safety with sinne and to leave us in that corruption to be guided by him whom we chuse to serve having forsaken our true Lord and owner But because this corruption is from our birth and that we made not our selves such but that by the fault of Adam sinne and death reigne over all the summe of the question is knit up in that one sinne of our first father concerning whose fall wee are brought to this point If God so foresaw the fall of Adam that he will'd it it was impossible but that he should fall it he will'd it not it was impossible that he should To which doubt Thomas Aquinas in lib 1. Sen. Dist 46. q. 4. answeres wittily and modestly that although the proposition be true and necessary yet it is not necessary that the will should be carried to either side of the contradiction His reason as I thinke is because truth is not the object of the will but of the understanding onely and therefore he saith that God doth permit ill onely not because it is ill but because of the annexes or dependances thereon either precedent as because it is good that the creature should have the power whereby it may be enabled to doe ill or not to doe ill or consequent which is that good that is occasioned by the ill I reverence the judgement but yet Doctor the question is here concerning good and ill the proper object of the will and as the understanding cannot avoid it but must consent to a truth which it knowes so neither can the will in that which it takes to be good or ill but that it must chuse one and refuse the other For as the outward sences cannot refuse to be moved by their proper objects as the eare to heare a sound within a meet distance no more can the inward faculties of the minde Besides the question is here of the will of God an infinite will and convertible with an infinite understanding for in God there is not one being of his will and another being of his understanding as will appeare more large hereafter in the 8. and 9. Chap. Neither is the will of God as mans will which may sit still while his understanding workes but what he understands he wills it also to be or not to be as his promises are not yea and nay but in him all is yea and Amen Therefore to let passe those questions which are moved hereabout concerning the freedome of Adams will why God should forbid that to Adam wherein he saw that Adam would transgresse and so make his eating to be sinne for where no law is there is no fiune and such unnecessary questions I answer directly that it is utterly impossible but that God did foresee the fall of Adam the taint of all mankinde thereby all the sins and all the punishments wherunto any one particular person is lyable all the wandrings backslidings and wants which can be in the creature Neither will I blush to affirme with the Apostle Rom. 11.32 That God hath shut up all under sinne that hee might have mercy upon all But it followeth not hereupon that hee decreed our misery in Adam because he foresaw it yet such was his mercy that out of this great evill he wrought a greater good so that it may seeme by consequence we are rather gainers by Adams fall for though we lost by the sinne of Adam an inheritance of holinesse c. Yet that holinesse was like the morning dew that vanished at the heat of the first tentation it was a created holinesse it was in a low degree fit to his being in whom it was Is not the present inheritance of our holinesse more sure more excellent who are made partakers of his holinesse who is holinesse it selfe his knowledge was but of worldly things ours of eternall and though our naturall knowledge bee by Adams sinne corrupted or lost yet shall it at last be restored againe with endlesse advantage for the gift is not as the sinne Rom. 5.15 His life but a naturall life so that if Adam had not sinned he might have lived a naturall life till now and afterward free from ficknesse and want abounding in all the knowledge of nature and naturall blessings but that should have beene the end of his hope as farre as I can see though some there be that give us hopes of the same degrees of happinesse and glory which now we have although Adam bad not sinned Yet because they see that that could not be brought to passe except God should take our nature that thereby we might be lifted up to that estate of glory they thinke that Christ our Lord should have come in the place of Henoch the seventh from Adam and that therfore Henoch was taken away in stead of Christ See Pastellus de Nativitate Mediatoris pag. 116. But wee are bound both by reason and authoritie of holy Writ to know and confesse that the first Adam was of the earth earthly and such should our happinesse have beene if we had continued in our created innocencie the second Adam is the Lord from heaven heavenly into whose image being renewed we are made partakers of his superexcellent and heavenly glorie The meanes whereby we come to this state of glory is also our assurance that it shall be fully accomplished God dwells in our flesh O unspeakeable mysterie he hath taken upon himselfe our sinnes O unspeakeable love he calls them his owne sinnes Psal 40.12 2. Cor. 5.21 He hath healed us with his stripes and is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse holinesse redemption life with an over-abounding waight of glory Is not the exchange well made with this advantage who would not lose himselfe that he might winne Christ with all his demerits who would not forfeit the life and happinesse of Adam in his innocencie that he might gaine the life and glorie of Christ in his eternitie And thus much briefly for the advantage Is it nothing to see the infinitie of the wisdome and goodnesse of God which out of the greatest ill could bring the greatest good The greatest ill on Adams part was his sinne which from him spread it selfe over all mankind to make it liable to eternall death on the devils part his malice and murder yea such a murder as could not be in the world beside in one man to murder the whole world of men Is it nothing I say that out of this great ill God could bring the greatest good that is our assured and everlasting righteousnesse and glorie is it nothing that he hath caught the wylie in his owne craftinesse for whereas the devill envying that happy estate wherin man was created sought his overthrow by making him subject to sinne and so to death He our Creator to shew to the principalities and powers the riches of his wisdome and goodnesse in man did not onely redeeme him from that thraldome of sinne and death but also exalted him unto an estate of glorie and happinesse farre above
propagation and preservation of kinde in the like which it cannot uphold in it selfe by reason of corruption neither is the generation of natural things but with imperfection and their multiplication by decision of naturall things but with imperfection and their multiplication by decision of the seed into divers parts Neither doth any father communicate his whole being to that which is begotten by him neither can the species or common nature so farre forth as it is multiplicable even by one alone be saved whole and entire any one individuall But nothing of all this is in the most glorious spirituall and divine generation for that power of generation is not received but essentiall so that which is begotten is eternall and incorruptible The generation also is in the uttermost perfection because the whole infinite being is communicate thereby but that not for any abasement in the principle but because of the infinite perfection thereof Neither is matier for multiplication either possible or needfull here because all the fulnesse of Fatherhood Sonneship and procession are herein perfectly substantially infinitely and eternally because the procession is not such as tends to any thing without for so that which proceedeth should not bee coequall to the principle from whence it doth proceed But this procession is in the Divine being onely in every Person according to his peculiar subsistence answerable whereto no generation can be found in all the creatures 2. Another objection there is to the like purpose out of Heb. 1.3 where it is said of the second Person that hee susteineth all things by the Word of his power So that if hee being the Word of his Father have also a Word whereby he susteineth all things which therefore is another Word and not the things that are susteined thereby it may seeme that there is a multiplication of Persons and that the former objection is not fully answered I have said Log. Chap. 29. n. 5. That the appointment of all naturall causes to the bringing forth of their effects is the rule or law of Nature Now this law is that necessitie fate or destinie which is ordained by his eternall decree that made Nature and all things therein and blessed all the living creature with power to bring forth according to kinde as it appeares Gen. 1. And this is that Word of which S. Paul speakes No other divine Person but that Word whereby he melteth the yce and Snow Psal 147.18 that ordinance which the creature cannot passe Psal 148.6 Of which you may reade every where in the Holy text and especially in that admirable booke of naturall and Divine Philosophie the booke of Iob in comparison of which all Aristotles naturalls are not worth the while For seeing all naturall causes have their strength from him hath not hee bound nature within those limits beyond which hee gave it no further power to worke And within which hee is trulie said to worke by his word or by his power in the strength of which alone Nature her selfe doth worke Maker of Heaven and Earth CHAP. XIII That the World is not Eternall Section I. THe puritie or uttermost simplicitie of the Divine being is the fountaine from whence all the perfections which are therein doe flowe for neither can any thing be living powerfull wise continuall glorious c. except it bee neither can any thing be such infinitely if it have not an infinite being but an infinite of being cannot be but with the uttermost simplicitie of being For whatsoever is put to being takes away the simplicitie thereof and must needs be a limitation thereto and so take away the infinitie also The manifold perfections therefore in the Divine being are not additions of other beings to make composition therein or to take away the simplicitie thereof seeing they all signifie one and the same being but because the most simple being must needs bee the first of beings as being altogether in act or perfection and no way in possibilitie of being for then were it not a most simple being if it were both in act of being that which it is and in possibilitie of being that which it is not therefore must all other beings depend hereon nay bee herein because all things are virtually contained in their principles And this is that eternitie of the creature which it had in the infinite wisdome and power of God before it was Gen. 2.5 For seeing that in God is infinite perfection and that nothing can bee wanting to that which is perfect neither yet can any thing be perfect but in him therefore the first and highest being of all things must bee in his perfection But because absolute perfection must needs bee with the uttermost simplicitie without othernesse or change therefore must all things in God bee one and he though one alone yet virtually all things But because all things were in him eternally one that they might in time bee different in themselves for otherwise they could never at all either have beene or have beene different It is necessarie to grant that in that one absolute being which the creature had in God there must be first a possibilitie for it to be in it selfe for as things utterlie impossible can never be so can there bee no possibilitie of being but by him Secondly a possibilitie for the things being to be different among themselves and that not onely in their severall kindes but also in their particular existences and this for the manifestation of that manifold wisdome of the Maker And from hence thirdly succeeds that actuall being which things that are being have by that Holy pleasure or will by which they are and continue in their severall beings which Will must needs bee partaker both of the infinite power and infinite wisdome that it might effect that which was possible and foreseene And thus is there in the Unitie of the creature a Trinitie also in possibilitie in difference and actuall being that wee should never forget to adore the eternall Trinitie in the Unitie But the question of the worlds eternitie is onely about this last manner of actuall being for it is not denyed that it is eternall in respect of that being which it had in God as the cause or in it selfe as possible to bee because that while it was not being it had not any power to resist that Almightinesse which called it out of not being into being though to speake more properlie that eternity which it had in pure possibilitie was not in it selfe because it was not and seeing that which any thing hath of it selfe is first therein and more proper thereto than that which it hath of another therefore the world of it selfe having not being it could not possible bee eternall but onely in his eternall purpose which had appointed it unto this being The World therefore in God the principle is not begun but eternall and one but whatsoever is severed from this Principle can neither bee one nor yet eternall but comes
lost and perish being tainted with the sinne of Adam or the infinite justice against which the sinne was done must for ever stand violated and broken or else a Mediator must bee found who was able to satisfie the infinite justice that was offended The first is against the wisdome goodnesse and love of God to his creature either to make mankinde in vaine that is to destroy it againe or to make it unto eternall punishment The second is impossible that an infinite justice infinitely able to avenge it selfe should endure it selfe for ever to to remaine violate and offended for so should it prize a thing finite and wicked before it selfe infinite in justice therefore there behoves to be a Mediatour who should fully satisfie the justice offended and utterly blot out the guilt of sinne Now an infinite justice offended must be satisfied by a punishment answerable that is infinite but no finite creature could any way be or be accounted infinite Therefore when none was found worthy either in heaven or in earth or under the earth the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world tooke upon him our flesh to satisfie for the sinne of his creature and so by his infinite obedience for by His eternall spirit Hee offered himselfe to God Heb. 9.14 and by the infinite merit of his suffering for by that spirit the manhood both soule and flesh was enabled to endure those pangs and that punishment which neither all mankinde nor any other creature could endure was the infinite justice satisfied And thus Hee became mighty to save Esay 63.1 and having Himselfe in his owne body borne our sinnes vpon the tree did utterly abolish the whole body of sinne and found for us eternall redemption 2. The divine goodnesse hath created all things exceeding good Gen. 1. so much doth it delight it selfe in that concordance or agreement which is betweene the inward and the outward good But that agreement is the greatest which is in the unity of one person Therefore it is expedient that there be an incarnation that so in one person the goodnesse may bee most eminent and the concord most lovely 3. Otherwise you may propose it thus The excellency of the effect appeares by that conformity or agreement which it hath with the cause so then the inward worke of the infinite Goodnesse and the outward being accorded in the unity of one person the multiplication of the agreement is so great that it cannot possibly bee greater Therefore it followes that the Godhead bee incarnate for otherwise the concord in the inward and outward worke of the deity might bee greater than it is but that is impossible 4. The divine will concerning his workes without doth will and love that especially wherein the excellency of all his inward dignities doth most appeare But the excellency of all his dignities appeares most in this that God bee manifest in the flesh For thereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 of his glory vertue everlasting life and happinesse So that now there is but one end of God and his creature that is the glory of God of which and unto which God rejoyces over his dreature to bring it and make it partaker And the Creature likewise reioyces to be made partaker And thus the end or perfection of the creature hath rest or accomplishment in the inward perfections of God and his inward perfections are manifest in his outword workes Therefore God would bee incarnate 5. And seeing that God infinitely blessed and happy in himselfe needed not the Creature but made it therefore that it might be blessed in him and that of his fullnesse the creature might receive that fulnesse of happinesse which it can possibly injoy therefore it is requisite that that fulnesse of his bee imparted unto that creature wherein all the rest of the creature hath interest which we have already proved to bee man chap. 17. § 4. ob 5. Therefore God would dwell in man that by man the whole creature might be blessed in Him 6. If God were not incarnate then the divine dignities should be lesse Infinite one than another For the infinite goodnesse by the infinite wisdome seeing that uttermost and perfect happinesse that might come unto man by the incarnation if his power his will and love of the creature did not answer thereto so that he would bee pleased to dwell in his creature then should they be defective and of lesse extent than his infinite wisdome But that is impossible Therefore it followes that God would be incarnate See the answer to the objection that may be made from hence § 1. on the 39 chapter n. 4. 7. If there were not an incarnation then the infinite wisdome should not have the view of that highest excellencie which is possible to be in the creature neither should the infinite power magnifie it selfe by the multiplication of it selfe in an outward subject so these dignities should not be glorious by all those meanes whereby it is possible that they might glorifie themselves But all these things are inconvenient Therefore it is reasonable to beleeve the incarnation lest ignorance weakenesse and defect of glory should bee found in the first principle which must of necessity take away His infinity proved chapter 3. understand the reason well For your more ease I will propose it affirmatively thus 8. If there bee an Incarnation then the divine understanding may have an outward object wherein it may be infinite both in the inward and outward working For whereas all created obiects are absolutely finite yet if the Divine being understood which heretofore we called the Sonne chap. 11. take on him our being our nature by that assumption is deified and so made infinite with that uttermost infinitie whereof the Creature can any way bee capable seeing the deity is neither without the humanity nor the humanity without the deity And so the divine understanding may be an outward obiect infinite as much as it is possible that a creature can be infinite And so the wisdome also may bee infinite in all possibility of infinity both in the inward and outward working And what I have said of the infinite wisdome of God must also be understood of all his other perfections of goodnesse of power of eternity of life of glory c. But if there bee no incarnation this infinite outward obiect is taken away and so the understanding and 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
assumed the person of any man though therewith hee had taken also the common nature of mankinde yet that Person had had perculiar interest in the eternall and infinite love and wee had beene unequally subjected one to another but now the common nature onely being raken unto the deity every person hath equall interest as in the common nature so in the eternall love Now let us see the reasons of the proposition 1. It is necessary that all the actions of God be done according to the perfection of that order which is most fit and agreeable unto those actions But seeing it stood with the Love of God to dwell in mans being as it hath bin proved it was most convenient that the Sonne of God should take our nature on him For first the Son is the image of God increated man his created image and that all perfection of an image might bee in the increated image it was necessarie that hee should bee also the created image of his Father Secondly seeing that by the eternall nativitie hee is the eternall Sonne that the perfection of all Sonne-ship might bee in him it was necessarie that hee should bee that Sonne that should bee borne in time Thirdly and because it pleased the Father that all fulnesse should dwell in him Colossians 1. verse 19. Seeing hee was brought forth by an eternall nativitie hee must also perfect that nativitie which was in time Fourthly and because all things both which are in heaven and in earth were created by him it was necessarie that all things by him should bee restored Fifthly Mans nature is the daughter of God therefore being led away captive by sinne was to be rescued by his Sonne Sixthly Man fell from grace by the craft of the devill therefore by the wisdome of God was hee to be brought to favour againe Seventhly Mankinde is the peculiar possession of the Sonne by the speciall gift of the Father Psal 2.8 Iohn 17.2 therefore being lost it was to be recovered by his speciall purchase And if there bee any other personall proprietie of the Sonne of obedience or the like it sorts better with him to bee incarnate than either with the Father or the holie Ghost All the arguments which prove that it was necessarie that Christ should dye may bee brought hither See them in the 27. Chapter 2. Nothing can bee admitted in the actions of the Deitie which takes away the distinction of their personall proprieties seeing God is the author of order not of confusion But if either the Father or the holy Ghost had beene incarnate then their personall proprieties were thereby in utter confusion for if the Father had beene incarnate then should hee not be eternally a Father that had in time become a Sonne so also neither the perfection of fatherhood should be in the Father nor of Sonne-ship in the Sonne And concerning the holy Ghost seeing hee is that emanation breath of effluence of the power wisdome life c. whereby the worke of God is perfected if he should have beene incarnate the same being should be both the worker and the thing wrought See Luke 1.35 But all these things are impossible Therefore the Sonne of God onely tooke on him our flesh 3. The greatest excellencie which God can love in himselfe is the image of himselfe beheld in himselfe that is the Sonne of his eternall love The greatest excellencie which God can love without himselfe is the image of himselfe beheld in his creature Therfore it is necessarie that the Sonne of his eternall love be also incarnate that the love of God be most perfect toward his Sonne with all perfections of love which can bee either within or without himselfe 4. It was said before Chap. 11. that the goodnesse infinitie eternitie wisdome and power of God being viewed or objected to the infinite wisdome by the infinite action of his understanding was the Sonne Now if the Sonne be incarnate then the actions of all the divine dignities are perfected and may be infinite both in their internall and as much as may be in their externall object But if either the Father or holy Ghost had beene incarnate then the object of those dignities could not bee one and if the object were not one then could it not be beheld with one action of understanding But it is impossible either that there should be two infinite objects or two infinite actions Moreover if the holy Ghost had been incarnate then the infinite internall action should have become the externall object if the Father then the fountaine of the Deitie should become not the objectant or being which understandeth but onely the object understood But all these things are impossible for God is not the author of confusion therefore it was necessarie that the Sonne should be incarnate 5. The doctrine concerning the Mediatour conteined in these foure Chapters is as the substantiall ground of the Christian Religion so is it that foundation on which all the Prophets and Apostles have builded for as Saint Peter saith 1. Pet. 1.11 That which the Prophets by the spirit of Christ did search into was the time when the sufferings of Christ should be reveiled and the glories that should follow after The summe then of the whole Scripture being to shew the redemption of man by the death of our Saviour God and man the authorities are not farre to seeke Many of the texts of the old Testament you shall finde most excellently brought together and interpreted by Iustine Martyr against the Iewes in his dialogue of the truth of the Christian Religion which is intituled Tryphon Some most evident texts you shall have out of the new Testament and more hereafter as need is Iohn 3.16.17 God so loved the world that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemne the world but that the world by him might bee saved Gal. 4.4 But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law that hee might redeeme them that were under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes Phil. 2.6.7 Christ Iesus being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to bee equall with God but tooke on him the forme of a servant and was made like unto man and was found in shape like a man Colos 1.13.14 God hath delivered us from the power of darkenesse and hath translated us into the kingdome of his deare Sonne in whom wee have redemption through his blood Col. 2.9 In Christ dwelleth the fulnesse of the God head bodily 1. Tim. 3.16 Great is the mysterie of Godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up to glorie 1. Iohn 4.14 Whosoever shall confesse that Iesus is the Sonne of God God dwelleth in him and hee in God
the Father for both are named by the name of Iehova yet the Father hath the excellency of honour before Him and that he executes no Iudgement in the creature but by his fathers beheast which is yet more evident by that which is Zach. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan whereby it may seeme either that there is not an equality of power in the Persons of the Trinity or else that there is a created Mediator in whom the second Person of the Trinity doth dwell Ans If the dignities of the deity be essential as was proved then if there be one nature of the Father and the Sonne it followes that their power and all other dignities are coequall Onely the Father hath the prerogative of originall in this that the Son is of the Father but the Father is not of the Sonne though he never were without the Sonne And therefore those professions of our Lord all power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth Math. 28 18. And the Father hath committed all judgement to the Sonne Ioh. 5.22 are first and above all to beare witnesse to the truth Ioh. 18.37 For if he received his being originally from the Father then of necessity that power also which is essentiall unto him Secondly that as a Sonne he might honour His Father in the dispensation of that power and execution of his Mediatorship And thus hee destroyed Sodome by the power of the Father and thus he prayes that Satan may bee rebuked and the faith of his disciples confirmed Luk. 22.32 Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ioying in the glory and excellency of the Father as Ignatius speakes Epist ad Smyrâ—enses Fourthly that wee may know that we have one and the same gratious Mediator which did evermore save and defend his church both before and after his incarnation 12. But it is written Exod 23.20 c. Behold I send an Angel before thee beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for bee will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him That this Speaker was Christ who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt it is manifest 1 Cor. 10.9 That this Angel may meane Moses it sorts not with some circumstances especially that He will not pardon your transgressions Therefore some Rabbines understand by this Angell Michael the Prince or Angel that standeth for the nation of the Iewes Dan. 10.13.21 but neither can an Angel forgive sinnes Therefore being compared with Exod. 33. v. 2.3 I will send an Angell before thee but I will not goe up with thee least I consume thee in the way it must follow of necessity that this Angell is not the second Person in the Trinity but that created Mediator the Son of man who had power in earth to forgive sinnes Math. 9.6 Answer That being granted which is Ioh. 10.38 Ioh. 14.10 That Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him these words being spoken in the Person of the Father wil prove that Christ is the worker of al deliverances for his Church both temporall and eternall and that he hath power to forgive sins and that the name or being of God is truely in Him So by this Angell no created Mediator can be understood for every sin is a breach of the law of God against an infinite Iustice which God alone and no creature can forgiue And therefore that sonne of man which had power on earth to forgive sinne must of necessity bee God and not a created Mediator And although Israel were here threatned that God would depart from them for their Calfe yet it is manifest vers 17. that God at the prayer of Moses pardoned their sinne and brought them into Canaan But to take the objection as it may make most for this opinion that God doth threaten to send a created Angel yet these words My name is in him cannot prove him to be this created Mediator but rather that the Angell to be sent should have a power delegate whereby to punish the rebellions of the people without sparing and that power was the power or name of God in him 13. I but Psal 45.6 after the Prophet had confessed unto Christ Thy throne O God is for ever and ever thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity hee addes verse 7. Therefore God even thy God hath annointed thee By which it may seeme that Christ though God yethath a God and is God by grace and a created mediator as Hermes Trismeg in Asclep cals the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creator of this God Answer Christ though God eternall yet as man a created Mediator hath a God as he saith Ioh. 20.17 I ascend to my God and your God and in this sence God is his God which hath annointed Him with the oyle of gladnesse above all that are partakers with him of flesh and bloud For he received not the spirit by measure but of his fulnesse have we received grace 14. Esay saith Chap. 43. v. 10. Before mee was no God formed neither shall there bee after mee Therefore the Mediatour that spake there must bee a created Mediatour Answer It followes Esay 44.6 I am the first and I am the last and beside mee there is no God therefore he is not a created Mediatour but the Creator of all things But that text of 43.10 it seemes did somewhat trouble the Greeke interpreters who with one consent translated the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was formed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to this sence there was no God before me though some of them left out the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and some kept it according to the Hebrew but this text proves nothing to that purpose for which it is cited but rather as it followeth on the verse before thus much That if none of the Gods of the natione could bring forth their witnesses that they had promised and performed then the Iewes might witnesse with him and especially his chosen servant Iesus in whom all his promises are yea and Amen that hee was before all their formed Gods and should be after them So that if hee were before and after all their formed Gods whom yet they did confesse to bee immortall for no man takes him for a god that must dye Ioh. 12.34 therefore against themselves they must witnesse that he was the true God 15. It is said Rom. 8.26 That the Spirit maketh intercession for us with gronings that cannot be uttered which cannot be but with earnestnesse of desire and paine but neither of these can befall unto God yet is our Mediator one yesterday and to day and the same for ever Therefore the Mediator is a created being which continually hath made and doth make intercession for the Saints according to the will of God vers 27. Answer Though Christ be our eternall Mediatour as was said above Obiect 6. one as the Sonne of God eternall one Sonne of the Virgin
from heaven Yet this prooves not that the body of Christ was not taken from His mother but rather that as wee are stained with originall 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 Epiphanius Haer. 44. briefly and plainely but this which concernes the body of our Lord more 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 Hinselfe 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 Pofition 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 snee 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 seeing that the fruit was good for food and pleasant to sight tooke and did eat it So was it necessary that sinne should be destroyed in the body of that flesh wherein sinne was conceived and wrought Moreover the difference not of the matter which must be one but of the Spirit of sanctification which 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. 25. 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 agianst Iustice that He which had done no sinne should have still continued under the power of death and therefore impossible Act. 2.24 But our bodies doe therefore still rest in hope because all His enemies are not subjected unto Him among which the last is death 1. Cor. 15.26 Therefore for conclusion 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 of flesh and bones we must also know that our Lord had a true naturall and humane body as one of us Which authority is yet of so much the greater regard because it was prophesied in Paradice Gen. 2.22 That our Redeemer should be incarnate that in the body of His flesh through death He might present us holy and unblameable Col. 2.22 For seeing the children are partakers of flesh and blood Hee also Himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through 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 Celsas 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. Har. 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 2. How are wee freed from that damnation under which we were brought through the sinne of Adam while the Divine Iustice is yet unsatisfied 3. And if Christ have not suffered for vs what example hath He left unto vs that wee should follow his steps 4. Wee that are the Disciples should bee above our Master-our patience more then His our love to Him more then His to vs If wee for His sake should willingly suffer persecution shame losse imprisonment death which He Himselfe had not suffered for vs. And 5. It had been utterly to no end that He should have become man For as it had been in vaine for Him to have taken a
every side should be onely an idle loade of earth and water Moreover the generation of all the Mineralls which is onely from water steamed up in vapour and congealed by the spirits of sulphur in the metalls of salts in all manner of stones or of the earth it selfe as vitriols and such like argue both emptinesse and heat neither of which can be in a massie lumpe of earth and water See to this purpose Novum lumen Chemicum 3. Beside this the huge quantity of vapour sent out of the earth and waters for raine and snow in the winter time argues not onely that there is a hollownesse of the earth but likewise that there is some powerfull principle for sending up such waters which naturally doe flee from heat as this macrocosmicall Sun is for drawing of them upward For in the Summertime when our Sun hath most strength to exhale those vapours from the earth and sea wee have least raine and that because that centrall Principle hath then his greatest declination to the South whereas in the Winter when his declination is to us in the North then is it most powerfull to send out those vapours on this side of the earth and to cause so much raine except some violent frost doe close up the face of the earth that they cannot get out which thing is yet further manifest by those boysterous stormes of raine and winde which happen in those Countreys that are neere to that girdle of the earth which they call the Equinoctiall line where the influences doe meete in direct opposition 4. If no such centrall Principle bee by whose heate and warme vapours the earth is opened it were impossible that any trees or rootes could continue in life especially in Countreys that are removed above 20. degrees from the Tropicks toward the Poles For as those vegetables doe live with a meete temper of cold and heate So where the cold exceeds there is no possibility of their growth as it appeares in the places of our Whale-fishing and others within 20. degrees of the Pole Now what heate hath the Sun here with us in a hard frost continuing 3. or 4. moneths yet is not our winter so cold as the Continent of the same Latitude for enliving our trees who are not 52. degrees from the very Equinoctiall but that they are still kept in life by the warmth and moisture which is sent to them from below Object 1. Obiect 1 But is not every heavy thing carried naturally to the centre which if it be then cannot that centre be in a place of emptinesse as this opinion would make it I Answere The centre is either of magnitude as the imagined centre of this globe of the earth or else of waight The centre of magnitude suffers nothing to stay in it but drives it to the centre of waight as the South pole of the Load-stone drives away that end of the needle which is touched for the North So that if the firmament of this globe of earth and water be 50.100 or 200. miles thicke which seemes a great deale too much not onely because such a thicknesse were to no use but rather an utter impediment to the passage of the Sunnes heate for the generation of the mineralls winds and vapours as I spake before Yet there is left an hollownesse whose diameter is about 7000. miles wherein if such a principle of heat be as I shewed I see no reason why that opinion of the Poets and Philosophers concerning their Elizium or of the Fathers concerning their lower Paradise should be so slighted as it is This then being either prooved or supposed that centre of waight which I speake of cannot be the same with the centre of this globe of the earth but rather an imagined surface in the midst of the firmament of this globe in proportion of the convex and concave surfaces somewhat further from this convex surface then from that hollow which is within 2. Obiect 2 But you object that of 4. Esdras 5.44 That the world cannot hold them at once that should bee created in it And if this outward surface cannot much lesse that hollow one which is within which must needs be lesse then it And yet if all that die goe thither it must containe at least 20. times as many since Christ as are now alive in this world Answer Doe you thinke that if any man had in him the spirit of lust of wrath of pride and all those seven devills which were in Mary Magdalene that his heart would be any bigger then any other mans or was that man bigger then all the sonnes of Adam in whom the Legion was Mark 5.9 For a full Legion or regiment was 6000. Foot and 726. Horsemen Veg de remil lib. 2. cap. 6. Now the state of the soule separate because it is a spirituall being must bee such as that of Spirits is which doe not occupy a place bodily though they bee in a place definitively So that feare of thronging which is such a blocke in the way of those new interpreters is like that feare of the Satyre that winded his horne and ranne away from the sound Sect. 8. 3. Sect. 8 The third way of locall descent is best understood by that supposition of Almicantrahs and Azimuths from the Zenith For every man in what position of the earth or sea soever he is supposes himselfe to be in the highest part of his hemisphere and so is So that if circles of any sensible distance suppose of 60. Italian or 55. English miles which answere on earth to one degree in heaven were drawen about him then they that are in that circle should be one degree or step lower then hee and so to the horizon and so to the Nadie or point directly opposite unto him on the other side of the earth But you will say If the dead before Christ did thus descend and our Lord likewise to them then must it follow that the whole surface of the earth is Paradise and that there is no difference betweene the state of the godly and the wicked which is directly against the word of Christ himselfe in that parable of Lazarus and the rich glutton in Luke 16. I Answere That before the earth was cursed for mans sinne there was no cause why it might not be wholly Paradise The desoription 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
therein O times Into what corruption of manners are wee fallen So when all charity is put only in the maintenance of idlenesse and begging Gangrels being otherwise dead and cold when the apostasie is fully revealed and the man of sinne detected which exalteth Himselfe above all that is called God Moreover when by the working of the false apostles of that apostasie there is a daylie falling from the faith 2. Thes chap. 2. When that ill servant hath said in his heart My Lord delayes his comming and hath begun and so continues to smite his fellow-servants Matth. 24.28 29. what wants but onely that the Tribes of Israel should be gathered to the Church that all the wicked should bee put away like drosse Psal 119. verse 119. For the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous Other signes you may reade in the Holy Text and consider of them But that signe of the Son of man spoken of Matth. 24.30 is doubtfull Some thinke it shall be a crosse some a great light Lactantius Lib. 7. Cap. 19. thinkes it shall bee a sword which shall fall from heaven like the ancyle Ovid. Fast lib. 3. But Sibyl orae lib. 2. saith it shall be a glorious Starre in the likenesse of a Crowne except by an Enallage of number shee meanes a Crowne of Starres as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime doth signifie a constellation Her Verses are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A shining Starre like to a Crowne most sheen In the bright heaven of all men shal be seen For many dayes Next after the signes of our Lords comming to Iudgement you may reade the manner of His comming as it is delivered in the Scripture so farre as our understanding can conceive to bee with power and glory Mat. 24.31 euen the glory of the Father Mat. 16.27 and all the holy Angels with Him Matt. 25.31 In flaming fire rendring vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2. Thess 1.8 § 3. But that we dwell not on these things which are either beyond our understanding as the enquiry of the time which is therefore hid that it may stint our curious search or else so plaine that wee need not doubt let us goe forward to those questions which seeme to offer some doubt unto us 1. And first if Christ our Lord shall judge the world in righteousnesse Psalm 9.8 how is it said Matth. 19.28 That the Apostles shall sit upon twelue Thrones and judge the twelue tribes of Israel And againe 1 Cor. 6.2 Doe ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and vers 3. Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels To which the answere is returned That the Apostles by their faith and doctrine shall take away all excuse from the Israelites and so judge and condemne them For this is their condemnation That they beleeved not in the Name of the onely begotten Sonne of God Iohn 3.18 So the Saints in generall shall judge the wicked by their faith and repentance whose example the wicked would not follow that they might be saved Moreover seeing the faithfull are the members of that mysticall body of which Christ is the head they in Him are said to judge the world that is the unbeleevers And seeing all the enemies of Christ are to bee brought before the Throne of Christ and His Church in as much as Christ shall judge the world and the wicked Angels in trueth and righteousnesse all the faithful shal subscribe to the judgement as most holy and just and so are rightly said to judge the Angels And as the holy Angels shall then rejoyce with joy unspeakable for that glory and mercy which God shall vouchsafe unto His Saints So the Saints likewise shall give glory and thankes to God for that encrease of glory and happinesse which He shall give unto the holy angels as the reward of their continuall watch and guard which they have held about us all the time of our pilgrimage upon earth and at the houre of death helping the soule out of the prison of the body and conducting it unto the place of joy But it is said Iohn 16.11 That the Prince of this world is judged already how they shall we judge the Angels Answer The devill is judged already 1. In the decree of God 2. By the word of God he is declared to be reserued in chaines of darknesse and that hell fire is prepared for him and his angels 3. By his owne knowledge of his owne estate 4. Because his torment is in part begun But in judgement there be two things First the enquiry of the fact then the award of the reward Neither the deeds of the good or bad angels shall bee enquired into at the judgement a as some have thought but the reward shall bee assigned unto them both and acknowledged to be most just by the Church as I said before and this is our judgement of them Neither yet shall the sencelesse creatures be exempted from this judgment in as much as The elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes thereof shall burne 2. Pet. 3.10 that they may be freed from that corruption to which they are subject for the sinne of man For when man sinned the whole bodily creature which was made for man was thereby subjected to vanity not of it owne will or any inclination which was therein in respect of any weakenesse of state wherein it was created For all was exceeding good Gen. 1.31 but that the justice of God against sinne might be manifest is it subjected to the curse Gen. 3.18 19. yet under hope that when man is freed from his sinne the creature also shall be restored unto that libertie from corruption wherein it was created Rom. 8.20 c. as it is said Rev. 21.1 and 5. Behold I create all things new See 1. Pet. 3.13 2. Another doubt may bee concerning the forme of the sentence whereby it may seeme that the merit of workes is justified For so is the sentence pronounced Come yee blessed receive the King-dome prepared for you for I was hungry and ye gave Mee meat c. and on the other side Depart ye cursed for I was hungry and ye gave Me no meat c. Mat. 25.35 to 46. Ans It cannot bedenied but that the sentence of condemnation upon the reprobate is according to their workes as the deseruing causes thereof For not tobeleeve in Christ is that great sin which is the cause of condemnation Ioh. 3.18 and 16.9 Neither is a dead faith ought worth but that faith onely is accepted which worketh by love Galat. 5.6 without which it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 And if all things that are not of faith be sinne Rom. 14.23 Then the wicked works of Infidels and Hypocrites and much more their violent and wilfull rebellions
He had not died a most shamefull death Therefore it was expedient that He should so die 8. Full and perfect obedience is due from man-kind unto the Creator and especially from that Man of men their Prince and Captaine who ought to be an example unto them of all those vertues whereby they ought to glorifie His Father Therefore that faithfull men might willingly die for the love and service of God it was necessary that our Lord should give the example See 1. Peter 2.21 4. and Buried 1. IT is said that death is the uttermost or last of evills And that wee might by all arguments bee assured of His death by whose suffering of death wee are ransomed from the power of death it was necessary that after His death our Lord should bee buried Seeing that by His buriall we are assured not only that He was truely dead but also that during the time of His buriall He was held under the power of death 2. The greatest triumph cannot bee ascribed but to the greatest victory manifest and knowne The greatest victory is over the greatest enemy Death and him that had the power of death the Devill And that Christ might be acknowledged to have risen againe and so to have triumphed over death it was necessary that after His death He should be buried Seeing many persons in Apoplexies Plagues Singer in his drunkennesse so after hanging drowning falls and other both inward sicknesses and outward violences have been supposed to have beene dead which yet have returned to life againe But after buriall for so long time no man ever returned to life but by a power that was divine Therefore that our Lord might truely be acknowledged to have risen from the dead and so to have triumphed over Death it was necessary first that Hee should be buried 3. That blessed Spirit which knew from the beginning what should come to passe at the last who fore-saw the malice of the Priests and Scribes and knew their hardnesse of heart to beleeve all that was spoken by the Prophets that the resurrection of Christ might be most manifest before-hand decreed and spake Esay 53.9 That Hee should make His grave with the rich in His death Therefore was He not onely buried in fine linnen and perfumes of Ioseph our Apostle and Nicodemus but also by the plot of the High-Priests was He made sure in His grave the great stone which shut it up being firmely fastened in the Rocke See Lamentations 3. verse 9.53 into which the Grave was hewed with c cramps of Iron sodered into Both and surely guarded with a strong watch that both His Death His Buriall and His Resurrection might bee witnessed even by His very enemies Matth. 28.11 Notes a 1. HEe was pleased to be borne man The errours of Simon Valentin and Apelles which you had before Note a on the 26. Chapter though directly they oppose the truth of the former article yet have I refer'd the refutation of them to this place because they also take away the merit of Christs passion from us wherein alone our hope consists But seeing that Simon in his Heresie sided with the Iewes against whom I haue disputed in the 24. Chapter and besides them had not many followers though after him it were recalled from hell by one Proclus an obscure fellow Aug. heres cap. 60. Seeing no reasons are or can be brought either by Simon or by the Iewes to prooue the assertion the onely authority of S. Iohn is able utterly to strangle this whelpe See then Chap. 1.4 The Word was made flesh And 1. Ep. Chap. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard and seene and lookedon and our hands have handled c. And againe Chap. 4. Every spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 2. The doctrine of Valentin is refuted at large by Irenaus lib. 3. cap. 11. 32. And that by the manifest authority of S. Paul Gal. 4.4 where it is said That Christ was made of a woman So also by Tertullian in his Booke De carne Christi The Evangelists Matthew and Luke describe His humane generation Besides His manly Passions approove Him to have had the true holy of a man as to be Hungry Thirsty Weary to Sweat to Weepe c. Moreover if He had not suffered in the true and very Body of man His suffering for us had been of none effect for the ransome of our bodies Their Arguments you may see more at large in the Bookes cited But Epiphanius Haer. 1. layes not this Heresie to the charge of Valentin as the Authors forenamed And S. Aug. haer oap 12. but rather puts it to Marcion Haer. 42. who taught that the Incarnation of Christ was not in deed but onely in shew whom he refutes only by those Scriptures which Marcion allowed of as the Gospel of S. Luke which Marcion received except that which concernes the Genealogie of Christ and certaine Epistles of Saint Paul For all the Olde Testament and the rest of the New lie rejected But in these Scriptures Christ calleth Himselfe the Sonne of man Hee was thronged by the multitude He lift up His eyes He prayed on His knees His feet were anointed He slept on the sea He is made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1.3 So that if David had a true manly body then also the body of Christ was a true manly body He gave up the ghost His lifelesse body was taken from the Crosse wrapped in Linnen and Buried After His Resurrection also He said Handle me and see mee for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luke 24.39 And these Texts out of those Scriptures only are sufficient to reproove the falshood of these Hereticks And for full satisfaction heerein you may take the interpretation of Tho. Aqu. cont gent. l. 4. c. 30. to those Texts of Scripture whence Valentin might seeme to have taken occasion or his Heresie First it is said Iohn 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but Hee that came downe from heaven the Sonne of man which is in heaven Answer This comming downe from heaven cannot bee meant of His body or of His soule because of that which followes The Sonne of man which is in heaven for it is proper onely to the Godhead to fill both heaven 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
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 Paradse 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 theend 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 Objection 1. Obiect 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