he plague them by the hands of Idolatrous Nations and give them over as a prey to the Babylonians whose favour they had courted in undecent ways and such as argued a distrust of Gods power or favour And when those Babylonian Princes whom God used as scourges to punish the transgressions of the house of Iudah began so far to forget God and to contemn that power which raised them to that height of Empire as to profane the Vessels of his holy Temple in their drunken Feasts did not God throw them in the fire so tender Mothers do their rods as no longer serviceable and give over to the hands of the Medes and Persians And when the Medes and Persians of a frugal People began to drench themselves in wine and prohibited pleasures growing as sordid and effeminate as Sardanapalus as drunken and gluttonous as Belshazzar how soon did God subvert their Empire and eclipse their glories by the hands of an impuissant though a valiant Prince whom also when he fell into the Persian riots he cut off in the very midst of his youth and conquests The many moral vertues in the people of Rome their Temperance Iustice Valour and Magnanimity it pleased God to reward with a temporal Monarchy the greatest that ever the Sun had shined on in the times before But when together with the conquest of Asia they had brought home the Asian vices and effeminacy making their lusts their law and their wils the rule by which their actions must be squared and the whole World governed God plagued them first with Civil and unnatural wars after subjected them unto the lust and arbitrary rule of their fellow Citizen And finally when the Christian faith was so far from reclaiming them that they became a scandal and dishonour to it he gave them over as a prey to those barbarous Nations who either knew not Christ at all or else were as erroneous in points of Doctrine as the Romans were grown scandalous in matter of practice Infinitum esset ire per singula It were an infinite attempt to follow Gods justice by the track over all the World although the foot-steps of it be so plain and evident that he would hardly lose his way that should undertake it there being no National History either old or modern in which we finde not many notable instances to evince this truth that God is just in all his ways and righteous in all his works and that he meteth such measure to the sons of men wherewith they meted unto others Some more examples of the which he that lusts to see may finde them summed up in the Preface of Sir Walter Raleigh before his History of the World though to say truth we need not look far before us For certainly if all the instances of Gods justice had been lost in the world and there were no monument of writing left to the former times the very times and Countries in which we live would give us such and so many sad remembrances as are sufficient in themselves to set forth Gods justice and make it more remarkable then all antient stories The Instances whereof I had rather the Ingenuous and discerning Reader should make unto himself then expect from me Let no man therefore in the pride of his worldly wisdome â—est in the success of a prosperous mischief or flatter and deceive his poor soul with this that God doth not see it For though God seems to wink yet his eyes are open and doth not only see but will bring to light the practices of wicked and malicious men though never so secretly contrived or so cunningly plotted And his Divine justice though slow paced at first will overtake us at long running how much soever we may seem to have got the start God dealing still with wicked and bloud-thirsty men as heretofore with Haman Absalom Achitophel and such other Instruments When they have served his turn then he hangs them up And so I close this point of the Divine Iustice of the true God with that which a false God truly said in behalf thereof for thus the Oracle of Apollo as Porphyrius citeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which with some little alteration may be Englished thus Let no man think to blinde the Eye of Heaven With jugling plots or colours smooth and even God fils all places and sees round about He that made all things shall not he finde out And yet I would not have it gathered out of this discourse that because GODS justice in these cares hath been quick and sudden and followed close on the offence it must be always so on the like occasions or else that question may be made whether he hath forgotten to be just and gracious or that the Divine Providence be asleep and regards us not The Providence of God in ordering humane affairs is no less eminent in suffering wicked men to prosper and sin to scape unpunished in the present world then if the Divine vengeanee of Almighty God followed them close upon the heels God useth the exorbitant lusts and passions of the wicked man as the wise Physitians do poysons in the course of Physick thereby to purge some hurtful and predominant humor out of the bodies of his Saints which otherwise might grow too corrupt and rank and draw them into such diseases as were irrecoverable For though God hath no need of the wicked man for the manifestation of his glory who can by other means effect what himself best pleaseth yet since men will be wicked and given up to sin God may and will effect by them what he hath a minde to Aut nescientibus iis aut nolentibus either against their wils or besides their purposes God neither doth incline them nor excite them to those works of wickedness whatsoever some are pleased to say unto the contrary no nor so much as to permit them but in this sense only as he affordeth them not such a measure of grace by which they must have been restrained from the acts of sin Only he makes this use of their lewd affections their cruelty ambition or such other lusts as he findes most predominant in them that they become fit instruments to set forth his glory and execute his vengeance when he seeth occasion Non operando in malis quod ei displicet sed operando per malos quod ei placet as Fulgentius hath it Thus used he the envy which the sons of Iacob did carry most unworthily towards their brother Ioseph as a great means of saving them and all their families in the following Famine with which he did intend to afflict those parts And so much Ioseph doth acknowledge when he said unto them that they should not be afraid nor troubled because they sold him into Egypt when he was a child Pro salute enim vestra misit me Deus ante vos in Aegyptum
of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense With which expression I conclude this long dissertation ARTICVLI 6. Pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis i. e. The third day he rose again from the dead CHAP. X. Of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour with a consideration of the circumstances and other points incident to that Article IT was the observation of the Antient Father that the incredulity of St. Thomas did much conduce unto the confirmation of the Christian faith in this great Article of the Resurrection Quam felix incredulitas quae omnium seculorum fidei militavit as St. Augustine hath it The rest of the Apostles who had seen the Lord had made this their Colleague acquainted with so great a miracle too great indeed for one of so weak faith to assent unto And therefore he requires a more â—ull and perfect demonstration of it then any of his fellows had before exacted Vnless saith he I put my finger into the print of his wounds and thrust my hands into his side I will not believe See here the stubbornness of incredulity The same man who had seen Christ raise up Lazarus after three days resting in the grave will not believe he had ability to work the like miracle upon himself Our gracious Saviour thereupon permits his body to be handled by this unbeliever And Thomas sensibly convicted of his infidelity breaks out into this divine ejaculation MY GOD AND MY LORD Prae caeteris dubitavit prae caeteris confessus est said the Father rightly Here was a miraculous generation of belief indeed Faith came not here by hearing but by believing only And by this way of generation of belief in him the Christian Church became the more confirmed and setled in this present Article this trial and experiment of St. Thomas having clearly manifested that Christ assumed not a body in appearance only neither one of a spiritual essence or a new created one but that he rose again in the same numerical body in which he suffered on the Cross and paid the price of our Redemption So that of all that glorious company there was none more fit to testifie the truth of this point then he and to deliver it to the world for his part of this Common Symbol as it was antiently conceived he did And unto this St. Gregory may possibly relate where he tels us saying Dum in Magistro suo palpat vulnera carnis in nobis sanat vulnera incredulitatis whilest Thomas feels the wounds in his masters body he healed the wounds of incredulity in his followers souls And certainly some such experiment as this was exceeding necessary to satisfie the wavering and doubtful soul in so high an Article which by reason of the seeming impossibility and unexampled strangenesse of the matter hath been more called in question and opposed both by Iew and Gentile then any other of the Creed It was indeed a work both of weight and wonder not to be wrought by any which was simply man To man meer natural man it was no lesse impossible to give a resurrection to the dead then to grant a dispensation or indulgence not to die at all How could it be expected that one meerly moral should be of strength sufficient to destroy death and to bury the grave to raise himself first from the jawes of death and receptacles of the grave and by the power thereof to restore poor man to his lost hopes of immortality Most justly may it be presumed that had so great a work been possible to mortal man man being proud enough to attempt great matters would first have took the benefit of his own abilities and so more easily have possessed the incredulous world with the truth and reall being of a resurrection by the powerfull Rhetorick of example In cases where the issue may be doubtfull and the triall dangerous we commonly make tryall and experiment as ignorant Empericks do their potions upon other men But where the issue or event is known and certain likely to yeeld honour to our selves in the undertaking we use not willingly to let others rob us of the glory of it or be beholding unto others for that which we conceive we can do our selves He then which was to be the first-fruits of the resurrection must have something in him more then ordinary something to raise a doubt in his greatest adversaries as in Iosephus a Iew but a very modest one whether it were lawfull or not to call him man to reckon him amongst the natural sons of Adam Tantae ejus res gestae quantas audere vix hominis perficere nullius nisi Dei was spoken in the way of flattery by the Court Historian but may be truly verifyed of the acts of Christ. Those Miracles of his upon true record as they could hardly be attempted by a mortal man so could they be performed by none but a powerfull God For who but he who both in name and power was the God of nature had power not only to suspend some acts of nature but absolutely to over-rule the whole course thereof Of which great works above the ordinary reach of man and nature if we accompt the resurrection as the principall we shall rightly state it It is within the power of Art and the rules of Physick to repaire the ruines of decayed nature and perhaps prolong the number of a few miserable days He only could restore life to the dead who first gave it to the living He only can restore our bodies to our souls in the last day who did at first infuse our souls into our bodies Which miracle before it could be wrought on us he must first work it on himself and thereby raise an hope and be belief in us to expect our own The head being raised gives good assurance to the body that though it do not rise at the same time with it it shall in due time be raised by it What other uses may be made of Christs resurrection we shall see anon This is enough to shew the reasons or necessity thereof by way of preamble to let us see that all the hopes we have of our own resurrection depends upon the certainty and truth of this Which though it be a principle of the Christian faith by consequence of common course to be confessed and not disputed Oportet enim discentem credere as the old rule is yet sithence that the truth thereof hath been much suspected by the Iews and the possibility debated by the Gentiles it will be necessary for the setling of a right beliefe to satisfie the one and refell the other Which done it will be easily seen that there is reason and authority enough to confirm this truth were it not left us for a principle And first beginning with the Iews who first and most maliciously opposed this part of holy Gospel we purpose
by him suffered the generality of them at the least to walke in their own wayes and fulfill those lusts to which they naturally were addicted And some there were who by conforming of their lives to the Law of nature and cherishing those good motions which they felt within them attained unto so clear a knowledge of the nature of God and such an eminent height in all moral vertue that greater was not be found amongst those of Israel For what could any Iew say more of the nature of God his divine Attributes his Power and Providence the making of all things out of nothing by Gods mighty hand and the sustaining of the same by his infinite wisdome then we have formerly declared to have been believed by the most knowing men amongst the Heathens whom they called Philosophers Insomuch as we may justly think as Octavius did Aut nunc Christianos Philosophos esse aut Philosophos jam tunc fuisse Christianos that in this point Philosopher and Christian had been termes convertible Nor did they rest themselves contented with that general knowledge of his eternal Power and Godhead which they had studied and found out in the book of nature but they knew also very well that God was to be worshipped by them in their best devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place to worship God is one of the first counsels in the Grecian Oratour And it was Catos first rule which we learnt at School that God being as he is a Spirit is to be worshipped by us with spiritual purity Si Deus est animus nobis ut carmina dicunt Hic tibi praecipue sit pura mente eolendus Which may be Englished in these words If God as Poets say a Spirit be Then with pure minde let him be serv'd by thee Which principle of natural piety being planted in them there is no point of reverence whatsoever it be either required of or practised by the people of God in his outward worship which was not punctually performed by the antient Gentiles Of Solomon it is said in the book of Kings that when he had made an end of praying all his prayers and supplication to the Lord he rose from before the Altar of the Lorld from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up unto the heavens Where we finde kâ—eeling on the knees and lifting up of the hands to be the usuall as indeed the fittest posture in the act of prayer Finde we not that the Gentiles did observe the same and went as far as Solomon if not beyond him First for the lifting up of hands we finde in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgil Duplices tendens ad sydera palmas in Ovid Vtraque Coelo brachia porrexit and finally Tendere palmas ad delubra deum in an old Latine Poet cited by Lactantius And as for kneeling on their knees they so little scrupled it that they conceived themselves not to do enough in the adoring of their Gods unlesse they flung themselves prostrate on the ground before them Of which Ovid thus speaking of Deucalion and Pyrrha Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi gelidoque pavens dedit oscula saxo Which is thus Englished by G. Sandys Then humbly on their faces prostrate laid And kissing the cold stones with fear thus prai'd The like may be affirmed of lifting up the eye to the throne of grace when we petition God for his mercies towards us Which as it is exemplifyed in that of David Early in the morning will I direct my prayer to thee and will look up so do we finde it parralleled in that of Virgil Illi ad surgentis conversi limina solis which if it rather seem to speak of turning to the East in the act of prayer then of lifting up the eyes to heaven let us take that of Ovid which is plain enough where speaking of poor Io and her prayers to Iupiter he saith that she looked up to Heaven tendens ad sydera vultus when she made her prayers And lest it should be thought as perhaps some will be apt to think that they stood more upon the outward reverence of the body then the inward purity of the soul in the act of worship remember Catos pura mente which before we had And add to that the memorable saying of the wiseman Socrates that God regardeth not so much the perfumes which were used in sacrifices as the souls and virtues of mortal men or that of Persius one of the Latine Poets who doth require that in all their addresses to the Gods they should be sure to take along with them Compositum jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis i. e. a soul replenished with righteousness and religious thoughts Upon which words Lactantius who doth cite them giveth this glosse or descant Sentiebat non carne opus esse ad placandam coelestem Majestatem sed mente sancta that he conceived the sanctity of the minde to be more necessary for the appeasing of the Gods then any service of the body But being that these applications and addresses howsoever qualifyed were made to those that were no Gods they cannot scape the censure which St. Paul gives of them that knowing God they worshipped him not as God but became vain in their imaginations changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things The like may also be affirmed of those frequent sacrifices wherewith they sought to expiate their offences and appease the anger of their Gods The rites and reason of the which they received from Noah and not from any diabolicall suggestion as some men conceive as Noah had them by tradition from the elder Patriarchs For being well enough perswaded that the Gods were much offended at the sins of men and finding many terrible effects of divine vengeance to pursue them they could not better study their own indemnity then to have recourse unto those sacrifices which had been found effectual in the former times for the appeasing of Gods anger and expiating those offences which they had committed Examples of this kinde in all antient Authors Greek and Latine are obvious to the eye of every reader T is true the Devil did maliciously pervert this Institution and caused it in tract of time to be so altered in the object that in stead of being offered to the God of Heaven they sacrificed to Idols made of silver and gold even the work of mens hands worshipping and serving the creature more then the Creatour as St. Paul saith of them whereby the truth of God was changed into a lie and that which first was instituted for a Propitiation became to them a manifest occasion of falling into greater and more hainous sin And it is also true that the Devil not content with this first imposture in drawing to himself
reconciled to man as Peace had desired And so that was fulfilled which the Psalmist speaks of Mercy and truth are met together righteousness or justice and peace have kissed each other Arminius followeth this conceit a little further and addes that when the different parties had pursued their interesses Wisdome was called on to advise what was best to be done to give satisfaction to them all whose advise was that the punishment due to the sin of man should be changed into an Expiatory sacrifice by the voluntary oblation of the which justice might be appeased and place made for mercy But then began a new debate where they should finde a Priest fit for such a sacrifice Angel it could not be because it was not reasonable that an Angel should suffer for the sin of Man And Man it could not be because being terrifyed with the guilt of his own transgressions he had not confidence enough to draw near to God nor had he any thing of his own which was held worthy to be offered to so high a Deity Wisdome was therefore called again by whom it was finally resolved that there must be some man begotten who being made in all things like unto his Brethren might be the more sensible of their infirmities but so that he should be free from sin and not obnoxious to the power and criminations of Satan Holy he was to be or rather holiness and therefore to be conceived only by the holy Ghost by whose great power the ordinary course of nature was to be supplyed and in this flesh the Word it self to be incarnate who offering up that flesh in sacrifice for the sins of the world might so performe the work of poor mans redemption But leaving these conceits though indeed very ingenious there is no question to be made but God had other means to save us then by the incarnating the word and humbling his only begotten Son unto the death even the death of the Crosse if he had so pleased But a better and more convenient way to demonstrate his love and mercy towards us to manifest his Power and wisdome and yet withall to shew his justice against sin and Satan the Scriptures have not laid before us The Fathers have resolved it thus Et â—ine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae peccatis laxaret habenas effraenatis quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones God saith St. Cyprian was able to have pardoned this great sin without this sacrifice but the sacrifice of the pardon would have loosned the reines to unbridled sins which even the sufferings of Christ are scarce able to represse The like saith Nazianzen It was possible for God saith he to save man by his only will without taking of our flesh upon him as he did and doth work all things without help of a body Damascene to the same effect He was not otherwise unable that can do all things by his Almighty power and strength to take man from the tyrant that possessed him The like occurreth in St. Ambrose St. Augustine and Pope Gregory also In the darke ages of the Chrurch the same truth was held For thus St. Bernard in those times Was not the Creator able to restore his work without this difficulty Able he was but he chose rather to wrong himself then the most lewd and hateful vice of unthankfulnesse should finde any colourable place in man And it holds also since the times of the reformation Calvin affirmes it in plain terms Poterat nos Dominus verbo aut nutu redimere nisi aliter nostra causa visual esset the Lord saith he might have redeemed us with a word or beck but that for our sakes he thought good to do otherwise Zanchius comes very close to Calvin What saith he could not mankind be delivered by any other means then the death of Christ No doubt but that he might have done it solo nutu et jussu et voluntate divina by the only beck commandement and will of God Conforme to which expression of the antient and modern writers the Church of England hath declared in the book of Homilies that it was the surest pledge of Gods love to man to give us his own Son from Heaven For otherwise he might have given us if he would an Angel or some other Creature and yet in that his love had been far above our deserts They who conceive that God was not able otherwise to effect this work or had no other meanes to bring it to passe then that which he made choise of to effect the same do wilfully intrench upon his Omnipotence which is larger then either his will or his works For though his works be alwayes measured by his will yet must his Power be limited unto neither of them because God is able to do many things which he never did nor will do as hath been shewn before in the first Article And in his works to bind him unto any necessity to do as he did and not to leave him at his own liberty to do what he pleaseth and in a way which seemeth most agreeable to his heavenly wisdome were to revive the accursed errour of the Manichees Against whom St. Augustine thus resolveth it Nullam ergo necessitatem patitur Deus neque necessitate facit quae facit sed summa et ineffabili voluntate ao potestate God saith the Father is not bound by any necessity nor is he necessitated to do those things which he doth but doth them by his supreme and unspeakable power As then there was not any necessity on the part of God the Father Almighty to send his only begotten Son into the world to take our humane nature on him and suffer an accursed death for the sins of the world so neither was there any necessity on the part of the word by which he was enjoyned or compelled to take upon him the office of a Mediator and be incarnate in our flesh That it was agreeable to the work in hand that the word should be made flesh and in that flesh accomplish the whole mystery of our redemption there are many reasons to perswade For who was fitter to be cast out into the Sea to stay the tempest of Gods anger against sinful man then the Ionas for whose sake it rose Almighty God was first displeased for the wrong offered to the word in that man desired to be like unto God and to know all things in such sort as is proper to the only begotten Son of the Father The sin was caro verbum then vile flesh aspired to be made like unto the word therefore the remedy now must be verbum caro the word so farforth humbling it self as to be made flesh Verbum caro factum Who fitter to become the son of man then he that was by nature the Son of God Patrem habuit in coelis Matrem quaesivit in
is not concerned who by the power of the most High understands here the very person of God the Son and by this over-shadowing of the blessed Virgin his voluntary Incarnation in her sanctified womb His words are these Per virtutem Altissimi intelligi ipsum Dei Filium qui est virtus brachium potentia Patris quique obumbraturus significatur Virginem illapsu suo in uterum Virginis per occultum Incarnationis mysterium But by his leave I cannot herein yeild unto his opinion though Chrysostom and Gregory for the antient Writers Beda and Damascene for the Authors of the middle times do seem to contenance it For not St. Augustine only as himself confesseth and Euthymius a good writer also are against him in it but the plain text and context of the holy Scripture which makes the quickning of the womb of this blessed Virgin to be the work only of one Agent though it be expressed by different titles Nor are such repetitions strange or extraordinary in the Book of God nor can it give any colour to distinguish the power of the most High from the holy Ghost as if they were two different Agents unless we can distinguish the Lord our God from him that dweleth in the Heavens because we finde them both together in the 2. Psalm He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision And though it cannot be denyed but that the Son of God is the very power and strength of his Father yet himself doth give this very name of power to the holy Ghost For when he commanded the Apostles to abide in the City of Hierusalem donec induantur virtute ex alto i. e. until they were â—ndued with power from on high what else did he intend thereby but that they should continue there until they were endued with the holy Ghost Of which see Act. 2.4 Besides if this opinion should be once admitted we must exclude the holy Ghâ—st from having any thing to do in so great a mysterie and so not only bring the Creed under an Expurgatorius Index but the Scripture too Letting this therefore stand for a truth undeniable that the over-shadowing as the Text calleth it of the blessed Virgin was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost let us next see whether the nature of the miracle be not agreeable to the operatioâ—s of the holy Spirit or such as may not be admitted for a truth undoubted by equal and indifferent men though they be not Christians nor take it up upon the credit of the Word of God And first that of it self it is agreeable to the operations of the Spirit the course of his Divine power in the works of nature doth expresly manifest For as in the spiritual regeneration though it be Paul that planteth and Apollo that watereth yet it is God who gives the increase without whose blessing on their labours their labours will prove fruitless and ineffectual so also in the act of carnal generation though the man and woman do their parts for the pro creation of children yet if the quickning Spirit of God do not bless them in it and stir up the emplastick virtue of the natural seed they may go childless to their graves It is the Spirit which quickneth what the womb doth breed And therefore in my minde Lactantius noted very well Hominem non Patrem esse sed generandi Ministrum that man was nothing but the instrument which the Lord did use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that goodly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children It is the Spirit of God as the Scripture tels us which first gave form unto the world from whence that known passage of the Poet Spiritus intus alit had its first Original of which we have made use in our former book And if the chief work or rather the principal part in the work of nature in the ordinary course of Generation and first production of the Word may be ascribed as most undoubtedly it must unto the powerful influence of this quickning Spirit with how much more assurance may he be entituled to the Incarnation of the Word to which one sex only did contribute and that the weakest without the mutual help and co-operation of the seed of man Nor is the greatness of the Miracle so beyond belief but that there is sufficient in the holy Scripture to convince the Iew and in the writings of the Poets to perswade the Gentiles to the admission of this truth and consequently to confirm all good Christians in it Out of the Virgin-Earth did God first make Adam and out of Virgin Adam he created Eve Adam first made without the help of man or woman and Eve made after out of Adam who had no wife but this which was made out of him Why might not then the blessed Virgin be as capable of conceiving a Son by the sole power and influence of the holy Ghost without help of man as Adam was of being Father unto Eve by the self same power without the use of a woman Without a Mother Eve without Father CHRIST Adam without both Father and Mother but all the handy-work of God by the holy Spirit Equivalent in effect to the creation of Adam and the production of Eve was the birth of Isaac conceived by Sarah when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women by consequence as indisposed to the act of conception as if she had been still a Virgin or which is more then that under years of marriage The strength that Sarah had to bring forth that Son was not natural to her for she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the age of childe-bearing as the Text informs us but a strength supernatural given from God on high and therefore called a received strength she received strength to conceive seed Heb. 11.11 because not naturally her own but received extraordinarily from God As Isaac was in many things a Type of CHRIST so in no one thing more exactly then that he was the only Son or the dearly beloved Son of his Father begotten on a woman past the time of her age whose dead womb could not but by such a miracle be revived again To this the Iews most cheerfully do give assent boasting themselves to be the children of Abraham by this very venter What reason have they then not to yeild to this but that they resolved not to yeild to reason Next for the Gentiles do we not finde it in their Poets that Venus was ingendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth and influence of the Sun that Pallas issued from Ioves brain and Bacchus from the thigh of Iupiter Do we not read that most of their Heroes so much famed of old were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures as Hercules on Alcmena by Iupiter Phaeton on Clymene by Phoebus and Paâ—
till she had brought forth her first born son A first born son say they doth imply a second and his not knowing her till then doth tacitly import that he knew her afterwards And this they fortifie with that in the 6. of Mark where not only Iames and Iuda and Ioses and Simon are called his Brethren but his sisters also are affirmed to be then alive But the answer unto these Objections was made long ago St. Hierome in his tractate against Helvidius having fully canvassed them For first the first begotten or first born doth imply no second that being first not which hath other things coming after it but which hath nothing going before it Et primus ante quem nullus as the Father hath it And this appears most evidently by the law of Moses by which the first born of every creature was to be offered unto God The first born not in reference unto those that are to come after for then the owner of a flock or herd of cattel might have put off the sacrifice or oblation of the first born of his sheep or kine til he were sure to have a new increase in the place thereof which the Law by no means would permit And thus we say in common speech that Queen Iane Seymour dyed of her first childe and that King Edward the fift was murdered in the first year of his reign where past all doubt neither Iane Seymour had more children nor King Edward reigned more years then the first alone And for the argument from the word until or donec peperit in the Latine it implyes no such matter as is thence collected the word not having always such an influence as to imply a thing done after because not before When Christ promised his Disciples to be with them alwayes till the end of the world think we his meaning was to forsake them then that they should neither be with him nor he with them I trow no man of wit will say it And when the Lord said unto his CHRIST Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool may we conclude that when death the last enemy shall be overcome that he shall sit no longer at the Lords right hand I hope none dare think it More instances of this kind might be easily had to shew the weaknesse of this inference were not these sufficient And for the Brothers and Sisters mentioned by St. Marke either they were Iosephs children by a former wife as Irenaeus and likewise all the Greek Fathers downwards St. Hilarie and St. Ambrose amongst the Latines are of opinion or else his nearest kinsmen as St. Hierome thinks which in the Idiom of the Iews were accounted Brethren But on the other side our great Masters in the Church of Rome will not only have her to continue a Virgin post partum after the birth as to the purity of her minde but also in partu in the birth as to the integrity of her body Durand one of their chief Schoolmen will needs have it so not thinking it a sufficient honour to her to be still a Virgin non solum carentia experientiae delectationis Venereae not only by an inexperience of all fleshly pleasure sed etiam membri corporalis integritate but in the clausure of her womb the dotres whereof as they conceive were not opened by it And unto this most of the great Rabbins of that Church do full wel agree Assuredly these men with a little help might in time come to be of the Turkes opinion who out of a Reverent esteem which they have of Christ will not conceive him to be born or begotten according to the course of nature but that the Virgin did conceive him by the smell of a Rose and after bare him at her brests But herein they run crosse to the antient Writers who though they constantly maintained the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of Christ yet such a corporal integrity in the act of Child-birth as these men idly dream of did they never hold Tertullian very aptly noteth that she was Virgo a viro non virgo a partu a Virgin in respect that she knew not man and yet no Virgin in regard of her bearing a child which though it were conceived in a wonderful manner yet ipse patefacti corporis lege he came into the world by the open way Pamelius in his notes accounts this and some other passages to this purpose amongst the Paradoxes of Tertullian So doth Rhenanus too a more modern censurer and yet confesseth that St. Ambrose was of this opinion so was St. Hierome too in his second Book against the Pelagians who holds that Christ first opened those secret passages though he after shut them up again According to the judgment of which antient writers for those which followed them in time varyed somewhat from them it is the common resolution of the Protestant Schooles that though Christ when he was born of his Virgin Mother opened the passages of her womb as all children do yet she continued still a Virgin because her mind was free from the thoughts of lust and that she had conceived of the holy Ghost nay that he may more properly be said to have opened the womb of Mary his mother then any other first born do because he found it shut at the time of his birth which the first born of the sons of men do not And being it is confessed by the greatest Schoolmen that there may be an opening of the womb without the losse of Virginity as in the cure of some diseases or on such an accident of which St. Augustine speakes in his first book De Civit. dei c. 18. I should much wonder at the stiffenesse of the Papists in it but that I know they lay it for a ground work of their doctrine of transubstantiation and the local being of his body in more places at a time then one by taking from it all the properties of a naturall body But to say truth they well may free Christs body from the bands of nature when they have freed his mother from the bands of sin not from the sins only of an higher nature but even from slight and veniall sins as they use to call them nor yet from actual sins only but original also To what this great exemption tends we shall see anon In the mean time we may take notice that this exemption from the guilt of original sin is but a new opinion taken up of late and not yet generally agreed on amongst them there having been great conflicts about this priviledge between Scotus and the Franciscans on the one side Aquinas and the Dominicans on the other But in the end the devotions of the common people being strongly bent unto the service of our Lady the Franciscans carryed it Sixtus the 4. who had been formerly of that Order not only ratifying by his Buls their doctrine of her
Heaven or taken up on high as our English reads it it was Gods act there And so it was indeed it was Gods and his the Persons having such an interest in one another that what was done by the one is ascribed to the other without wrong or prejudice to either as it is also in the case of the Resurrection in which although we find it to be his own act his Resurrexit only in the holy Gospels yet is it quem Deus suscitavit a mortuis him hath God raised from the dead in St. Peters Sermon Or else it may be answered thus that though our Saviour did ascend by his own power and vertue yet he may properly be said to be assumptus taken or carried up into Heaven in three regards that is to say either as taken up on the wings of Angels whereof we shall say more anon as Lazarus was carryed into Abrahams bosom or because he seemed to be wrapt up in a cloud and so taken up out of their sight or finally that the man CHRIST IESVS was taken up into Heaven by the power and vertue of the Godhead in separably united to him Either of these constructions will atone the difference and reconcile the Creed with the words of the Text though we may further add and ex abundanti that St. Luke doth not only say ferebatur in Coelum or he was carryed up into Heaven as if he were passive in it only but that Recessit ab iis first he left them of his own accord gave the first rise to his Ascension and after ferebatur for so it followeth suffered himself to be assumpted taken or carryed up into Heaven either by the Cloud or by the Angels or how else he pleased Lastly it is to be observed that he ascended into Heaven videntibus illis saith the Text whilest his Apostles looked on to signifie that he did ascend by little and little that he might feed their eyes and refresh their souls and by his leisurely ascent make them more able to attest it as occasion served For had he been caught up into Heaven as Elias was who had but one witness to affirm it or rapt up into Heaven as St. Paul was afterwards without any witness but himself and scarce that neither for whether it were in the body or out of the body he could hardly tell the truth thereof had wanted much of that estimation which the mouths of so many witnesses as beheld the mirâ—â—le were able to afford unto it And yet it was strange that many witnesses should need to confirm that truth which had so clearly been fore-signified both by Types and Prophecies that none who did believe the Scriptures could make question of it For if we look upon the Substance or the quod â—it of it or on the circumstances of the time the place the cloud the pomp and manner of the same or finally on the consequent or effect thereof as to Christ himself we finde all signified before-hand in the Book of God and that so fully and expressely as must needs convince the Iews of the greatest obstinacy that ever had been entertained in the hearts of men first in the way of Type or Figure we have that of Enoch before the Law and that of Elias under the Law Of Enoch it is said in the holy Scripture that he walked with God that is to say as the text doth expound it self in the case of Noah he was a just man and perfect in his generation for the times he lived in So righteous was he as it seems in the sight of God that we finde no mention of his death Only the Scriptures say that he was not found because God took him i. e. because God took him to himself translating him both body and soul to his heavenly Kingdome And so St. Paul expounds it saying By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death neither was he found because God had taken him And of Elijah it is said that being talking with Elisha one of his Disciples there appeared a Charet of fire and horses of fire and parted them asunder and that Elijah went up in a whirlwinde into Heaven Here then we have two Types or figures of the Lords Ascension the one delivered in the person of a righteous man who was unblameable in his conversation walking in the commandements of God without reproof the other of a Prophet mighty both in WORD AND WORK who did not only reprove sin and foretel of things which were to come but did confirm his Doctrine with signs and miracles And being that the Iews cannot but confess as Iosephus did that Christ was not only a wise man a Teacher of the people in the ways of truth one that wrought miracles and had gained many both of the Iews and Gentiles to adhere unto him being they cannot but acknowledge of our Saviour Christ as the good Theif did ille autem nil mali fecit that he had done nothing amiss or as Pilate that there was no fault to be found in him they have no reason but to think that Enoch and Elijah were the Types of the Lords Ascension aswell as of his life and doctrine But here perhaps it will be objected that either Enoch and Elijah were not taken up into Heaven and so no Types and figures of the Lords Ascension or if they were then was not Christ the first which opened the gates of Heaven and ascended thither in his body to make a way for others in due time to follow as all Antiquity in a manner do affirm he was grounding their judgement on the evident and plain texts of Scripture For doth not the Apostle expressely say that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Heb. 9.8 And doth not Christ our Saviour as expressely say that no man had ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man Ioh. 3.13 How then were Enoch and Elijah Types of Christs Ascension if they were not taken up into Heaven or how was Christ the first if they there before him Our Saviour Christ himself makes answer unto this objection where he saith that in his Fathers house there were many mansions that is to say several degrees of happiness and estates in glory though all most glorious in themselves To some of which degrees of happiness and estates in glory unto some one or other of those heavenly Mansions both Enoch and Elijah were by God translated there 's no doubt of that the Scripture is expressely for it But that they were in Coelosummo in the highest Heaven that unto which the Lord ascended and where he now sitteth at the right hand of God the Father that as the Scriptures doe not say so there is no necessity why we should believe it Our Saviour was the first who ascended thither that place of supreme glory