soules which they sent to Elysium as you may read of Anchises and others Aeneid 6. yet they supposed that their faâ—se gods and such as were by them canonized went up to heaven as Hercules Castor and Pollux Romulus and he that was one of the chiefe masters of the devills slaughter-men Iulius Caesar From whence you may reason thus The place of the greatest glory is most due to Him that is both the Creator and Restorer of all things But such was our Lord Iesus as it hath appeared before Therefore He ascended into heaven 5. It is necessary that the blessed and damned doe differ by all those meanes whereby the paines of the one and the blessednesse of the other may be increased The paines of the damned are increased by the horrour of that place wherein they are tormented therefore the ioyes also of the blessed are increased by the superexcellent beauty and pleasures of that place of their abode And because our Lord is blessed and holy above all that are blessed and holy therefore it is necessary that He should ascend into heaven 6. If Christ after His resurrection had not ascended into heaven then could no other creature bee blessed in heaven by His merit So the place of perfect blisse should be without inhabitants and therefore created in vaine So God should want that praise which were due to Him for His mercy and goodnesse shewed to the creature But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Angels and Saints are blessed in heaven and Christ our Lord their King among them See Iohn 14.2 3. and Ephes 2.6 7. If Christ our Lord had not ascended into heaven yea so that His ascension might be witnessed both by men and Angels Actes 1.10 11. then could not we which beleeve in Him have full assurance of those heavenly joyes that are laid up in store for us 1. So the Christian faith were all in vaine and we still subject to the punishment of our sinnes 2. So His Conception Birth Miracles Sufferings Death and Resurrection heretofore prooved should have beene in vaine So His owne preaching and of His messengers 4. So the prophecies of the Scriptures which were before concerning Him even since the world began should bee without their trueth 5. So the faith and hope of them which confesse the most gloâ—ious things of God concerning His goodnesse and mercy toward His creature which faith they have in Him being taught by Him out of his word and by the successe of all things that have come to passe accordingly should be frustrate But all these things are impossible And therefore God is gone up on high in triumph and our Lord with the sound of the trumpet all the holy Angels and the spirits and soules of the faithfull joying therein all the troopes of the heavens and the heavens of heavens attending His comming and submitting themselues to Him their Lord and King Open your heads ô yee gates and be yee set ope yee everlasting doores that the King of glory may come in Who is this King of glory The LORD of hostes mighty in battell euen our Lord IESVS who by the warres of His suffering and death on the Crosse and by the conquest of His resurrection hath overcome the powers of Hell He is the King of Glory Amen Notes a THerefore He ascended into Heaven This Article hath beene gainesayed by the heretickes diversly Cerinthus said That because Iesus was man onely conceived and borne as other men Hee was not yet risen but should rise at last Aug. de haer cap. 8. And thus by consequence he denied that our Lord ascended into heaven But this Iew both by nation and opinion is refuted before in all by the proofe of those Articles which he denied And because he brought nothing for the proofe of his opinions but onely opinion let them all vanish at the authority of the holy Scripture as mist before the Sunne Carpocrates as he had beene taught by Saturnilus said that the soule was onely saved Epiph haeres 23. So that the soule of Christ onely after it was freed from the body ascended to the Father Epiph heres 27. Against this heresie you may set the reasons and authorities of the Chapter before and them that follow in the Article of the resurrection of the body Chap. 38. The errour of Apelles you read before Note a on Chap. 26. § 1. N. 3. his reasons and their refutation you have Note a on Chapter 27. N. 3. The Seleucians confesse that Christ when He ascended tooke with Him His manly body and carryed it as high as the Sunne but there He put it off and left it there But Saint Paul affirmes that He ascended farre aboue all heavens that is all the visible heavens either of planets or starres yet they brought their reason out of the 19. Psalm vers 4. He hath set His tabernacle in the Sun So the vulgar translation of the Latines hath it from the Greeke and so all the Greeke copies reade it except that of Aquila who according to the Hebrew hath it thus In them the heavens He set a tabernacle for the Sunne and this helpes the Seleucians nothing But the errour which hath swayed most against this Article and which with their sacriledge if they could see it hath now defaced their Church is that of the Vbiquitaries who because they beleeve that very substance of the body and blood of Christ is received with the Bread and Wine they are compell'd to say That His naturall body may be in many and consequently in all places at once as His God-head is And therefore that this ascension of Christ must be nothing else but a disappearance out of the earth or a vanishing from the sight of men For the ground of their opinion they urge the word of our Lord This is my body This is my blood but they deny not the Bread and Wine to continue still which if it be true then the sence of the words must bee In this or with this Bread and Wine is my body and blood But the words beare no such meaning but prove much rather that transubstantiation or change of the Bread and Wine into the body and blood of Christ which the Papists would But this opinion of the Papists were to denie Christ to have taken flesh of the Virgin Mary and so to have beene made of the seed of David at least in part of His bodily being when His hody and blood should be made of bread and wine I but it is said Matth. 28.20 I am with you unto the end of the world Answere Not by His bodily being but by His continuall providence and the graces of His Holy Spirit as Saint Augustine saith Corpus suum intulit Coelo majestatem non abstulit mundo Tract 50. in Ioh. But the Centurists cite also the auctorities of the Fathers for their consubstantiation as of Iust Martyr in Tryph. of Tertullian against Marcion but corruptly and falsly and of Origen but
myst cap. 1. call the touch of the deity and affirme truely that it is more powerfull over the minde than that discursive knowledge of which I spake before But because this knowledge is ever with affrighting and addressed onely as the two former to the last it beseemes every man that would know God truely as hee may bee knowne for his owne comfort to cleanse his owne heart with all his diligence in prayer in meditation in reading of the holy Scripture in denying of himselfe in all his ungodlie and sinnefull lusts that he may become a holy and a meet Temple for God to dwell in And so hee may assure himselfe that God will give him experience of himselfe as hee hath promised Ioh. 14.23 That hee will come and make his abode with him This is that wise merchant who for this pretious pearle sels all that hee hath to buy it This is hee that eates of the hidden Manna Ioh. 6.50.51 Rev. 2.17 that receives that white stone and a new name written which none knowes saving hee that receiveth it This is hee that in the face of Iesus Christ as in a mirrour beholds the glory of the Lord so that hee is changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Notes a GOd is not matier Anaximenes said the aire was God that he was therfore unmeasureable but had a beginning was always in motion Diagoras of Apollonia for he of Melos was the Atheist consented unto him as concerning the matier The opinion of Cleanthes I told you before which one while held God to bee matier in this sensible world in the uppermost ayre and in the Starres Parmenides imagined a mighty wide circle which encompast the world like a Crowne or garland therefore called by him Stephane to be God Xenophon and with him Plato where hee speakes in iest saith the world was God which we call Mammon and yeelds there were moe such but where he speakes in earnest as in his Epistles hee speakes of one God the Author of all things as we doe Aristotle could not tell how to gaine-say his master with his owne credit and so followed his judgement Heraclides of Pontus somewhiles said the Starres were Gods then heaven and earth So Theophrastus and sometime Zeno was for the Starres Chrisippus that was accounted most subtile amongst the schollers of Zeno was most wavering in his opinions sometime he thought the world was God sometime the uttermost or burning aire then water now earth after this ayre below and by and by the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres at last all together was but one God yet men canonized for their vertues must needs bee Gods apart and then much more the vertues for which they were immortall And thus they that would seeme wise while they cared to know more than the truth of God became idle in their imaginations and there foolish heart was full of darkenesse The parts which were before separate 2.1 b All parts are understood apart as things differing And therefore although divers formes are brought out of the power of the matier or propagate with the matier yet that affords no objection to weaken this argument But is destinate unto another totall 2.2 c If you looke on the question you shall finde it onely to be about such formes as these For it is not said that God is utterly no forme For forme is the most simple or pure being which wee can conceive but he is none of those formes which are allyed to matier The Angels are accounted formes but separate But I runne not with that opinion The Ideas are conceived to bee formes altogether separate not destinate unto matier much lesse is that most simple forme of formes the originall of all formes God is not the forme of any other Being 2.2 d The opinion of Democritus is contrary to this conclusion in that he makes mans soule to be God Straton thought that God was only a certaine divine power in Nature so said Chrisippus otherwhile and so Cleanthes where hee affirmed that God was the life of the world His opinion that reason was God was an errour against this conclusion also if by reason hee meant that reasonable soule the forme of mans bâ—dy Heraclides supposed God to change his shape at his pleasure Zeno said that reason in every thing was God or that he was that living law that gave life to every thing Wavering Chrisippus sometime held the life of the world to be God somewhile he cal'd him destinie Therefore God is no compound 3.1 c Among the matiers reckoned up before note a. some you see are compounded and they belong properly to this place as earth water and our ayre below of which none are simple elements but mixt one with another for generation sake and fitted to the inhabitants that dwell therein of which none could live in elements that are pure being themselves compounded Therefore God is not a body 4.1 f The schoole of Epicurus taught that God was in shape like a man and that he was also bodily For they thought that if hee were without a body as Plato taught he could neither have sence nor wisdome and so could no way be partaker of any pleasure or happines But concerning the pleasure which God enjoyes Plato teaches Epist ad Dionys that it is not in outward or bodily things which hinder the happinesse of the minde The weaknes of Epicurus argument is shewed by Cotta a follower of Plato Cic. de Nat. D. l. 1. the opinion it selfe confuted by the arguments here brought especially against the Audean hereticks that were called Anthropomorphites who upheld the opinion of the Epicurean Philosophers because the holy Scripture teaching men by their senses speakes of Gods powerfull right hand and treading down his enemies that hee was sorry in heart and specially where it is said Gen. 1. Let us make man in our owne likenesse They here understood the likenesse of the body not of the minde in holinesse and knowledge which we have lost must endeavour our selves to recover as we are exhorted Eph. 4.24 Put on the new man which is created according to God in righteousnesse and holinesse of the truth and againe Put on the new man which is renued in you unto knowledge according to the Image of Him that created him Therefore in God is no accident 5.1 Zeno g sometime affirmed that the yeare and the seasons thereof the spring the harvest the moneths also were God Chrisippus said the truth of things was God And if you account truth an accident you may referre his opinion hither You have now heard the difference of opinions among the Philosophers But how much wiser was Simonides that learned Poet who being demanded by Hiero king of Siracuse what God was He desired a day to thinke of his answer being the next day asked againe he desired two dayes And thus being often asked still doubled his time Being demaunded the reason he answered
everie a ten thousand yeers all things returne againe to the same state wherein they had been before for whether through the weakenes or strength of the imagination in some fore-catchings of the shadowes of things to come for it may bee argued both wayes a man oftentimes perswades himselfe that hee hath beene in the same place with the same persons seene or done the same things heard or spoken the same words before upon which ground it seemes this Pythagorean fancy was builded But to the doubt I answer That it would have beene as great if the world had been made ten thousand times the whole age of the world before and no greater if it should have been made as much after the present age for as if you suppose an infinite space wheresoever you shall set a pricke or point therein it must needs be in the middes thereof so time how long soever yet compared to eternity can be no more then as an indivisible centre therein And therefore S. Paul takes up this question Act. 17.26 That God hath assigned the seasons which were ordayned before and hee that puts not all things in his power to do both what he will and as he will and when he will denies him to be God Now let us see the reasons for the Christian faith that b the world is not eternall or everlasting but made by Almighty God as the Article affirmes § 3. By the world you can understand no other thing than this frame of the whole being of things beside the Godhead whether heavenly or earthly understanding bodily or mixt ethereall or elementall with all the causes and effects proprieties actions or other actions that belong to everie one of them But the word Eternall signifies diverslie For our purpose either it may meane an age or state of long continuance as the land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed for an eternall or everlasting possession Gen. 17.8 which eternitie must be limited either to that age of the world before Christ or at the farthest to the uttermost age and time of this world after the desolation determined shall bee fulfilled and they brought to their owne land againe And this must needs bee the uttermost eternitie of that promise concerning the letter as of the everlasting Covenant of Circumcision Another taking of eternitie may bee in that being which hath a beginning and no ending as our hope is of the state of the soule and everlasting or eternall life after the resurrection So the promise of the everlasting possession of Canaan was a type and Promise that heaven should bee our eternall inheritance whereof we have already assurance yea deliverie and seisure in that the Canaanit the devill is driven out from thence by Iesus our unconquered Captaine Apoc. 12.7 8. c. A third and chiefe meaning of eternitie is that which hath neither beginning nor ending And so we say that God onely is eternall In the first signification the world is eternall in that state wherein it is and hath continued from the creation which wee hold and so shall continue unto the dissolution which wee hope for In the second signification also it may bee said to bee eternall as concerning the most excellent and noble parts thereof as the Angels and men restored from corruption and in them the second Ideas or formes of all the creatures But the last degree of eternitie is utterlie denied to the actuall being of the world and that for these reasons following 1. Whatsoever is eternall must also bee infinite both in the being and the manner of being because there could bee nothing before it by which it might receive any kinde of limit or bounds any defect or lesnesse of being But c the world is not infinite in the being thereof for it is concluded already Chap. 3. that God is infinite and of infinites there can bee but one Chap. 8. cons 2. And in the manner of being it cannot bee infinite for in all things brought forth there is either quantitie contrarie to infinitie or time contrarie to eternitie there is defect or failing by reason of corruption and death there is abatement or lesning because that in everie kinde one particular is not so excellent as another in understanding memorie strength beauty continuance or one vertue or other Therfore the world is not eternall 2. If the world bee eternall then eternity must either bee the whole essence and convertible with the essence of the world or else it must agree thereto as the essentiall forme or as a propertie or as a common accident Eternitie is not the essence of the world for so should it belong to everie part thereof essentially for everie part is partaker of the essence of the whole But this is most false in all experience neither is it the essentiall forme thereof for even from thence would it follow that the world were not eternall inasmuch as having matier and forme it must needs presuppose an efficient cause who both created the parts and disposed the matier for the forme it cannot be a propertie thereto for all properties proceed from the composition or joyning together of the matier and forme But composition takes away eternitie for the reason aforesaid neither is it an accident nor yet appropriate thereto by accident as any relation for all such by the order of nature are after that subject whereto they belong whether they be immediate accidents or relations depending thereupon Therefore the world in the actuall being is no way eternall 3. Whatsoever hath parts must needs bee compounded and whatsoever is compounded or put together must needs have parts that were once asunder and so cannot bee eternall à parte ante And againe everie compound by that power whereby it was made may be resolved into those parts of which it was made whether the parts bee essentiall as body and soule to a man or entyre as stones timber iron glasse c. to a house But the World hath parts ethereall elementall incorruptible and corruptible animall vegetable minerall c. Ergo the World is not eternall 4. All reall truth is verified first in the things of actuall being that is in the individuals Secondly in the notions or apprehensions of the things in their intentionall or common being either speciall or more generall But if the world be eternall that eternity can agree onely to the common being and not to the particular or individuall beings as to this man that horse that tree c. So the truth of the worlds eternity shall be intentionall onely not reall so common intentions onely may bee true where there is no individuall But this is most false and impossible therefore it is most false that the world is eternall 5. The whole World consisting of all the parts thereof is either a body or not a body If our sence from whence all our discourse proceeds be judge it is a body Now every body in regard of the extent thereof is
contrary to the being and perfections of it selfe But if the cause bee powerfull and able to bring forth the effect then must the effect also bee perfect and upright and especially free from that which is most contrary to the cause thereof But it is before manifest that all things had their beginnings from God the most powerfull and working of all causes and because of the infinitie of his goodnesse and iustice hating wickednesse and sinne above all things therefore as all his creature was exceeding good so it followes likewise that man as farre as he had any being from God was also good and upright in his being and so without sinne 2. The ability and excellency of the end is more then the worthinesse of all those thing which are ordained for the end But it is manifest that all the visible creature of this world was created for mans use that he was prince and Lord of all For by the Law of nature and iustice that ought to bee chiefe which hath most excellency above other Now to set aside the abilities of the minde in the knowledge of things eternall and divine whereof no other bodily creature hath any feeling or understanding what creature under the whole heaven in the earth or Sea may set it selfe in comparison with man for those gifts which the Creator hath vouchsaf to him in the use of all things in the knowledge of their nature in memory and remembrance in the inventions of arts in the guiding and compelling of the creature to his service or utter destruction of the rebellious And therefore both in the creation Gen. 1.28 and againe after the floud the type of Regeneration 1 Pet. 3.21 were they all delivered into the power of man Now if all these things were for man and his use and they every one good in their kinde much more was man good and upright in his creation 3. Every thing is more exâ—ellent as it is for a more excellent and noble end But the end of man is more excellent than all the creature beside For they are for his use as their end but man for the service and glory of God as his end in the attainement of which alone hee can be happy And because that which is for any end must have conditions or fitnesse for that end it was necessary that man should bee created without sinne which above all other things the soule of his Creator did hate and for which alone he was put out of his service 4. Every corruption or marring of a thing must needs bee of that which was once good and the greater the perfection thereof was the worse is the corruption or wickednesse that is therein But it is too manifest that the nature of man is most corrupt therefore it was once very good and upright 5. If God had made man such as man now is rebellious and unthankefull towards Himselfe a plague and calamity to other men through injury pride and oppression a slaue to his owne sensuall desires in gluttony and filthie lust ignorant of the truth an enemy to all good following with greedinesse all manner of ill subject as to Sinne so to the due punishment thereof all manner of misery sicknesse and death both of body and soule then had Hee brought the greatest disorder into the creature even there where order was most necessary that is in the prince and Lord thereof yea such disorder as should be contrary to it selfe in respect of that hatred which men have one toward another then would he not in justice have brought those punishments on men which are due for their sinne in this life and damnation in that which is to come But all these things are against the wisdome goodnesse and justice of God Therefore man was created in a Contrary estate of innocency Iustice and holinesse 6. This truth the holy text doth shew For beside that which is said Gen. 1.31 That God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good it is said of man in particular that hee was created in the image of God Which because it is there three times repeated it is necessarie to consider what that threefold Image of God in man is that it may the better appeare what his excellency was and how great that losse was which hee indured by his sinne against so gracious a Creator Some among the most ancient Fathers as Irenaeus and Tertullian thought that the Mediator in that forme wherein he afterward appeared in our flesh and was seene and knowne to Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Moses and many of the Prophets for which they were called Seers 1 Sam. 9.9 formed man of the dust of the earth The word there used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kidmuthenu according to our likenesse and signifies to be like by cutting or carving and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used Gen. 2.7 8. which signifies to fashion out of clay like a Potter seemes to favour this interpretation you may see herewith Rom 9.21 and thinke on it Bucanus also Inst Theol. Loc. 8. q. 18. confesseth that there is nothing in his opinion but according to the Analogy of faith and brings his reason to justifie it Yet as if he had forgot himselfe he condemnes Osiander of madnes that followes it lib. cit loc 9. q. 15. And because other late Doctors though without reason disallow this judgement of the antient fathers see Med. Patr. Scult de nevis Iren. Tertull. Roberts Fund Rel cap. 17. I leave it in the middest till further proofe of the truth be made on the one side or the other Notwithstanding man is truely said to bee created in the image or according to the image of Elohim or Christ the Creator either naturally or else supernaturally naturally either according to the state of his body or of his soule or of the whole composition his body is an abridgment or compound of all bodily being because there is nothing in the bodily creature which is not in some sort in that little world of mans body as reason proves by his food and medicine out of all bodies here below and as the Physitians and all naturallists affirme and as Paracelsus more particularly every where shewes and proves So that as all things even bodily beings were created in Christ and therefore were in Him eminently by their formes and potentially as being by Him brought into act or effect So are they all in the body of man representatively and though by his sinne subject to the curse as he their Presbyter is yet shall they bee delivered from this bondage of corruption when the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God shall appeare Rom. 8.19.20 to 24. And concerning the soule if you looke into the faculties thereof beyond them that concerne the body alone in growth and sense if in the understanding you consider the powers of the imagination or thought of the discourse of memory of the will and the freedome therâ—of
in civill and morall thi gs you may trulâ— say that all things are subject to their Lord and Creator so hath Hee made all things subiect to the possibilities of mans understanding in as much as the Spirit of man considers all things yea presumes to search even the deepe things of God Now one soule with all these properties argues the wonderfull excellency thereof and what a lively stampe of his wisdome He hath imprinted therein But because the whole of every thing is more excellent then the parts which are for the perfection of the whole and that the soule out of the body hath no power of growth of sence of imagination and because it would not be destitute of the native abilities and powers of it selfe it parts so unwillingly from the body cannot possibly forsake it for ever as it will appeare hereafter therefore the excellency of that image appeares not onely in the parts as I have shewed but much more in the compound of the body and soule together wherein are all things both bodily and spirituall so represented as that the shape of a man cannot bee more lively seene in a looking glasse than the whole creature is represented in man the epitome or summe of all Moreover what is there in all nature which hee makes not art to imitate yea and beyond any patternâ— in nature adventures in a frame of wood to compasse both land and Sea what arts doth not he finde out and because hee knowes hee cannot come to nought what dares he not to undertake in peace or warre And if every effect doe represent the cause with the power vertues thereof as it is said Psal 19. Rom. 1.29 then much more that which is the summe and principle effect of all And this is that threefold image in which Adam was created and which remaines unblotted out yet wonderfully stayned in every man Gen. 9.6 1 Cor. 11.7 But because it is spoken of the whole man that hee was created in the image of God you are to understand that Image first in the naturall composition of his body and soule as I have shewed Secondly in regard of his Lordship over all this visible creature and thirdly and most of all in those supernaturall endowments of righteousnesse and holinesse wherein he was created Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 Wisd 2.23 With the ability to continue in that state if hee had not sinned and a freedome also of will to sin or not to sinne And thus was Adam the Image of Elohim supernaturally and for the renewing of his Image being now lost are all those benefits which God in Christ hath vouchsafed to his Church Object 1. But if man were created in the image of God what preheminence is that which is given unto Christ Col. 1.15 That he is the Image of the invisible God An Image is twofold homogeneous which is in the perfection of the same being as Adam Gen. 5.3 begat a Sonne in his owne likenesse after his owne Image and so Christ the Sonne of God is the image of the Father as was shewed chap. 11. or heterogeneous that is of a different being which is either in the understanding only as the Ideas or formes of things conceived in the minde or else materiall wherein is the representation of some property belonging to another as the image of Alexander may expresse that shape which was proper to his person And thus man was created in the image of God as I shewed And if this representation be more darke and further off in some one particular thing it is rather called a signe a proofe a footstep or marke than an Image As the pricking of an hare in the snow is a marke or signe that she hath beene there And thus every thing created is a signe or marke of the power of the Creator as the matier forme or proprietie in one being is a step signe or argument of the Trinity in the Vnity that is a proofe thereof as every effect is a proofe or witnesse of the cause CHAP. XVI That man continued not in his Innocency but that hee sinned and thereby became subject to eternall death BVt Man being made upright in the beginning and left to the hand of his owne Counsel Eccles. 15.14 they sought out many inventions Eccles 7.29 For as hee had power both in body and soule to performe all the dutie of man if hee would so had hee received power to will or not to wil all that hee could that his sinne and punishment might bee of himselfe But that man might know that neither his power nor yet his will could bee well directed without the guidance of his Creator Ioh. 15.5 therefore being left unto Himselfe he quickly found what he was able to doe of himselfe that he should never after that seeke himselfe in himselfe but in Him alone who of his good pleasure workes in man both to will and to doe Phil. 2.13 Thus man being left to himselfe sinned willingly the woman being deceived by the craft of the devill the enemy of mankinde but the man with lesse sinne if ignorantly But ignorance is of three sorts simple willing and wilfull Simple ignorance may be in the state of innocency and is without sinne as in the Angels of heaven Math. 24.36 as in children Luc. 2.52 And in them to whom it is not given to know what they would Act. 1.7 Willing ignorance is in them that care not to know what they ought to know this is a sinne with carelesnesse and excuses not from the fewer stripes Luk. 12.48 But wilfull ignorance is in them that stubbornely refuse to know what they both may and ought to know This is a sinne with scorne and excuses not from many stripes because it is with wilfull disobedience as of them that know and doe not If Adams eating had beene with ignorance of the first kinde hee had not sinned in eating But this ignorance as concerning that wherin he sinned was not in Adam But if he did eat ignorantly in the second kinde his sin was in this that he did eat unadvisedly that which he ought to have knowne and for which he ought to have given thanks to his Creator The third kinde of ignorance could not be in him For then he had sinned before he did eate But if no degree of ignorance were in him but that he did eat knowing yet presuming on his mercy whom hee did offend though his sinne were greater yet was it pardonable because hee trusted in his mercy against whom hee sinned But this sinne was not in him But the woman being deceived through her errour was the cause of his transgression 1 Tim. 2.14 And if he had eaten presumptuously then had his sinne beene greater than that of Eve whereas his lesser punishment argues his lesse offence So then it seemes that the man alone having received the commandement did faithfully deliver it to the woman after her creation So that her first sinne though it were not
all the other dignities of God as concerning their outward working must be in littlenesse and lower than that possibility whereto they may come But this is not to be affirmed Therefore the incarnation followeth reasonably 9. Every efficient the more noble and excellent it is the greater and more excellent are the effects which it doth bring forth But the greatest effects are not brought to passe but by the greatest meanes Now there is no efficient more noble or excellent than God no effect better or greater to the Creature nor more honourable to the Creator than the everlasting happinesse of his Creature no means greater or more effectuall than that he become one with his creature Therefore that the creature may bee happy in Him and his honour and praise perfected in the Creature it was expedient that God should dwell in His Creature even in Man 10. By how much any efficient is greater in power by so much more effectually doth it worke to magnifie the end of his worke and so to set it free from littlenesse contempt and unworthinesse of himselfe From which contempt and unworthinesse the creature is set furthest when it is deified and God himselfe is become one with man So the incarnation is the most glorious worke which can bee wrought in the creature To denie then the indwelling of God in his creature were to deny the most glorious worke of God to put an infinite emptinesse betweene God and his Creature wherein no meane should bee and so to exclude the Creature from all accesse unto the Creator which were to put the creature in everlasting contempt and unworthinesse of the Creator so infinite and glorious For the creature being set at an infinite distance from the happinesse which is in the Creator should have no meane whereby it might partake of the infinite glory For no perfection in the Creature being simply and absolutely finite can bee partaker of that which is infinite without the Mediator God and man as it is said Ioh. 14.6 No man commeth to the Father but by mee 11. It is to bee held that God the most wise workemaster of all things should in the creation of the world propose to Himselfe the most noble and excellent end which must bee concerning Himselfe the manifestation of His owne dignities and perfections in the Creature and towards the Creature the greatest perfection which was possible to be therein But if there bee no incarnation neither of these things could be performed Not the first because the divine goodnesse might have done a better worke in his Creature his infinitie a greater his glory a more excellent c. Not the second for seeing God is that superexcellent Goodnesse of which every thing according to the measure thereof desires to be partaker and by man may bee partaker in as much as man participates with every other thing and every other thing being with him if there bee no incarnation this desire of the Creature is vaine the end thereof frustrate and thereby it is subjected to eternall paine the hoped end being impossible to bee attained unto But all these things are inconvenient Therefore it is requisite that God bee incarnate 12. God is infinitely good chap. 4. and so the most lovely being without comparison And therefore are wee most justly charged to love Him with all our heart with all our soule with all our might Deut. 6.5 But God would not require to be wholly and perfectly loved by man except He himselfe did that for man by which Hee might most of all deserve mans love For otherwise he might seeme to require of man beyond that which were due and so the perfection of that love should bee founded in the goodnesse and kindenesse of man toward God not in the goodnesse and mercy of God toward man But this is not so For wee love God because Hee loved vs first and gave His Sonne to bee the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Ioh. 4.10 If then God have done that for us by which above all other things He might deserve our Loves and that nothing can so much deserve our Loves as if he would be pleased to become one with us it was expedient that God would be incarnate 13. That there is an eternall life both in soule and body will appeare hereafter in the meane time it shall be but a supposition Now in eternall life it is necessary that the manly being attaine to the uttermost perfection both of the soule and body that as his understanding so his outward senses be also most pure and perfect But if there were no incarnation seeing the divine glory in it selfe is utterly unapprehensible by our senses and by our understanding neither our understanding nor our sences could have any object wherein to rest and sabbatize and being created without the injoying of their uttermost felicity they would bee the originall of misery and sorrow when as they should bee fit to receive the perfection of all intellectuall and sensible formes from an agent naturall and supernaturall as the Mediator is and yet received it not So also the divine glory should not cause happinesse nor be inioyed by all possible meanes whereby it may cause happinesse and bee inioyed by a meane naturall and supernaturall But if there be an incarnation then the infinite glory dwelling in this mediator may be apprehended and inioyed and make the Creature happie by all meanes whereby it is possible to be happie Therefore God would dwell in his Creature And this argument I suppose may stand well with that scripture Exod. 33.18 and 20. verses where to that request of Moses That he might see the glory of God it was answered that no man can see it and live By which it followes that after death when man is utterly separate from sinne he may see and shall be partaker of that promise which is in Matth 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God which blessing is more particularly described Psal 36.9.10 They that put their trust under the shadow of his wings shall be abundantly satisfied made drunke as some reade it others plenteously moistened with the fatnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them drinke of the river of thy pleasures c. all which the faithfull shall see and inioy to the full in the Mediator God and Man without whom there is no approaching unto God And as this argument is good for the soule and understanding so is it for the outward senses For if the bodily senses make for the increase of punishment in them that are damned so shall they also bee for the increase of happinesse in them that are saved If you desire moe arguments to this purpose you may consider them in the 21. chapter The authorities of the holy Scripture may bee seene in the end of the chapter following The objections against this doctrine of the incarnation you may see in Tho. Aquin. cont Gent. lib. 4. ch 40.49 53. 54. CHAP.
and earth Ier. 23.24 Therefore as God is said to have come downe from heaven not properly but in respect of His dwelling in the Manhood So is the Sonne of man also said to be in heaven not properly but in respect of the unity of His humanity with the Godhead According to this sence Hee said also Iohn 6.38 I came downe from heaven to doe the will of Him that sent me as you read before Note g § 10. ob 9. on Chap. 24. Another Text which may seeme to make for Valentin is 1. Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord from heaven Yet this prooves not that the body of Christ was not taken from His mother but rather that as wee are staâ—ned with or ginall sinne by Adam so are wee washed and clensed by the blood of Christ for so it followes Verse 49. As we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also beare the image of the heavenly And although it be said The second man is the Lord from heaven yet prooves it not that He brought His body from heaven but rather because wee understand nothing of heavenly things but by bodily likenesses therefore is Hee called the man from heaven to signifie that new manner of being which God had with us in our nature and to assure us that Hee our Redeemer is our eternall God able to save us and man with us that doeth pitie our miseries 3. The Heresies of Apelles are refuted by Epiâ—hanius Haer. 44. briefly and plainely but this which concernes the body of our Lord moâ—e fully by Tertullian in his Booke De carne Christi You shall have what I held fit to gather from both or to adde thereto The arguments of Apelles are in part all one with those of Valentin already answered The rest are these that follow 1. If the Angels appeared in flesh not taken from mankinde much more might Christ But the first is true therefore the later Answer The consequence in the Proposition is not good For the Angels came not to die therefore not to be borne as our Lord Himselfe appeared to Abraham not borne of a woman because the time appointed that He should die was not yet But when the fulnesse of the time was come that He by His death should take away the sinnes of the world then God sent His Sonne made of a woman Besides this they are beside the question For to proove their Position that Christ tooke His body of the Starres and Elements they ought to proove that the Angels also tooke such bodies But that they cannot proove For if the Angels made themselves that which by nature they were not why might they not doe it by that which was not 2. It is said Matth. 12.48 Who is my mother and who are my brethren If then Christ had no mother or brethren but in that spirituall kindred of them which kept the word of God He had no body taken of the Virgin Answer No man would have told Him that His mother stood without which did not know that shee was His mother Therefore the circumstances and time of His speech must be observed He was now in the businesse of God His Father for whom all earthly parents must be denied as He also answered Luke 2.49 3. But the flesh of sinfull man was an unfit and unworthy dwelling for Him that came to destroy the workes of the devill Answer As sinne the worke of the devill was brought into mankinde by the body and the bodily sences as it appeares Gen. 3.6 The woman seeiâ—g that the fruit was good for food and pleasant to sight tooke and did eat it So wâ—s it necessary that sin e should be destroyed in the body oâ— that flesh wherein sinne was conceiâ—ed and wrought Moreo er the difference not of the matter which must be one but of the Spirit of sanctification wh ch was in Christ made His body a fit sacrifice for sinne But concerning this unworthinesse alleadged answere was made before Note a ob 1. 3. on Chap. 5. 4. But if He had flesh like ours Hee should have beene begotten like us Answer The consequence is not good as was shewed before Note a § 2. on Chap. 26. 5. If the flesh of Christ were the same with ours the common accidents of both should be alike so that our flesh should forthwith rise againe like His or His like ours bee resolved to dust Answer When our Lord had fully satisfied the Iustice of God for the sinne of mankinde it had beene against Iustice that He which had done no sinne should have still continued under the power of death and therefore imposible Act. 2.24 But our bodies doe therefore still rest in hope because all H s enemies are not subjected unto Him among which the last is deâ—th 1. Cor. 15.26 Therefore for concâ—usion of this point over and above those reasons which you had in the twentieth Chapter and the authorities in the end of the three and twentieth Chapter and these which are heere already cited take that of Eph. 5.30 We are members of His body of His flesh and of His bones So that if we know or beleeve that we our selves have a body oâ— flesh and bones we must also know that our Lord had a true natura l and humane body as one of us Which authority is yet of so much the greater regard because it was prophesied in Parad ce Gen. 2.24 That our Redeemer should be incarnate that in the body of His flesh through death He might â—reâ—ent us holy a d unblameable Col. 1.22 For seeing the chi dre are partakers of flesh and blood Hee also Himselfe likewise tooke pâ—rt of the same that thro gh death Hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devill Heb. 2.14 Reade the Chapter from verse 5. unto the end and see how many arguments you find to this purpose onely The fancies therefore of these Hereticks being lighter than vanity it will follow that all those opinions which might seeme to bee raised there-from were as false as foolish As first that of Celsus That the body of Christ was not subject to paine and griefe Against which Saint Origen disputes lib. 2. Cont. Cels For as for that Stoicall vnsufferance of His mind which Clemens Alex. Strom. lib. 7. thought not to bee subject either to joy or sorrow it was onely an over-sight in so learned a Writer and directly contrary to the Text of the Scripture Iohn 11.35 Matth. 26.38 where Iesus wept and was exceeding sorrowfull even unto death And concerning the joy of His Spirit See Luke 10.21 Secondly that of Saturnilus That Christ did suffer onely in shew Epiph. Haer. 23. Thirdly that of the neat-heard Basilides who taught that Simon of Cyrene was crucifyed in Christs stead Epiph. Haer. 24. Of all which if any thing were true what thanks were due to Him from vs when He had suffered nothing for our sakes
hast confessed But in Luke 16.23 it is taken properly for the place as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being in hell lifting up his eyes c. as contrarywise with other Authors it sometime signifies the place of blessednesse as Plato uses it in Phaed. concerning Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ever any man came to happinesse but in this sence it belongs to Numb 2. 4. They signifie such sorrowes or paines as may bee supposed are suffered in hell as in 1 Samuel 2.6 The Lord casteth downe to hell and bringeth up againe and in Psalm 18.5 The sorrowes of hell compassed me So Psalm 86.13 Thou hast deliuered my soule out of the lowest hell In all which places Sheol by the Septuagint translated Hades except by way of prophecy concerning Christ cannot signifie the place of the damned from whence there is no returning but onely extreame dangers griefe or hellish sorrowes of mind or such sicknesses as brought the body in danger of the grave To these words especially in the three last significations 2. Of the state of the Dead 3 Of the Place and 4. Paines of the damned the words Inferi and Infernus in Latin doe answere But hell with us is proper to the place of torment and doth not signifie any thing else but by a trope and is not of Heal as I thinke which sometime signifies to cover much lesse of Helle the Dutch word as much as bright or shining but of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hel a deepe ditch or trench as the word is used 2 Sam. 20.15 They cast up a banke against the City and it stood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bahel in the trench And hee that thinkes not that the Saxon our true language hath many things common with the Hebrew knowes neither the one nor the other as hee might Sect. 2 § 2. Now according to these takings of the words different interpretations have beene made of this Article of which because so much hath already beene written among our selues I may and purpose to be more briefe But because some formes of confession have left this Article out therefore it hath growne questionable whether it was alwayes in this Creed of the Apostles or not Of the Apostles I say or Apostolicall men their hearers gathered as the summe of the Apostles doctrine concerning the Faith And true it is that as it cannot be said by whom where or when this Creed was first composed as being the most ancient in this kind the rest being onely explications of some points herein made upon occasions of heresies or doubts thereabout So doe some men certainely affirme that all the other Articles were not put together at once Yet is it without doubt that this Article is as ancient as the rest that are found in the Creed seeing the most ancient among the Fathers Athanasius Origen Tertullian Irenaeus and others have so received and declared it And therefore that fancy of Erasmus who suspected that Thomas Aquinas might foy'st it in was farre below both the one and the other seeing it is confest by Ruffinus who lived within the first 400. yeeres after Christ to have beene in the Creed used in the Church of Aquileia and so by him interpreted with the rest But although the Councell at Nice in Bithinia left it out of their Creed because their speciall businesse was against Arius concerning the Deitie of our Saviour and although the Arians in their Councell at Nice in Thracia put it in their Creed nay although Aquinas had first put it in were it therefore fit to leave it out or not to count it an Article of Faith as some would doe I thinke not seeing the holy Scripture gives authority to it Psalm 16.10 referred to Christ by the exposition of Saint Peter Actes 2.27 seeing all the Christian Churches have receiued it and seeing that according to the true and necessary meaning thereof there is no Article of the Creed which doth more clearely and directly overthrow the heresies of Arius and the Dimaeritae concerning the humane soule of Christ of which you read Chapter 26. Note a § 2. 1. Now concerning the different interpretations Some according to the first meaning of Sheol and Hades for the Grave thinke that Christ was truely buried and kept in the Grave three dayes and that this Article had no other meaning but a further declaration of Dead and Buried against the opinion of Marcion Valentin and such other heretickes as denyed the trueth of Christs being and His suffering as you heard before Note a on Chap. 27. 2. Others would that beyond the death and buriall it should impart a disposing of His body to corruption But if their meaning therein be this That the body of our Lord was laid in the grave where corruption doth seaze on the bodies of other men then this blind descent can looke no further then His buriall or if it must needs meane any thing more then would they force us by this Article to beleeve and confesse that which by the Scripture we know to be false For it was impossible that the holy One of God should either see corruption or be brought to any degree or disposition thereunto beyond the death and buriall of His body See Acts 2.24 27. 3. Some other by this descent of Christ will understand the uttermost degree of His humiliation that could come unto Him while His Soule was parted from the Body His honour laid in the dust the devill and his instruments triumphing over Him But the Creed was not framed to teach us the triumph and ioy of His enemies but His victory and their confusion And concerning our Lord Himselfe this goes no further then either of the former interpretations except in that sence which you shall heare anon Therefore none of these can be the meaning of this Article For in the abridgement or summe of our Faith interpretations are not fit especially such as are more darke than that to which they should give light Therefore this Article Hee descended into hell cannot in any of the former meanings be a declaration of that Hee was dead and buryed 4. A fourth interpretation is of them who thinke the descent of Christ meanes thus much onely That His soule being departed out of His body went unto the soules of the faithfull which were in Paradise which they interpret heaven But seeing heaven being taken not metaphorically for Ioy and happinesse but properly for a place must in all sence signifie that which is upward from the earth It must needes bee a very aukward interpretation of He descended into hell to say He ascended or went upward into heaven yet because this interpretation brings both reason and authoritie it shall bee examined by and by 5. A fift interpretation is of them who will have this descent to signifie nothing else but the endurance of those unspeakable sorrowes and torments which He suffered in soule being in His agony and on the crosse 6. A sixt sence is of them
who hold that Hee did locally goe downe to hell so that according to the essence or being of His soule He was truely present there And as the former of these denie not but that Christ by His death did utterly spoile the powers of darknesse and so may be said virtually and by the effects of His suffering to have gone downe into hell because that by the eternall offering of Himselfe a ransome for the sinnes of the world and the performance thereof in the time appointed He did utterly free all His beleevers from Hell which was their due and setled them in the inheritance of eternall life so these latter for the most part denie not but that all this which is said is agreeable to the trueth of the Scripture and the analogie of Faith onely they cannot yeeld that it is the true and native meaning of this Article And betweene these two parties all those texts of Scripture which are brought for the locall descent of Christ are hammered so thinne that may seeme plyable every way But let the strength of the Holy Text for ever stand sure and let us see the reasons a little on all sides with their answeres and exceptions And first of them that interpret this Article by the sufferings of Christs soule Sect. 3 Object 1. As the sufferings of Christ even from the first minute of His Incarnation were meritorious for us yet our ransome from the torments of hell was wrought especially by the suffering of His humane soule which torments of His soule Hee endured not onely by the torture or fellow-feeling of His naturall body not by compassion onely on the sins and sorrowes of His body mysticall but also He might be said even to feele the sorrowes of eternall death when He saw Himselfe to be now set to suffer the wrath of God due to the sinnes of the whole world And if this bee not the proper and native sence of this Article how are wee taught by our Creed to beleeve more concerning Christ than wee confesse to be true of the theeves of whom wee may say they suffered under Pontius Pilate that they were crucified dead and buryed Al. Hume Rejoynd to Doctor Hil. I answere First the holy Scripture is profitable for doctrine for instruction for reproofe c. But the object of our faith is onely the Holy Trinity in Vnity and the satisfaction of Christ for our Redemption and the benefits which wee receive thereby And therefore although I beleeve and know by the Scriptures that Samson was the Sonne of Manoa yet I neither beleeve in Samson nor Manoa And though I know by the Scriptures that the penitent thiefe suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucifyed and dyed yet I beleeve not in him But concerning Christ as I beleeve that all His merits redound to us so I beleeve that all His sufferings were according to the Scripture a satisfaction to the justice of God for the sinnes of the world which they could not be but by the suffering both of His soule and body as it is said Esay 53. Hee shall see the travaile of His soule and bee satisfied If then wee know that whatsoever befell unto our Lord was that the Scripture might be fulfilled Matth. 26.54.56 and if wee beleeve and confesse in our Creed that He suffered according to the Scriptures and dyed and rose againe according to the Scriptures and that the Scriptures doe plainely testifie that by His sufferings and death the wrath of God against mans sinne is fully satisfied which as I said could not be but by His sufferings in His soule as well as in His body After these sufferings under Pontius Pilate what needes a second remembrance of His suffrings in soule under a title of a descent into hell Therefore when as I am bound to beleeve and confesse that the sufferings of Christ under Pontius Pilate were according to the Scriptures that is in soule and body I am bound to deny that the suffering of Christ in His soule is the native meaning of this Article He descended into hell 2. Beside the doctrine of Faith being a catechisme doctrine Heb. 6.1 and the sum thereof being for the use of children and novices it is not likely that the Church would have so generally received a creed wherin the thing to be beleeved should be laid down inwords that were tropicall and obscure when plaine and proper termes were necessary and at hand But hell cannot signifie the torments of hell but by a metonymia of the place for the adjunct of the place neither yet could it properly be said That our Saviour went down into hell when He was lifted up upon the Crosse where the especiall endurance and expression of His hellish torments were both in soule and body 2. Neither can it truely be said He descended into hell that is He suffered in soule the torments of hell but by a Synecdoche of the whole man for one part Neither were these torments of His soule more properly or truely called torments of hel then those torments of His body which we confesse He suffered under Pontius Pilate 3. Moreover after He was dead and buried it comes in unduly againe to make mention of His sufferings in soule a great part of which were endured in the garden before He came to the hands either of Pilate or of the Priests 4. And yet beyond all these reasons there is another argument that the Church did not interpret this Article by the sufferings of Christs Soule because as Gerrardus Vossius puts it De statu animae separatae Qu 1. It was the received opinion of the ancient Fathers even to this our time That the soules of the faithfull before Christ entred not into Paradise till Christ by His death had set it open and entred thereinto according to His promise to the thiefe on the Crosse And if all the soules of the faithfull were in hell taken in the second sence before mentioned though in a place of rest as Theophilus speakes and that by the comming of Christ thither they were brought to Paradise or a place of further joy then certainely this Article must in their iudgement be interpreted by the descent of Christ into hell after his death rather then by the sorrowes of His soule before it And to this purpose the learned Vossius brings some 20. Fathers from Tacianus the schollar of Iustin Martyr about the yeere of Christ 180. before whom He might have put His master Iustin as it is plaine in his Triphon Among those Fathers are Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Eusebius Athanasius Ambrose Ierom Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustin Cyril and beside them whom he reckons up he ads innumerable others and with them the sentence of the Councill of Toledo in the yeere 633. He descended into Hell that He might free them which were there detained Aug. Ep 99. writes thus If the reason be asked why our Saviour would come into hell where those sorrowes are of which He could not be held
there was no cause why it might not be wholly Paradise The description of the foure rivers of Paradise Genes 2. doe not obscurely shew it howsoever Beroaldus would bring them all within the compasse of * See Gen 2.13 14. Dan. 10.4 Canaan other by as strange Geography to the springs and falls of Tigris and Euphrates But I hold That that Paradise of Eden wherein Adam was put after his creation was not in the Moone nor in the Aire as some have thought but some speciall place of the earth of plenty and pleasure above the rest as we see there are great differences unto this day And though many places are growne barren and fruitlesse for want of husbandry and especially to proove the just indignation of God against sinne and to manifest the trueth of that word Cursed is the earth for thy sake Yet to the soule being separate and so without the helpe of the sences and imagination by the light which God hath given to it able by it selfe to see what the possibilities of the whole creature are every place is a Paradise while it considers the infinite goodnesse and power of God in the creature as well in that which is deprived of the effects thereof as in that wherein His goodnesse is still effectuall For as there be three estates of mans being This of the Warriour in this life That after death of the Conquerour And the third after the resurrection of the Triumpher So likewise are there three meanes and degrees of His knowledge One in this life wherein wee know nothing but by our sences from whence the imagination or fantasie that Hevah the mother of all living carries unto reason her Adam all the species or formes of things which shee gathers from the sences For nothing lives in the understanding but by the power of the fantasie which because it is false fickle and will of it selfe without reason be working upon every object as the appetite is mooved thereby therefore the reason following the fantasie is deceived and not constant and so it comes to passe that wee know few things according to the trueth which is in them But in that second estate of man when the body returnes to the earth and his sences and consequently his fantasie doth utterly perish Psalm 146.4 Then the soule looking on the creature with its owne eyes sees the wonderfull blessing and goodnesse whereof man had beene made partaker in the right use of the creature if he had not lost the knowledge thereof by his sinne and returnes to the Author thereof that praise that is due to Him therefore and acknowledges that state wherein hee lives out of the proper habitation to bee the reward of sinne yet because it doth evermore enjoy the comforts of God in a certaine knowledge and some present feeling of those joyes whereof it shall be fully partaker hereafter in the perfection of the whole man and sees that this separation is but a preparation for a further perfection in that immortall being which is to come it hath thereby as it were a seisure and delivery of those heavenly joyes which it had here onely in assurance of hope though till the third state it hath not the full possession And although the soule of the wicked man views indeed the creature and knowes now the losse of that blessing which it might have had in the right use thereof yet because it hath no hope in the life to come all that knowledge which it hath is but to see further the wretchednesse of it selfe and for a foretaste of that bitter cup of wrath which it must drinke even to the dregs And this foretaste is able to make all the creature hell unto the miserable soule as the joyes and assurance of heaven make all places Paradise to the faithfull For the devill was not therefore happy because hee was in heaven Iob 1.6 and 1 Kings 22.22 nor therefore miserable because hee was thrust out Reuel 12.9 for not the place but the holy Spirit of comfort onely which never leaves the faithfull soule Iohn 14.16 gives heauenly happinesse as that soule which is destitute thereof hath hell in it selfe and must needs be in hell wheresoever it is Now as it is most certaine that there is such a meane state betweene this of mortality and that of glory so is it most reasonable to thinke that this is the imployment of the soule at least for a time before it bee raised up with the body in glory For seeing man was therefore set in the creature and therefore indued with a reasonable soule that he might in the creature behold the Wisedome and goodnesse of God and to His praise bee happy in the right use thereof It was necessary that He should know the creature and the possibilities thereof which knowledge having by his sinne debarred himselfe of he could not use the creature aright and so became mortall Yet seeing it is impossible that the sinne of man should frustrate the end of God but that He should be glorified by man whom He hath purposed so exceedingly to glorifie therefore in that second estate wherein the soule is better fitted to know as the Angels by intuition or view of the creature onely shall that be effected Moreover seeing our Lord ascended not to heaven before His soule was joyned againe to the body and that it may not reasonably bee thought that the seruant in his greatest basenesse and lowest estate should have preeminence before his Lord nor yet that the soule that most active part of man should be idle what can the soule and understanding bee busied about but onely in the enquirie of that trueth and wisedome which God hath manifested in the creature But whether this inquest shall be immediately after the soules departure from the body or at the time of restitution of which Saint Peter speakes Act. 3.20 I cannot define But although for the trueth and quietnesse sake with them that would instantly be in heaven I denied not an immediate passage into heaven for the faithfull since Christ yet seeing most of the sonnes of Adam must come into this middle state I see not why any man should withdraw himselfe from that taske whereby he ought to give honour unto his Creator Obiect 1 Objection 1. But by this you put a possibilitie of those illusisions of the devill appearing as the ghosts of the dead and justifie that poeticall fiction of Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. that they of the golden-age became all Angels and in ayrie bodies lived every where on the earth seeing all the good and ill deedes of men I answere All things are not therefore false because A Poet affirms them but that which he speakes out of the light of nature is certainely true and this what waight soever it hath swayes on my side But for the upholding of those old-wives fables of the walking of the spirits of the dead there is no feare For being dead they must keep
the law of the dead and not live to us that are dead to them for when they are gone from hence they are no more seene Psal 39.13 Thus much it was necessary to speake concerning the meanes of the soules knowledge while it is in the state of separation from the body The third manner and degree of the soules knowledge by comprehension in the morning vision is when the whole man glorified shall see the true being of all things in Him that is the cause of all For then shall it know as it is knowne as you may see 1. Cor. 13.12 But this kind of knowledge belongs nothing to the question that is in hand 4. The other kind of descent which is in state or manner of being is when any thing is changed from any estate either proper thereto or else appropriate to an estate or condition that is or seemes to be lower or worse Thus our Lord was said to descend or come downe from heaven when He clouded His Deitie in our humanitie as I have shewed heretofore Thus also He and all man-kind may be said to descend to be abased or brought low when the soule is parted from the body For seeing both the parts are for the perfection of the whole the whole must needs be more excellent than either of the parts so that the whole being dissolved both the parts doe suffer hurt or losse thereby especially the soule which sees the losse and findes it selfe in a state of being beside the end of the creation of it selfe which was to give life unto the body and this is the cause why the soule would not bee unclothed but rather that this mortalitie might bee swallowed up of life And this is the lowest state of humiliation whereto the soule of our Lord could come naturally and by this state some will interpret the descent into hell as I shewed in the beginning Nu. 2. But if this humiliation must meane also the separation of the soule from the body while the body was laid in the dust it reaches no further than to his death For a man is not said to bee dead till his soule be departed from his body But if this state of humiliation be taken in that sence as some doe very fitly interpret it by that phrase used often in the Scripture of a mans being gathered unto his people or cōming unto that congregation of the saints which had died in the faith of Him that was to come then taking also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hell according to the interpretation of the word Vnseen it will easily be admitted of all that when our Saviour was dead His body was buryed and his soule went unto the assembly of them that were unseene And because this is true safe and unquestionable it may on all parts be agreed unto as I said before and yet the word of descending or going downe reserved to the right meaning by the abatement or losse of that estate which the soule had with the body in the being of the whole and perfect man So also the question about the place of hell and Paradise which hath moved most doubt herein by this interpretation is avoyded But because all this will reach no further than to be perfectly dead and because the Latine interpretation Descendit ad inferos rendered by our Church Hee went downe into hell suffers us not to stay here and because the most voices amongst the Fathers have swayed the meaning to a locall descent and that as it seemes in the third sence spoken of before and most of all because the holy Scripture binds us thereto let us follow our best and surest guides and confesse with the Prophets and Apostles that the soule of our Lord after His death on the Crosse went downe into hell or the place of the dead and there continued three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth as it was prophesied in the signe of Ionas the Prophet Matth. 12.40 And let us beleeve that the flesh of Christ did therefore rest in hope because His soule was not left in hell nor His body was suffered to see corruption Psal 16.9 10. Actes 2.31 Obiect 1 Objection 1. They object that the soule may signifie the whole man as in Gen. 46.27 All the soules of the house of Iacob were 70. But how doth that helpe to prove that this Article must bee interpreted onely of the torments of Christs soule while Hee was yet alive For it is manifest that Saint Peter bringing that text to prove His resurrection speakes not of Christs soule while it was yet in his body when He was not subject to a state of resurrection but of His soule after His death But if they will hope by that text of Gen. or the like to interpret it as Al. Hume loc cit Thou shalt not leave mee in the grave let them answere mee what they meane by this word Mee whether the body or the soule or both together If they say the soule it was not in the graue they will bee ashamed to say both together for so they should make Him not yet to be dead as the word Mee doth truely signifie the whole Person yet alive jf they say the body let them see what an unfit tautologie it will make with that which followeth Nor suffer thy Holy one that is the body of Thy Holy one to see corruption But in this place the soule and the body are made direct disparates so hell and the place of corruption so that we may argue the body was in the place of corruption Ergo not in hell the soule was in hell Ergo not in the grave or place of corruption Obiect 2 Object 2. The purpose of Saint Peter was to prove the resurrection of Christ and that belonged to the body which had died not to the soule which died not Answere If this be given what will you conclude thereon But I say the resurrection is of the whole man returned againe to life after the parting of the soule and the body So it is neither of the body onely nor of the soule onely but of the whole man which Saint Peter prooves heere to have beene done in Christ because His soule was not left in hell where it was but was againe joyned to the body to cause it to live that it might not see corruption And because all the glorious doings and sufferings of our Saviour were for our uttermost benefit and comfort therefore is this going downe of His into hell also to give us assurance of our full and perfect deliverance from all the powers of death and hell and restoring of all His beleevers unto an immortall life and glory And because the doctrine of our Church into which I was baptized bindes me to beleeve that our Lord Iesus after His death went downe into hell locally and that by the authorities of the Scripture and because I have before shewed that the soule of Christ did not ascend to heaven before
to Him alone For though she hold other Churches her sisters called faithfull and beloved and esteemes of their true Pastors and Doctors as beautifull and shining lights yet followes shee nothing of any mans because it is his whether Luther or Calvin or any other but Christ her Lord alone doth she follow according to his owne rule My sheepe heare my voice a stranger will they not follow for they know not the voice of strangers But therfore as I said before so doe I still professe that if this Church upon any light from God shall hereafter declare the meaning of this Article otherwayes than I have done I forsake my selfe to follow her so far as she shall follow Christ And if any faithfull man be otherwise minded concerning the meaning of this Article then I have shewed yet doe not I therefore hold him of another Church or faith so long as he doth hold fast the foundation one God and one Mediator betweene God and man the man Iesus Christ For the Kingdome of God is not in the excellency of knowledge much lesse in wilfulnesse of opinion in matier of doubt but in joy and peace and comfort of the Holy-Ghost while a man doth those things which he knowes in himselfe he is bound to performe ARTICLE V. ⧠The third day Hee rose againe from the dead CHAP. XXIX THe sufferings of Christ were fulfilled as wee have seene now it followes that wee see the glories that should follow after of which the first is His triumph over death by His resurrection from the dead set against that in the Article before Hee was dead and buried And although by His death He is said to have triumphed over the principalities and powers of death and hell in His Crosse Col. 2.15 that is by the power and vertue of His merit as a champion by His valour and courage in the field overcame His enemie yet the actuall manifestation of His triumph was not solemnized till by His resurrection the power and glory of His victory did appeare But it may here be asked How Christ our Lord is said to have risen againe seeing Saint Paul saith Rom. 6.4 That Hee was raysed againe by the glory of the Father To which the answere is easily returned that Christ our Lord by His owne active power as He was God raised Himselfe from the dead and as man by a passive or received power was raised againe as He said of Himselfe Iohn 10.18 I have power to lay downe my life of my selfe and I have power to take it up againe This commandement have I received from my Father For for this end was it necessary that our Mediatour should be both God and man in one Person that that which was not fit nor possible for the God-head might bee endured in the humanity as those things which concerned His death and suâ—fering and that which was impossible to His pure humanâ—â—â— might yet therein be perfected by His divinitie as Saint Paul saith Rom. 1.3.4 that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to bee the Sonne of God by His resurrection from the dead But there is a great difference betweene the state or manner of His being before His death and after His resurrection For although the unitie of the humanitâ—e with the God-â—ead were alwayeâ— before in and after His death the same yet was not that unitie alwayes manifested in the same glory and excellency For in the first state while He bare our infirmities His body was subiect to hunger cold wearinesse death and other accidents of a naturall body His soule also though according to the principall or first acts endued with the excellencie of reason and knowledge yet according to the second acts or practise not knowing the grave of Lazarus the day of Iudgement c. In the second state also His body was deprived of sence and life His soule of the proper habitation But in His resurrection His body was raysed immortall spirituall 1. Cor. 15.44.45 glorious and as in all the perfection of grace and compassion on us so with the fulnesse of Wisedome and Knowledge to see our miseries and to make intercession for us according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. Now concerning the trueth of this Article that our Lord Iesus rose againe from the dead though it be most powerfully witnessed by God Himselfe by Angels and men as you may read yet because the authoritie of the Scriptures wherin those things are recorded is set at nought by Iewes Turkes Infidels Hereticks and such God lesse people let not us endeavour to leade them like sheepe that follow their shepherd but drive them like asses with the cudgell of reason And as Saint Peter Actes 2.24 takes his first argument from the impossibility of not performing those things which are contained in the Scripture so our arguments shall be from the impossibilities in reason 1. It hath been prooved before that man was created innocent Chapter 15. That by his sinne he became subiect to death Chapter 16. That there is a restoring to a better estate Chapter 18. And that the restorer of mankind must be both God and man Chapter 20. and 21. Then that this restorer was Iesus our Lord the Sonne of the Virgin Mary Chapter 24. who by His sufferings and death made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world Whence I argue thus For the greatest good that can be done for mankind the greatest ill may not be rewarded for that were unjust with God The greatest good that could come to mankind was the ransoming of man from eternall death both of the body and soule The greatest ill and basenesse is to be left continually in the state of death wherein if Christ had still continued then had He suffered the greatest ill for the greatest good which could bee performed But this was impossible Therefore our Lord did rise againe from the dead 2. If Christ who sinned not should have borne the punishment of sinne that is to be subject to the power of death yea when the satisfaction was fully ended then should His obedience to God the Father have beene not onely without reward but also for the satisfaction of the justice God had He suffered from God I speake after the manner of men extreame injustice who had neither sinne of His owne for which He should suffer and had fully satisfied for their sinnes whose surety He was But this was utterly impossible For he that fulfilleth the Law shall live therein Levit. 18.5 ergo It was necessary that Christ having fulfilled the Law Iohn 19.30 Luk. 24.44 should rise againe 3. If Christ after His suffering and death had not risen againe then had He not prooved Himselfe to be the Saviour of the world seeing none would have beleeved Him to be able to give life unto others that was not able to quicken Himselfe So His suffering had beene in vaine and His satisfaction if not beleeved should have beene to
no purpose So His greatest and best worke had effected no good to us but a perpetuall ill unto Himselfe But all these things were impossible Therefore Christ our Lord did rise againe 4. It is impossible but that where the greatest union is there should be the greatest love and consent The greatest union that may be is in our Mediator seeing the humane nature is sustained in the Person of the Deity But the soule of Christ being separate did naturally desire to bee united to the body for otherwayes should it not have desired the perfection of it selfe that is to give life and sence and to be one with that body which was peculiar to it selfe as the desire of all humane soules is and therefore depart so unwillingly from the body But if this were the naturall desire of the soule no way sinfull the Deity infinite in power and in regard of the unity consenting thereto it must follow of necessity that our Lord was raised againe from the dead 5. Contrary causes must have contrary effects The devill by the sinne which he wrought in Adam had caused death to prevaile over life in all mankind Therefore Christ who came to destroy the workes of the deuill must cause life to prevaile over death But this could not be done in the members before it was perfected in the head Therefore Christ being dead must of necessity bee the first fruits of them that are raised from the dead And if it were necessary that Christ should first rise Ergo it was impossible that He should not rise See Log. chap. 26.11.1 6. If Christ our Lord had not beene raised from death a then had it beene impossible that any of His beleevers should bee raised againe by the power and merit of His resurrection 1. And so the naturall desire of the soule to dwell with the body should be created in vaine 2. So the debt being paid the prisoner should ever be detained 3. So the afflictions of the Saints which they have suffered in body should be in vaine as cold hunger nakednesse reproach and shame imprisonment stripes yea and death it selfe willingly sustained for the love of God should be without reward But it were against the justice of God to cause the body and soule to suffer together and not to glorifie them both together 4. So also the death of Christ should not be meritorious and effectuall for the procuring of all that good which might and ought to come thereby both to Himselfe and all His beleevers For although the soules of the faithfull for the merit and full satisfactions sake of His death being separate might enjoy an eternall though not a full happinesse without the body yet the body should be left eternally to the power of death and so the workes of the devill should not be destroyed by Christ 5. So also the body should be created in vaine if to sorrow onely without the hope of happinesse 6. So God should lose His right in His creature if Hee were not Lord both of the living and of the dead both of the soule and of the body 7. So the one sinne and disobedience of Adam should be more powerfull to condemne mankind then the everlasting and most perfect obedience of the Sonne of God should be to save it But all these things are impossible And therefore Saint Paul saith Rom. 4.25 That Christ was delivered to death for our sinne and raised againe for our Iustification For if Christ be not raised againe then are we yet in our sinnes 1. Cor. 15.17 not that any addition was made by His resurrection to that satisfaction which He made by His death but because the resurrection of Christ is a sure and manifest proofe of His conquest over sinne death hell and all the power of the devill and that His suffering and death was a full and sufficient sacrifice whereby the wrath of God against sinne was fully satisfied so that we are now justified in His sight whereas if in the conflict of our Redeemer with death and hell He had been overcome then could we have had no faith nor hope that our sinne by His death had beene done away But now knowing that He hath overcome death and is returned to life againe in all the troubles and sorrowes of this life and in the agonies of death wee may be secure as the feet or toes that are lowest under the water may hope at last to come to land because they know that their head being above the water the body cannot be drowned 7. Now concerning that impossibility of Saint Peter it stands thus It is impossible that the Scripture being the declaration of Gods trueth made by Himselfe 2. Pet. 1.21 2. Tim. 3.16 should faile But it hath beene declared by the Scripture that Christ should be raised againe from the dead Therefore it was impossible that He should still be held under the power of death The text cited by Saint Peter is found Psal 16.10 to which you may adde the types of the old Testament whereby the death and resurrection of our Lord was signified as that of Noah Gen. 9. ver 20. c. When our Saviour being as it were drunken with the love of His Church and desire of mans salvation tooke our state upon Him and for us became subject to the death of the Crosse when being seene by the Iewes those Chumits in the nakednesse or infirmity of our estate He was set at nought by them that thought that their Messiah could not die Iohn 14.34 But when Noah our Rest and Comforter awaked out of His grave He brought on them that destruction which was foretold as the punishment of their hardnesse of heart and unbeliefe See Psalm 41.10 Dan. 9.26 So the Ram taken by his hornes in the bush Gen. 22. was the type of His death and Isaac taken alive from the Altar the figure of His resurrection Ioseph also taken out of the dungeon to be ruler over all the land of Egypt To the same purpose was the law of the two goates Levit. 6. the one slaine for a sinne offering the other sent alive into a land of separation to make an atonement for all iniquity transgressions and sinne of the people So by the two Sparrowes Levit. 14. He that was like to the solitary sparrow on the house top Psalm 102.7 shed His blood for the cleansing of our leprosie yet by the other that was sent alive into the open ayre His resurrection was figured Sampson the Nazarite asleepe in Gaza signified our Lord in the sleepe of death for the love of His Church yet waking and having opened the gates of death He carryed them away and ascended in triumph to the top of the mount Iudg. 16.3 And because the strong gates of death are carryed away we are assured that all they that sleepe in the dust of death shall rise to give an account of their workes Beside these types you have also the prophecies of the old Testament as Psalm
darknesse unto that day and bring upon them that destruction which they sought to bring upon all man-kind And shall also reward those servants of His which have continued faithfull in His service whether they be Angels or men 4. None is so fit to judge betweene two as hee that hath interest in both parties and knowes the worthinesse of them both and that not onely in his understanding but also by his experience of them both But man-kind is to be judged for that which hee hath done contrary or according to the will of God Therefore seeing our Lord Iesus is very God and very man as it hath beene prooved Hee shall be the judge of the quicke and the dead 5. In every orderly and just judgement both the Iudge and the sentence ought to be manifest and knowne to all them that are to be judged And because man kind is to bee sentenced to joy or paine eternall both in soule and body And that if either the Person of the Father or of the Holy-Ghost should judge otherwayes than by the Son as they are no way to bee apprehended by the bodily sences of the wicked so neither could the judge be seene nor the sentence heard Therefore it is necessary that our Lord Iesus doe execute the generall judgement as being the Mediator betweene God and His creature And that the performance of that judgement bee by Him in His manly being as it is said Iohn 5.27 1. For seeing the exaltation and glory of Christ is the reward of His humilitie Phil. 2.8.9 it is just with God that He that was most unjustly judged should be the Iudge of all the world 2. Moreover seeing He hath received power to raise the dead for that which He performed in His man-hood it is fit that the judgement should be by Him in His man-hood 3. And seeing in His manly being He taught the way to everlasting life it is fit that He in His manly being should require of us an account of the practise of His precepts 6. None is so fit to judge the world as He in whom the perfection of justice and compassion on man-kind are accorded Our Lord Iesus because He is God is infinite in His justice and because He is man and knowes mans weakenesse better than man himselfe therefore can none be so mercifull and compassionate on man as He especially having Himselfe beene oppressed by the most unjust judgements of the Priests and of Pilate Therefore our Lord Iesus shall judge the quicke and the dead For being pronounced innocent and yet condemned Iohn 18.38 and 19.6.16 Hee hath power to acquit them that are condemned in themselues and to give them His innocencie that it may bee availeable to them which was not availeable to Himselfe 7. This is that doctrine which He left unto His Church as it is said Actes 10.42 Iesus of Nazareth commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is Hee which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quicke and the dead So Saint Paul Rom. 14.10 11. saith from the Prophet Esay 45.23 wee shall all stand before the judgement Seate of Christ For it is written as I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to mee and every tongue shall confesse to God 2. Tim. 4.1 The Lord Iesus shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome And Rev. 1.7 Behold Hee commeth with the cloudes and every eye shall see Him even they that pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall waile because of Him Even so Amen Notes §. 1. Sect. 1 a AS some have thought Divers unnecessary questions have beene moved about this generall judgement Some concerning the signes and circumstances that goe before it As whether that fire which goes before the face of the judge be it by which the Heaven and earth shall be purged Some concerning the adjuncts of the judgement as concerning the place whether it shall be in the valley of Iehoshaphat For which they bring Ioel 3. verse 2. and 12. And reason that He shall judge there where He was judged and despitefully entreated For this valley is betweene Ierusalem and Mount Olivet over which our Lord was led to Ierusalem after He was taken in the close of Gethsemane which valley some suppose to bee named of Iehoshaphat the King and that because he gave thankes there with his Armie after his spoile of the Ammonites 2. Chron. 20. But the circumstances of the history accord not well with this but rather that that valley of Barachah where the King gave thankes was in the Tribe of Iuda neere to the wildernesse of Ieruel as Adrichomius describes it from Ierom Brocard and others But this being put that the Lord shall descend from heaven to judge wheresoever He shall judge according to the interpretation of the Name Iehova is Iudge there is the valley of Iehoshaphat which the Prophet therfore mentioneth because that valley was the usuall place where they buryed the Israelites that died at Ierusalem So they move question heere what causes and persons shall come into Iudgement And the consequents of the judgement they enquire what manner of fire the fire of hell is and supposing it to bee bodily to torment the bodies of the damned how the devills which they suppose to be purely Spirits can be tormented by a bodily fire And hereupon also they move doubt about the qualities of the bodies which according to the opinion of the Stoicks concerning the soules Lactant. lib. 7. cap. 20. to the damned they thinke shall be base and subject to passion to the blessed contrary with many such curious questions as you may see in Tho. Aqu. in Sent. lib. 4. Dist 44.5 6. c. of which perhaps you may find some answered heere as far as it stands with the clearing of this Article 1. And first because the ill angels were utterly given over for their sinne and they by their malice confirmed onely in ill their actions being ever unanswerable and they before-hand condemned therfore it may seeme that there shall be no enquirie of their actions but onely the sentence of condemnation is to passe upon them and accordingly the execution So the good Angels because they have beene kept from sinne and confirmed in goodnesse are exempted from enquiry of their actions being onely good so they shall have the sentence of approbation 2. Concerning Infants there is much more question For some will have all the Infants of infidels to bee damned others put to them the infants of beleevers also that were never baptized And this hard sentence is passed on them because their originall sinne was never washed away in baptisme But seeing originall guiltinesse in Infants is onely by the staine of nature that the whole world may be guilty before God and so be the subject of His mercie Rom. 3.19 may it not stand as well with the mercy of God that the faith of their Parents should bee imputed to them
not this knowledge of Christ and yet whosoever is saved among them cannot be saved by any other meanes then by His mediation and satisfaction therfore this being among those secret things which belong unto God Deut. 29.29 Wee must leave it unto Him as to choose among them whom He will take to Himselfe So also how Hee will make the Saviour knowne unto them § 3. Now concerning that sentence which is to passe upon them that are to be judged by the ballancing of their workes good and ill as was shewed before I affirme as our holy Church hath taught me out of the holy Scriptures Art 12. That good workes can neither put away our sinnes nor availe vs any thing for satisfaction for our sinnes towards God much lesse merit eternall life no nor endure the severity of Gods judgement if He should examine our best workes yea even our prayers are not without sinne according to the rule of His justice And therefore to teach that we shall be justified unto everlasting life if our good workes shall be moe and more heauy then our ill or if our ill exceed we shall be damned is a line of heresie contrary to the wholesome words of the holy Scripture as where our Lord saith Luke 17.10 When yee shall have done all those things which are commanded you say wee are unprofitable servants wee have done that which was our duty to doe Saint Paul also saith Rom. 3.24 Wee are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus Read further what you find to this purpose to the 15. verse of Chap. 4. Moreover seeing in many things wee sinne all how can it be thought that the workes of a finite creature can any way be accepted for satisfaction of sinnes against an infinite justice I answer That it doth I but we are commanded to worke out our salvation Answer This argument with other to the like purpose you may find with their answeres in the end of the 19. Chapter One text of Scripture there is 2 Cor. 5.10 which is directly to this Article of the last judgement And because it troubled me for a long time and may perhaps trouble the minds of others that have as little understanding as my selfe I will willingly helpe them as I was holpen The words are We must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ that every man may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Why blessed Paul quoth I what new Gospel is this Is the merit of Christ so vanished that we must be justified according to our workes If so then certainely Christ did die in vaine I imparted my doubt but found no satisfaction then I remembred that this second Epistle was as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an addition or further explication of such things as the Corinthians had enquired and to which he had answered in the former as you read Chap 7.1 And so I tooke this text to stand as a proposition for further proofe of the resurrection thus The Law of justice requires that every man should suffer in his body according to that which he hath done be it good or bad Therefore the body shall rise againe At last conferring with my reverend and learned friend Master R. S. about this text he taught me the true understanding thereof with more joy to me then if he should have given me the wealth of an Alderman or the honour of a great Lord to wit That the faithfull being received into everlasting life for the merit and satisfaction of Christ which is made theirs by faith and to the penny given Mat. 20. their obedience also shall be crowned according to the difference of their workes And thus the Saints in the resurrection shall differ as one starre differeth from another in glory And as it is in the reward of the Saints so shall the difference be in those punishments which shal be awarded unto the wicked as it is said Lu. 12 47 48. The seruant that knew His Lords will and prepared not himselfe neither did according to His will shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes And therefore thou that art called by that glorious name of a Christian see that thy workes be answerable to thy profession for it is not the bare name or profession onely that shall availe thee any thing Non honor est sed onus species laesura ferentem unlesse thou doest walke according to the rule of Christianity Let every one that calleth on the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity otherways it will be easier for those Pagans and Infidells whom thou doest condemne then for thee b There shall not be any remembrance See the Note a before § 2. c That confessed the resurrection Some twenty sects of heretickes may be reckoned that denyed the resurrection of the body and all these are bound to deny the generall judgement in that sence as we understand it But Iohn Vossius De extr Iud Thes 1. writes out of Philastrius but leaves it to your courtesie to beleeve it That 4. sects of hereticks did in particular deny this Article But Philastrius walkes alone for neither they that write of heresies before him as Irenaeus and Tertullian nor Epiphanius in his owne time nor Augustine after him mention any such thing Concerning the Borborites and Florinians whom he accuses they held nothing to infringe this Article either directly or by any consequence But Proclus because he denyed that Christ was come in the flesh denyed it in our meaning but not absolutely The Manichees were indeed farre from hence not onely because they said that Christ redeemed onely the soules of men but especially because they denyed the resurrection of the body How much better thought the heathen who though they knew not the resurrection nor the generall judgement as wee yet they held a particular judgement as it appeares by Acacus Manos and Radamanth and so joy in Elysium and torments in hell as you may reade in Platoes Phaedon in Virgil Aeneid lib. 6. and elsewhere Quà m penè furvae regna Proserpinae Et judicantem vidimus Aeacum c. d Never to be reversed Sibyl toward the end of her second booke seemes to dispense with the rigour of this sentence and to leane to that heathenish fancy of purgatory not that of the Papists but that when the damned have in hell payed thrice so much punishment as their sinnes came to then at the entreaty of the Saints they shall bee freed from thence into Elysium For if you reade her verses that goe before and after they will sound so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another thing th' Eternall God unto the Saints will grant When they shall humbly pray unto His sacred Maiesty To save men from
whether they be elementall vegetable and sensitive and likewise of things that have imagination and reason See hereto Chap. 17. § 4. n. 5. or else because all bodily beings shall have their rest and perfection in him and with him or at least because he uses these things to such workes as are acceptable to God But if there be no resurrection then after the end of this world man in whom and with whom all these things are to receive their perfection not being at all all these things have no end of their being and so either not being at all or else being for no end their creation as concerning their uttermost and true end which is the eternall glory of God should bee in vaine and that expectation or groaning of the creature to bee delivered from the bondage of corruption of which Saint Paul speakes Rom. 8. should also be in vaine and the promise of making all things new Rev. 21.5 Es 65.17 2. Pet. 3.13 should also bee of none effect But all these things are impossible Ergo. It is necessary that there be a resurrection of the body and eternall life 12. Neither is the body nor yet the soule for it selfe but both the one and the other that both together may make one perfect man So the perfection and blessednesse of the whole man is more than that which can come onely to one part But if there bee not a resurrection of the body this greater blessednesse is utterly lost so that although the soule bee happie for ever yet the greater blessednesse of the soule and body together suffers eternall privation So the whole should be onely that one part may bee happie so the hope even of the faithfull should bee in vaine and their eternall happinesse onely in imperfection and so the punishment of the wicked But these things stand neither with the justice of God nor the trueth of His promises Therefore the body shall rise againe 13. And because this is our last hope and uttermost comfort in all our calamities and a speciall bridle to restraine from sinne it is fit that upon all occasions you should exercise your selfe to make this conclusion on whatsoever you thinke or whatsoever you heare out of the holy Scriptures For every promise and every threatning therein brings you to this that a reckoning must be given for all that which you have done in the body For if the body with the sences the servants of the soule either for sinne or righteousnesse should not live againe then the divine justice in reward and punishment should be defective but this is impossible The texts that are plaine you will understand by your selfe as that of Moses in Psal 90.3 Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Returneye children of men Some are a little further off which yet you may easily bring hither as Esay 38.18 19. The grave cannot praise thee They that goe downe into the pit cannot hope for thy trueth The living the living hee shall Praise thee as I doe this day Therefore the dead shall rise againe For seeing man was made to glorifie God in his body and in his soule and that his end cannot bee frustrate man must live againe that his mercy and justice may be praised both by the good and the bad Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses 2. Tim. 3.8 Therfore Moses Iannes and Iambres must come to judgement For it is a just thing with God to reward you and to punish them that trouble you 2. Thes 1.6.7 And if for your further satisfaction you will reade that which the Fathers have written you may take that which goes under the name of Iustine the Martyr in his questions of the Greekes the oration of Athenagoras concerning the resurrection of the dead Irenaus lib. 5. cap. 4. c. his arguments for the most part taken from Athenagoras Theophilus lib. 1. ad Autolycum Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. cap. 10. Reade also that excellent booke of Tertullian of this argument where you may see what his judgement is concerning the qualities of the bodies being raised and some objections to the contrary answered This Article the Iewes both Cabalists and Talmudists hold so firmely against that heresie of the Sadduces that they say That he can have no part in the world to come which denies the resurrection Lib. Sanhedrin Cap. Halec Neither is there any man that lives and sees the continuall course of nature in the digestion of the food that can deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the body of which Pythagoras and after him Plato speakes in Phaed. and most of all Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15.39 § 3. Yet so fearefull is the judgement which follows after the resurrection unto the Atheist that he searches all corners of cavills against it you shall take some of them with their answeres as I find them in Tertullian and Thomas Aquinas contr gent. lib. 4. cap. 80 and 81. Object 1 Object 1. And first it is said 1 Cor. 15.50 That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God Answer Till by grace it is made spirituall So not the substance of the flesh is there understood but the present estate thereof with the lusts and wicked desires which if a man doe mortifie by the Spirit he shall live Rom. 8.13 So in Iohn 6.63 The flesh profiteth nothing understand the fleshly-minded man which of himselfe knoweth not the things of God and those things which belong to sanctification and eternall life But concerning the being or substance of the flesh or body of man seeing it was tempered by Gods owne hand fashioned according to His jmage made the seat of the soule so excellent a being by which and with which the soule workes whatsoever it doth seeing in the holy Baptisme the flesh is wash't that the soule may be cleane seeing in the holy Supper the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is received by the mouth that the soule may be strengthened in God seeing our bodies are the members of Christ the temples of the Holy-Ghost and He dwells in them seeing our bodies are not our owne but Gods 1 Cor. 6. seeing they are the instruments of holinesse in all the workes of mercy in prayers in wholesome counsell almes deeds in indurance of sorrowes in fasting in imprisonment in martyrdome in death it is impossible that God should leave forlorne the workemanship of His owne hands the closet of His owne breath the masterpiece of His cunning the heire of His riches and the Priest of His religion and service to dwell in eternall death that He should not heale the wounds and restore those dead to life which have beene wounded and slaine for His sake And though the flesh in it selfe be weake and through sinne utterly lost yet seeing our Lord came to seeke and to save that which was lost and that He Himselfe hath borne our sinnes it is impossible that either the merit of Christ for us or the mercy and goodnesse of
to come And although by all the arguments of the two last Chapters and many before the question may receive an easie solution yet to give full satisfaction is this which followes in particular But to brand both the questions and the moâ—ers thereof with their due infamy it must ever be remembred that the errour of the mortality of the soule doth take away the foundation of all religion and common honesty For how can he make due reckoning of honesty that cares onely for himselfe to shift and sharke for a present maintenance in worldly plenty and supposed â—oy and thinkes that all is ended with him in this life Or what reverence can he have of God or His seruice who is not perswaded that there is a God or if that must needs be put yet is he perswaded that with this life ended his soule also comes to nothing And if there be no reward oâ— any virtue or of any religion is it not better to follow the pleasures of sinne with greedinesse 1. But Atheist I answere That if God should so neglect them that honour Him as that He would not reward them neither in this life nor yet in that which is to come then were He unjust if He knew not their devotion then were He not wise But these things are impossible for thee to suppose that God should be either unjust or unwise For perfect justice such as the infinite justice of God is doth ever bring foorth a judgement in which it must appeare that in Him that is infinitely just there was neither ignorance of the service done unto him nor any disability to reward it which because it appeares not in this life certainely it must be manifested hereafter Therefore the soule is immortall 2. Seeing all the world cannot affoord that which may give a full content unto the soule that judges rightly of every thing Seeing we are taught 1 Iohn 2.15 not to love this world neither the things of this world it is manifest that the true happinesse of the soule ought not to be sought here among those things that are inferiour and below the dignity and state of the soule which can be blessed onely in the sight of God as our Lord hath taught us Mat. 5.8 Therefore the elect of God which according to His counsell and command seeke true happinesse in another life shall in another life be sure to find it 1 Iohn 2.17 3. The working of the soule cannot be hindered by the body not onely the spirituall actions of the understanding and motion of the will but even the actions of the soule upon the body as I have somewhere given instance in the beating of the pulse and whatsoever hath motion of it owne nature cannot be hindred to attaine that end whereto nature drives it and the thing it selfe desires to come as the continuance and perfection of it selfe because nature doth not worke in vaine and the soule doth naturally desire true happinesse that is spirituall eternall and beseeming the nature of it selfe Therefore the soule is immortall 4. No substance which is intellectuall is corruptible For corruption in substances comes onely by the separation of the matier and essentiall forme And because beings intellectuall that is such as have power of an active understanding doe not consist of matier but are of themselues pure formes therefore they are not subject to corruption and death properly so called And although the soule beside the power of understanding have also the power of growth and sences as the naturall faculties thereof by which it doth enlive mans body to move to digest to see heare feele c. and that when it goes away from the body these faculties of the soule forsake the body yet they die not in the soule but shall enlive the body in the resurrection as they did before so that the soule is no way mortall 5. Common consent of all Nations both Christians and Barbarians hold and ever have held the immortality of the soule and the soule it selfe beares witnes thereunto which at the sight of grievous sinnes committed findes such terrours and affrightings in it selfe as are sometimes more fearefull than death But if the soules of men did not live after the body what cause had guilty minded men either to feare death or any torments that could follow after it 6. The excellent endowments of the soule the engines and curious artes that are invented the search of the heavens motions and the inuention of trueth in things removed from our sences yea even concerning the truth of God are arguments sufficient of the soules immortality 7. And beside these reasons the infallible authority of the Holy Scriptures ought to wring this confession even from the very Atheist For the soule being breathed into man by an immortall principle by the breath of God Himselfe may not bee supposed to bee corruptible for so how could a thing mortall or corruptible be the image of the immortall God Gen. 1.26 27. yet say I not as the Gnosticks or Priscillianists that the soule is of the same being or substance with God but that being so created by Him and His image it cannot be mortall Mat. 10.28 Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather feare Him which is able to destroy both soule and body in hell The parable of the rich glutton and Lazarus in Luk. 16. shew the immortality and state of the soule both of the good and bad Read also 1. Pet. 3.18 19.20 Phil. 1.23 Revel 6.9 That there is not one common Soule of all men §. 2. 1. BY some of the reasons before and by all the authorities brought out of the holy Writ it is manifest that this fantasie of one common soule in all Men was but a dreame of Averroes For if the humane soule be the proper forme of the body and the specifick difference of every subject be by the forme thereof If there be one common soule of all men then the essential difference of men is taken away so that they bee not now this man and that man but all men must be one man as concerning their internall forms the difference of men must be in their heccieties or numerall diversitie of their bodies onely 2. But so the understanding and knowledge of all men should bee one and the same and one man should not bee wise and another foolish but all men wise or foolish alike if there were onely one soule or understanding of all men 3. So also the vice of one man should multiplie it selfe over all men 4. And all men should have equall joy in the end or happines of any one man But these things are not so And as these inconveniences proove the differences of soules while they are in the bodies of men So likewise doe they withstand that confusion which would bee of the soules of men being departed out of their bodies which are not supposed to fall into the Chaos of life and