Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A42520
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Exochē tou Christou, Christ's preeminence in a question propounded, discussed, & resolved, that Christ was the first, that with flesh and blood entred into the kingdome of heaven / by Nicholas Gawen.
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Gawen, Nicholas.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing G395; ESTC R23944
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29,971
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56
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holy mount in their Humane bodies from Heaven therefore Christ was not the first that entred into heaven with humane body because if the two former brought their bodies along with them from heaven it is likely they carried the same bodies along with them to heaven sol Answ That this Argument hath contain'd in it three Articles or petty questions First whether Moses and Elias appeared unto our Saviour with true real and substantial humane bodies 2ly whether they were the very self same Humane bodies and earthly tabernacles wherewith they were invested and cloathed during their peregrination and pilgrimage here on earth Thirdly whether brought these their bodies from Heaven Though I may easily grant that they appeared to our Saviour in true real and substantial Humane bodies as may easily be concluded and confirmed from those bodily and corporal actions that they performed on the mount speaking and discoursing with our Saviour face to face concerning his death and departure that he was to accomplish at Jerusalem And though I easily grant in a second place that those true and real bodies were the same bodies wherewith their soules were cloathed whiles they were on earth for had their bodies bin others they could not properly have been said to be Moses and Elias yet cannot I so easily grant in the third place that they brought their bodies along with them from Heaven Full well I know that it was an opinion embraced by many yea very many of the Ancient Fathers that the bodies of Henoch and Elias are reserved and kept alive in a third mansion house distinct and separate both from Heaven and earth which they call Paradise and that they shall returne and bodily appear on the earth before the day of Judgment yea and John the Divine and the Prophet Jeremie too whose death is not read of saith Hyppolitus If this opinion be true then doubtlesse Moses and Elias brought not their bodies from Heaven along with them to the holy mount But leaving that opinion as we found it concerning Moses the Scripture plainly concludeth concerning him that his body went not to Heaven together with his soul Deut 34.5 6. there we read So Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord and he that is either God himself or an Angel of God buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor but no man knoweth of his Sepulcre unto this day And this as I conceive accasioned that grave and solemne dispute and controversie according to St Judes Ecclesiastical tradition and relation v. 9. of his Epistle betwixt Michael the Archangel the devil about the body of Moses The devil urging as I conceive the necessity of the revelation of the place of sepulture thereof that by that meanes he might yeeld the Jewes a copious and abundant occasion of committing Idolatry who he well knew were apt enough by nature to honour God's faithfull servant too much and to neglect his Lord. Contrariwise the Arch-Angel pressing home the expediencie and necessitie of the concealment of it's place of burial for the prevention and disappointing of the occasion and introduction of Superstition and Idolatry Wherefore if the body of Moses went not together with his soul to heaven but as the Scripture teacheth remained on earth then surely could he not bring it along with him from heaven when he appeared on the holy mount and why may not the same be said of Elias that his body by the hand of God's omnipotencie had as sudden a restitution at his soul's descent from Heaven the very case of the soules of God's elect at the resurrection as it had dissolution at it's evection and transportation thither Sure I am whatsoever other men thinke the conceipt and opinion of the sons of the Prophets was that his body was not carried up into heaven but rather that the spirit of the Lord had taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley which made them so earnestly to sue unto Elisha That fifty strong and able men might goe and make search and inquisition after him 2 King 2.16 And these sons of the Prophets as I conceive were no plain or simple men but even Prophets themselves as man and son of man are all one in Hebrew phrase belonging and appertaining to the Schole or Colledge of Elias and Elisha whom a great Antiquary and Chronologer from prophane writers calleth by the name of Elulaeus Armagh Chron One objection remaineth that may be made that seems somewhat weighty and ponderous it is this Arg 4 Christ had his messengers and fore-runners his servants the Prophets going before his face to prepare his way before himself bodily and personally oppeared in flesh and blood here on earth to gather his Church and enter upon his Kingdome of grace what hurt then if we suppose some Saints and holy men of God corporally went before him as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore-runners and messengers before he himself personally and in his Humane body entred and actually took possession of his Kingdome of glory Answ Be it granted that Christ had his messengers and fore-runners before he came personally himself to plant his Church to gather his Saints together and to enter upon his Kingdome of grace yet hence it follows not that he had any that did fore-run him bodily before himself bodily and personally entred into his Kingdome of glory A necessity there was of the Antecedent but no necessity at all of the Consequent For the better and clearer Demonstration of my sense and meaning in this Answer we must observe and mark that the whole my stery of man's redemption is grounded and established on a threefold foundation First on God's eternal purpose before all time Secondy on his free promise at the beginning of time Thirdly on his mercifull performance in the fulness of time The first is God's eternal purpose before all time of this we must conceive thus that God to whose eternall knowledge all things are present and nothing past or to come foreseeing man's fall before all time purposed to send his Son Jesus Christ into the world to redeem him Ephes 1.9 Act 2.23 The second is God's free promise at the beginning of time when immediately upon the fall of Adam God promised Christ unto him saying unto the serpent I will put emnity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed He that is to say Christ the seed of the woman shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise is heel This promise of Christ the woman's seed was the Gospel and the only comfort of Adam Abel Henoch Methuselah Noah and the rest of the godly Fathers till the time of Abraham At the time of Abraham this promise was turned into a covenant with Abraham and his seed and oft times repeated That in his seed all Nations should be blessed Gen 12.3 and 18.18 and 22.18 which promise and
Christ so it likewise granted that Christ entred first in his Humane body as Redeemer Sol Answer that the grant of this courtesie is scarce worth the acceptation there is no doubt to be made but that Christ as Redeemer took first possession of the Kingdome of Heaven for there is but one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus saith Paul 1 Tim 2.5 And him hath the Father appointed Lord and heir of all things Heb 1.3 But thus I Argue and reason from the former grant Christ of all men is the only Saviour and Redeemer therefore he alone and first of all men in his Humane body entred into the Kingdome of Heaven As the Apostle St Peter expresly saith that Christ's precious blood was our Redemption 1 Pet 1.19 20. So Ephes 1.14 The Apostle S. Paul intimates plainly enough that the same precious blood was the price and redemption of the purchased possession of the Kingdome of Heaven in our behalf And if Christ alone by his body and blood purchased the Kingdom of Heaven in our behalf all the reason in the world that he himself should first of all bodily enter into it and take possession of it in our behalf And thus much may suffice for the confirmation of the positive and affirmative part The Counter-part of the Question discust NOw for the confutation and eversion of the negative and counterpart know and understand that the Scriptures afford no Apodeictical or demonstrative Arguments at all and but few yea very few Topical or probable Arguments to strengthen support and uphold it Arg. 1. The first and most ancient that I can discover is the example of Henoch the seventh from Adam of whom Moses witnesseth saying Gen 5.24 And Henoch walked with God and he was not for God took him saith the Text therefore may some conclude that Christ was not the first that bodily ascended and entred there Sol Answ By granting the Antecedent and denying the Consequent Henoch was not saith the Text and God took him yet hence it follows not that he was bodily rapt and transported into Heaven without dissolution as Habakkuk was transported thorough the vehemencie of the spirit of the Lord from Judea to Babilon as the Story saith And Phillip from Gaza or thereabouts to Azotus Act 8.26 40. For what is there in this Text spoken of Henoch which cause us so to thinke which is not in other places of Scripture spoken of other the Saints and deer children of God And yet from them we never did nor could conclude that they were bodily transported into Heaven Is it said of Henoch he was not and is not the same phrase and forme of speech used by Jeremy lamenting the destruction and desolation of the Jewes Chapter 10.20 My children are gone forth of mee and they are not By Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted for her children because they were not Jer 31.15 And likewise by Jacob concerning his two sons Joseph and Simeon Joseph is not and Simeon is not Gen 42.36 And Joseph's brethren to Joseph living and standing before them concerning himself supposed to be dead Gen 42.15 Thy servants are 12. brethren the sons of one man in the Land of Canaan and behold the youngest is this day with our father and one is not This phrase of Scripture therefore he is not or they are not signifies nothing else but the dissolution and death of a man departed this life and by death separated and sequestred from the face of the earth that he may behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Esay 38.11 And in sense it answereth to that phrase used amongst the Romans concerning one dead and departed out of this life Abiit ad plures he is gone to more company or he is gone to the greater number and that other of the Hebrews used to the same purpose He went to his Fathers or He was buried with his Fathers 1 King 14 31. 2 King 14.20 Thus the Lord himself told Abraham Thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace And what that phrase meaneth the words following do expound and declare And be buried in a good old Age. Gen 15.15 Secondly It is said of Henoch that God tooke him and what though must we therefore of necessitie conclude that like Christ his Saviour He was taken up both body and soul into Heaven Act 1 2 9 10 11. Why then may we not by the same rule conclude the like corporall assumption of those blessed Saints and servants of God of whom the Prophet Esay proclaimes Chap 57.1 where the same phrase is used The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and the mercifull are taken away by whom By none but God none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come The same phrase and form of speech doth the Lord himselfe use concerning Ezechiel's wife Behold I take from thee the desire of thine eyes Ezech 24.16 And Jonah to the Lord concerning himself Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee Jonah 4.3 All these Saints were taken away by God as well as Henoch yet are we not able thence to conclude their evection and transportation both in body and soul into the Kingdome of Heaven In like manner saith Moses of Henoch God took him to wit by death removing him from the company of men And the wise man Wisd 4.11 saith of him that he was speedily taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding or deceipt beguile his soul Even by the self-same forme of speech of all the world and in the very same sense as the Prophet Esay saith That the righteous are taken away from the evill to come By the example of Abraham Gen 15.15 of good King Ezechiah 2 King 20.18 19. and likewise of King Josiah 2 King 22.20 Because from the time and age of Henoch the Church of God began to be corrupted and the true worship of God to be perverted by means of the conversation and commixture of the sons of God to wit those of the posterity of Seth with the daughters of men to wit those of the posterity of Cain therefore this ereption and assumption of Henoch by God out of this world all this while doth not prove his assumption both in body and soule into Heaven nay the Author of that book of Wisdome whosoever he was whether Solomon or Philo Judaeus I know not God knowes is so far from thinking him corporally alive that indeed he esteemeth him among other righteous men corporally dead as plainly appeares by what he saith v. 16. by way of application unto Henoch Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemne the ungodly which are living Ob. But though the righteous be taken away and by God as Henoch was yet it is to be supposed that they are not taken away after the same manner as was Henoch I easily grant it for of him saith Calvin in Heb 11. In solito modo