundation Esai 28.26 Let me adde a little Since Adam was made without the help of man or woman and Eve came of man without woman since all the whole world of rationall people proceed from both man and woman it was convenient enough that there should be a miraculous and fourth kinde of generation different from all the rest namely that Christ should come of a woman alone without the assistance of man that he might be free from originall sinne which was first committed by Adam and his masculine brood and not without his seed and the artifex spiritus in it In which regard without derogation to the thrice-blessed Mother of our Lord that holy-aeviternally Virgin Mary now next to her Sonne the greatest Saint in heaven and placed deservedly above Angels and Archangels Cherubims and Seraphims great Divines do make this difference She who was not begotten but by man was subject to originall sinne but her sonne the Sonne of God was free even in his humane Nature from all infection originall and actuall because in his framing there was no admisture of virile and masculine cooperation For the poisoning of our nature arose from Adams sinne and not from Eves Moreover if by miracle God should preserve a man from any touch or tickling smach of lustfull sinne in the act of generation the fathers personall holines should not discharge his childe from originall mire for the traducted nature is corrupt * Bell. De Amiss gratiae Statu peccati 4.12 Bellarmine goes one step further thus If both man and woman the children of Adam by Gods singular priviledge were exempted from lust in the generation of their children yet should they transmit sinne to their ofspring For though S. Augustine saith expresly * Non generationem sed libidinem esse quae propriè peccatum traducit De peecat Merit Remis 1.9 that it is not the generation but the lust which properly transmits sinne yet S. Augustine may be interpreted to speak of generations meerly usuall and wholy naturall not priviledged or extraordinarie Cursed therefore are the Pelagians who say Sinne and death entred by Eve Sinne personall did but not originall nor death Grosse is the ignorance of the Pelagians who when the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think to delude it with this silly shift that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth either man or woman and say it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must needs have been understood of Adam onely I answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fully equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not and can not be understood of the feminine Secondly the Apostle maketh the Antithesis between that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Christ which can not be between Eve and Christ Thirdly a little after the Apostle twice expresseth Adam but never nameth or meaneth Eve Lastly it is said remarkably concerning Abraham Hebr. 11.12 There sprang even of one and him as good as dead many And more approaching to our purpose Act. 17.26 God made all mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one bloud with apparent reference to Adam onely Therefore as the naturall generation is ascribed to Adam and Abraham onely though Eve and Sara in their sort concurre to the materiall part of the embryon because the Men do conferre the formall so the degenerating unto vice is justly imputed to Adam onely though Eve did minister the occasion because his consent and action onely could give form and shape to that prodigious sinne which overthrew mankinde 5. From this point more questions may yet arise First If Adam Eve had not sinned but Cain or some other of their children whether that sinne had been derived to their posteritie * Aquin. quaest 5. De Malo art 4. Aquinas is for the affirmative others for the negative Because the first man onely represented our whole nature all other mens sinnes are particular and personall can not infect others Thus farre Scharpius I make a second Question If Adam and Eve had continued in innocencie and had been confirmed in grace whether any of their children could have sinned Augustine embraceth the affirmative of this Question saying * Aug. De Civit. 14.10 As happie as Adam and Eve were so happie had been the whole companie of mankinde if they nor no stirp of them committed sinne which should receive damnation The same * De Gen. ad lit 9.3 elsewhere The children which should have been begotten of innocent Adam and Eve * Ad eundem perducerentur statum si omnes justè obedienterque vixissent had been led to the same state if they all had lived justly and obediently * Est in 2. Sent. dist 20. paragr 5. Estius seconds him alledging these reasons First Adam and Eve had not begotten children in better condition then themselves were created of God therefore they should have begot just children but not confirmed in justice Secondly Angels were not ordained to blessednes but by the merit of their free-will to good or evill and we are to think the like of men * Non priùs erantin termino constituendi quà m viae hujus curriculum quod est tempus merendi peregissent They were not to be settled in the end till they had finished the course of this way which is the time of meriting Thirdly Hugo and Lumbard say God propounded to Adam and Eve invisible goods and eternall to be sought by their merits and ordained that by merit they might come to reward Aquinas * Aquin. part 1. quaest 100. art â— determineth That children born in the state of innocencie had not been confirmed in justice yae * Non videtur possibile
the branches being saved the root also should not be saved But in his book De praescript advers Haereticos as it is cited by Bellarmine there is no mention of Tatian in Rhenanus his Edition Augustine saith of the Tatians and Encratites * Quòd contradicunt primorum hominum saluti Aug. De Haeresib cap. 25. That they gainsay the salvation of the first men Where Bellarmine used another Edition then Erasmus his or was mistaken in the collation He who will see more into this point let him consult with Bellarmine in the place above cited and Salianus ad Annum Mundi 930. where he justly taxeth Rupert for saying in this third book on Genes chap. 31. * Salvationem Adami à multit liberè negari à nullo satìs firmiter defendi That the salvation of Adam is freely denied by many and by none strongly enough defended And he bringeth many authorities and proofs to the contrary From Irenaeus he bids them blush for saying Adam was not saved and more vehemently That by saying so they make themselves Hereticks and Apostates from the truth and Advocates for the Serpent and Death God cursed not Adam and Eve but the earth and the Serpent Yea before God pronounced any punishment against Eve or Adam even in the midst of his cursing of the Serpent with the same breath he both menaced Satan and comforted Adam and Eve with the gracious promise of the Messiah Genes 3.15 Now there was never any unto whom God vouchsafed a speciall promise of Christ but they were saved Indeed the Apostle reckoneth not Adam among the faithfull ones Hebr. 11. but one reason of this omission is because he entreateth of such faithfull ones onely as were much persecuted which Adam was not so farre as is recorded If it be further objected That God is called THE GOD OF ABRAHAM ISAAC AND JACOB Exod. 3.6 Matth. 22.32 and is no where called THE GOD OF ADAM let it be answered That Adam is called THE SONNE OF GOD Luke 3.38 And I think he is too severe a judge who saith a sonne of God is damned The Targum or Chaldee Paraphrase set forth by Rivius on the Canticles chap. 1. vers 1. saith * Et veuit dies Sabbati protexit eum aperuit os suum dixit Psalmum Cantici diei Sabbati That the first song that ever was made was indited by Adam in the time when his sinne was forgiven him Damianus à Goes De Moribus Aethiopum makes this the belief of Zagazabo and the Ethiopians for whom he negotiated That Christs soul descended into Hell for Adams soul pag. 93. and that Adam was redeemed by Christ from Hell pag. 55. How glorious was it for Christ to save his first sheep and how would the Devil glorie if it were otherwise Adams fig-leaves may be thought to be sharp afflictive and penitentiall Epiphanius Haeres 46. calleth Adam Holy and saith We beleeve he is among those Fathers whom Christ reckoneth alive not dead God is not the God of the dead but of the living Irenaeus saith Adam humbly bare the punishment laid upon him Can humility be damned then may pride be saved Josephus 1.2 recordeth That Adam foretold the universall destruction of the World one by the floud the other by fire And can the first of Mankinde the first King Priest and Prophet of the World be condemned Others probably conjecture that before his death he called the chief of his children grand-children and their descendants and gave them holy and ghostly counsel as Abraham did Genes 18.19 and Jacob Genes 49.1 c. and Moses Deuteron 31.1 c. Salianus fits him a particular speech at his death and a witty Epitaph Feuardentius on Irenaeus thus relateth Nicodemus Christs Disciple in the History ascribed to him OF THE PASSION AND RESVRRECTION OF THE LORD reporteth That our Lord Jesus Christ when he descended into Hell in his soul spake thus to Adam and held his hand PEACE BE VNTO THEE VVITH ALL THY SONNES MY IVST ONES But Adam falling on his knees such spirituall knees as before his spirituall hand which Christ held while both their bodies were in the grave weeping-ripe thus prayed with a loud voice * Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti me nec delectâsti inimicos meos super me Domine Deus clamavi ad te sanâsti me eduxisti ab inferis animam meam salvâstime à descendentibus in lacum I will magnifie thee Lord because thou hast received me and hast not made glad mine enemies over me Lord God I have cried unto thee and thou hast healed me Thou hast brought up my soul from Hell thou hast saved me from those that go down to the pit Thus Salianus in his Scholia ad Annum 930. Another ancient Apocryphal book affirmeth that Adam repented Didacus Vega in his second Sermon on the fifth penitentiall Psalme pag. 443. thus Leonardus de Vtino in his Book De Legibus Sermon de Poenitentia saith That Adam repented not of his sinne but remained obstinate till the death of Abel but when he saw him lye dead at his feet wallowed in his bloud and yet pale and as in a glasse saw the deformity of death he began to repent Strabo saith He was so sorrowfull that he vowed chastity for ever and would have performed it if an Angel had not injoyned him the contrary And from the authority of Josephus he saith Adam was so sorry for Abel that he wept an whole hundred yeares But I beleeve saith Vega He rather wept for the cause which was sinne then for the very death of Abel Ludovicus Vertomannus in his sixth Book fourth Chapter of his journey to India hath recorded that a Mahumetan Merchant told him that at the top of an high mountain in the Iland of Zaylon subject to the King of Narsinga there is a den in which Adam after his fall lived and continued very penitently And though their tradition rests on an idle conjecture because there is yet seen the print of the steps of his feet almost two spannes long for how should they know they were his feet rather then some giants and because how Adam should come to this Iland and why cannot be shewed yet so farre as is probable we will joyn issue with their beleef to wit That he was penitent and so saved Thus much be spoken concerning the salvation of Adams soul Concerning Adams actuall sinne though I said truly before That as it was private and personall it was not imputed to us yet I must needs say as it was ideall and representative it was and is imputed to us He who denieth this let him also deny that Christs active and passive Merits are imputed to us Neither can the Divine providence be taxed with rigour much lesse with injustice for imputing Adams sinne unto us For first he imputeth not our own actuall and personall iniquities but forgiveth us both this sinne of Adam and all manner of
portion which had been due to him and was due to the first-born under the law Deut. 21.17 and was part of those Jura primo-geniturae and one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by the Apostle Heb. 12.16 was by Gods appointment and Jacobs just allotment bequeathed to Joseph Genes 48.5 And of him were two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh whereas no other of the children of Israel had more then one tribe For Judah prevailed above his brethren and of him came the chief ruler but the birth-right was Josephs 1. Chron. 5.2 and not Judahs For Joseph was the first-born of Rachel the first-love of Jacob the first wife in the light in right and in intention And so her eldest sonne Joseph was in right to be the first-born of Jacob and her self is prefer'd in place not onely by Jacobs affection but long after by the Spirit of God Ruth 4.11 The Lord make the woman like Rachel and Leah Shall I step one step further I may say That if the willing and witting act of Jacob preferring Ephraim the younger sonne of Joseph before his first-born Manasseh did onely signifie that Gods blessing went not alwaies hand in hand by the prioritie of birth and that God makes birth-rights according to his pleasure and not according to mans reckoning Yet three other passages reach more home to prove That Joseph was the first-born First because Jacob blessed Joseph two severall times Genes 48.16 and 49.22 which he did unto none of his other children besides and withall he gave him one portion above his brethren which he took out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow vers 22. besides the parcell of ground in Shechem where Joseph was buried And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph Josh 24.32 which was also a prerogative above his other brethren Secondly because Jacob blessed Josephs children before he blessed his own children Genes 48.16 c. Thirdly because Jacob blessed both Joseph in his children and his children in his blessing and blessed none of his childrens children by name separately and particularly but Josephs children onely though divers of them had little ones before Jacob went into Egypt Genes 46.5 and Joseph himself Jacob blessed with the blessings of the breasts and of the wombe Genes 49.25 Which words as they do promise a kinde of fruitfulnesse which was taken from Ephraim by barrennesse when it was said Hosea 9.14 Give them a miscarrying wombe and drie breasts so I remember not that ever the posteritie of Joseph had extraordinarie number of issue above other tribes answerable to Jacobs extraordinarie blessing but Judah and his ofspring onely had more men of warre from twentie yeares old and upward then both the tribes of Ephraim and Manassch Num. 1.26 33 35. and therefore in all likelihood had more children from twentie yeares downward Which words I say viz. The blessings of the breasts and of the wombe as they may in a second sense imply a numerous ofspring so in the first sense I conjecture they pointed at the primo-geniture of Joseph and his children Sure I am the birth-right was given to the sonnes of Joseph 1. Chron. 5.1 and the birth-right was Josephs vers 2. and perhaps even in this point Jacobs blessings prevailed above the blessings of his progenitours Genes 49.26 For Abraham prayed once that his first-born sonne by his concubine might be blessed O that Ishmael might live before thee saith he to God Gen. 17.18 and Isaac would have blessed his first-born Esau Make me savourie meat such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat that my soul may blesse thee before I die saith Isaac to Esau Genes 27.4 though before-hand Esau had sold his birth-right unto Jacob Genes 25.33 Neither Abraham nor Isaac prevailed in their wishes but Jacobs blessings prevailed above the blessings of his progenitours because whom he desired to blesse God blessed and he gave by Gods allowance the primo-geniture to Joseph whom he loved and to whom in some regard it was due before Reuben I return to the old matter and opine That when a batcheler marrieth with a widow which had had a sonne by her former husband her first man-childe by the second husband was not a first-born nor so accounted in the law And if after a woman had had seven husbands and daughters onely by each of these she had been married also unto the eighth husband and should have a sonne by him though he had had divers sonnes before by other women yet this his sonne by this woman is in the eye of the law a right first-born childe and sacred to the Lord and to be redeemed not with the generall redemption of every male half a shekel of which I spake before but with the particular redemptions of the first-born Redemptions were of two sorts the first is expressed Numb 3.45 where the Levites are taken in stead of all the first-born and the cattell of the Levites in stead of their cattell And because there were two hundred and seventy more of the first-born sonnes of the Israelites then all the male Levites came unto every one of those odde 270 paid five shekels to the Lord for their redemption which summe of five shekels was ever after during the Law the price of the redemption of the first-born sonne Numbers 18.16 which was the second kinde of redemption I cannot omit to shew the means which God used to prevent the cosenage about things consecrated They were to do no work with the first-born bullock nor to shear their first-born sheep Deuter. 15.19 It is also remarkable first that Pharaoh commanded the midwives of the Hebrews Exod. 1.16 If it be a sonne ye shall kill him and gave in charge after to all the Egyptians his subjects Every sonne that is born ye shall cast into the river and every daughter ye shall save alive vers 22. Secondly that Moses was the sonne of a Levite exposed to the danger of the water and therefore called Moses because he was drawn forth Exod. 2. and after called by God to revenge this wrong and others upon Pharaoh Among which plagues this was a great one to slay their first-born and as the just retaliation used by God in other things yea in this was not to destroy their daughters but their sonnes so in his mercy he would not destroy all their males but the first-born onely which you must not understand of their daughters though they were first-born but onely of their males For when it is said Psal 78.51 He smote all the first-born in Egypt the chief of their strength you cannot imagine that women were the chief of their strength but the men onely And God taught the people to say Exod. 13.15 The Lord slew all the first-born c. therefore I sacrifice unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix being males And as the first-born males onely were sacrificed so onely were the first-born males redeemed And accordingly all
the male Levites were taken for the male first-born of Israel and at the most righteous massacre of the first-born males of Egypt the Israelites escaped by the bloud of a lambe without blemish a male of the first yeare or a sonne of the first yeare Exod. 12.5 From whence you may see the grosse errour of Cornel. Cornelii à Lapide who thinketh That if a woman had had a daughter first and sonnes after her first sonne had not been her first-born but her daughter because she opened the matrix first when it is evident that if a woman had had many daughters before one sonne yet her first sonne was her first-born in the Law And God saith Exod. 12.24 Ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sonnes for ever viz. the ordinance of keeping the Passeover I recollect apply these things thus The men of Israel represented the women The first-born sonne and not the daughter was the Lords due The male Levites were in stead of the first-born sonnes All first-born males were redeemed Women received good by the mens circumcision and by mens redemption which was in one kinde or other whether they were first-born or not first-born And though the devilish superstition of the Turks now circumcise women as Joannes Leo reporteth yet by Gods appointment women were neither to be circumcised nor redeemed but as they were in men and as men represented them 4. Let me come yet nearer to the main purpose The Apostle saith 1. Corinth 12.26 Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it From whence I thus argue As at the committing or deed-doing in murder the murderers hand may be said to will the murder not because there is any will strictly taken belonging to the hand or because there is sinne properly in the right hand which doth but its duty in obeying the souls domineering disposition or dominium despoticum but because the hand is part of that man in whose soul the will was that commanded the murder and because the soul is principium totius individui the fountain from which all members take life and use motion and by the soul the motion was derived to all the other parts of the body So were we and every one of man-kinde willing to commit the sinne with Adam not as if we had been there actually to agree or disagree but as we were parts of him who was the fountain of humane nature which conveyed corruption unto all mankinde Semblably in the punishment though the right hand onely give the blow and actuate the murder yet upon the delinquents apprehension both hands are pineoned both feet fettered the neck is haltered and the whole body rueth it yea soul and all without repentance So though Adam onely sinned that first great sinne yet because he did it representing us Adam alone is not punished for it but we that are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh all that are members of the first Adam are guilty of the fault and condignely are punished if we be unrepentant For as the divers members of a body are part of the person of one man so all and every man is as it were a part and member of humane nature And thus by the participation of the species more men are one and one more we Adam and Adam was we But let us go out of man himself and look to other fashions of the world in matters politicall Do not the severall men in a Township or Corporation make one body thereof and the whole Corporation is as it were but one man and what a few do is it not the act of all of which he complained who said That Mr. Maior for his own particular was an honest man and so were all the brethren who promised him fairely but because contrary to their promise they pinched upon him the Corporation was a knave Doth not the House of the Commons represent the Body of the Realm in the Parliament time though the thousand part of the subjects be not present and what they enact the absent enact what they deny the absent deny and what immunities and priviledges they obtain for succession as well as for themselves they obtain them and what services tributes subsidies or taxes they yeeld unto all the rest of the Realm must yeeld unto and pay yea by the trust reposed in them they binde or loose the whole Kingdome sometimes in such things as others would never have consented unto and yet must undergo and see performed In the fifth book of the Historie of Portugal the Universitie and Divines of Alcala among other things truely decreed and religiously guided Philip the second towards the attaining of the crown of Portugal in these words saying that When as Common-wealths do choose their first King upon condition to obey him and his successours they remain subject to him to whom they have transferred their authority no jurisdiction remaining in them either to judge the realm or the true successour seeing in the first election all true successours were chosen Every man is considered doubly First as a singular person so onely his own proper actions belong to him Secondly as a member of a society so what the Prince or the whole citie or the greater part do doth concern him For so saith the Philosopher saith Scharpius the Divine Much more did Adam represent our persons when what he willed and performed we willed and performed we being in him as many waters in a fountain all to be corrupted if he were corrupted all to be pure if he continued pure all to live by his righteousnes all to die by his iniquity Furthermore in the famous battell between the three Horatii and the three Curiatii did not they represent both the armies and both the people the Horatii of the Romanes the Curiatii of the Latines Did not their wills their strength their fortune depend on the wills strength and fortune of those combatants did not the Latines fall into subjection by the death of the Curiatii and did not the Romanes thrive and prosper by the valour of their superviving Horatius Yea in the Scripture long before this battell there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines Goliath of Gath 1. Sam. 17.4 with a proud challenge and bold defiance Am not I a Philistine and you servants of Saul Then he articleth Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me If he be able to fight with me and to kill me then we will be your servants but if I prevail and kill him then you shall be our servants and serve us It should seem the Philistines referred themselves to his successe for when David had undertaken the duel and when the Philistines saw their champion dead they fought not a stroke they fled And the men of Israel and of Judah pursued wounded and killed them vers 51 52. Yea in our own
The easie things any man may judge of in the more abstruse the voice of the Pastours is to be followed c Quam clavem habebant Legis Dectores nisi interpretationem legis What key had the Doctours of the law saith Tertullian in the same place but the interpretation of the law So the key of interpretation rests in the ministery for things which need interpretation as hard places do though the key of agnition in things unto which their knowledge can aspire is permitted yea commended unto all men and they who withhold this key of knowledge from the people are accursed by Christ Luke 11.52 To the further explaining of my opinion let us consider in a Church corrupted these two sorts of people First the Magistrates either Civil or Ecclesiasticall And we will subdivide them into the Wilfully blinde and the Purblinde Of the first were some Bishops and Nobles and Gentry in Queen Maries dayes who hunted after bloud even the bloud of innocents and strained their authority to the highest Such is now the Inquisition falsly called the holy house with all the chief officers thereof such in the dayes of Christ were divers Scribes Pharisees Sadduces and some Rulers of the people who knowing the truth to be on Christs side by his doing such miracles as no man ever did before did choke and strangle their belief made shipwrack of their consciences resisted the holy Spirit who would neither go into the kingdome of heaven nor suffer others that were entering to go in against whom Christ pronounced wo upon wo Matth. 23.13 c. For they took away the key of knowledge Luke 11.52 and purposely kept the people ignorant and blinde According to their demerits there are reserved for them intima inferni the depths of hell blacknesse of darknesse and the greatest torments thereof without repentance The next tribe or sort are the purblinde Magistracy either Secular or Clergy Such were divers in the dayes of Queen Mary who had learning enough to know that all went not right yet did not vehemently oppose the truth but did swimme with the stream made the time their stern the whole Church turning and returning three or foure times in one age These were seduced as well as seducers Such also at this day are divers in the Papacy more moderate lesse rigid and rigorous concealing some truths they know because they have given up their hearts and beliefs to trust in their Church for such things as they do not know though they have means to learn and capacitie to understand if they would and therefore are faulty Such also were divers in the Jewish Church and State Ye killed the Prince of life saith S. Peter to the people Acts 3.15 And now brethren I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your rulers Such were those Pharisees Matth. 15.12 who were offended with Christ of whom Christ saith vers 14. They be blinde leaders of the blinde And if the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall into the ditch d In foveam peecati inferni Into the ditch of sinne and hell saith Hugo Cardinalis on the place e Cùm pastor per abrupta graditur necesse est ut grex in praecipitium ducatur When the shepherd goes by craggie clifts the flock must needs fall headlong and break their necks saith Gregory f Duces praeceptores fovea infernus The guides are the teachers and the ditch is hell saith Faber Stapulensis on the place So much of the purblinde Magistracy Clericall or Laicall in a corrupted Church From the Magistrates in the first place we descend to the people in the second place whom we also divide into their severall ranks and files In the generall they are either learned or unlearned The learned are first such as go against their conscience and practise contrary to their knowledge and belief sailing with winde and tide and because they will be found fault withall by the fewest they will do as the most do Timorous hypocrites they are fearing persecution losse of goods liberty and life more then they fear God who is able to destroy both body and soul for whom is kept the allotment of hypocrites brimstone and fire storm and tempest ignis vermis this shall be their portion to drink without repentance An other sort of learned men professing truth there are in a corrupted Church and each of them forsooth will be a reformer of the publick these despise government are presumptuous self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities 2. Pet. 2.10 speaking evil of the things that they understand not vers 12. as out of question they understand not all things which in their carping humour they censure people-pleasers ambitious of esteem full of words running as much after their own will as after their consciences hearty enough to draw on danger obstinate enough to provoke death Of these men though they die for some truths yet because they have a mixture of many errours in their intellect perversenesse in their will and ill grounded ill bounded affections wanting those godly endowments of charity before spoken of we may pronounce as the Apostle did They shall utterly perish in their own corruption 2. Pet. 2.12 Such a fellow was he and his like of whom g Anno 1543. Mr. Fox reporteth that when Christ said This is my body interpreted the words to this effect The word of God is to be broken distributed and eaten So when Christ said This is my bloud the blessed words are missensed as if Christ had then said The Scripture must be given to the people and received by them By which forced exposition the seal of our redemption is troden under foot the thrice-blessed sacrament of the bodie and bloud of our Lord is utterly annihilated whereas indeed in the words of consecration there are included verba concionatoria praedicanda words predicatorie and serving for doctrine I will not esteem him as an holy perfect martyr who dieth with such crotchets in his brain such pride in his heart Such an one was Ravaillac who for conscience sake forsooth stabbed the Anointed of the Lord the Heros of our time his naturall Soveraigne Henry the fourth of France He followed his conscience but his conscience had ill guides When he had outfaced tortures and death it self though he thought that he died a martyr if he died unrepentant the powers of hell gat hold upon him Such manner of people were those Jews who in most desperate fashion said His bloud be on us and on our children Matt. 27.25 Do you think they all were wholly ignorant do you think they all swerved against their consciences or rather medled they not in things above their callings were they not too presumptuous Thus though they had the knowledge of some truths and perhaps would have died for them yet their zeal wanted more and better knowledge to have rectified their consciences and they should have called
was not altogether irrevocable but that the messengers who brought him to judgement were sharply blamed by their governours because they brought Antillus in stead of Nicandas Within a while after Nicandas died and Antillus recovered life and health And Plutarch in my opinion seemeth to insinuate that he was present at the recovery of him Of both these if each particular were true that they were dead and relived we may boldly averre that they died again Neither doth Plato Plutarch or Theodoret doubt of it As strange a storie though more remote from our subject you shall finde in Alexander ab Alexandro Genialium dierum 6.21 4 An other istance you shall finde in Bellarmine De arte bene moriendi lib. 2. cap. 1. taken out of Joannes Climachus in scala sua grad 6. who relates thus of a man that died twice In his first life saith he he lived most negligently but dying and his soul being perfectly separated from his bodie after one houre he returned again and he desired Climachus and the rest to depart Whereupon they walled up the cell and he lived as an Anchoret within the cell twelve yeares speaking to no man till he was ready to die again eating nothing but bread and drinking water sitting so he astonishedly revolved those things onely which he had seen in his separation with so earnest a thought that he never changed countenance but continuing in that amazement secretly wept bitterly When he was at deaths doore the second time they forced open the entrance into the cell and coming to him humbly desired him to speak some words of doctrine He answered nothing but this onely b Nemo qui revera mortis memoriam agnoverit peccare unquam poterit The serious remembrance of death will not consist with sinne The like storie you may finde in Venerable Bede All these if they lived again died again and rose not to life immortall And in this sense is that averred Wisd 2.1 Never was any man known to have returned from the grave viz. not to die again for otherwise some were known to have been raised From these I come more especially to speak of such whom the word of God reporteth to have been raised MOst gracious God who didst breathe into the face of man the breath of life and at thy pleasure drawest it forth again out of his nostrils grant that we make such use of this present life that we may see love and enjoy thee in the life eternall through Jesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour Amen CHAP. II. 1. A division of such as have been raised They all died 2. The widow of Zarephath her sonne raised yet died again supposed to be Jonas the Prophet The Shunammites sonne raised not to an eternall but to a temporary resurrection A good and a better resurrection 3. Christ the first who rose not to die again 4. The man raised in the sepulchre of Elisha arose not to immortality 1. ANd because divers have been raised up of whom there is not the like doubt and answer in each kinde to be made I will therefore distribute them in regard of their times into three sorts Such as were raised 1. Before Christs death 2. After he was ascended 3. About the time of his death Which inverted method I purposely choose because I will reserve the hardest point to the last The first sort again is subdivided into such as were raised either before Christ was incarnated or by Christ himself They who were raised before Christ was born were three 1. The widow of Zarephath her sonne 1. King 17.22 2. The Shunammites sonne 2. King 4.35 3. A dead man who was cast into the grave of Elisha and when he touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood upon his feet 2. King 13.21 All these three were raised up to live and lived to die again Neither did the intention of such as requested to have them raised or of such as raised them aim once that they should live immortally but live onely on earth again as other men did and then die again Neither did I ever reade any who held these to arise to immortall glory neither stands it with reason For that they were once dead and raised to life the Scripture saith and that they must either live to this time or be translated to immortall glorie in their bodies or die is as true as Scripture Now because there is no ground to say that they yet live or were translated bodily into heaven there is good ground to conclude that again they died 2. Concerning the first of these the Jews think he was Jonas the Prophet and S. Hierome in his Prologue on Jonas citeth their opinion and dislikes it not Tostatus also saith Dïvers others think so If Jonas were the widow of Zarephath her sonne we know that Jonas died afterward for the Prophets are dead Joh. 8.53 and he was one of the Prophets And concerning both the first and second instance it is thought by many good Authours that they are pointed at Heb. 11.35 The women received their dead raised to life again or the Prophets delivered to the women their dead as the Syriack reads it that is to converse with them as formerly being raised not to an eternall but a temporary resurrection and so to die again at their appointed times And to this truth the Text it self giveth in evidence for it is said in the same verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might obtain a better resurrection Of holy men there is a double resurrection the first and the last the good and the better The resurrection mentioned in the beginning of the verse was good and with reference to the former saith Chrysostom the latter resurrection is called the better For the former was temporary the latter eternall called also The holy resurrection in our book of Common Prayer in the Epistle on the sixth Sunday after Trinity though there is no substantiall ground for the word holy either in the Latine or Greek Rom. 6.5 Of the former Aquinas in his Comment on Hebr. 11.35 saith it was rather a resuscitation then a resurrection and again c Isti sic resuscitati sunt iterum mortui Christus autem resuegens ex mortuis jam non moritur Rom. 6.9 These being raised died again but Christ rising from the dead dieth no more Rom. 6.9 3. And therefore Christs resurrection was as Aquinas saith and as it is indeed the beginning of the future resurrection Then must they needs die again who were raised before him He was the first Guide that lead the way to the eternall resurrection He abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light 2. Tim. 1.10 Life and immortalitie to light which were before in darknesse And I think that the Apostle may well be thus paraphrased in that place to the Hebrews The women desired that their dead children might be raised again 1. King 17.18 2. King 4.22 c. and as a gift
whom the citie might be called Civitas quatuor hominum The citie of foure men if from men it had its denomination of Kiriath-arba For Josuah gave unto Caleb Hebron for an inheritance Josh 14.13 and because he drove thence the three famous giants the grand-children of Arba the sonnes of Anak Sheshai Ahiman and Talmi Josh 15.14 for Conquerours left their names unto the cities which they overcame 2. Sam. 12.28 Neither is it unlikely but Caleb might call his sonne Hebron after the name of the citie bequeathed him rather then the citie after his sonnes name especially since there is mention of a citie Hebron before there is any mention of a man Hebron or of Caleb himself Moreover I reade of an other exposition given by Solomo Trecensis that it might be called Civitas quatuor virorum The citie of foure men from Anak and his three monstrous before-recited sonnes who dwelt there For both cities and lands have been called after the names of giants as Ashtarosh aliàs Hashtaroth Aseroth and Astaroth-Carnaim and Carnaim-Astradoth in the confines of the land of Hus was a great citie inhabited by giants called Carnaim or Rephaim and the place saith Adrichomius was called TERRA GIGANTUM whom Chedorlaomer killed when in the time of Abraham he led an armie and fought against the king of Sodom Genes 14.5 And there was a valley of giants not farre from the cave of Adullam saith Vatablus on 2. Sam. 23.13 and the Seventie reade in that place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the cave or den of giants and so both the Interlinearie and Genevans have it in the margine which others reade in valle Rephaim So much be said to shew it might be called Kiriath-arbee from other foure men and not from the foure Patriarchs if from foure men it had its appellation 7. Grant we yet once again more then we need that it was called Kiriath-arbee from foure Patriarchs yea and from the buriall of foure Patriarchs in that place which can never be proved yet it is not evinced nor will follow necessarily that Adam was one of these foure Patriarchs there buried S. Hierom in Epitaph sanct Paulae saith Kiriath-arbee was h Oppidum quatuor virorum The town of foure men of Abraham Isaac Jacob and the great Adam whom the Jews say to be there buried according to the book of Joshua Though saith he i Plerique Caleb quartum putant cujus ex latere memoria monstratur most think Caleb was the fourth man whose rib is a memoriall And Adrichomius himself makes the sepulchre of Caleb not farre from Hebron The opinion of Adams being there buried is fathered on the Jews the common Tenet was that Caleb was the fourth man Probabilitie also consorteth therewith for if Adam had been there buried as Abraham could not have been ignorant thereof so he would in that regard have the rather bought that place and perhaps would have given intimation of it to the children of Heth. But as it should seem Abraham stood indifferent at the first and said onely Give me a possession of a burying-place with you Genes 23.4 And when they offered him any of their sepulchres he chose the cave of Machpelah To conclude the objection of Adrichomius is thus answered Kiriath-Arbee may signifie the citie of Arbee or the citie of foure things noted and memorable or the citie of foure angles sides or parts the citie sited on foure hills and if it be to be interpreted Civitas quatuor hominum A citie of foure men the foure men may be Heth Mambre Arbe and Caleb or Anak and his three monstrous sonnes Howsoever the word proves not that foure men were there buried and if it proved so much yet Adam was none of these foure for Adam was not buried in Hebron but in mount Calvarie as I proved before to the full and yet shall adde more by and by 8. To the last and fourth objection of S. Hierom being a demand why others even theeves were there buried I answer Though Adam were there buried yet what hindered but it might be a fit place for malefactours to be executed especially being on high and without the walls of the citie and both theeves might there suffer as in a place appointed for such use by the Magistrate and Christ might there die as appointed by the secret providence of God beyond the reach of man that the bloud of the second Adam might fall on the sepulchre of the first Adam and other sinners to signifie that the water and bloud flowing from Christ did purge even the greatest malefactours Adam and the notorious sonnes of Adam Divinely saith S. Augustine Serm. 72. detempore k Et verè fratres non incongruè creditur quia ibi erectus sit Medicus ubi jacebat Aegrotus diguum erat ubi occiderat humana superbia ibi se inclinaret divina Misericordia ut sanguis ille pretiosus etiam corporaliter puiverem antiqui peccatoris dum diguatur stillando contingere redemisse credatur Truely brethren with good reason we beleeve that there the Physician was lifted up where the sick man lay and it was well worthy that divine mercie should there stoop where humane pride fell that Christs precious bloud vouchsafing corporally to touch and moisten the ashes of old Adam may be beleeved to redeem him To conclude either the two learned women Paula and Eustochium or Hierom rather himself whose style it seems to be in Epist 17. ad Marcellam saith l In hoc tunc loco habitâsse dicitur mortuus esse Adam unde locus in quo crucifixus est Dominus noster CALVARIA appellatur quòd ibi sit antiqui hominis Calvaria condita ut secundi Adam id est Christi sanguis de Cruce stillans primi Adam jacentis Protoplasti peccata dilueret In this place then Adam both dwelt and died From whence that place where our Lord was crucified is called CALVARIA because there was buried the head of the old Adam that the bloud of the second Adam namely Christ distilling from the crosse might blot out the sinnes of the first-formed Adam thereunder lying 9. An objection more Franciscus Lucas Brugensis toucheth at against this opinion namely that if the Jews had known that Adams sepulchre was on that mount Calvarie they would have had the place in farre greater esteem they would have deckt it with some stately monument and never have suffered the malefactours inordinately there to be executed The former part of which objection as I do strengthen by Matth. 23.29 Ye build the tombes of the Prophets and garnish the tombes of the righteous saith Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees so to it I answer thus That there is not the least touch in Scripture nor in any Authour that I remember that the Jews ever regarded or honoured Adam or held him righteous or gloried in him above others nay they thought ill of him 2. Esdr 3.21 c. and 2. Esdr 4.30
suggestion and inspiration then a proper command I reply Of precepts properly so called some are hid and secret others more manifest the internall command bindes as much as the externall divine suggestions oft times have the force of an expresse inward precept and commands are sometimes manifested by inspirations Praeceptum propriè dictum which is by word or writing and Imperium internum may be equivalent and so long as it is Imperium internum what need we care though it be not Praeceptum propriè dictum And the command was to write which is an outward act The second Objection brought by Bellarmine against himself is from the Revelation where S. John is commanded divers times to write To this he answereth most unclerk-like That S. John was commanded to write certain hidden visions not the doctrine of the Gospel and precepts of manners But this is easily confuted for Revel 19.9 it is said Write Blessed are they which are called to the marriage-supper of the Lambe Is not this the doctrine of the Gospel what is more Evangelicall He might have considered the marriage-feasts in the Gospels Matth. 22.2 c. and Luk. 14.16 And a voice from heaven said Revel 14.13 Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Are these hidden visions Is not this the doctrine of the Gospel The like might be amplified out of the first second and third chapters of the Revelation where matters of moralitie and precepts of manners are commanded to be written and are written and not hidden visions but rather the doctrine of repentance and of the Gospel Christ saith to his Apostles Act. 1.8 Ye shall be witnesses unto me He forbeareth the word of preaching and useth more generall words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye shall be witnesses and they bare witnesse by writing Joh. 21.24 This is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimonie is true not onely he himself but Peter and the rest WE know that his testimonie is true what testimonie but his writings d Toti operi suo fidem vult conciliare He would have all his works or writings beleeved saith Luc. Brugensis and Maldonate When the seven thunders had uttered their voices I was about to write saith S. John and a voice from heaven saith Write them not Revel 10.4 The Apostles forwardnesse or pronenesse to write argueth not necessarily that he was not commanded first to write but rather presupposeth it and this present inhibition Write not may serve as an exception to a former generall command that he might have to write Indeed there is no expresse record that all and every of the Apostles were enjoyned to write nor is it likely they were for then they would have obeyed whereas not the one half of the Apostles committed any thing to pen ink and paper for ought we know But we are sure that some writers of the Old Testament were commanded to write Exod. 17.14 And the Lord said unto Moses Write this for a memoriall in a book Jerem. 36.2 Take thee a roll of a book and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee c. and S. John was commanded eleven or twelve times to write and thence it is more then probable that the rest of the Apostles which wrote were commanded to write they might be expressely appointed to write though in their writings so much be not expressed To say as Bellarmine doth It is false that God commanded the Apostles to write because so much is not written is rash and ill-advised inferring that they were commanded nothing except those things which are written Is every thing false that cannot be proved is nothing true but what can be proved To evince a thing to be false is required a reall proof of truth positive which Bellarmine wanteth and the falsitie may justly be retorted home to the Cardinall himself from the authoritie of a prime man of his own part Wiser Aquinas 3. part quaest 42. artic 4. 2. thus When the disciples of Christ had written what he shewed and spake unto them we must in no wise say that Christ himself did not write since his members wrote that which they knew by the dictate of him their Head For whatsoever he would have us reade of his deeds and words he commanded them as his own hands to write Now let Bellarmine say It is false that the Apostles were commanded by God to write And thus much shall serve for the third question The fourth question Whether the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles were compelled to write As when it is said Luke 1.70 GOD SPAKE BY THE MOUTH OF HIS HOLY PROPHETS per LOQUENDI verbum SCRIPTIONEM quoque comprehendit so what I propound of Propheticall Evangelicall and Apostolicall writing must also be understood of their speaking or dictating Whether they were compelled to it Compulsion is of two sorts Proper and absolute Improper or mixt Proper when a man is forced as we say in spight of his teeth against his will as some who have been drawn to punishment Thus were they not compelled Mixt when a man doth that which he would not do unlesse he feared a greater losse as when a Merchant or Mariner cast their goods into the sea to save their lives which hath in it part of the voluntarie and part of the involuntarie And of this there may be some question for Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord Jon. 1.3 that is was unwilling to do the message Moses again and again refused to be Gods embassadour to Pharaoh Exod. 3.11 and to the Israelites Exod. 4.1 10 13. Isaiah was also backward Isa 6.5 One answer serves for all They were at first fearfull rather then unwilling but when they were confirmed they readily and boldly did their duties So farre were they from shadow of compulsion that they offered their service When the voice of the Lord said Whom shall I send and Who will go for Vs Isa 6.8 the Prophet said Here am I send me Yea but they were impulsi rapti agitati acti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Pet. 1.21 I answer The word rather excludeth voluntarie and arbitrarie will-worship or self-will-service then includeth compulsion for all this was performed Libero motu voluntatis With the free motion of their will or as others take it Salvo pleno usu liberi arbitrii Without any impeachment of the freedome of their will e Acti à Spiritu sancto loqunti sunt à Deo afflati compositos tamen intellige bos motus non quales fuere profauorum vatum They who were led by the holy Ghost spake being inspired by God yet know that their motions and inspirations were setled and composed unlike to the profane heathen priests or prophets for they were wilde senslesse not knowing what they did or said saith Tremellius
Hellenists Chaldee Paraphrase or any heathen Authours yet it doth not necessarily evince that the holy Actuaries or Notaries did oversee reade heare or transcribe those things out of their knowledge from the said Authours but both the names of those Authours and the things themselves were presented to them by that blessed Spirit which knew all things and this among the rest That these words phrases and sentences were fit to be inserted into the holy Writ which now are in it All Scripture is of divine inspiration But the very words are part of Scripture Therefore even they were inspired Revel 19.9 The Angel said Write Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lambe Did not the Angel speak the words Did not he give the Apostle both matter and words When the Apostle was commanded Revel 14.13 by a voice from heaven to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. was he commanded to write his conceits and thoughts apprehended in Syriack and translate them into Hellenisticall Greek or did the heavenly voice suggest onely an holy inspiration into him and left him to coyn words as Heinsius would have it or rather did not the voice teach the very words which should be written viz. Blessed are the dead c. Now let us passe to the fifth and last Conclusion in which we must dissent from the worthy Heinsius and disarm him of his often-inculcated but not once proved Tenet The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Writers of holy Scripture conceived in one language and writ in an other Upon which ground he hath raised a strange structure but his very ground-work is sandie slipperie and false And this I hope to evince by Scripture Authoritie and Reason All which shall be squared to that Corner-stone which more then once before I hewed upon more roughly and now by Gods grace intend to polish namely That the very words and letters were dictated unto the holy Scribes and therefore they had no power to change or transchange to adde or diminish or to expresse by their own words their internall irradiation but in the language which they conceived they also wrote their heavenly dictates 2. Pet. 1.21 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 Therefore their very speech being according to the motion of the holy Ghost their words were not of their own choice but from above and not onely divine thoughts but sacred words were also given them 1. Cor. 2.13 S. Paul spake in words which the holy Ghost taught Did the holy Ghost inspire thoughts into them in one language and teach them words to speak in an other language Cui bono To what end and purpose and why not all done in the language which they conceived 2. Tim. 3.16 Scriptura per Spiritum scripta est The Scripture was writ by the Spirit saith the Syriack not onely inspired as it is from the Greek but written and as it was inspired written Revel 19.9 The Angel saith concerning very words which he commanded to be wrote These are the true sayings of God Not inspirations onely of God and the words of Men but the sayings of God Exod. 34.27 Write thou these words for after the tenour of these words I have made a covenant God was not tied to the words Moses was to the writing of the very words Jerem. 30.2 Write thee all the words which I have spoken unto thee in a book He gave him no power to put in words of his own Twelve times in the Revelation was S. John commanded to write and knew he not the words Hos 8.12 I have written to Ephraim the great things of my Law Even all what my Prophets have done I challenge as mine own writing Authorities of men The Scriptures were written y Magisterio Spiritus in obedience to the Spirit saith Sasbout on Peter Therefore the Apostles had not the power left unto them of writing their own conceits but were fitted with words by the Spirit z Si Spiritu saucto inspirati ab eo impulsi locuti sunt Prophetae caeteri librorum sacrorum scriptores Consequens est Scripturam totam esse verbum Dei non aliter à nobis accipiendam quà m si Deus immediatè absque humano vel Angelico ministerio eam edidisset ut ità dicam digito suo scripsisset If the Prophets and other writers of holy Scripture spake by the moving and inspiration of the holy Ghost it followeth that all the Scripture is the word of God no otherwise to be esteemed of by us then if God immediately without the ministery of men or Angels had set it forth and as I may say had written it with his own finger saith the learned Estius Even Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide himself on Timothie thus a Prophetae alii scriptores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocantur calami instrumenta Spiritus sancti quast scribae velociter scribentis inspirantis dictantis sacras literas The Prophets and other holy Penmen of Scripture are styled the pens and instruments of the holy Ghost as of that scribe who speedily writeth inspireth and dictateth the divine writ Where he confesseth the holy Spirit not to inspire onely but to dictate yea to write like a swift scribe the holy Scripture Gregorius Praefat. in Job cap. 2. b Scriptores sacri Eloquii quia repleti Spiritu sancto super se trahuntur quasi extra semetipsos fiunt sic Dei sententias quasi de labiis proferunt The writers of the heavenly word because they are filled with the holy Ghost are elevated above themselves in him and as it were out of themselves and so the sentences of God are uttered as it were by their lips Athanasius Epist ad Lib. saith c Christus vetus novum Testamentum composuit Christ made the Old and New Testament d Quid est illud o◠Domini nisi Scripturae per quas loquitur Dominu◠What is the mouth of the Lord but the Scriptures by which the Lord speaketh saith Rupert on Matth. lib. 4. Philo Judaeus in lib. Quis rerum divinarum haeres thus e Propheta nihil ex se proloquitur sed omnia submonente alio A Prophet prophesieth nothing out of his own brain but all things by the prompting of the holy Ghost as he wittily concludeth Therefore not so much as the words are his own Chrysostom de Lazaro Homil. 4. Though a dead man revive and an Angel come from heaven you must beleeve Scriptures above all for the Master of Angels the Lord of the living and the dead he himself framed them The same Chrysostom de expulsione ipsius sheweth the manner I reade his own handwriting c. They are done by his hand the very writing it self is his and therefore called Chyrographum Dei A writing under Gods own hand by Augustine
were ancient lords of this citie and if we served not them shall we serve Abimelech Where Gaal said Who is Abimelech and who is Sychem The Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is the sonne of Sychem But whether there were at this present in the reigne of Abimelech one Sychem living and in high account descended from the ancient Sychem who was pointed at in these words Who is Sychem or whether any of Sychem his posteritie otherwise named are here called Shechem or whether Gaal made this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 augmentation Who is Abimelech yea Who was Shechem himself for the word will bear it in the Originall that we should serve him Which way soever it be the place proveth that Hamor was the father of Shechem for so run the words afterwards in the same verse Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem Again if the words may be thus translated Quis est Abimelech quae est Shechem as both the Interlinearie and Tremellius reade it the sense may be Abimelech is not so great and the citie of Shechem is not so dejected so forgetfull of its old libertie as to serve Abimelech Our old Bishops Bibles reade it What is Abimelech and what is Sychem Serve such as come of Hemor the father of Sychem and in the margin is set Genes 34.24 Moreover Junius in his Arabick translation on the Acts chap. 7. observeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sychem is neither in the Arabick nor Syriack nor some Greek copies and Beda in his Commentaries cited by Lorinus saith that for filii Sychem it is read in some copies qui fuit in Sychem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was in or of Sychem accordingly Junius in his notes on the Syriack Act. 7. saith thus What is read in the Greek viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may fitly be expounded by an Hebraism and the name of the Prince of that citie may be understood as if he had said Which he bought of the sonnes of Hemor the Prince of Sychem Beza indeed saith It may be read with the Vulgat the sonnes of Sychem because the Greek Ellipsis useth to be so supplied but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well be interpreted Patris Sychem The father of Sychem You have the like instance Luk. 24.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marie the mother of James as the Syriack there expresseth it Another proof of the like kinde is Mark 15.40 So I expound it here The sonnes of Hamor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the father of Sychem Thus much for the fourth couplet of Propositions and the knitting up of that seeming opposition in a reall accordance That Hemor or Hamor was the father of Sychem as above all deniall is proved from Josh 24.32 though the Greek word used by S. Stephen be amphibolous And now it is time to leave the severall answers to each particular doubt and to render the sense of the words together 5. One of these two wayes is in my opinion necessarie to be embraced First that the twelve Patriarchs the sonnes of Jacob were carried out of Egypt into Sychem and afterwards out of Sychem into the sepulchre of Abraham And then behold these three difficulties First their father of whom Abraham bought the ground must have two names Secondly it is hard and harsh to beleeve that in the removall of the Patriarchs bones the Israelites would carrie them over to Sychem and so passe by Hebron close to the Abrahemium or the cave where Abraham Isaac and Jacob with their wives were buried and afterwards remove the bones back again from Sychem unto the sepulchre which Abraham bought which is sixscore miles if not more if we measure from Hebron to Sychem and so backward from Sychem to Hebron Calvarie and the citie of Jerusalem lay almost even in the way from Goshen to Sychem and from Sychem back to Hebron And on Calvarie or there abouts certainly they would have deposed their bones if they desired the translation of them to rise with Christ Thirdly this exposition implieth since Joseph was one of the Fathers that Joseph was also buried in the sepulchre of Abraham which is disproved by Josh 24.32 And yet that we may make this Exposition passable and probable let us consider the answers The first difficultie is cleared by saying It is an usuall thing in the Scripture for the same man to have two names as Solomon is called Jedidiah 2. Sam. 12.25 and the like To the second difficultie this answer may be shaped That though we could see no reason nor could imagine any end why they should carrie and recarrie these bones yet reasons and just motives might then lead them which we now may be ignorant of But I take it as evident that the Israelites sooner and more quickly possessed the tribe of Ephraim and the citie of Sychem and therefore there might they leave their bones for a time then Hebron or Jerusalem For Joshuah in his time called a Parliament or a Diet at Sychem Josh 24.1 and the Ephraimites peaceably enjoyed their inheritance in Joshuah his dayes and the Canaanites served under tribute unto them Josh 16.10 But after Joshuah his death they wan Jerusalem and Hebron Judg. 1.8 10. and then they might recarry the bones of the Fathers to the Abrahemium by Hebron The third knot is loosed if we may say that all the Fathers were carried into Abrahams cave who had not a distinct buriall-place of their own as Joseph had who accordingly was not buried by Hebron but by Sychem 6. The second way of expounding S. Stephen according as the words lie in the Greek and Latine copies is this That the other Patriarchs the sonnes of Jacob were buried by Sychem as Joseph was and their bones brought up with his when the Israelites came out of Egypt and laid in the sepulchre which Jacob the grandchilde of Abraham bought for a summe of money of the sonnes of Hemor the father of Sychem as is expressely said Josh 24.32 Which latter way for the accordance of words and names both in the Old and New Testament I do most willingly embrace For it representeth not unto us so many or so great difficulties yea none at all since it was not so strange that the word Abraham should be a patronymick and used for Jacob especially when Rehoboam is called David and the sonne of Jesse and Abraham is said to be the father of Levi which Jacob was and the Israelites are termed Joseph Psal 81.5 though most of them descended not from him and they who ascended out of Egypt issued from Joseph after divers generations In two of which places most punctually as well as here the grandfathers names are put for the grandchildren Especially let this be throughly considered that the grandchilde himself is distinctly described in other places of the divine storie to have bought the same ground of the sonnes of Hemor about Sychem for an hundred pieces of money Gen. 33.19 and the grandfather Abraham
shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of the dayes IN FINE DIERUM Which words are applied by Vatablus to the resurrection of the last judgement which was mentioned Dan. 12.2 And lest any should interpret the rising out of the dust vers 2. as Porphyrie did for their creeping out of the holes and caverns in the time of the Maccabees Lyra expressely contradicteth it and saith it is to be understood c De resurrectione vera in fine mundi of the true resurrection in the end of the world implying that Daniel shall then arise as he arose not saith Lyra at the time of the Maccabees nor at the opening of the graves before Christs resurrection d Ergò resurrexit Job sanctissimus Therefore most holy Job arose also saith Pineda equalling Noah Daniel and Job in this priviledge But the consequence is lame for Ezechiel doth not mention the equall priviledges of these three in their resurrection though perhaps this latter is figured out but onely the delivery from famine or death by famine Ezech. 14.13 c. of Noah Daniel and Job or rather of other holy men also designed out by their names and like them in their severall vertues Noah overcoming the world Daniel the flesh and Job the devil Concerning Pineda his other proof That Gregorie Nissen in his third Oration of the resurrection saith That the day of their resurrection who arose out of the graves was much more joyfull to them then the day of the generall resurrection If I should grant that he said so and that he said so truely yet it followeth not necessarily scarce probably that they went with their bodies into heaven The day of the generall resurrection is not yet come and could not be rejoyced at but in hope More especially concerning Job though Salianus ad ann mundi 1544. num 783. makes Jobs tombe-stone speak thus e Clausit viator hoc marmor aliquando mortuum emis itque gloriosum eum Principe Messia resurgentem Jobum This stone O wayfaring man kept under it dead Job and sent forth also Job in glorie arising from the dead with Messiah our Prince though Pineda his fellow-Jesuite in the end of his Commentaries on Job saith That Jobs sepulchral pyramis and kingly monument was made for him by his seven sonnes and three daughters and was framed and erected f Ad pietatis memoriam sempiternä spémque resurrectionis cum Redemptore certissimain for an eternall memoriall of pietie and most certain hope of his resurrection with our Redeemer yet none is ignorant that these are tricks of wit panegyrick Eulogies poeticall Epitaphs even a little thwarting one another rather then divine truths or historicall relations 4. And further it is evident that Job spake of the generall resurrection when he said Job 19.25 c. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this bodie yet in my flesh shall I see God By which latter or last day we may fitly expound not the last day of judgement saith Pineda but the state of the Evangelicall Law and of Christs suffering and rising ending by his death and resurrection the former times and beginning to appoint a new for he is THE FATHER OF THE WORLD TO COME Isa 9.6 Did ever man thus delude Scripture and make it a nose of wax It is scarcely worse used by our unlearned lay-Rabbies the Doctours of Doctours Who ever dreamed that Dies novissimus should signifie so unlikely a matter and if it did how vain is his proof The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pater aeternitatis The father of eternitie as the Interlinearie Bible reads it and Vatablus with it expounding the words g Anthor vitae aeternae The authour of eternall life which hath no reference to Pineda's wilde Comment or the everlasting Father as we translate it 5. The Seventie indeed and the Book of Job thus Job died being old and full of dayes so farre also goeth the Hebrew and it is added in the Greek But it is written that he shall again be raised up with those whom the Lord shall raise These words are not in the Original nor in Aquila nor in Symmachus nor in the Seaventie used by Vatablus but Theodotion so reads it and the Vatican Edition of Sixtus so acknowledgeth it and Origen in his epistle to Africanus confirmeth it and Clemens Romanus cap. 5. lib. 6. approveth it Two wayes there are of expounding the word Rursus Again Francis Turrian the Jesuite on the place of Clement collecteth that Job shall not onely be raised up in the last day at the generall resurrection but that he should be first raised when Christ arose and afterward at the last day Nicetas saith better The word AGAIN was therefore put that his first resurrection might be understood to have been when he was delivered from his troubles Which way soever you follow we have it That Job shall be raised at the last day of the world And therefore he arose not with Christ or died again and so went not into the eternall happinesse of bodie and soul for glorified bodies shall not be raised 6. Lastly there is an opinion even to this day among the Turks grounded no doubt on some old Tradition That Jobs bodie was removed from the place of his buriall to that citie and place which is now called Constantinople as Mr. Fines Morison in the first part of his Itinerary pag. 243. witnesseth These are all that ever I read of by name that are thought by Pineda or others both to rise with Christ and to partake with him at that time of the eternall happinesse both in soul and bodie 7. Bartholomaeus Sybilla Peregrinarum quaestionum decade 1. cap. 3. quaest 7. dubio 3. citeth Henricus de Assia as Authour that Perhaps not onely Enoch and Elias are kept in Paradise to preach against Antichrist but both John the Evangelist and those that rose with Christ Observe saith Sybilla the word PERHAPS for S. Hierom saith formerly concerning S. John WE DOUBT BUT BOTH S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARIE DO REJOYCE IN THEIR GLORIFIED FLESH VVITH CHRIST And Aquin. in 4. sentent distinct 43. artic 3. cited by Sybilla saith It is a point of faith holily to be beleeved concerning the blessed Virgin Marie and S. John the Evangelist that their resurrection is not deferred to the end of the world Also Holcot saith on Wisdome cap. 2.2 h Corpus benedictae Virginis non fuit resolvendum in cineres quia in ca fomes extiuctus extitit The bodie of the blessed Virgin was not to be turned into ashes because in her was no fountain of ill from whence her asportation into heaven may seem to be confirmed The feast-day of her assumption is greater and more festivall then any other holy-day for her saith Durandus Rational 7.24 Surely I must needs say we reade
things but if he turned it to the back side of his hand he was as conspicuous as an other man So Cicero in the third book of his offices out of Plato 4. The same Maldonat presseth us sore with an other argument What should they do here living again in mortall bodies who had a taste of Gods glory surely they had been in worse condition then if they never had been raised out of the bosome of Abraham where they were quiet to come to a turbulent life again Because this Maldonat is an importunate snarler at our religion I give him this bone to gnaw upon and for my first answer I will call to minde the prodigious Legend which divers eminent men of their own side have recorded of one Christina called by them by way of eminency e Mirabilis Wonderfull To omit what Surius and others relate I will speak in the words of Dionysius the Carthusian f Cùm defuncta esset in pueritia ducta erat in paradisum ad Thronum Majestatis Divina Domino congraiulante ineffabiliter gavisa est Dixitque Dominus Revera hac charissima filia est Christina died young and was carried into paradise to the throne of the Divine majesty and she was ineffably glad God congratulating with her And the Lord said Truly this is my deerest daughter And then he telleth That God gave her choice either to stay with him or to return unto her bodie and by penitentiall works to satisfie for all the souls in purgatorie and to edifie those who lived and to return to God b Cum meritorum augmentis with increase of her merits She answered the Lord presently that for that cause she would return to her bodie And so she did and because sinnefull men by their stench did too much afflict her O tender-nosed virgin she did flie or the Papists did lie and sit on the top-boughes of trees pinacles or turrets since noisome smells ascend it had been her farre better course to have crept into some dennes and caverns of the earth or vaults and tombes as he said she did sometimes and when her neighbours or kindred thought her mad and kept her from meat she prayed once to God and milk came out of her breasts was not she an intemerate rare virgin and so she refreshed herself This and a great deal more hath that Carthusian holy and learned above many of their side de quatuor novissimis part 3. Artic. 16. Let censorious and maledicent Maldonat ponder these things well and it will stop his mouth for ever from barking at the belief of us whom they style Hugonets Calvinists Hereticks though none of us think or say otherwise then the good Pacianus did of old in his first epistle to Sempronius CHRISTIAN is my name and CATHOLICK is my surname The Turks indeed have some strange figments of this nature but though the Mahumetan priests have devised and feigned many superstitious miracles concerning their great Saintesse Nafissa as is confessed by Joannes Leo in his African historie lib. 8. yet the Papists have surmounted both this and other their impostures with this their mirabilarie Christina Secondly concerning these Many raised I answer unto Maldonat They continued not long in this life but as I guesse shortly after Christs ascension laid their bodies down to sleep again in the earth Thirdly what thinks Maldonat of Lazarus Was not his soul in Abrahams bosome as well as the other poore Lazarus his soul who was so tenderly beloved of Christ and his Apostles and yet he lived long after and whatsoever can be objected against these Saints holds stronger against Lazarus Fourthly I denie that they by their return into the flesh were in worse condition Lorinus on Acts 9.41 saith c Non affert molestiam ut Deo vocanti mortuus obtemperet reviviscendo It is no trouble to a man if being dead he obey Gods call and live again And Salmeron saith No reason but holy men at Gods command may put on and put off their own bodies as well and as contentedly as the Angels do their assumed bodies which I do the rather beleeve because I do say with Tostatus on the 2. King 4. Quaest 56 Though it cannot be certainly proved yet it is probable That none of those that ever were raised did perish everlastingly nor that any reprobate had the favour of an extraordinary resurrection for a separated soul that hath been partaker of these unspeakable joyes will esteem worse then dung or salt that hath lost its savour all the pleasures and profits of this life though their severall excellencies were distilled into one quintessence of perfection So that as Lorinus saith well in the place above cited Whosoever hath once escaped the perill of damnation he shall not come into the same danger again 5. The last objection that I have met withall is this That to die the second time is no favour but a punishment and a punishment iterated I answer If a righteous man should die thrice or oftner death is no punishment unto him yea to passe seven times through hell to come once and everlastingly to heaven a despairing soul would hold to be a cheap blessednesse Secondly Suarez himself saith It is no punishment to die the second time no more then it was to Moses to die twice as saith Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3.10 though others dissent from Augustine Nay saith Suarez To lay down their bodies the second time is more acceptable and pleasing to God To this doth Peter Martyr agree in 1. King 4.22 If by mans hurt or losse God be glorified it is no injurie to man But in truth it is no hurt or losse to man for saith Barradius Perchance without any pains they might redeliver their carcases to the earth And if the pains be any the pains both of the latter and former death may be so tempered and diminished that they both shall not exceed the pains of one death saith Peter Martyr ibid. Which learned Peter Martyr out of S. Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3. ult hath an excellent observation or two First That to every man is setled and appointed a prefixed time of death Secondly That before the last prefixed time some do die that they that raise them up to life may be more famous and God more glorified And this is proved by the very phrase which Christ used concerning Lazarus John 11.4 This sicknesse is not unto death Yet did he die and besides the time intercedent between his death and his buriall he was foure dayes buried But his sicknesse was not d Ad mortem plenam in qua Lazarus maneret to an intire death in which estate he should remain Neither is that so properly called death e Quando praeoccupat ultimum terminum when it is abortive and cometh before its time So Luke 8.52 She is not dead but sleepeth and yet verse 55. her spirit came again Therefore it was gone and she was
one hundred yeares he is taken with a seeming incurable disease and is as it were in an ecstasie then growing better redit redivivus returneth young lively and lusty to the state of thirty yeares After Christs death he was baptized by Ananias who baptized S. Paul and was called Joseph he is reputed to be a man of a most austere and continent life humble and patient and liveth in both the Armeniaes among Clergy men Thus farre Matthew Paris who was a Monk of Saint Albans at that time And in the like words the storie is reported by Thomas of Rudbourn a Monk of Winchester in his Chronicle which is a manuscript as the great searcher of antiquities Mr Selden my very worthy friend assured me If this Joseph redit redivivus he hath not died twice onely but very often I have recounted these narrations for their pleasant varieties perhaps I may say rarities But as S. Augustine branded the former storie and the beleevers of it saying e Multùm mihi mira est hae◠opinantium tanta praesumptio The great presumption of these opinionists makes me much marvell So I will not be afraid to tax the latter of imposture both because of the varietie of Names by which he is called as you may finde in the learned Mr Seldens illustrations on Polyolbion pag. 15. where he also citeth the incredible fable of Ruan which is cousin-german to the relation of the Eastern Cartaphilus and because the Armenians as well as the Romans have their holy frauds as was seen by our men laught at by the Turks and beleeved by the silly Laicks of Armenia whilest their Priests would strive to fetch false fire from Christs sepulchre on Easter even See Mr Sands in his third book pag. 173. Lastly if this storie of the Armenian could be an undoubted truth the Greek Church would ere this have produced him to justifie the practise and opinions of the Eastern Church against the Western wherein they dissented But no such thing was ever attempted And therefore let this be cast into the number of fables Soli DEO gloria FINIS MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. 1. Many Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death THe third question is Whether Adam and his children all and every one of them without priviledge or exception must and shall die It ariseth also from the same fountain from which the two former questions did proceed It is appointed unto men to die The answer consisteth of three parts That there may be an exception of some That some have been excepted That others shall be excepted And so the answer is returned with the negative thus All and every one shall not die For though it be appointed for men to die yet the appointment may be hath been and shall be reversed Neither fear I the saying of Aquinas part 3. quaest 78. artic 1. a Est communior securior sententia Theologorum Vnumquemque moriturum It is the more common and more safe opinion of the Divines That every one must die And this opinion is maintained with stiffe and peremptory obstinacie by our adversaries the Papists Bosquier in his Terror orbis Salmeron upon the 1. Thessal 4. Gregory de Valent. with others are resolute That none can be dispensed withall but all mankinde and every childe of Adam must die But Melchior Canus is more moderate b Locorum Theologic 7.2 Num. 3. Though it be appointed for all men to die saith he yet that one or two out of that generall law by priviledge be exempted is not so against Scriptures that it may not be questioned And Locor Theol. 7.3 Numer 9. he proveth that it is no way against Scripture That the thrice-blessed mother of our Lord may by singular priviledge be exempted he had erred if he had said Is priviledged from the universall law of all being born in sinne and further confirmeth it by this instance Because the Scriptures say in generall Exod. 33.20 NO MAN SHALL SEE ME AND LIVE and John 1.18 NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME yet Moses and Paul saw God And though ordinarily there is no return from death to life and the Saints come not back again from heaven to dwell on earth yet Augustine saith in lib. de Cura pro mortuis Cap. 15. c Mitti quoque ad vivos aliquos ex mortuis ut Mosem ad Christum sicut è contrario Paulus ex vivis in Paradisum rapius est Divina Scriptura testatur The Scripture witnesseth that some from the dead have been sent to the living as Moses to Christ and on the other side Paul being living was carried into Paradise Again I say the words of the Apostle are onely indefinite not generall it is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is appointed to all men but It is appointed unto men whether all or onely some is not here determined Now because this place wants its strength and nerves to prove that point and neither in the Greek nor Vulgat nor Syriack is the universall expressed the Jesuits have amassed up together many places of Scripture to confirm their opinion 2. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 In Adam all die 1. Corinth 15.22 Death is the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 Death passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 He shall be brought to the grave and remain in the tombe The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him Job 21.32 MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 was threatned to Adam and all his and therefore God who cannot lie will see it accomplished To the last place I answer first It is well rendred and expounded Mortalis eris Obnoxius eris morti Thou shalt be mortall and subject to death as Lyra and Vatablus have it Beda on Genes 2. Morti deputatus eris Thou shalt be condemned to death Chrysostom on John Homil. 27. d Adam mortuus est si non Re tamen Sententiâ Adam died by guilt and judgement though execution was suspended And to say truth In the midst of life we are in death Man is dying till he be dead Infirmities and sicknesse pursue men till they perish Deuteronomie 28.22 The wicked shall finde no ease nor rest but shall have trembling hearts fayling of eyes and sorrow of minde verse 65. Thy life shall hang in
as Hierom styleth them will hardly beleeve 3. Bellarmine de Rom. Pontif. 3.6 draweth the second and third part of his third demonstration from two places of Ecclesiasticus The first is Chap. 48. vers 10. Who wast ordained for reproofs in their times to pacifie the wrath of the Lords judgement before it brake forth into furie and to turn the heart of the father unto the sonne and to restore or establish the tribes of Israel First I may answer Ecclesiasticus is not held Canonicall but Apocryphall even by such as for the many divine and admirable things in that book could wish if it were no sinne to wish that it were truely Canonicall And Apocryphals are not held sufficient to settle a point of controversie Secondly it may be also said that Jansenius maintaineth this place evinceth not that Elias shall come personally because Ecclesiasticus wrote according to the received opinion of those times which from the words of Malachi beleeved that Elias was to come in his own proper person Bellarmines reply upon Jansenius is shallow in this point saying d Si it à est ut Jansenius dicit sequitur Ecclesiasticum errâsse falsa scripsisse If Jansenius saith truth it followeth that Ecclesiasticus hath erred and writ some false things as if he who writeth the opinion of others may not relate an errour and write false things though he erre not himself nor beleeveth the false things S. Matthew chap. 2.6 wrote what the Jews said concerning the place of Christs birth the things were miscited and yet no errour or fault in S. Matthew The Spirit of truth hath written that The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Because the fool thought foolishly and untruly God forbid that we should turn fools also and think that the holy Ghost did erre because he truely recordeth an untrue opinion or an untrue thing true onely in the relation This have I said to defend both Jansenius and Ecclesiasticus against Bellarmine Thirdly I might answer Onely these last words have the shadow of an argument To restore or to establish the tribes of Israel which because John did not do Elias must do hereafter For indeed it is but a shadow since as John the Baptist did turn the heart of the father unto the sonne as was before proved so he may be also said to establish or restore the tribes of Israel not to any temporall kingdome which cannot be proved to be intended by Ecclesiasticus for in Malachi there is altum silentium not a word spoken concerning this point but to the true service of God from which they were fallen for he preached unto some of all sorts of the two tribes of the ten tribes yea of the Gentiles There went out unto John Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan Mat. 3.5 and Jordan divided Galilee from Judea yea Christ himself came from Galilee to John to be baptized Matth. 3.13 And he taught both Publicans and Souldiers and Herod and some of all sorts thereabouts Luk. 3.13 14. c. and thus did he restore or establish the tribes of Israel The Bishops Bible hath the controverted words thus To set up the tribes of Israel So Coverdale Vt constitueres tribus Jacob saith Tremellius according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated also by the Interlinearie ad constituendum or as Vatablus ad constituendas tribus Jacob to establish the tribes of Israel Many are the significations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but no where doth it signifie to restore unto a dispersed people their lost kingdome which is the hope of the Jews or the exposition of the Jewishly affected nor is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so expounded otherwhere either in the Septuagint or in the New Testament or in any classicall Authour It is rendred usually by constituere Restituere is a black swan But mine own opinion is that Ecclesiasticus prophesieth not what should be thereafter viz. after the day of his writing either concerning John or Elias but onely relateth what was past and it is an Eulogie and laudatorie of Elias his worth as appeareth by the antecedent and consequent narratives where all runnes in terms designing out times passed and gone none touching at the present tense or time much lesse at the future and so it can be no prophesie concerning Elias personally to come hereafter especially since there is never a passage in Ecclesiasticus concerning Elias which Elias did not accomplish before his assumption and more particularly he reconciled God to his children the Israelites and turned their hearts to him Thus did he restore or establish the tribes of Israel in his time for 1. King 18.21 Elias said unto all the people that were gathered out of Israel How long will ye halt between two opinions if the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him And then by miracle under God he established them or restored the tribes to the right religion from which they were fallen by idolatrie the fall of all falls fowlest Even Bellarmine himself expounds Restituerunt they restored by Converterunt they converted in this very chapter thus farre truely proving that Zuinglius and Luther were not the Enoch and Elias prophesied of because Elias was to convert the Jews and indeed converted many as I proved before which neither Luther nor Zuinglius did for ought that I have read 4. The second place insisted upon by Bellarmine is Ecclesiasticus 44.16 Enoch was translated being an example of repentance to all generations The Septuagint have it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Translatus est exemplum poenitentiae generationibus He was translated being an example of repentance to following generations saith the Interlinearie Nationibus to the nations saith Vatablus Vt det Gentibus sapientiam that he may give wisdome to the Gentiles saith the Vulgat edition printed by Petrus Santandreanus 1614 and it hath in the margin Poenitentiam repentance But to leave that varietie the Vulgat is not properly translated for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gentibus to the Gentiles as opposed to the Jews but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Posteris or Generationibus to future posteritie And if it were Gentibus as Bellarmine readeth it yet it maketh the more against him who would have Enoch and especially Elias do greater things for the Jews then for the Gentiles Lastly it is not so much as intended by any word of Ecclesiasticus that Enoch shall hereafter appeare in the flesh personally and then die and be an example of repentance to the Nations for after he had so long pleased God and walked with God in this world and after he was taken by God from amongst men and no doubt much more then pleased God and walked with God if he should come again into this world here to live should he sinne again that he might be an example of repentance The conceit is vast harsh and improbable if the
is living or that he is dead The reason why some thought S. John liveth was because Christ said to Peter John 21.22 If I will that he tarrie till I come what is that to thee Neither doth it satisfie them that John himself saith ver 23. Jesus said not He shall not die for they expound that exposition John shall not die namely till that time that Christ doth come Dorotheus speaking of S. John hath it thus John lived 120 yeares which being expired he living as yet the Lord would so have it buried himself The storie is enlarged by S. Augustine Tract 124. in Joannem thus Some report that in certain Scriptures though Apocryphall it is found that S. John being in health caused a grave to be made and laid himself in it as in a bed and presently died or as some think lay down as dead but not dead and being thought to be dead was buried sleeping and that he sheweth his being alive a Scaturigine pulveris by the ebullition of the dust of his grave b Qui pulvis creditur ut ab imo ad superficiem tumuli ascendat flatu quiesoentis impelli which dust is beleeved to arise and to be forced from the bottome of the tombe to the top by his breath And truly saith Augustine We heard not this of light credulous men Whereupon he adviseth c Viderint qui hunc locum sciunt utrùm hoc ibi faciat terra vel patiatur quod dicitur Let them who know the place consider whether the earth spring up there so as is reported If it be so saith he if the earth or sand bubble up like water and that being taken away other ariseth and boyleth up in the room it doth so either to commend the precious death of that Saint or for some other reason which we know not So farre Augustine Some such thing in another case is recorded by S. Hierom Heare his own words Tom. 3. de locis Hebraicis out of the Acts of the Apostles d Cùm Ecclesia in cujus medio sunt vestigia rotundo schemate pulcherrimo opere conderetur summum tamen cacumen ut perhibent propter Dominici corporis meatum nuilo modo contegi concamerari potuit sed transitus ejus à terra ad coelum usque patet apertum Mount Olivet is situated on the East of Jerusalem parted by the stream of Cedron where the last footsteps which Christ set upon this earth are imprinted on the ground and even to this day are to be seen and shewed And whereas the same earth is taken away daily by the beleeving Christians neverthelesse the same holy footsteps presently and immediately recover their old form and fashion Who also in the same place addeth another strange thing e Mons Oliveti ad Orientem Hierosolymae situs est torrente Cedron interfluente ubi ultima vestigia Domini humo impressa bodiéque monstrantur Cúmque terra eadem quotidie à credentibus hauriatur nihilominus tamen eadem sancta vestigia pristinum statum continuò recipiunt Whereas the Church in the midst whereof these footsteps are was built of a round form with most exquisite workmanship yet the very top of that Church as people report could by no means ever be covered or vaulted over by reason of our Saviours bodily ascent into heaven but Christs passage and way by which he mounted from earth even to heaven lieth open and is visible But our late traveller M. Sands relateth That the footstep is on a firm naturall rock and the passage open at the summitie or top of the temple of the Ascension is to receive light into that sacred place For that is covered as the sepulchre or rather as the temple of the sepulchre whose round is covered with a CVPVLO sustained with rafters of Cedar all of one piece open in the midst like the Pantheon at Rome whereat it receiveth the light that it hath and that as much as sufficeth Just in the midst and in view of heaven standeth the glorified sepulchre So farre M. George Sands M. Fines Morison saith On the top of mount Olivet the highest of all the mountains that compasse Jerusalem in a Chappel they shew in stone the print of Christs feet when he ascended into heaven It did a little amaze me that these our two countreymen both being learned and both being there eye-witnesses do differ so much the first mentioning a footstep in the singular number the other feet in the plurall Antiquitie saith On the Earth late Writers On a Rock which maketh me rather bear with the good S. Hierom who relateth from others that the top could by no means be covered Open perhaps the top was left and open purposely by some exquisite workmen whose skill some credulous ignorants could not discern and they might report that what was done could not be done otherwise But of this in either of our countreymen there is not one word I return to the old matter Sixtus Senensis Bibliothecae sanctae lib. 6. Annotat. 93. saith Many most grave and worthy Authours have written that S. John the Evangelist yet liveth But Chrysostom Hom. 66. in Matt. reporteth f Illum violentâ morte obtruncatum obtisse That he was put to a violent death and he bringeth in Christ speaking these words to the two sonnes of Zebedee of whom S. John the Evangelist was one Mark 10.35 g Calicem meum bibetis Matth. 20.23 id est Martyrii coronâ potiemini violentâ morte sicut ego à vita discedetis YE SHAL DRINK OF MY CVP shall be put to a violent death and be crowned with martyrdome like unto me Euthymius also testifieth that Chrysostom in two other places saith that S. John the Evangelist was slain in Asia which makes me wonder that George Trapezuntius if he be truely alledged by Sixtus Senensis ibid. should interpret Chrysostoms words of the martyrdome and violent death which John forsooth should suffer with Enoch and Elias under the last persecution of Antichrist especially since Chrysostom so punctually designeth out the time past and telleth what was done to John and where Hippolytus Portuensis Episcopus in his short Tractate de mundi consummatione saith As Christs first coming had John the Baptist his forerunner so the second shall have Enoch and Elias and John the Evangelist This comparison is very lame and halteth for it may be applied as well to any as to John the Evangelist Others use not so foolish a similitude but yet embrace a wilder opinion for they say that S. John died and rose from the dead and was assumed into heaven Nicephorus 2.42 addeth DECEBAT It was fit convenient decent and requisite that he who kept Christs mother and was so beloved of Christ should be so assumed as Christs mother was O man how proud art thou to judge what is convenient or inconvenient for God to do Baronius Tom. 2. Anno Christi 101. numero
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
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