as the Originall Donec transeat coelum terra as the Vulgar Vsquedum praeterierit coelum terra as Beza Quod donec transeant coelum terra as the Syriack Version by Tremelius Here we have some diversitie in words but all to one and the same sense and some conceive the words not simply but cōparatively spoken as thus that the truth of the Law is so firm that even such things as seem most durable shall perish before any jott of it perish yea Heaven and Earth are not so stable as the truth of it in all the parts of it Yea so strictly doth Piscator urge this place Piscator in in verba that as he hence observes the Law to have been written of old with pricks in the Hebr. Tongue so likewise he notes that God will have such a speciall care in preserving of the Scriptures that not so much as the least Vowell or prick of it shall perish in the Hebrew tongue nor the least iota or least letter with which its written in the Greek Tongue the least Letter or the least truth of the Law of God shall not perish or be changed so wisely was it given Calvin Musc Bucer in verba Psal 102.27 To the which sense Calvin Musculus and Bucer agree Beza parallels the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza with the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 102. Iahhaloph 27. signifies sic praeterire ut etiam mutetur so to passe away as also to be changed in the passage In Luke its positively set down as likewise in the Hebrewes before cited heaven and earth shall passe or they shall perish yet it will not hence follow that they shall passe or perish totally or by the whole destruction of the substance but in regard of this their present state and condition or in regard of their qualities or outward forme The same words are also positively used Mat 24.35 caduca eorum conditio their fraile and brittle estate and condition shall passe away but that will not conclude that therefore their essence and substance shall totally and finally be abolished but that they shall not remaine in the state and condition that they are now in for ever as the Philosophers that followed Aristotle dreamed holding the heavens aeternall and inalterable but shall perish or be changed Now Ipsi peribunt they shall perish or passe away will not conclude a totall abolition of substance as I have said but alteration of their present state quality and condition no more then justus perit Esa 57.1 Esa 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layes it to heart now the righteous perish not so as to suffer a totall abolition of their substance but the mortall and naturall man suffers so and perisheth so as to have his naturall and mortall estate changed his present estate condition and qualities but shall arise again in the same bodies for substance 1 Cor. 15. 1. Cor 15.53 53. Oportet enim hoc corruptioni obnoxium induere incorruptam naturam For this corruptible that is this corruptible body not another for substance shall put on incorruption Verse 44. Verse 44. Seritur corpus animale excitatur corpus spirituale it is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body so that though the state qualities and condition be more excellent when it is raised then when it was cast into the grave yet the substance shall be the same Apoc. 1.1 To the third Apoc 21.1 for the first heaven and the first earth was passed away and there was no more sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abiit as the vulgar or abierat was passed away Saint Mat and S. Luke say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall passe away Iohn here in a vision saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away already this he spake prophetically and as foreseeing what should befall them in the end of the world but for the manner how they shall passe away we answer as before for I conceive that the same answer for substance will solve the objection and therefore we will produce Aretius assenting to the same judgment quoting also Rev 20.11 Aretius in loc from whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them which might seem to argue indeed a totall abolition of them but saith he they fled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the state or condition of corruption to incorruption and they fled from their former estate from before Gods face as ashamed of that estate For you have heard how usuall it is in Scripture to attribute to senselesse or irrationall creatures that which belongs to rationall And whereas mention is made of Iohns seeing a new Heaven and a new Earth Apoc. 21.1 Apoc 21.1 revera eadem sunt solum deposita corruptibilitate In very deed they are but the same having put off their corruptible estate and condition so that you see for substance the Heaven and Earth remains yet because their qualities present state and condition are changed they are called new and such you see S. Iohn saw them thus Aretius We may in some degree illustrate it thus 2 Cor. 5.17 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ saith the Apostle he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nova creatura a new Creature Now he is not new for substance either in body or soul for he hath the same for substance which he had before God wrought any change but not for state qualitie and condition for in regard of new qualities infused into his heart and minde from God he is called a new Creature or a new man veteri illa conditione abolita as Beza Beza in loc his old condition being abolished Ephes 4.22.23.24 Thus Ephes 4.22 23 24. mention is made of putting off the old man and putting on the new man This old man is said to be corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts That is he is denominated an old man from vicious qualities and that corrupt state of nature in which he was born Ephes 2.3 Ephes 2.3 By nature we are children of wrath But the new man is denominated from new and supernaturall qualities in regard of our lapsed estate This new man after God is Created in righteousnesse and true holinesse that is which after or according to Gods Image is renewed and changed by instauration of such qualities in some good measure and degree which we lost in Adam The Scholies Schol Graec from the Greeks have it thus sensed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veterem hominem non nomina vit ipsam naturam sed operationem peccati veterem vocavit in peccatis c. he calls not nature it self the old man but the corruption of nature for our nature was of old corrupted by the filthinesse of sinne According to which Zanchie upon the place Zanchie in loc Vetus homo est vetus
he may bestow it upon other parts of the world then onely those which that Doctor names And howsoever many Individuals of every species have and shall perish so likewise have parts of the Elements perished though not the tota so the species of severall Creatures shall continue as long as the Elements that now are shall and why then by the gift of immortalitie may not these species continue of which many Individualls have perished as well as the Elements from whom parts have so much and so often perished His fifth Those Creatures that shall be delivered shall be glorified and immediately passe from their corruptible estate into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God but the unreasonable Creature not thus Ergo. I answer To be glorified properly is incident to the rationall Creature he onely shall enter into the glory of God in the third Heaven and have the Image of God perfectly renewed in him Secondly the Creature may come into the glorious libertie of the Sons of God and yet be not thus glorified but sutable to its nature immortalized dono gratuito as we have heard and have an Analogie to glorified bodies Again where he saith they fall into corruption and their life and spirit is extinguished with them c. true to all that shall not be renewed this shall come to passe but whether God shall not renew the species of them is adhuc sub judice and to affirm he shall not is but to begge the question and to conclude that for a certaintie which is in controversie And whereas he renders this reason why the Heavens and earth shall rather be restored then the rest of the Creatures namely because they have been from the beginning to the ending subject to vanitie after man had sinned but other Creatures that succeed by generation but a while I answer this had been some reason against the Individuals of the species but against the species none for the species of the Creatures have been as long subject to vanity as they though not their successive individualls His sixth If any such Creatures restored then either the same that were before or some other of the same kinde newly created But neither of these Ergo. I answer this will fall to be handled in the fourth and last ranke of Creatures but in all probabilty not those that are already perished in individualls Secondly we say they shall have a renovation or restauration not a new Creation for substance but shall be renewed in their qualities state and condition as we have heard before His seventh and last Argument produced against the most generally received opinion is this Nulla promissio facta est there is no promise made for the restitution of any such Creatures as there is for Heaven and Earth Ergò they shall not be restored To this I answer that there is a promise as I conceive in generall though not so particularly as for Heaven and Earth For this I conceive a promise as also do many others in that the Scripture saith the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.21 into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God and before the Creature was made subject to vanity But Heaven Earth and man were not all the Creatures that were made subject to vanity Peter Martyr to the same purpose in 8. P. Martyr in Rom. 8. ad Rom. quamvis enim Scriptura harum Creaturarum mentionem seorsim expresse non fecerit satis tamen est quod in genere Creaturas restaurandas significaverit nequè unquà m quicquà m exceperit saith he Although the Scripture make no mention of the Creatures severally and expressely as it doth of Heaven and Earth yet its sufficient that it hath signified that the Creatures shall be restored in generall or indefinitly neither any where hath it made any exception Thus have you seen the Arguments and reasons of that laborious and learned Divine answered upon which reasons and Arguments he dissented as much following Bucan from the most generally received opinion Let us now come to the fourth and last ranke of the Creatures the Heavens the Earth and Mankinde this last ranke many of the School-Divines fall upon which Peter Martyr also mentions in oct ad Rom. thus P. Mart. in 8. ad Rom. Scholastici saith he putant homine qui praecipua est pars Orbis terrarum renovato etiam Creaturas esse restituendas quae sententia verissima est colligitur enim ex dictis Pauli quòd autem ad partes attinet tantum Coelum Elementa hominum corpora putant esse relinquenda The Schoole-men saith he do suppose that man who is the chiefe part of the world being renewed the rest of the Creatures also shall be restored which sentence is most true for it s gathered from the sayings of Saint Paul but concerning what Creatures they think that Heaven the Elements and the bodies of men shall be restored for they thinke that not the Earth onely but also the rest of the Elements shall remain Beda indeed saith glossa in 2. Beda in gloss in 2 Pet. ult Pet. last quòdignis duo ex toto consumet duo verò in meliorem restituet faciem c. that the fire shall totally consume two of the Elements and renue or purifie other two Others thinke quod manebunt omnia quoad substantiam sed mutabuntur quoad imperfectionem sed duo retinebunt propriam formam substantialem scilicet Aer Terra sed in igne aqua non remanebit forma substantialis sed ad formam Coeli commutabuntur sic tria Elementa Ignis Aer Aqua dicentur Coelum quamvis Aer retineat eandem formam substantialem quam nunc etiam habet quia et nunc etiam Coelum dicitur c. That all the Elements shall remaine for substance but shall be changed from their imperfection but yet two of them that is to say the Aire and Earth shall retain their own substantiall forme but in the fire and water that substantiall forme shall not remaine but shall be changed into the forme of Heaven and so three of the Elements Fire Aire and Water shall be called Heaven although one of these that is to say the Aire may retaine the same substantiall forme which now it hath and because now the Aire is called Heaven And this they would collect from Apoc. 21. Apoc. 21.1 1. because mention is made onely of Heaven and earth but others reject this opinion because say they repugnat Philosophiae quòd corpora inferiora sint in potentia ad formam coeli cum materiam non habent ejusmodi this is repugnant to Philosophie that bodies sublunary should be in capacity to be informed by the forme of Heaven when as they are not of the same matter with the Heavens for so Aristotelians as you have heard It may also resist Theologie in the most generally received opinion for if two of the foure Elements
that perished lib. 20 de civitate Dei cap. 24. and those were the Aereal Heavens or the regions of it To which I answer that the comparison in Peter is not between the Heavens that then perished and these that now are being indeed for substance still the same but between the world that then was 2 Pet. 3.6 is qui tum erat mundus 2 Pet. 3.6 that is as Beza well hath it Beza in loc aspectabilis ille terrae decor quaecunque animantia in terra degebant iis duntaxat exceptis quae in arca erant inclusa nec enim aquae in coelos redundarunt imò ne ipsa quidam terrae substantia periit sed futurae conflagrationis longe alia erit ratio ideò coelum terram id est rerum universitatem distinctè nominavit in proximo versu that visible comelinesse of the earth and whatsoever living Creatures then was upon it except onely those that were shut up in the Ark neither did the Waters then reach unto the Heavens yea not so much as the very substance of the earth perished But the matter shall be farre otherwise about burning of the world by fire therefore in the next Verse he distinctly named the Heaven and the earth that is the whole world to which the forenamed world was opposed And Beda by the Elements understands all the four Elements Beda in verba yet thinks two onely shall utterly perish that is Fire and Water and other two remain renewed that is the Air and earth called the new Heavens and the new Earth Yet what hath been said against this before shall suffice neither doth this plâ—â—se the Pontificians Others thinke onely three here meant Water Earth Aire because they cannot see how the Element of fire should be consumed by fire To which I would answer with Aquin in suplem ad 3. Aquin in supplem ad 3. part sum qu. 74. art 3. partem summarum qu. 74. art 3. respond ad 1. having shewn that the fire that shall burn the world shal be of the same species with ours he adds non tamen est idem numero notwithstanding it s not the same in all respects with ours And we see saith he that in two fires of the same species one may destroy the other major scilicet minorem the greater the lesse consumendo materiam by consuming the matter of it c. Again loco quo supra Respond ad secundum Loco quo supra Resp ad 2. the fire that shall burn and purge the world shall not have its calefactive power ex principiis essentialibus sed ex divina virâ—ute vel operatione out of its own essentiall Principles as usually it hath but from the Divine power or operation of God in it as his Instrument inabled from him to produce this effect And actio instrumenti magis manifestat virtutem moventis quà m virtutem moti the action of the Instrument rather manifests the power and efficacie of the Mover of it or Worker by it then of it self and the fire which God shall stirre up to purge the world shall have such efficacie in it from him that it shall work beyond the ordinary course of nature and shall be able to melt the Elements and that with fervent heat as S. Peter speaks yet non ad eorum funditus consumptionem sed solum usque ad eorum purgationem not to the totall or utterly abolishing of their substance but to the purging of them from their grosser attracted qualities Neither will that of Gregory hold Greg. magnus who saith in tantum accendet ignis Judicii in quantum ascenderunt aquae diluvii the fire shall burn as high towards heaven as the waters of the Flood ascended but that should be no higher than fifteen Cubits above the high Mountains which would not extend to the melting of all the Elements much lesse to the burning of the Sphaericall Heavens Dr. Willet qu. 29. in 8. Dr Willet qu. 29. in 8. ad Rom. ad Rom. there is not any visible thing that had a beginning but shall also have an ending In which he saith truth and for which the Psalmist will warrant him Psal 102.25 26. Psal 102.25.26 The Heavens are the works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt indure they all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed If any visible thing should escape change these were likest but not these must escape And Heavens are here taken as opposed to the Earth as Gen. 2.1 Gen. 2.1 Thus the Heavens and the earth were finished and all the Host of them Psal 8 3 Psa 8.3 When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Starres which thou hast ordained Even these heavens in which are the Moon and the Starres shall perish shall be burned with fire Thus much briefely for the former point that Aethereall Heavens shall burn as well as the Aereall But as we have seen what Heavens shall burn let us a little consider what Heaven shall not burn When I say the Aethereall heavens I mean the Sydereall and all the sphaericalls under the highest or third heaven as the primum mobile and the coelum crystallinum c. but the third heaven I mean not which is the Seat of the Blessed and which was a Creature created the first day Gen. 1.1 Gen. 2.4 Gen. 1.1 and Gen. 2.4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth Heb. 11.10 when they were created Heb. 11.10 Abraham looked for a Citie which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God This Heaven is corpus supremum immobile incorruptibile amplissimum ac totum lucidum c. First it is a body and a substance though most subtile for that in which bodies are contained its necessarie that that should be corporeall for inter locatum locum inter contentum continens there must be aliqua proportio some proportion between the things contained and the thing containing Now the bodie of Christ is alreadie in the highest heaven and ours shall be howsoever the bodies of Enoch and Eliah now be Secondly quicquid est apertibile est corpus But so was the highest heaven Acts 7.56 Acts 7.56 otherwise Stephen had not seen Christ standing at the right Hand of God if that Heaven had not been opened for howsoever I know that some think there was nulla scissura in coelis no division at all in the Heavens and that miraculum non fuit in coelis sed in Stephani oculis not in the opening of the Heavens but in the eyes of Stephen Others that he saw this in a Vision c. or mentall contemplation not with bodily eyes yet Gual hom 55. in Act. saith Gualter Hom. 55. in Acta Ego haec illi revera visibiliter apparuisse nec mentis duntaxat contemplationi objecta fuisse intelligo I do
tamen inquietudine non eripitur ista terrae possessio cujus meminit David quià et certò sciunt se legitimos esse mundi haeredes unde fit ut tranquilla conscientia pane suo vescantur et quamvis inopia laborent Deus tamen ipsorum necessitatibus in tempore succurrit c. Yet in this their unquietnesse that possession of the Earth which David mentions is not taken from them because they know assuredly that they are the lawfull Heires of the world viz. in a spirituall right whereupon it comes to passe that they eate their bread in quietnesse of conscience and though they be sometimes in want yet God in good time sends supply to their necessities So then these grounds in the judgement not onely of the aforenamed Authors but of divers others will not clearly bear out his opinion to hold the new Earth for an habitation of the righteous as well as the Heavens seeing it is verified of a temporall inheritance here and therefore onely and necessarily cannot involve that sense he would put upon it by Origens astipulation Yet this I will say that if the new Heavens be to be an habitation for the righteous this would in my judgement be a better Argument against the motion of the Heavens that they should no more move after the day of judgement then any he hath yet produced Secondly I will say that if by the Creature to be delivered we were sure that onely Heaven and Earth were to be understood c. then may these be said to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Children of God when they shall have liberty to live in these both in the new Heavens and in the Earth and then need not the most accurate and pearcing Interpreters so much perplex themselves about the understanding of this place But this is to be delivered into the liberty of their glory passivè passively to be injoyed of them not activè actively for the Creatures to injoy it He urgeth also Revelations 14.4 they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth shall visite the Earth also and shall go and come as it pleaseth God I answer that though they follow the Lamb whithersoevever he goeth yet except it can be proved that he goeth on to the earth as well as in Heaven the quotation will not help him and Verse the 5. these are said to be without fault before the Throne of God absolved by divine judicature these followed the Lamb in this life in persecutions troubles afflictions yea many of them unto death it self hunc eundem sequuntur in vitam aeternam quò prior ipse abiit as Aretius in loc this same Lambe they follow also into aeternall life whither he himselfe is first gone before them Aretius upon the place in Peter thus Aret. in loc Nova habitatio novos requirit incolas these Heavens being made a new habitation they require the Inhabitants also to be new And a little after Nova terra mansio erit justorum the new Earth shall be a dwelling place for the righteous And Bullinger in 1 Pet. 3.13 Bullin in 1 Pet. 3.13 Novi enim Coeli parantur justis justitiae ergò studendum est iis qui novi Coeli velint esse incolae the Heavens are prepared for the righteous therefore it behoves them to study righteousnesse which would be the inhabitants of these new Heavens these men seeme to me to be of this judgement that when the sphaericall Heavens shall be made new they shall also be for the righteous as well as the highest Heaven is now and that their glorious habitation shall then extend as low as the face of the Earth but whether the new Heavens and the new Earth which God shall make after these be burnt up shall have eundem situm the same situation or place that they have now is questioned by some Dionysius Carthusianus in 5. Dionys Carth. in Matth. 5.18 Matthaei verse 18. thinkes that they shall be changed not onely quoad qualitatem but also quoad situm c. not onely in their qualities but also in their situation yet alledgeth no reason for it But this I would observe by the way that if they shall go and come from Earth to Heaven and from Heaven to Earth again as God shall please as saith Dr. Willet loco quo suprà Dr. Willet loc quo supra then may the Creatures upon the Earth serve for some use of contemplation for the which he would find no use before Now this I say that if God shall enlarge the seat of the blessed and shall make the new Heavens a like glorious to the highest Heaven to contain all the bodies of his Elect as well as the soules though its very probable that the highest Heaven is more spacious for those then Hell for the innumerable number of the bodies of the damned though there shall want no compasse for either but both shall have such confines as God in his wisedome shall appoint the one for joy the other for pain and misery then may the spacious liberty of the saints glory extend to the earth as to the one term of their continent as the top of the highest Heaven is the other and so righteous meÌ„ may be said to dwell in both as living within the scituation of both as theÌ„ in part of their glorious liberty D. Willet concludes thus Dr. Willet loc quo supra But here we must not be too bold to wade without ground how the Saints shall be disposed off whether some to heaven some to earth whether the same shall be sometime in heaven sometime in earth or how else as it pleaseth God we leave these as great mysteries not revealed yet thus he adds But that the Saints shall then be upon the earth we are certain out of Scripture as hath been shewed But I should rather conceive it within the Continent of these as parts of their libertie if inlargement of their glory be granted then upon the Earth as upon the subject matter if the site of it remain where now it is and to the places he grounds upon I have answered and will adde to them one more Apoc. 5.10 Apoc. 5.10 And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the earth not corporeally with the Geneva note Nota Genesis Others of our modern Divines conceive it of the spirituall reign in this mortall life over sinne Sathan persecuters opposers and the like Rom. 6.6 Rom. 6.6 Our old man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroyed And Vers 12 Vers 12. let not sinn reign therefore in your mortall bodie that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof No but reigne you over it upon the earth and not it over you Aretiê° in loc Aretius upon the place thus Commemoratis Christi beneficiis pollicentur gratitudinis ergò constantiam in confessione intelligo enim haec ab eis dici
Creature to vanitie a little more in some particulars The Earth we know is cursed for our sakes or for sin in Adam Gen. 3.17 Thorns and Thistles that was to bring out unto us Maledicta sit terra propter te Cursed is the earth for thy sake Thorns and Thistles shall it bring out unto thee It is smitten with barrennesse as the Psalmist speaks A fruitfull land makes he barren for the wickednesse of those that dwell therein It s made also subject to corruption and destruction for howsoever Salomon saith That the earth abides forever Eccles 1.4 Eccles 1.4 his meaning is not that it abides for ever sub statu jam habito in that state and condition it s now in for that is contrary to S. Peter 2 Pet. 3.10 2 Pet. 3.10 Terra et quae in ea sunt opera exurentur The earth with the works therein shall be burnt up Iunius reads it in seculum for a long time which comparatively may be said to be for ever in respect of many other Creatures that are of much lesse continuance And as for the Air See Psa 78.69 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in seculum Iunius Leolâ—m it s often distempered by contagious or filthy vapours extremitie of cold or burning heat darkned by Clouds moistened by Rain and the like The Seas are tumbled and tossed to and and fro with vehement windes and tempests Ovid. lib. 1. Trist eleg 2. Ovid. lib. 1. Trist Eleg. 2. Me miserum quanti montes volvuntur aquarum Iam jam tacturos sidera summa putes I would English it as near as I could out of the words of the Prophet Psal 107.25 Psa 107.25 26 26. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy winde which lifteth up the Waves thereof they mount up to Heaven Then the Poet addes Iam jam tacturos tartara nigra putes the Prophet thus They go down again to the depth c. The Sunne Moon and Starres are forced to serve the sonnes of Belial and such as are prophane men are subject to extraordinary Ecclipses and darknesses and at the comming of Christ at that great and fearfull day Matth. 24.29 Matth. 24.29 The Sunne shall be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Starres shall fall from Heaven and the Powers of heaven shall be shaken and then the Creature that was made subject to vanitie shall be delivered from it The sublunary both by Land and Sea are subject to corruptions diseases and infirmities death and many changes are taken and destroyed not onely for necessitie and the relief of man but for superfluitie and needlesse pomp and vanitie so that no wonder if the Creature groan and desire to be freed from this slavery under which it was cast by mans disobedience Of which hereafter But seeing that the Air is become troubled the Heavens darkned the Earth barren the Sea incumbred the sensible Creature diseased weakned and often changed in its severall Individualls this should humble man when he considers that for his sinne all this miserie mutability and vanity befell all these Creatures all that God brought to him put him in possession of and made him Lord over for his disobedience to the Creator of both came this misery upon the Creatures yea over those Flocks that he is Owner of His Sheep perish by the rott his greater Cattell by the Murrain and many the like diseases his Fruits are tainted and unserviceable the Springs become cold the Harvests unseasonable the Clouds drie or without water or else weep and wash the face of the Earth and often thus do disadvantage the Inhabitants thereof Secondly see the odiousnesse of sinne in that God did not onely punish man the Creature that offended but such other Creatures also as were made for mans use to refresh his Senses feed his Body be his Servants in obeying that Dominion which God gave him over them and in punishing the Creatures and mans Possession by which he should be relieved he also by consequent punisheth man You have heard how he makes a Land that is fruitfull become barren for the wickednesse of the Owners And I fear with S. Augustine that many grieve for the barrennesse of their Lands more then for the barrennesse of their lives yea and are more sensible of the losse of their Cattell then of the losse of Gods countenance it takes a deeper impression in them they are more stirred and moved at it and indeed many of them may say as Laban did of his Idols Gen. 31.30 Gen. 31.30 their gods are gone or as Iudah said of Iacob Gen. 44.30 Gen. 44.30 anima illius hujus animae devincta est His life is bound up in the Lads life so their mundane life may be said to be bound up in the life and increase of their Goods if these die or decay their life is vexed in them and they crie out bitterly and say they are undone utterly as though the arm of the Lord were shortned and as though it were not easie with the Lord to make a poor man rich again Prov. 10.22 Proverbs 10.22 Benedictio Domini facit divites The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and though they labour to regain or restore what they lost with tears as Esau did his Birth-right Heb. 12.17 Heb. 12.17 yet can they not say to the God of Jacob as Esau did to his father Isaac Gen. 27.38 Gen. 27.38 An benedictio unica tibi est Pater mi Hast thou but one Blessing O my Father So hath but God one way or means to bestow the Blessing of Goods upon men Happy were men if they could considerately say with Iob Iob. 1.21 Iob 1.21 Naked came I out of my Mothers womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. The Sabeans Chaldeans Fire and Winde had taken away yet they did it but instrumentally God permitted this and had a hand of Providence in it so should man conceive of his losses and crosses he should labour to see Gods hand in them and be humbled and consider that God can do to him as to Ioseph when evill was intended against him God turned it to good Gen. last 20. Genes last 20. And of this odiousnesse of sinne by which Possessions come to be punished as well as Persons and the Owners of them we may see Gen. 7.21 Expiravit itaque omnis caro And all flesh died that moved upon the earth Gen. 6.17 for so the Lord had threatned Genes 6.17 And Exod. 9.3 Exod. 9.3 the hand of the Lord was upon the Cattell of the Aegyptians that were in the field upon the Horses upon the Asses upon the Camels upon the Oxen and upon the Sheep a grievous Murrain light upon them Exod 9.25 And Exodus 9.25 the Hail smote every Herb of the field and brake every Tree of the field And Verse 31. Vers
31. the Flax and the Barley were smitten Esa â—8 46 47. Psalm 78.46 47. reflecting upon these Passages He gave also their increase unto the Caterpiller and their labour unto the Locusts he destroyed their Vines with Hail and their Sycomore Trees with Frost Amos 4.9 I have smitten you with blasting and Mildew Amos 4.9 when your Gardens and your Vineyards c. increased the Palmer-Worme devoured them Zeph. 1.3 Zeph. 1.3 I will consume man and beast I will consume the Fowls of Heaven Gen. 19.25 and the Fishes of the Sea c. Genes 19.25 when Gods anger was kindled against Sodome not onely man that offended but the senslesse Creatures were also punished by reason of his sinne he overthrew those Cities and all the Plain and all the Inhabitants of the Cities and that which grew upon the ground so that when man seeth this punishment upon his Possession upon his Lands Fruits and Goods he may say properly as David did metaphorically 2 Sam. last 17. 2 Sam. last 17. Lord I have sinned and I have done wickedly but as for these Sheep yea and these Lands these Fruits these goods quid fecerunt what have they done Yet we see that for our disobedience that were Lords they that were servants were also made subject to vanitie Hactenus de Creatura ejus subjugatione Thus much then of the Creature and its subjugation or being subject to vanitie And now are we to fall upon the way how it was subjugated but before we come to that we are to observe the aversnesse from or the unwillingnesse to this subjugation found in the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non volens not willing the Creature was not willing to it Tertul. Beza Invite as Tertullian it was non sua sponte as Beza not of its own accord Paraeus that is non ex nativa propensione as Paraeus not of any naturall propensitie to it Cicer. lib. 1. Offic. for as Cicero observed lib. 1. Officiorum Generi animalium omni est natura tributum ut se vitam corpusque tacatur It s naturall to every Creature to preserve its own being in nature and Scaliger contra Cardanum exercit Scal. de sub lit Exerc. 12. sect 3. 12. sect 3. Nam quae natura consumit sua principia What Creature is there in nature that would give way to destroy its own Principles The naturall Philosopher tells us that Omnis creatura naturali inclinatione fertur ad suipsius conservationem Every Creature is carryed on with a naturall inclination to its self-preservation therefore no marvell that the Apostle expresseth it with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non sua sponte Not of its own will or accord Ex pede Herculem or ex ungue Leonem as we say Let us guesse at the whole series of the Creature by some particulars We see by daily expeperience that the sensible or irrationall Creature is not willing to corruption neither the Fowls of Heaven nor the Fishes of the Sea nor the Beasts of the Earth but are a verse from it and resist it to the utmost of their skill and cunning the very Elements are not willing to yeeld to forcible corruption for when the fire would lick up the water or the water would quench the fire you know there is pugna or a great strife between them one of them quoad posse sui quanti resisting the other as not willing to be corrupted or forcibly changed from its nature and one reason as the learned know why the guttae pluviales or dropps of rain do fall down figuâ—â— rotunda in a round form is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter incolumitatem for the more safetie of their nature and greater strength to passe through the Ayre undissipated as naturall Philosophie teacheth Secondly we see how the Creature tends ad centrum tanquam ad locum proprium praeservationis as to the proper place of its preservation thus leviâ— do tendere sursum gravia deorsum tanquam ad locum proprium et naturalem et ubi illis sit optime light things move upward as fire smoak and the like heavie things downward as Stones Earth Brasse Iron Lead and such like mixed bodies because that 's their naturall place and such as agrees the best with the preservation of their nature and when they are detained elsewhere it is a violent detension so that it is supposed if an hole could be digged thorow the Bodie of the earth as it is thorow the Nave of a Wheel and a Milstone cast done by it that it would not rest untill it came at the Center having nullum impedimentum or corpus crassum interpositum having no impediment in its motion or grosse body to interpose it and the Center yea and though that by violence of the motion or gathering strength in its continuance it should exceed the Center yet would it not rest untill it reverted to its proper place Thirdly observe the sensible Creature if it be sick or weak or in danger of corruption or of resolving into its Principles by instinct of nature it hath appetition of such things as will help it or of such places as will secure it Look but upon the Swallow and wilde Bees Flies and such like which in the extremity and unmercifull season of the stormy and sturdy Winter appears yet have they an appetition by nature to Caverns and Holes where they preserve their Beeing untill the tender-hearted and gentle Spring invite them to appear the Dog by instinct of nature knows how to give himselfe a Vomit and some Physitians write man first learned this point of Physick from his practice The Fowls can scowre themselves by gravell the Cattell by licking up of Mould The Salmon wounded by his present return to the salt waters which exsiccate and drie up his wound but if he want opportunity to return or be detained in the fresh Streams by Nets lying in his way in the Summer season by great and high locks built in the water or the like and grow weak upon his wound the ingluvious Eels no sooner discern an imbecilitie in him but presently they fall upon him bite him tosse him and tugge him out of his very Skinne and devour him And this I have seen and observed with mine own eyes at a place called the Force in the River of Kent neare unto the House of Sir Henry Bellingham and not farre from the Town of Kendall in Westmerland and therefore dare more confidently report it yet when many such things are reported to be in nature from the credit of learned men the ignorant beleeve them not because themselves have not seen them Plutarch in Grillo Origanum Plutarch in his Moralls in Gryllo writes of the Swallows Vt quando Viperam adederunt supermandant origanum When they have eaten or fed upon a Viper presently they eat wilde Marjorane and this delayes the Poison and quis instituit Hierundines who saith he did teach
on a Tree This curse of God Christ was willing to undergo to free us from the eternall curse of God which mans sinne had deserved Esa 53.3 4. Esay 53.3 4.5 10. He is despised and rejected of men Vir dolorum a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief c. Surely he hath born our grief and carryed our sorrows c. Vers 5. Hee was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed And Verse 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sinne in this sense he was made sinne for us and thus became Author of Salvation to all that obey him Heb. 5.9 Heb. 5.9 But not every one who walk according to their own lusts and then tell of Christ of the merits of Christ the mercies of Christ and the like have Christ often in their mouthes but seldome in their mindes often in their words but seldome in their workes such walk not as they have Christ for an example but as enemies to the Crosse of Christ 2. As he was willing so likewise he was able to undergo the punishment for us Thou hast laid help upon one that is mighty so he did indeed when he laid it upon Christ Acts 2.24 Acts 2.24 It was not possible that he should be holden of the pains of death Iohn 2.19 Iohn 2.19 Solvite templum hoc c. Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up again for I have power I have abilitie and strength so to do Iohn 10.18 Iohn 10.28 Potestatem habeo deponendi eam potestatem habeo rusus eam assumendi I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again 3. And lastly hoc praesupposito this being praesupposed that man should not be saved except Gods infinite justice was satisfied and actually in the fulnesse of time was to bee done then none but one of an infinite value as was his Son could have made this satisfaction or have paid this price no meer Creature Man or Angel could have done it So that being brought to this point though Christ was innocent yet was it thought fitting in the wisdome of his Father that he should suffer Rom. 3.25 Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Secondly though the Creature was innocent and kept that station wherein God had set it and placed it and was not Created in any gift of reason by which it was inabled to receive conceive or obey any positive Law yet was God an absolute Lord over it and having neither determined nor made any absolute promise to the contrary might dispose of it as he in his great and over-ruling Wisdome thought fitting and God having given it to man for a Possession in the state of innocency when man sinned God as you have heard did not onely punish the person that offended but his Possession also and being absolute Lord over the Creature he was not bound to conserve it in that integrity in which he first created it but as it was subject to mutability in it self so likewise might he change it as in his wisdome he would And though the Creature as we have heard had not propensity to be changed from the better to the worse yet the soveraign Lord of it can be touched with no injustice in making this change and as the creature was punished and made subject to vanity for the sin of man so man is in some sort punished by the Creatures some of them runne wilde live out of his compasse will not obey him other some obey him but by constraint unwillingly others rise up against him to destroy him some by venome and some by violence many times God arms the Creature against man to revenge himself of his disobedience and how often have we instance of this in the Book of God yea even by insensible Creatures as the Elements either Fire Water Earth or Ayr by Fire as Genes 19.24 Gen. 19.24 Brimstone and Fire were rained upon Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 7.4 out of Heaven By Water Gen. 7.4 I will cause it to raine upon the earth forty dayes and forty nights and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from the face of the earth By the Earth Numb 16.32 Num. 16.32 33. The Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their Houses and all the men that appertained to Korah and all their Goods and Verse 33. the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation By the Ayre corrupted Deut. 28.22 Deut. 28.22 where amongst other Plagues God threatned to plague the disobedient Israelites with Blastings Aere corrupto as the Vulgar reads it with corrupt Aire Thus we see how by all the Elements God can punish man If we take a short view of the sensible Creatures that are made subject to vanity by reason of the sinne of man we shall finde them to appear in a great number letting passe the noisome qualities of divers Herbs and Plants that God hath often armed with vengeance to punish man whose sinne occasioned the bringing of them within the common course of corruption First let us begin with the Lion which is accounted the King of the Beasts of the field and stoutest of any When David let me say in carmine lugubri or in his Elegies for Saul and Ionathan would much magnifie them he said 2 Sam. 1.23 2 Sam. 1.23 that they were Leonibus fortiores stronger then Lions 2 Sam. 17.10 1 Sam. 17.10 when Hushai would set out the valiant among the souldiers of Absolon he saith And he also which is valiant whose heart is as the heart of a Lion c. By these God hath punished man whom he once made Lord over them 1 Kings 13.24 1 Kings 13.24 a Lyon met the disobedient Prophet and slew him 2 Kings 17.25 2 Kings 17.25 when the King of Babylon had carryed the Israelites Captives and had sent the Gentiles into their Possessions so it was in the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord therefore the Lord sent Lions among them which slew some of them So that the Idolatrous Gentiles felt the smart of Gods revenging Hand within his Land as well as did the Idolatrous Jews and ignorance of worshipping the true God proved no shelter to save them from his stroke These instances are remarkable out of the holy Story how many more might I adde out of humane Stories written by men of great judgement and credit to shew how God in other ages hath done the like Sebast Munst in Cosmogr de terris Asiae Majoris lib. 5. in ipsa calce Sebastian Munster in his Cosmographie writing de terris Asiae Majoris tells us of the City of Sana and the Countries thereabout and that in the Inlands more remote
Creatures shal be immortall or no If we give but scope to these speculations whether at length will they carry us let us therfore saith he be content with this simple or plain truth the moderation and order after the restitution shall be so fine so sweet or excellent which God will make that nothing shall appear either uncomely or unstable Therefore I have said that so farre as the Scripture holds out any light or by a rationall discourse or grounds of sound reason that a man may go so farre he may labour and est aliquid prodire tenus it will be found somewhat to go thus farre As for that sound and worthy Divine Peter Martyr we shall have occasion to scanne him more narrowly hereafter which though at his ingresse to this point he may seem to favour the most generall and received opinion yet after a large dispute of it the reader will finde him not so resolute of whose words God willing by and by though he will not conclude against it All Divines that I have read or mett withall fall but upon one of these two wayes by which the Creature is to be delivered from the bondage of corruption either abolitione or purgatione by abolition or the totall and finall taking away the Being of them or else by the purging out the drosse and corruption from such Creatures as shall remain for substance But whether of these two wayes will the better stand with the sense of the Apostles words is the grand quaere and I conceive this to be one of those abstruse points de quibus optimis etiam Theologis liceat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morari ignorare vel dissentire salvâ charitate concerning which it may be lawfull or safe even to the best Divines to demurre upon to be ignorant of or to dissent in without breach of charitie or hurt of pietie In such cases the saying of Saint Augustine is good August lib 8. de gen ad lit Cap 5. Lib. 8 de gen ad literam cap. 5. Melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis It is better to stand in doubt of such things as God hath kept secret then to strive or too vehemently to contend in such as are uncertain and onely so farre to beleeve as he seeth either light from the Scriptures for in terminis or vertually included in them or soundly deduced or collected from them for quicquid vere directe potest colligi ex Scripturis dici potest Scriptura whatsoever can truely and directly or by sound consequence be drawne or gathered from the Scripture may be called Scripture because it s vertually and implicitely in those terms in which it is not alwayes verbally expressed but may be thence deduced by sound cōsequence concluded to which amongst many others Zanch de Religio Christ Cap de Scripturis Thes 11. profound Zanchie accords in his Book de Religione Christiana cap. de Script Thes 11. and which is a commonly received truth amongst all learned Divines that are Orthodox Nihil de religione statuendum esse in Ecclesia Dei quod aut non habeat apertum in libris Canonicis testimonium aut manifesta necessariaque consecutione inde evincatur nothing ought to be determined in the Church of God concerning Religion that hath not either open proof in Canonicall Scriptures or by manifest and necessary consequence may be thence evinced but by either of these wayes a point is made good by Scripture and that may be called the Scripture by which its so made good Or else so farre as he can see sound reason or good grounds brought such as are not against the Scripture but rather fall in with it And in treating upon such intricate passages as this its wisdome for us to do as skilfull Sea-men do upon dangerous and narrow Seas they still take care to Plumbe or Sound so that they fall upon no Rocks nor Shelves and so long they sail safely though they finde not their desired Haven for the present so God willing shall we do we shall so sound the Sea of the Scriptures and plumbe the road of reason that we shall not shipwrack truth upon any Shelves of Errour and so farre the Bark of our discourse may floate safely though we accomplish not our intention for our desired Haven First then let us sound the Scriptures and see how farre they will go with us for the deliverance of the Creature from the bondage of corruption by abolition or by a totall finall destruction of the Beeing of the Creature here meant Let us begin with Psalm 102.26 Psa 102.26 speaking of Heaven and Earth the Prophet saith they shall perish This of the Prophet is repeated by the Apostle Heb. 1.11 Heb. 1.11 Ipsi peribunt they shall perish Iob. 14.12 and Iob 14 12. Vsque dum non erunt Coeli till the Heavens be no more Secondly Luke 21.33 Luke 21.33 Coelum terra transibunt Heaven and Earth shall passe away Thirdly Apocapalyp 21.1 Apoc. 21.1 I saw a new Heaven and a new earth for the first was passed away 2. Petër 3.10 Fourthly and lastly to insist upon no more places 2 Pet. 3.10 The heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the Works therein shall be burnt up These places make fair for the deliverance of the Creature from the bondage of corruption by an abolition or destroying of their Beeings an so by consequence as you have heard they cannot any longer be subject to vanitie any more mutability or corruption And from these and such like Places many learned men have concluded an utter abolition of the Creature here mentioned save onely some few of which hereafter But how the Heavens shall be set on fire the Elements melt and the Earth with the Works therein burnt up the Scriptures have not clearly discovered unto us only the penetrating School-Divines who conceived themselves more Eagle-eyed then the rest and could cast stones at an hair bredth they have rationally conjectured that all may be set on fire either per radios solares ex repercussione multiplicatos by repercussion of the Sunn beames redoubled or by collecting them into a narrower compasse as so to unite their forces more closely as in a burning glasse or per discensum ignis elementaris jussu divino by the discent of the element of fire at Gods command or injunction In these philosophicall speculations we cannot deny but that there is a rationall probability it may be a verity though we do not conclude it by way of infalibilitie for as God hath determined that the world shall be destroyed by fire so we know that he neither wants wisdom nor power how to effect it though to us he hath not clearly revealed the manner how we may say with Saint Augustine lib. 20 de Civitate Dei Cap 16. August lib 20. de Civit
they shall then be so changed and freed from their former corruptible estate and so refined and qualified with new qualities with a new estate and condition that in this respect they may be called a new Heaven and a new Earth Esa 65.17 But let us yet drive the naile a little farther Esa 65.17 Ego creaturus sum Coelos novos et Terram novam neque commemorabuntur haec priora neque venient in animum behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde Creation is ex nihilo therefore if God create new Heavens it may be urged that the former as also the Earth shall be totally abolished and so be no more remembred nor come into his minde To which for answer first take the Geneva note Nota Genevensis I will so alter and change the state of my Church namely in the time of Christ under the state of the new Testament that it shall seem to dwell in a new world So divers conceive this Place meant of the excellent gifts that shall be in great abundance in the time of the new Testament when he shall make such a restauration as if Heaven and Earth were changed or made new Esa 25.6 7 8. this is more fully expressed Esa 25.6.7.8 where by corporall things he sets out spirituall blessings In this mountaine shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things c. yet this seemes not to be the compleat sense of the place neither shall all those blessings be fully attained and in their highest perfection and degree untill God shall make a new Heaven and a new Earth after the day of judgement and when things shall have their renewing for such a new Heaven and new Earth God shall make as we learne from Saint Peter after the former Heaven and Earth shall be burnt with fire 2 Pet 3.13 and that he promised to make such and what promise finde we so plaine as this in the fore-cited place of Esa 2. if the word creation be urged farther for the new Heavens and Earth which shall be after the destruction of the first I answer Esa last 22. God saith he will make the new Heavens and the new Earth and that they shall remaine before him 2. 2 Cor. 5.17 Cor 5.17 If any any man be in Christ he is nova creatura a new Creature A new Creature not in regard of substance as we have heard but in regard of qualities divine habits or qualities which are infused into him from God they grow not out of the accursed soyl of nature but are spirituall and divine qualities created of God or by him by which man is so changed that he is called a new Creature Creation if we take it properly est motus ex nihilo adesse a making something of nothing thus God made Heaven and Earth as we have heard of nothing Gen 1.1 Gen. 1.1 or ex nihilo tali of nothing by nature apt to have any such thing produced of it as to have the body of Adam framed of earth Aquin. in loc or red earth or Eve of a Ribb taken from Adams Side Aquinas comes home to this sense upon the place having quoted that passage in Gal. 6. Gal. 6.15 15. neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new Creature ubi notandum saith he quòd innovatio per gratiam dicitur creatura where it is to be observed that the renewing of us by grace is called a Creature yea this renovation is a spirituall creation And whereas creation properly and strictly taken is a production of a thing out of nothing or of a being out of a non-being and whereas there is a two fold being esse naturae et esse gratiae the being of nature and the being of grace the first being was of old corrupted which was our being in nature which we drew from Adam Oportet ergo esse novam creationem per quâm producerentur inesse gratiae it was needfull there should be a new creation saith he by which they should be produced into the being of grace Answerable to which I cōceive that place Ephes 2.10 For we are his workemanship created in Christ Jesus to good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus as Beza Beza Versio Vulgar factura as the Vulgar his worke or making created in Christ Jesus to good works and ne putaremus Apostolum loqui de primo opere Dei dequè prima creatione qua scilicet omnes nos creat in uteris maternis adjunxit creati in Christo Jesu c. as Zanchie in locum Zanc. in loc least we should suppose the Apostle to speake of the first work of God and of the first creation to witt of that by which we were all created in our mothers wombe he adjoyns created in Christ Jesus For duplex est creatio hominum saith he Prima et Secunda et utraquè in Christo et per Christum there is a double or twofold Creation of men the first and the Second and both of them in Christ and by Christ The former is the substantiall Creation of our Nature the latter the qualitative Creation of our Grace Aretius in loc to which Aretius also assents and more fully illustrates thus Creatura nihil confert ad suum creatorem sed id opus totum est in manu creatoris positum sic regenerandus ad sui regenerationem nihil confert c. even as the Creature brings nothing to his Creator in its Creation so he that is to be regenerated brings nothing with him that makes for his regeneration both are wholly in the Power and the efficiencie of God Regeneratio est opus regenerantis in actu primo it s also opus regenerati in actu secundo Regeneration is the worke of God in the first act it s also the worke of man in the second act In the first man is meerly Passive in regard of God who renews and heales our corrupt nature and subdues our vicious qualities by the infusion of new qualities into each of our faculties and then acti agimus being wrought upon we worke on together with God in actu secundo in the second act Gods grace is the principium a quò man is the subject on which this grace works and is the principium quod as the Schooles use to speake and then both concurre in the production of every holy action and man thus helped by Gods grace he willingly moves himselfe to what is good and by reason of this concurrance of man with God these operations of grace are properly called mans worke not Gods worke as it is thus done by man so that when a man beleeves though his faith be infused by Gods Spirit yet it is exercised by man voluntarily moving himselfe to that act of beleeving and therefore we say that its man that beleeves not the spirit in man for though this habite be
I conceive yet he will have the reason why the matter of the Heavens is not combustible or obnoxious to the Element of fire to be because they differ per corruptibile incorruptibile as corruptible and incorruptible and the qualities of Heaven non sunt eum ignis qualitatibus generis ejusdem they are not of the same kinde with the qualities of fire as in part you have heard before but what reall difference he can assigne between the Philosophers quinta essentia and his incorruptible I have not as yet understood seeing the Philosopher meant that the matter of the Heavens was incorruptible because it was a quintessence the difference is onely verball Secondly we read not that the Sun and Moon shall fall from Heaven or the rest of the Planets as Saturn Iupiter Mars or the like but the Stars which is conceived to be meant of the fixed Starres Now when Heaven is shaken why these should be loosened from their eight sphaere more than any of the Planets out of their severall Orbs in nature we can give no reason Thirdly and lastly if what Aristotle writes in l. 2. Arist lib. 2. de Coelo de coelo be true that stellae coelumque eandem habent substantiam that the Starres and the Heaven it self have the same substance and that they differ but densitate raritate in density or raritie of the parts of that substance and that as Scaliger speaks Exercitat 61. Scalig. de subttl ad Card. exer 61. de subtilitate ad Cardanum si sidus be coelum suum densum coelum be sidus suum rarum if the Stars be the Heaven made thick or thickened and the Heaven be the Starres rarified or made thinner for he likes not the illustration of the old Philosophers who compared them to knots in Timber Non admittenda veterum Metaphora qui Stellam in coelo velut in tabula nodum arbitrabantur the Metaphor of the Ancients saith he is not to be allowed of who supposed a Star in the Heavens to be like a knot in a Plank or in the Timber Yet may not a man as well say that nodus is tabulá sua densa and tabula is nodus suus rarus as he the other except a man were now and then delighted to make singularitie a subtiltie and if so how that quantum continuum should be so separated as to have the partes densiores to fall and the partes rariores of the same substance to remain after them in natural reason cannot well be conceived therfore the school-divines were moved to judge that the Starres should have no reall removeall by falling à situ or from their scituation but that their falling from Heaven should be after some other manner And the Scriptures sometimes speak of things not as they are in themselves but as they appear unto men as Matth. last Matth. last 2. 2. an Angel is said to rowl away the stone from the Sepulchre Mark last 5. yet Mark last 5. this Angel is called a young man not that the Angel was so but because he did appear so unto others having assumed that shape and so was in a visible forme And thus the Schoolmen think that then shall be such a terrour upon the Creature and men so perplexed at the comming of this great and fearfull Judge and the Sea roaring the earth trembling the Heaven shaking that the Starrs of Heaven shall be thought to them to fall yet not existentiâ but apparentiâ say they Dionysiê° Catthus in verb. and so Dionysius Carthusianus upon the place They shall fall from Heaven not from their existence in their sphaeres but in appearance unto the Inhabitants of the Earth Except you had rather say that the Starres quoad statum corruptum according to their corrupt state by the sinne of man should have their corruption to fall from them being burned as the Heavens shall be And howsoever that of Aquinas in his sense be true in supplemento ad 3. Aquin. suppl ad 3. part summ qu. 74. art 1. in corp partem sum qu. 74. art 1. in corpore that res corporalis subjectum infectionis culpae propriè esse non possit tamen ex culpa quaedam incongruitas c. that is infectio or impuritas though things corporeall cannot properly be said to be the subject of infection by fault yet by the fault of another namely of man for whose use in some sort they were made there may be a certain incongruitie infection or impuritie from their first estate put upon them the which if it were not removed would keep them from a better a more perfect estate therefore will God purge them in the fire at the last day For purgatio mundi ad hoc erit ut removeatur à corporibus dispositio contraria perfectioni gloriae quae quidem perfectio est ultima rerum consummatio Aquin. suppl ad 3. qu. 74. art 4. in corp c. Aquin. supplemen ad 3. partem summ qu. 74. art 4. in corp the purging of the world by fire is to this end that from the corporeall Creatures may be removed that disposition now in them which is contrary to the perfection of glory which perfection truely is the last atchievement of things that can be attained unto Now come we to the last allegation for the liberation of the Creature by totall abolition 2 Pet. 3.10 2 Pet. 3.10 The Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up To which I answer as in part before that though the Heavens be thus burned up yet it will not follow that the substance of them shall totally be annihilated but that their esse accidentale tale their accidentall estate be renewed their corruptible qualities shall be changed and that impuritie they became lyable to by the sinne of man shall be taken away that so they may be reduced to a better estate Mettall we know that is melted or dissolved in the fire is not totally destroyed quoad substantiam in the substance of it but the drosse and baser qualities of it purged out Thus we conceive it to be with the Heavens when they shall be dissolved so that neither will this last allegation evince an asolute abolition of the substance of the Heavens And thus much in answer to the Arguments or Allegations for the liberation of the Creature from the bondage of corruption by way of totall abolition I now come to the second which you have heard in part is sententia communior the more common opinion not onely of the Fathers both of Eastern and Western Churches but of Modern Divines as also of the Schooles And because I have formerly referred you to Vossius where you may see them nominated particularly as also the places in them I shall not need here againe crambem recoquere to make mention of them being so many
But now this puts me upon the fourth point what Creatures are conceived as most capable of this liberation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonns of God for here those that are for liberation by way of repurgation or the taking out the baser qualities or impurity saving the substance from totall abolition yet they are not all of the same judgment what Creatures shall be partakers of this liberation Give me leave to rank them thus either such as were created at the first in the state of innocency Or secondly those that had existence in the world since Or thirdly those only that shall bee found remaining at Christs comming to judgement Or Fourthly and lastly the Heavens the Earth and mankinde Some think that those Creatures shall be restored from the bondage of corruption that were made the first subject to vanitie which were Created in a pure firm and sound estate and yet lost this integritie by the sin of man and so became subject to instabilitie vanitie and slavery and yet was this no wrong to the Creature saith Chrysostome Chrysostome Nam si propter me factae sunt nihil admittitur injustitiae si propter me patiantur If they were made for me they have no injustice saith he if they suffer for me And then he renders a reason for it aequi iniqui ad res inanimas ratione carentes no◠esse rationem transferendam There is no reason to be rendred of right or wrong done to any such Creatures as want life or that wants reason or understanding yet a man may sinne in perverting the use of the Creature in cruelty towards it or in the abuse of it this God permits him not but he may offend against God who gave him dominion over it Hom. 22. in Genesin Chrysost Hom 22. in Genes he shews that it is not injustum or absurdum si creatura propter homines aliquas calamitates cogatur ferre either unjust or absurd if the Creatures be compelled to beare some calamities by reason of man And he illustrates it by this simile for the which manner of teaching and writing he is the most excellent of all the Fathers si quis incurrat in iram Regis ipse non modo supplicio afficitur sed etiam omnis ejus familia opprimitur homo propter peccatum factus est obnoxius maledictioni irae Dei quare non est mirum si universa Creatura quae hominis familia est ingemiscat una cum eo ac doleat that is If any man incurre the wrath of his Prince he is not onely punished but his whole Family is oppressed even so man by sinne being made subject to the curse and wrath of God what marvell is it if the whole Creation which is the family of man do groane and sorrow together with him yet of these onely it cannot be said Rom. 8.22 as Rom. 8.22 that they do travell in pain together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usque ad hoc tempus even untill now Secondly some understand all the Creatures the whole Creation that hath groaned but that all and every of the Individualls of every age multiplyed since the Creation should be restored is not probable Who can conceive that the Earth should contain them their number would amount as in infinitum or what use for so many of them Thirdly others therfore who seem to come nearer the mark rather understand it of such onely as shall remain at Christs comming to judgement but then againe whether onely the species or severall kindes of every Creature shall be restored or all of every species then remaining is another difficultie and that which God hath not clearly revealed unto us But if the Lord deal in the second destruction of the world by fire as he did in the first by water then the species shall remain but not all Individualls of those species for all the individualls multiplyed at the time of the Flood were not preserved but onely some of every species so it may be that at the second destruction of the world God will restore some of every species and yet not all and singular individuals of every species for as when the species or severall kindes of Creatures are said to groan the whole Creation may be said to groan evē so likewise when the severall species or kinds of creatures are delivered from the bondage of corruption the whole Creation may be said to be delivered from the bondage of corruption for when Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that omnis creatura ingemiscit or una gemiscit una parturit usque ad hoc tempus that every Creature of the whole Creation groaneth or groaneth together with us or travelleth with us in pain as a woman travelleth of Childe with great desire to be delivered yea even untill now It is not like that he means every individuall that hath had a Beeing of any kinde since the Creation whereof thousands and millions were dissolved into their Principles before his time and had no Being in rerum natura as we say that these should groan and travell as a woman travelling to bring forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad hoc usque tempus even unto that time that Paul writ these words but that the severall species of Creatures or the Creatures of every severall kinde did groan and travell in pain even untill that time and will do till the glorious revelation of the Sonnes of God which the Creatures expects earnestly and longs for that it may be delivered from the bondage of its corruption This I conceive rationall and probable and the ordinary glosse understands not singula generum but genera singulorum Glossa ordin Now let us hear the judgements of godly expert and pious Divines upon this point to which also we will adde the judgement of Aquinas from amongst the schoolmen though many of them runne upon the last point Doctor Willet as you have heard in brief before in his qu. 27. D. Willet qu. 27. in Rom. expos quint. upon Romanes 8. expositione 5. hath by diligent reading observed that the most generall and received opinions by the Creature to understand corporalia irrationalia corporeall and irrationall Creatures comprehending the Heavens and Starres with the Earth together with living Creatures of all sorts Trees Plants c. for this he quotes Ambrose upon the place Ambros in loc Calvin and Peter Martyr Calvin with some others Calvin thus Rursum hinc apparet in quantam gloriae excellentiam evehendi sint filii Dei ad quam amplisicandam illustrandam creaturae omnes innovabuntur Again hence it may appear into how great an excellencie the Sonnes of God shall be elevated into how great an excellencie of glory for the amplifying and illustrating of which all Creatures shall be renewed Peter Martyr thus Petr. Martyr in loc certè videmus omnia ita creata esse à Deo ut se
maximè cupiant conservare â—â—itaque plantae animalia petrae metalla obluctantur resistunt pro se quaeque ne perdantur esse desinant c. Truely we see all things to be so Created of God that they have a speciall to conserve themselves therefore even Plants living Creatures that have sense and motion Rocks Metalls do wrastle and resist striving every one of them for themselves against their destruction And a little after Quumque ea videamus reniti ne perdantur pereant veniat nobis in mentem qualis illis insitus sit appetitus is aurem naturalis est ideò in universum frustrari non potest c. when as we may see how they resist destruction least they perish we may call to minde what an appetite or desire is put into them by nature and in so much as it is naturall it shall not lie frustrate for ever Chrysost Chrysostome saith facta est propter nos corruptibilis propter nos etiam immortalitate donabitur The Creature became corruptible saith he because of us and it shall also be rewarded with immortalitie because of the same And again saith the same Father Si affliguntur nostra causà quum apparebit nostra foelicitas unà etiam instaurabuntur If the Creatures be afflicted for our sakes when our foelicity shall appear they shall be restored together with us Chrysost de reparand laps ad Theod. And lib. de Reparandis lapsis ad Theodorum he shews that post diem judicii omnia sunt renovanda after the day of judgement all things shall be renewed And Apoc. 21.5 Apoc. 21.5 qui insidebat throno dixit ecce nova facio omnia and he that sat upon the Throne said behold I make all things new Some suppose this to be meant of the Kingdome of Christ under the new Testament after the abolishing of the old Ceremonies of of Moses and to be taken from the Prophet Isaiah Isa ult 22. having foretold the calling of the Gentiles and how he would take of them for Priests and Levites he adds For as the new heavens new earth which I will make shall remain before me saith the Lord so shall your seed and your name continue c. but as I have said before this is not the compleate sense of the place though all this do quadrate to the Kingdome of Christ for as God will make new his Church here which is the cheifest part of his Creature next to the Angells so will he also make the rest of the Creatures new at the day of judgement To which Aretius assents upon that place in Apoc. 21.5 Aretius in loc Loquitur autem Dominus de totius Creaturae renovatione in qua principalis habetur ratio Ecclesiae suae Ideò eandem sententiam Apostolus 2 Cor. 5.17 ad novam Creaturam in sanctis applicuit Si quis est in Christo nova est Creatura vetera praeterierunt ecce nova facta sunt omnia The Lord in this place speaks saith he of the renewing of the whole Creature in which principall respect is had to the Church of God therefore the Apostle applies the same saying to the new Creature in his Saints 2 Cor. 5.17 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Meyer in verb. Meyerus just to the same purpose having spoken of the forenamed passage in Esay he saith Omnia satis regno Christi per Apostolos propagato verum et hic vterquè vates altius prospexit nempè ad regenerationem futuri seculi quandò plenissimè renovato homine omnia restituentur et in melius commutabuntur All things here spoken by the Prophet Esay do fitly agree to the Kingdome of Christ propagated by the Apostles but yet in this saying both prophets that is both Isaiah and Saint Iohn looked a little higher or a little beyond this to witt to the new birth of the world to come when as man being fully renewed all things shall be restored and changed into a better estate Theophylact. in loc ad Romanos Theophilact in locum ad Romanos haec mundi machina et creata omnia immutabuntur in melius The frame of the world and all things that are created in it shall be changed into a better condition Chrysost Chrysostome sets it out by two similies first thus Nutrix diù laborat alendo infante at cum ille adoleverit et regnum aut principatum nactus fuerit illa quoquè praeclaris honoribus afficietur The Nurse for a long time undergoes great paines in nursing or nourishing a poor Infant but when the Infant is grown hath obtained a Kingdom or Principality then the Nurse also is rewarded with excellent honours so the Creature that hath suffered much slavery under us and for us when we shall be glorified and brought into a better estate they shall be lifted up to a better estate also they shall then be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonns of God The second simile is this Reges enim quo die volunt filios suos inangurari curare solent non solùm ut illi singulari apparatu pompa prodeant verùm etiam ut servi illorum quà m honestissimè culti instructique incedant In the dayes that Kings would have their sonnes inaugurated they take care that not onely they come forth most gallantly apparelled and in pompe but that their servants also that attend upon them be handsomly adorned and provided for even so likewise when Christ which is the King of heaven shall come in his glory to judgment then the just that are his Sons shall receive a Kingdome and the Inheritance prepared for them and then omnes creaturae ornamentis admirabilibus insigni splendore illustrabuntur all the Creatures that as their servants wait upon them shall be decked with admirable adornings and goodly beautie Now we may further know that the species of of the Creatures may be called All the Creatures as well as the Indvidualls may of the severall species Gen. 2.1 Gen. 2.1 when Heaven and Earth were finished the species of the Creatures when as yet they had not multiplied nor increased in Individuals are called omnis exercitus illorum all the Host of them Gen 2.19 And Gen. 2.19 the severall species of the Beasts of the Earth and of the Fowls of Heaven Moses calls omnes bestias agri omnia volatilia coeli every beast of the field and every Fowle of the Aire or all the Beasts of the field and all the Fowles of the Aire And in the same Verse they are called every living creature whatsoever Adam called every living Creature that was the name thereof So I conceive that all Creatures may be said to be renewed when their severall sorts Gas Olevian in cap. 8 ad Rom. or
species shall be renewed Gasper Olevianus in cap. octavum ad Rom. having made the questionâ— what that earnest expectation and hope of the Creature here spoken of should be Answers certum est non esse nihil alioqui spiritus sanctus tot et tam significantibus verbis non esset usus it is certain that it is not nothing otherwise the spirit of God would not have used so many significant words as it hath but seeing that the Creatures some of them want sense others reason they caÌ„not properly be said to expect or to hope as we do as you have heard before but these are metaphoricall speeches borrowed from the reasonable Creature ad exprimendum occultum illum instinctum a Deo inditum quò feruntur ardenti veluti quodam desiderio ad sui instaurationem qui tamen instinctus cum Dei opus sit non minus firmus est et constans quam si claros gemitus ducerent adeò ut Creaturae quae tacent clament saith he to expresse that secret instinct that is put into them from God by which they are carried as with a certain ardent desire to their restauration which instinct seeing it is the work of God is no lesse firm and constant then if they plainly groaned so that the Creature that is silent may be said to crie out or utter a sound And even as the point of a Needle in a Dyall being touched with a Loadstone hath a constant and continuall inclination towards the North yea though a man be farre remote from it that carryeth it and in the darkest and lowest Cavern of the earth and himself knows not which is the North point yet will the point of the Needle thus touched still incline that way by the secret operation of nature though it have no reason Thus the Creature being touched by an instinct of nature or naturall appetite of liberation put into it from God it hath a metaphoricall hope of attaining it which works constantly in it and in which it remains with vehement desire and expectation though it want reason yea though like the Needle touched with the Loadstone it want sense Divers others I might easily produce who concurre with the same judgement And as D. Willet hath rightly observed as you have heard before it is the most generally received opinion And howsoever Estius argue the point to and fro yet he saith Estiê° in cap. 8. ad Rom. Nota est Theologorum doctrina in resurrectione hominum futuram renovationem totius creaturae c. that doctrine or opinion of Divines saith he is known that when man shall rise again there shall be a renovation of the whole Creature Aquin. in supp ad 3. part sum qu. 74. art 7. in corp Aquinas in suppl ad 3. part summ qu. 74. art 7. in corp Tota creatura suo modò renovabitur The whole Creature in its way or manner shall be renewed And quotes for the ground of his opinion Rom. 8. D. Willet qu. 27. expos 6. ad Rom. 8. yet D. Willet declines this in his 27. qu. upon the Romanes expos 6. and rather falls in with the last rank of the Creatures before mentioned his words are these Therefore it remains that we understand by the Creature onely inanimata insensata things without life and sense as the Heavens the Elements and the earth with the things therein Oecum in loc Oecumenius sensu carentem creaturam The Creature that wanteth sense Beza in loc Beza as you have heard before in the Creatures subjugation by the Creature understands Coelestem machinam et elementarem regionem but not animantia not ejus incolas the fabrick of Heaven and the elementary regions those indeed are insensible and inanimate or without life and soul but he would not have the living Creatures or the indwellers of the world included To the same purpose he quotes Bucan loco 37. qu. 8. Bucan loc 37. qu. 8. with some others yet affirming that the things attributed to the Creature in the context agree to these he seeth something in Verse 22. that may breed some scruple in this his 6. exposition to which he most inclines for there mention is made of the whole Creation or every Creature yea and Verse 20. these only are not the Creatures made subject to vanity therefore he tells us he will give reason or shew why every Creature is there named and yet but these forenamed be partakers of the liberation in qu. 32. D â— 32. but he that reads that will find no great satisfaction from it for having quoted Ambrose Origen Augustine Ambros Origen Augustine from which he dissents in this point and I conceive upon rationall grounds properly and strictly considered and taken he confesseth Peter Martyr and Calvin are both against his sense Martyr Calvin in exposit 6. as indeed they are whose words I have formerly produced These as you have heard with many more are for the sense which he confesseth is most generally received and himself is not very confident of this his sixt Exposition to which he most inclines and though P. Martyr be not clear yet is he rather byassed with the generall opinion and so he conceives of him We will modestly examine his Arguments and Reasons that move his dissent from the most generally received opinion The first is this the Brute Creatures which now onely serve for our necessary use shall not be partakers of the glory of the sonnes of God whence thus those Creatures which are delivered from the bondage of corruption shall be partakers of the glory of the Sonnes of God But Brutes shall not be partakers of the glory of the sonnes of God Ergo. The major is denyed Wherein judicious Calvin might have given satisfaction whose words he also quotes Porro saith Calvin non intelligit consortes ejusdem gloriae fore creaturas cum filiis Dei sed suo modo melioris status fore socios quia Deus simul cum humano genere orbem nunc collapsum in integrum restituet Having considered how the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonns of God he adds Certainly he doth not mean that the Creatures shall be partakers of the same glory with the Sonnes or Children of God but that in their kinde after such a manner as is sutable to them they shall be partakers of a better estate because God together with mankinde will restore the whole collapsed world to its integrity or to that state God Created it in and in which it stood before man sinned or into a more excellent estate Aquin. paul supra And you heard out of Aquinas a little before in suppl ad tertiam part summ qu. 74. art 7. in corp that tota Creatura suo modo renovabitur the whole creature every creature or the whole Creation shall be renewed after its manner or in such a way as is sutable to the nature of it
receives us to be sonnes and Heirs of Heaven and of life Eternall he makes us together with him Now all Creatures that shall be renewed shall not have this priviledge this is proper onely to the Sons of God Rom. 8.15 Rom. 8.15 those that have the Spirit of Adoption can crie Abba Father thus cannot any Brutes doe which are not capable of any such testimonie they are never called children that God hath given Christ to Heb. 10.13 Heb. 10.13 as the adopted Sonns of God are They are never called all one with him or his Brethren as the adopted Sonnes of God are And as no divine so neither any humane or civill adoption of any irrationall or insensible Creature between which you may see the difference in Amesius his Medulla Theologiae lib. 1. cap. 28. Amesiê° lib. 1. Medul Theol. cap. 28. Secondly redemption if taken spiritually and properly for redemption by price or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depenso by a price paid to God by which we are redeemed from the guilt of sinne Gods wrath the Devill and eternall damnation to be put into the state of grace here and eternall felicitie hereafter of such redemption they were not the subject neither could they sinne nor be subject to Hell fire and therefore need no such redemption but there is a corporeall and metaphoricall redemption taken for liberation or freedome from any state of slavery or temporall misery and for such a redemption the Creature looks as you have heard before Romanes 8.21 the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption c. Thirdly I answer that if we take the terms of the Proposition conjunctim as thus adoption and redemption then there may be in it fallacia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or plurium interrogationum whether the Creatures may be said to be adopted and redeemed the one you have heard they cannot yet thother in some sense as put for freedome or liberation from slaverie or corruption or vanity they may Again if we consider the word redemption sejunctim in its selfe then there is in it fallacia homonymiae as the Logicians terme it which ariseth a similitudine significationis in terminis and therefore is numbred one of the fallacies in dictione for it either signifies redemption spirituall or corporeall and metaphoricall as you have heard and how they cannot expect the former yet do they the latter in the sense you have heard Fourthly and lastly if no Creatures shall be redeemed but such as shall be partakers of Adoption and Redemption in its spirituall sense then shall neither the Heavens nor the Earth be renewed which is contrary to what he grants for these were not capable of adoption neither of redemption spirituall and proper but metaphoricall or a kind of freedome liberation And as for the terminus ad quem or the redemptioÌ„ of their bodies to immortality Chrysostome answers Chrysost that as the Creature was made corruptible because of us so propter nos immortalitate donabitur as you have heard theÌ„ so for us shall the Creature be rewarded with immortality Petr. Martyr in 8. ad Rom. And Peter Martyr denies not but that there may be analogia quaedam a certain analogy or likenesse between our glorified bodies Aug lib. 20. de civit Dei cap. 16. and the Creatures made immortall For Aug. had said lib. 20. de Civit. Dei cap. 16. that the Elements should put off such corruptible qualities as they had when our corruptible bodies were framed of them and should then put on other qualities which should be sutable corporibus nostris immortalibus glorificatis to our immortall and glorified bodies For though they shall not be immortall in such a glorious joyous comfortable and unspeakeable manner as we shall that have immortall souls or spirits by nature and they not immortall by nature but dono gratuito yet shall they have such an immortality as is sutable to their nature as a gift from God unto them they shall no more be changed be subject to vanity corruption or the like This to the third His fourth they were not ad immortalitatem condita made for immortality To which I answer if we respect their nature they are not immortall as are Angels and Spirits because their nature is elementary and being mixt bodies they consist of contrary qualities and therefore are corruptible and dissoluble into their Principles and therefore not so made for immortality as never to have change or corruption befall them conditione naturae Secondly Peter Martyr as he acknowledgeth saith that ista immortalitas liberale et merum sit donum Dei non potest pendere à modo vi aliqua naturae that immortality by which the Creature becomes such is meerly the free gift of God it cannot depend from any manner 1 Tim. 6.16 and force of nature 1 Tim. 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God onely hath immortality c. dico cam complecti aeternitatem id est principium finem existendi secludere as Lambertus Danaeus in locum Lam. Danaeus in loc I say that that immortality comprehends aeternity that is it secludes both the beginning and the ending of existence that which is properly immortall from it self is eternall as well à parte antè as à parte post paulò post nec Angeli nec humanae animae per se sunt immortales id est sua vi potestate proprià sed quatenus à Deo in sua natura sustentantur conservantur tales permanent neither Angels nor the souls of men are immortall by themselves that is by their owne force and power but as they are sustained and conserved in their nature from God they remain such August lib. de immortalitate animae Aug. lib. de immortal animae And though the Angels and souls of men be immortall by nature yet this immortalitie and aptnesse of nature for it we have from God God onely is immortall ex se independenter of himself and independently Angels and the spirits of men secundario ac dependenter ac ab ipso secondarily dependently and from God Iam. 1.17 God is immutable Iam. 1.17 with him there is no variablenesse but the Angels lapsed and the soul of Adam sinned these were both mutable God is immortall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels and men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God onely immortall by essence Angels and men by participation or communication as they have their nature sustained from a better Principle Aman. Polan lib. 2. Syntag. Theol. cap. 16. as Amandus Polanus lib. 2. Syntagm Theolog. cap. 16. and Peter Martyr saith Vis enim illa Dei qua coeli elementa restituentur ad immortalitatem conservare etiam potest reliquas orbis partes that power of God by which the Heavens and Elements shall be restored to immortality is also able to conserve the rest of the parts of the world so that immortalitie being the meer gift of God
having this gift bestowed upon it from God For to what I have formerly said Aquin. 1.2 qu. 109. art 2. resp ad 2. I will adde out of Aquinas in his prima secundae qu. 109. art 2. respond ad secundum Vnaqueque enim res creata sicut esse non habet nisi ab alio in se considerata nihil est ita indiget conservari in bono suae naturae convenienti ab alio potest enim per seipsam deficere à bono sicut per seipsam potest deficere in non esse nisi divinitus conservaretur every created nature as it hath no beeing but from another and in it self considered is nothing so it stands in need to be conserved in good convenient to its nature from another for by it selfe considered it may fail from good as also by it self it may fall into a non-beeing or fail to nothing except it be conserved by Gods divine power Secondly let it be considered that praecipua pars corruptionis est interitus as Calvin observes upon the place Calvin in loc The cheife and greatest part of the Creatures corruption is destruction they have a customary corruption of Individualls here but they should have a finall destruction of the speces there which were worse for here as the Individualls of severall species are corrupted so also others are multiplied of the same kinde and so the species is still preserved but if all but the Creatures of the last ranke be totally destroyed yea in the whole species then is the corruption of the Creature greater and more then ever and how is this a liberation from the bondage of corruption when the greatest corruption befalls the Creature that ever it had Thirdly consider that the liberation which the Creature shall have shall be such as is expected with great earnestnesse and desire to attain unto it even as a woman in travell that is in pain disquiet and misery desires to be delivered and to be in a more quiet and contented estate as you have heard But totall abolition cannot with any vehemency of naturall appetion be thus longed and looked for because nothing naturally desires the non-being of it selfe the Creature rather desires a being in slavery then by a totall abolition to be brought to a non-entitie Fourthly consider what the great searcher into the bowells of nature Arist lib. 2. Physic cap. 8. saith lib. 2. Physicorum cap. 8. Natura nihil frustrà temere agit sed agit omnia finis alicujus gratiâ nature doth nothing in vaine nor rashly but all things for some end The tree hath its end in bringing forth leaves ad tegendum fructum to cover the fruit it bears both from the heat of the Sunn and violence of the weather The Bird in building her Nest to keepe Egges and young The Spider in making her webbe to catch Flies for her nourishment and the like Now the Logicians teach us that finis efficientem ad agendum movet the end moves the efficient to worke if it were not moved with desire of obtaining the end it would not stirre now we know that in these Creatures that there cannot be appetitus volunarius but naturalis a naturall appetition or desire yet hath appetitum aliquem intelligentem ac superiorem à quo regitur some superior appetite and intelligent from whom it s guided and directed This appetite in the Creature for deliverance is put into it from God its instinct of nature which is not given it in vaine neither as you have heard shall its appetite be perpetually in vaine Again finis est quod maximè volumus and quod maximè volumus est maximè appetibile and appetitus sua natura semper ordinatur ad bonum as also we are taught from the Logicians the end is that we most especially have a will unto and that which we are most especially willing unto is most appetible or desirable and appetite from its own nature alwayes tends to that which is good And finis per se sua natura tantum est boni the end aimed at by its selfe and of its own nature is onely of that which is good its evill by accident when it s seemingly good and not so indeed the end which the Creatures aime at in such groaning and such vehement expectation is their deliverance from the bondage of corruption at the time of the revelation of the glory of the sonnes of God as a thing most appetible to them and if they have an end in their expectation and that most appetible and sutable to their nature and nature desires its being then surely a totall abolition cannot be the thing or end that is so much and so earnestly looked for by their naturall appetite as far as reason can leade me Fiftly let it be considered which Peter Martyr also objects speaking of the Sunn and Moon Non minorem esse reliquis Creaturis propentionem naturalem appetentiam ad seipsas conservandas quà m Soli Lunae Coelo terrae quare si illa suo desiderio frustranda non sunt ne haec quidem frustrari oportere There is no lesse propensity to the rest of the Creatures nor naturall desire to conserve themselves then there is to the Sunn the Moon the Heavens and the Earth and therefore if they be not frustrated of their desires no more also ought these So he Sixtly and lastly consider Si plures Creaturae nostra causâ affliguntur plures etiam unà cum nostra faelicitate instaurabuntur at plures nostra causâ affliguntur Ergò The major you have heard is a verred by Chrysostome that as they are afflicted and made subject to vanity for our sakes so likewise for our sakes they shall be restored The minor we know is most true that more Creatures then the inanimata insensata the Heavens Earth Elements are subject c. therefore is it not rationall that the rest of the Creatures or other species of them be restored as well as these Let the judicious reader ponder these things and so judge these are the Arguments or reasons I would have considered for the most generally received opinion and what have bin produced for the last ranke of Creatures you have heard as also the answer unto them But it may be objected If every Creature that is afflicted because of us shall also be restored for our sake then every Individuall shall bee restored But not so Ergo. To the major I answer by denying the sequell because by every Creature may be meant the species or generall nature subsisting in some individualls or the Creatures of every species as we have heard and not all every individuall of those species for the Text saith in the Romanes the whole Creation groaneth expecteth c. not the whole multiplication now the multiplication you have heard was in thousands and millions dissolved into its Principles and could not groan or expect in the Apostles time but the whole
Creation may be said to groan and expect when all the species of the Creatures which God created do so And though every Individuall be afflicted for our sakes of the severall species yet it will not necessarily follow that every particular should be restored but the severall kindes or species in so many Individualls as God shall think in his wisdome fitting for then I say every Creature may be said to be restored Peter Martyr in class 3. Pet. Martyr clas 3. loc com cap. 17. sect 24. Idem etiam in 8. ad Rom. loc commun cap. 17. sect 24. as also in cap. 8. ad Rom. when he said that by all sometimes some parts may be synecdochically meant true but still the question remains whether it may be so taken here or no for the whole Creation or every Creature groaning or is subject to vanitie cannot here be meant synecdochically and if the Creature be as large as for any thing to the contrary in the Text seems to me then that will not serve here for it s not said that some creatures shal be delivered or some of the whole Creatiō but having mentioned the whole Creation he adds for a remedy to this The Creature shal be delivered what Creature that which was made subject to vanitie this shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption not all onely of one species or kinde The instances brought by that famous Divine Iohn 10.8 1 Cor. 6.12 Iohn 10.8 1 Cor. 6.12 All that came before me c. All things are lawfull for me are meant onely of an all in such a kinde all false prophets not all Prophets and all things indifferent not all things in any kind without exception Again saith he when Paul saith the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption posset generaliter intelligi de mundo quod ille non amplius cogendus sit renovare creaturas per novam generationem non tamen ex eo sequitur omnes creaturas quod singulas species attinet esse renovandas they are his own words It may be generally understood of the world that it shall no more be compelled to renew its Creatures by any more new generation yet notwithstanding it will not follow from that that all Creatures that belongs to every species should be renewed True I grant if no more be intimated by the Creatures liberation than a cessation from generation which is by corruption of some other pre-existent matter for its a commonly received truth amongst Philosophers From Arist lib. 1. Arist lib. 2. de gen cor text 17. de gen cor text 17. that generatio unius est corruptio alterius yet this axiome is not to be understood formaliter but causaliter because these two do tend ad diversos terminos but the Apostle saith that they shall have more then a liberation from generation by way of precedanie corruption for they shall also be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God as we have observed before And in the conclusion Peter Martyr will not absolutely determine for the most generally received opinion Neither yet for the last rank of the Creatures as Dr. Willet inclines to with some others but Pii igitur animi esse censeo neutram partem pertinaciter affirmare nihil enim habemus alterutram in partem satis certò definitum I judge it to be the part of a godly minde therefore to affirme neither opinion obstinately his reason is because we have nothing certainly enough defined or determined for either opinion true if he mean expressely and in particular otherwise we might again make use of his owne words in 8. P. Mart. in 8. ad Rom. ad Rom. satis tamen est quòd in genere creaturas instaurandas significaverit neque unquam quicquam exceperit though the Scripture mention not their restauration expressely or in particular yet it s enough notwithstanding that it hath signified the Creatures to be restored in generall neither hath any thing any where excepted And if we demand which of the ranks of the Creatures or out of which this renovation shall be he answers loco quo suprà Hoc tamen ausim dicere exillis creaturis quae interierint tantum homines esse excitandos à mortuis De aliis vero creaturis post diem judicii conservandis à coelo terra quarum Scriptura non meminit nihil dicendum arbitror Notwithstanding this I dare be bold to say that of all those Creatures that are already dead or such as have perished before the day of judgement onely men shall be raised again from death but of other Creatures that shall be conserved after the day of Judgement which Creatures the Scriptures have not mentioned I suppose nothing is to be said In particular and expressely they are not mentioned as you have heard but in generall you have heard himself say and without exception which saith he satis tamen est notwithstanding that other Creatures be not so expressely named as heaven and earth is c. yet it s enough they are promised to be delivered in generall and no exception any where made of other sort of Creatures that they shall not be restored any more than of heaven and of earth But how many Individualls God shall renew of every sort that is left to his wisdom and good pleasure as it was when he preserved the severall species at the time of the Flood Paraeus dubio decimo in 8. ad Rom. Paraeus dub 10. in octavum ad Romanos judgeth quòd sit probabile res corruptibiles plerasque omnes abolendas esse its probable saith he that all corruptible Creatures for the greatest part of them shall be abolished for man as you have heard shall stand in need of no ordinary use of them as formerly but God in his wisdome can preserve so many as may I say continue the severall species amongst which there shall be talis concinnus orde so fine so sweet an order and such a disposall of them that there shall neither be redundancy nor deficiencie Tale fore temperamentum concinnum ordinem ut nihil deforme vel fluxum appareat as you have seen before out of Calvin upon the place Calvin in loc there shall be such a moderation and fine order amongst the Creatures that shall be restored that nothing shall appear either foul or superfluous or ill-favoured or unstable which is enough for us to know in this life Now for the use of the Creatures that shall be restored though it shall not be for any common necessitie as before yet may it be for an use of ineffable excellency wherein the multifarious wisdome of God in regard of the Objects upon which it s shown may appear and remain as upon record in the severall and great variety of the species for ever Vt delectationi visionis intellectualis addatur delectatio visionis sensualis ut Ioan. de combis lib. 7. comp Theol.
a signe of Circumcision to confirm it gave a law to his posterity to guide them and in all these the Gentiles excluded from the Church as without God in the world and without hope of Salvation Ephes 2.12 13 2 Ephes 2.12 13 14. 14. at that time namely when you were in your carnall estate of Gentilisme ye were without Christ namely as a mediatour for you being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world As if he had said Ye had nothing to do with the Laws and immunities which belonged to Israel nothing to do with the promises made to them Psa 147.19 20. Ps 147.19 20. He sheweth his word unto Iacob his Statutes and judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation as for his judgements they have not known them But now in Christ Jesus saith Paul ye that were farre off sometimes are made nigh by the blood of Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the partition wall or the middle wall of partition between us And that Christ should be the Head to both being both God and man that so few of the Jewes should be called to imbrace Christ and such abundance of these Gentiles who were without such Covenants such promises as they had without Law without Circumcision without any good works c. and yet by the voice of the Gospell these should be called by faith in Christ that faith freely given from God these should be saved and be made fellow-Citizens with the Saints and one body with the faithfull in Israel this was such a point of Gods wisedome and so admirable and such a way of collecting a Church and out of so many severall Languages that the Apostle cries out Rom. 9.30 31. O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae c. Rom. 9.30 31. The Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained to the Law of righteousnesse c. This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that multiformis as Beza with the vulgar or multivaria that manifold wisdome of God which is now made known by the Church to the Angels for they see aliquid novum tanquam in speculo priùs sibi incognitum some new thing as in a glasse which formerly was unknown to them And they may be said to know this per Ecclesiam by the Church non instrumentaliter subjectivè docentem sed objectivè indicantem the Angels seeing such a Church now gathered Yea 1 Pet. 1.12 1 Pet. 1.12 this is such an admirable thing namely that the greatest part of the world that so many Gentiles that for so many years had lived in darknesse and in the way to death should now be called to make up one Christian Church with the Jewes and be under one Head with them that desiderant Angli introspicere the Angels desire to behold it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek to bow down so as to peepe into any thing Now the Angels in Heaven injoy unspeakable comforts as you have heard and yet they desire to peepe into or to looke into the manifold wisedome of God showne here upon Earth in calling the great varieties of Gentiles to make up one Church of Saints with the Jewes why then may not the Elect in Heaven with the Angels sometimes desire to contemplate the wonderfull wisdome or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multifariam sapientiam the manifold wisedome of God in the great varieties of the renewed species of the Creatures that are below them But Thirdly it may be objected that it will be ultrà sphaeram activitatis oculi ullius corporei beyond the ability of any bodily eye to behold from the seat of the blessed at any time any Creatures here upon the Earth To this I would answer thus Acts 7.56 Acts 7.56 that if Stephen here in a mortall body could from Earth behold Christ standing at the right hand of God when the Heavens were opened why cannot the Saints in immortall bodies see from Heaven down unto the Earth for God can as well make way thorow the medium from Heaven to Earth as he did from Earth to Heaven Calvin in loc Calvin in locum data Stephano nova aâ—ies quae per obstacula omnia usquè ad invisibilem regni caelâ—stis glo iam penetraret a new sight was given to Stephen at that time by which his eye was strengthened beyond the ordinary ability of nature so that he could pearce through obstacles even to the invisible glory of that heavenly Kingdome otherwise though the Heavens were wide open yet the ordinary ability of mans fight or the naturall strength of it were not of sufficient power to behold an object at such a distance It s needlesse therefore to dispute much de visu naturali of naturall sight cum facillimum Deo fuit Stephani oculos insolita acie donare Gualt Hom. 55. in Apost Act. as Gualter saith Hom. 55. in Acta Apostolorum when as it was an easie thing to God to give unto the eyes of Stephen a sight above ordinary such shall the sight of glorified bodies be farre more excellent then that we now have in these frail and mortall bodies And this shall serve for the fourth point I now come to the fift and last namely the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God or the children of God into which the Creature is to be reduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in libertatem gloriae into the liberty of the glory of the sonnes of God What we are to understand by the sonnes of God we may easily perceive by that which we have heard already the Elect people of God predestinated to life called justified and glorified But what we are to understand by the liberty of their glory that must be inquired into Theodoret. Theodoret referrs it to the time in which the Children of God shall come to this liberty and no doubt but the deliverance shall then be when they come to theirs For as Estius observes from Verse 20 Estius in loc they were made subject under hope under what hope sub spe liberationis in illud tempus quando filii Dei quibus subservit suam libertatem consequentur under the hope of deliverance at that time when the sonnes of God to whom they have bin subject and done service shall obtain their liberty the object of their hope was this deliverance into the glorious liberty of the children of God The time may be granted and yet this glorious liberty not fully explained for that is but the circumstance not the thing it selfe Chrysost Chrysostom by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in libertatem propter libertatem that as they were
to be reduced into nothing yet notwithstanding the very alteration of their nature if I may so speak shall consume and take away that which is mortall and corruptible in them that they shall begin to be others yea new Heavens According to some others the words are conceived on conditionally as thus if God so please because they conceive it absurd to think that the Heavens are subject to corruption But this condition rather hinders the sense than otherwise saith he Deinde falso coelis tribuunt immortalem statum quos Paulus non secus ac terram aliasque creaturas gemere parturire dicit usque ad diem redemptionis eo quod subjectae sint corruptioni non sponte vel natura sed quia homo se praecipitans totum mundum in ejusdem ruinae societatem secum traxit Moreover they do untruly attribute to the Heavens a state of immortalitie which Paul saith do groan and desire deliverance no otherwise than the earth and other Creatures unto the day of redemption in so much as they are made subject to vanitie not willingly or by any naturall inclination but because that man casting himselfe headlong from his happie estate in which he was Created drew the whole world to share with him in his ruine to be subject to vanity and corruption as well as he These two things then are to be holden Nunc obnoxios esse Coelos corruptioni propter hominis lapsum ita renovatum iri ut meritò Propheta dicat perituros quia non iidem erunt sed alii The Heavens are now subject to corruption by reason of the sinne of man and are so to be renewed as that the Prophet might justly say they shall perish because they shall not be the same but others others not for substance but for quality As before also you have heard that this was communior sententia the more common opinion He that would see the judgement of particulars Vossius Thesi qua supra let him but read Gerardus Joh. Vossius Thesi qua supra who herein hath saved me much labour in quoteing both the Greek and Latine Divines for this opinion with whom Calvin you hear and most of our sound Modern Divines do agree too many to be particularized in such a Cloud of Witnesses would overspread much clean Paper All of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed They shall wax old as a Garment respectu durationis or continuati temporis in regard of duration or continuance of time at least if not respectu imminutionis or defectus virium naturalium if not in respect of any impairing or deficiencie of their naturall strength in this respect a garment may be said to wax old namely in regard that its long since it was made though it be not decayed or much worse for wearing yet we say in this sense that its an old Sute because long since it was made though it appear not old in regard of decay or any deficiency in the Woof but in this sense may be as good as a new one Deut. last 7. Moses was old duratione but not immunitione as we say See Deut. last 7. Moses was an hundred and twenty years old yet naturall strength not abated And as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Now a vesture may be changed two wayes either totaliter abolendo or accidentaliter commutando either by the totall taking of it away as burning of it or casting of it aside c. as of no more use or else by an accidentall change of it as washing of it scouring of it dressing of it or colouring of it anew or the like this is to change a vesture but it is but an accidentall change of it the substance is still the same The like change is cōceived to be had in the Heavens Dyonys Carthsianus in loc Dionysius Carhusianus in verba Nec coelum nec terra peribit substantialiter sed peribunt in fine mundi quantum adesse formae accidentalis quoniam alium statum hebebunt quà m modo c. Neither shall the Heavens nor the earth perish in regard of their substance but they shall be accidentally changed in the end of the world for after the judgement day they shall be put into another state or condition then that in which they now are and not changed as Ioseph changed his garment or vesture when he appeared before Pharaoh Gen. 14.14 Gen. 41.14 Taking new for substance and casting away the old mutatâ veste so changed he his raiment To that in the Hebrews the same answer may be given seeing its but the repetition of the same thing Iob. 14.12 To that in Iob Vsquedum non erunt coeli Till the Heavens be no more So man lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more I answer some more Philosophically than Theologically conceive of it thus That even as the Heavens by their own nature and Principles are such that they of themselves would never decay but be for ever even so likewise man lying down in the grave by nature or his own strength would not arise again or could so arise till the Heavens were no more or ceased to be and that they conceived would be never because the Heavens would never cease to be Secondly others that are for a totall abolition they would understand it thus that at the last day when the generall resurrection shall be then shall the visible and sphaericall Heavens totally perish and then shall man arise again and till then he shall not Thirdly and lastly most thus Till the heavens be no more not simpliciter but secundùm statum praesentem not of simply or absolutely being no more at all but no more according to that present state and condition in which they now are and to which the sin of man hath made them subject 2. Pet 3.7 2 Pet. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui vero nunc sunt coeli ac terra The heavens and the earth that now are till they be no more in the same state or condition they are in now but changed for qualitie or condition into better when they shall be refined and purged by burning Even as when we see a lump of Mettall melted be it of Gold Silver Lead Tinne or any other the drosse we know is taken out and the substance is thereby refined but yet the same substance still remains so may we also conceive of the Heavens when they shall be burned and purged And thus much may serve for answer to the first Argument Luke 21.33 To the second Luke 21.33 Coelum terra transibunt Heaven and earth shall passe away Matthew hath it thus Matth. 5. Matth. 5.18 18. Till heaven and earth passe or as the Geneva perish one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and yet not be partaker of the same excellencie of glory or unspeakable joy and ravishment that the Children of God shall be as being in the presence of the Lamb in the Seat of glory or in the third Heaven into which other creatures shall not come neither are capable of it This well weighed the Argument will not firmely conclude against the most generally received opiniō Again in the forenamed place which he referres his Reader to for satisfaction he brings in the glossa ordinaria shewing as you have heard that by tota or omnis Creatura or Creatura indefinitè sumpta is not meant singula generum but genera singulorum not all Creatures of every kinde but every kinde of all Creatures His second Argument this and it is not onely his but the Argument of divers others There shall then be no more any use for any such Creatures Whence thus Those Creatures that shall remain after the day of judgement shall be for some use But of Brutes Plants and such like there shall be no use Ergo. P. Mart. in loc To the major we say with Peter Martyr Hoc tamen mihi certissimum videtur quodque omninò affirmari debeat istas naturas rerum non mansuras in extremo die nist aliquod opus habiturae sint Pugnat enim cum natura communi ratione aliquid constituere quod omninò sit otiosum Quae autem Deus his rebus opera sit adscripturus facile nos fateamur ignorare Notwithstanding this to me seems a most certain truth and such a one as ought altogether to be affirmed because the natures of those things should not remain after the day of judgement except there were some use of them for it is both against nature and common reason to ordaine any thing that is of no use at all But what imployment God will appoint these Creatures we may easily grant or acknowledge our selves to be ignorant saith he Lombard lib. 4. sent dist 48. in ipso calce Lom lib. 4. sent dist 33. in calc answering to that question what use there shall be of the light of the Sunn and Moon after the day of judgment saith fateor me ignorare quià in Scripturis non memini me legisse I confesse my selfe ignorant of that because I do not remember that I have read of it in the Scriptures For the which his modesty and plain dealing in this point Peter Martyr commends him and wisheth he had dealt thus in other passages Vtinam in aliis rebus definiendis uti voluisset pari modestia fide I would to God saith he that he would have used the like modesty and truth in his defining or determining of other points but this he did not This for the major proposition To the minor But of Brutes Plants and such like there shall be no use c. I answer that if by use he mean usum communem necessitatis the common use of necessitie and such as man stood in need of the Creatures for in the state of his mortalitie and naturall abode upon the earth then I grant there is no such use for them as for the Creature to carry burthens for his use to draw to runne at his service c. to nourish him to cloath his body c. for after this life we shall not stand in need of any such supplies But if by use he mean usum ineffabilis claritatis an use of ineffable excellency he is not certaine that there shall be no such use of them which God in his wisdome may appoint them for I make it out thus he grants that the Sunne and Moon shall remain after the day of Judgement yet shall there be nullus usus communis necessitatis no common use of necessitie for them such as the Creatures had of them in the state of mortality neither yet of the earth which he also grants shall remain after the last day In his 31. qu. upon Rom. 8. D. Willet qu. 31. in 8. ad Rom. he grants that the Sunne and Moon shall not then serve to give light unto the world there shall then be no darkness c. true therefore as I have said they shall not serve for any common use of necessitie as now they doe But whereas it is said Isa 30.26 Esa 30.26 that the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold c. Howsoever this may be meant of the glorious restauration of the Church in the time of Christ Esa 35.17 18. compared with Isaiah 65.17 18. Yet I have formerly shown that this is not the compleat sense of the words they stretch to a further thing as S. Peter shewes 2 Pet. 3.13 2 Pet. 3.13 therefore S. Hierome saith thus upon the words Solem tum accepturum mercedem laboris sui that then when the light of the Sunne shall be seven-fold the Sunne shall receive a reward of its labour or it shall be brought into a more excellent estate as other Creatures shall be and if so then it shall shine though not by way of common necessitie but for some other use And then reckoning up some other particular uses of it hee concludes But then all the Creatures shall rest and their ministery and service such as is now shall cease This we grant such as is now shall cease for that is common use of necessity And whereas its commonly added by divers that the motion of it shall then also cease because the Scripture saith tempus non erit amplius Apoc. 10.6 Apoc. 10.6 Time shall be no more Secondly because the Philosophers say that motus is causa efficiens generationis corruptionis perpetuae rerum inferiorum naturalium the motion of the Heavens or especially of the primum mobile is the cause efficient of generation and corruption which is continually amongst these inferiour and naturall bodies but these shall then cease there shall then be no more any such generation or corruptions or changes amongst the Creatures To both which we will recite the answer of learned Peter Martyr P. Martyr com ad 8. Rom. in his Commentaries upon Romanes 8. To the former Tempus non erit amplius Ergò nec motus for time is the measure of motion Verùm haec ratio non est firma fieri enim potest ut coelum moveatur sed pro magna illa luce corporis Christi corporumque omnium beatorum Solis Lunae minimè possit observari quare durare potest motus et si tempus non existat But this reason is not firm saith he for it may come to passe that the Heavens may be moved and yet the motion cannot be observed by reason of the great light of the glorified bodie of Christ of the Saints of the Sun and of the Moon therefore motion may indure although time be not His reason he gives is this Tempus enim non est nisi ex
able to stand 2 Pâ—t 3.3 4. By gracelesly mocking at it as 2 Pet. 3 3 4. There shall come in the last dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrisores mockers or scoffers such as David mentions Psal 1.1 Psal 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as walk after their own lusts who are called their own because they are a natura insitae Dei donis adventitiis oppositae because they are inbred in their corrupt nature and are opposite to the adventitiall graces of God and these say Where is the promise of his comming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Thus with a sacrilegious boldnesse impudencie and contempt they speak of the last day As if they had said We neither see his promise of the Day of Judgement fulfilled nor any likelihood or sign of it now more than was since the Creation for there is a continuation of the species of all Creatures by renewing themselves in multiplication of their severall individualls and so may do for ever Thus they would seem to be wickedly wittie To which cavill the Apostle answers at large in the following Verses from the sixt to the eleventh Verse And these as in their hearts they wish never to see that day so likewise they are a verse from ever seeing the day of death because the conscience suggests unto them it will be a bitter and a comfortlesse day And these I conceive the many reasons why * Calvin Beza Melanch Martyr Paraeus Willet and many more Also before them Theophilact the School Divines and divers more ancient Modernitie dissents from Aug. herein 3. The good Angels cannot here be meant by the Creature because they cannot be said to be delivered from the bondage of corruption for under that bondage properly so called they never were but the Creature here meant hath been under it and shall be delivered from it Verse 21. 4. and lastly not the Devills or bad Angels as may appear by these two Reasons First they are not neither ever were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congemiscentes groaning together with us or una suspirantes sighing together with us but the Creature here meant doth See Vers 22. Secondly they come not within the compasse of those Creatures that are made subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under hope but they are locked up under the Hatches of despair without any hope of deliverance for ever therefore the superfluity of Origens charitie may be said to have moved out of the sphaere of verity Error Origen when he judged that even the devils themselves in time should be saved which grosse errour many learned men have sufficiently confuted Aug. Tom. 6. lib. ad Oros cap. 5. See Aug. lib. ad Oros tom 6. cap. 5. though there was another Origen besides that famous and great Clerk yet both of them herein erroneous the latter being misled by the former of Alexandria But here will arise a question how groaning earnest expectation for deliverance and the like can be attributed to or praedicated of irrationall and insensible Creatures for we must needs say with Augustine in expositione propositionum ex Epistola ad Romanos Aug in expos propos ex ep ad Rom. Sensum gemendi dolendi non opinemur esse in arboribus oleribus lapidibus hujusmodi creaturis c. hic enim erat Mantehaeorum error Not that we may think that there is any sense of groaning or sorrowing in Trees Herbs Stones or such like Creatures for this was an errour of the Manichees Therefore I answer that the Apostle here speaks of theÌ„ by a Prosopopeia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributing such things to them as belong to the reasonable Creature as is usuall in divers other places in sacred Writ Mans groaning and waiting Verse 23. is proper and not of the same kinde with theirs Thus much for the Creature spoken of in this place Now for the second namely in what sense the Creature is made subject to vanitie For the Creature was made subject to vanity The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which is rightly rendred vanitati to vanitie You have it again Ephes 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the vanity of their mindes The word may also signifie frustrationi to frustration for nature propagating successively one individuum from another may seem to aym at and desire an immortalitie of the species as not onely some old Philosophers but some others have dreamed but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frustra in vain the Creature is made subject to frustration in this point So then take it subject to vanity and the Holy Ghost that cannot erre in Exposition tells us that to be subject to vanitie is to be subject to corruption or the bondage of corruption Verse 21. where its said It shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption that was the vanitie it was made subject to for the sinne of man it remaines not in that quiet constant entire sound and firme estate of nature in the which at the first it was created but is now subject fluxae turbidae evanidae conditioni to a flowing troublous fleeting vaine and mutable condition And Salomon well perceiving this Eccles 1.2 said Eccles 1.2 Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas Vanity of vanities all is vanitie subject to change and and frailtie If any man object that the heavens are not of a corruptible nature I answer and of which point God willing more hereafter that though by the Aristotelians they be not of such corruptible nature or subject to such vicissitude of change as compound and mixt Elementary bodies be yet are they subject to obscuration and doing of service to prophane and wicked enemies of God and to dissolution by their Maker as well as inferiour bodies are For suppose the Heavens be incorruptible corruptione naturali by naturall corruption yet are they corruptible and dissoluble Potentia supernaturali by the supernaturall Power of God upon whom both the Esse and Esse tales doth depend both their Beeing and their Beeing in such estate as they have continued in since their Creation Again doubtlesse Nulla natura naturata respectu potentiae Dei absolutae dici potest indissolubilis vel si liceat verbum cudere inanihibalis quamvis comparative respectu-constitutionis vel naturae spiritualis respectu potentiae Dei ordinatae vel respectu sublunarium dici potest No created nature if we respect Gods absolute power can be said to be indissoluble or inanihilable if we may be permitted by the leave of men Learned to coyn a word for our expression although comparatively in respect of its nature or spirituall Beeing or in respect of God having so determined it or having so ordered it and in respect of sublunary bodies some Creatures may be said to be incorruptible or not to be corrupted by any ordinary Physicall corruption To illustrate this subjection of the