some think that Joseph lived after Christs resurrection and yet others say he died the twelfth yeare of Christs age to whom Baronius rather inclineth a Ad annum Christi 12. Joseph being very aged about 80 yeares old when he was espoused to the holiest Virgin as Epiphanius and others do guesse For my part I embrace the mean and tread in the middle path Neither thinking that Joseph died the 12 yeare for when Christ was twelve yeares old Joseph went up to Jerusalem Luk 2.42 and after Christs descent to Nazareth Christ was obedient to Joseph and the all-garacious Virgin vers 51. therefore Joseph could not be dead in the twelfth yeare of Christ which the learned Baronius did supinely and sluggishly passe over and not observe Nor yet do I imagine on the other side that he lived beyond Christs resurrection or till his death since there is frequent mention of Christs Apostles of his holy mother and of his cousins and friends men and women yea of strangers and no mention nor intimation at all See Salianus in his Annals in annum mundi 4065 at large on this point that Joseph lived till Christ began publickly to preach and do miracles much lesse after his death So upon my supposall that he died between the thirteenth yeare of Christ and the twentie ninth Joseph might very well be one of those who were raised at that time and with him perhaps divers whom Christ had healed or to whom he had preached if they died before and many others with whom Christ conversed till he was thirty yeares old 4. And all these did prove and confirm unto the incredulous or wavering Saints their friends or kindred yea and to the very beleevers also the truth of Christs doctrine of his death of his resurrection appearing not promiscuously to Grecians or to Romans not to all no not to all the Jews but to many but to fit persons saith the Interlinearie Glosse whether Jews Grecians or Romans then residing at Jerusalem to such as knew them in their lives and at their deaths This conjecture may passe the more plausibly if we consider that Christ himself appeared not to all indifferently but onely to some and to some oftner times then to others yet no where is said to have shewed himself to any but onely to his followers and Disciples And as the Apostles were confirmed by Christs holy conference so might many other then living beleeve or the rather beleeve the Gospel of Christ upon proof made by the new raised in many particulars strengthning their faith They arose b Vt Dominum ostenderent resurgentem To shew that Christ was raised saith S. Hierom on Matth. 27. c Cum eo debebant resurgere ut ipsum ostenderent resurrexisse They ought to rise with Christ that they might shew he was risen saith Ludolphus the Carthusian That d Debebant they ought savoureth of presumption Dionysius the Carthusian hath more moderate terms he on the place saith They did testifie that Jesus was the Christ that he was truely risen and had destroyed hell Hierom Tom. 3. fol. 50. in his answer to the eighth question of Hedibia thus e Non omnibus apparuerunt sed multis qui resurgentem Dominum susceperunt They appeared not to all but to many who received our Lord risen from the dead And yet let me superadde by his leave If they had appeared to the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who received Christ I cannot think they would have concealed it 5. Among my other diversions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or winde-abouts let this be one occasionally arising from the odde position which Estius hath in 1. Cor. 7.39 f Rectè ex Apostoli verbis inferunt Aquinas carthusianus Non teneri mulierem ad recipiendum virum de morte resuscitatum Aquin and Carthusian conclude rightly saith he from the Apostle that a woman is not bound to receive her husband newly raised nor may she enjoy him without a new contract What if I answer That a woman is tied to her husband as long as he liveth but he liveth afterward though he had been dead and when the Apostle speaketh of death he speaketh of a compleat death not susceptible in this world of another life For he opposeth the dead man to the living as if one could not be dead and then living but first living and then dead for ever till the generall resurrection Suppose we Lazarus was married had not his wife been his lawfull wife bound to him by their first agreement even after his resurrection I doubt it not Yet this might be the case of some of the many who were raised especially if they died but a while before But I confesse the case differeth and is more perplexed if the partie were dead and the dayes of mourning past and the woman married to another Yet even here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Father most gracious O Saviour most mercifull O holy Spirit most comfortable I humbly begge thy grace mercie and comfort to be shed forth upon me in this life that I may please thee in my vocation and do thy will and fulfill the businesse which thou hast appointed for me And leave not off I beseech thee to guide me by thine enabling counsel here till thou art readie to crown me with thy glorie in the life to come Amen Lord Jesu Amen CHAP. XV. 1. The raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ as is proved by Scripture and Reason Suarez his shallow answer Epiphanius strengthening my former positive conjectures 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles THat these raised Saints who bare witnesse of Christ setling many pendulous and doubting souls strengthening many followers and Disciples of our Saviour and perhaps converting some unbeleevers by teaching them that their expected Messiah was now come that he did live among them and had died for their sinnes and risen again for their justification That they I say after this office performed again deposited their bodies in the earth and ascended not corporally into heaven you may behold proved by this first reason drawn from Scripture For Christ is compared to the high Priest who alone entred the SANCTUM SANCTORUM Hebr. 9.7 It is true indeed that we enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus Heb. 10.19 but he onely * Hebr. 10.10 by a new and living way through the vail that is to say his flesh * Hebr. 9.12 entred in once into the holy place His entring differing from others entring and differing in this That with his bodie he entred others ascended not into heaven with him bodily Secondly if they had ascended into heaven following Christ their bodies must have been
Assumption most honoured among the Papists and yet there is monstrous disagreeing among them who favour her Assumption The last instances concern not our question ibid. 8. Pineda presumed too farre upon uncertainties Lorinus dareth not name any particularly that were raised It cannot be known certainly 136 CHAP. XIIII 1. MY conjecture that none of the Patriarchs or old Prophets were raised 137 2. An objection concerning Peters knowing of Moses and Elias on mount Tabor answered ibid. 3. A conjecture that the Saints who lived in Christs time and died before him were raised at his Passion Who they were in most likelihood When Joseph the reputed father of Christ did die 138 4. The end why they were raised To whom they appeared 139 5. A crotchet concerning the wives of dead men which have been raised 140 CHAP. XV. 1. THe raised Saints ascended not into heaven with Christ as is proved by Scripture and reason Suarez his shallow answer Epiphanius strengthening my former positive conjectures 141 2. If the raised ascended bodily into heaven the Patriarchs should not be left behinde 142 3. The ascending bodily of the Saints into heaven not necessarie or behooffull ibid. 4. Onely Christs bodie was seen ascending 143 5. In likelihood Christ would have shewed the Patriarchs unto some of his Apostles ibid. CHAP. XVI 1. ANgels taken for men Angels representing men are called men 144 2. The name JEHOVAH ascribed to an Angel representing JEHOVAH say Estius and Thyraeus Picking of faults in the Apocryphall Scriptures to be abhorred ibid. 3. Drusius his povertie The Apocrypha is too little esteemed The Angel who guided young Tobie defended 145 4. The great difference between Christs manner of rising and Lazarus his 146 CHAP. XVII 1. THe place of Matth. 27.53 is diversly pointed and according to the pointing is the diversitie of meaning The first implieth that the Saints arose with Christ though their graves were opened before This interpretation is not so likely though received generally 148 2. The second inferreth that they arose before Christ though they went not into the citie till after his resurrection This is favoured by the Syriack and is more agreeable to reason ibid. 3. That the raised Saints died again proved by reasons and Heb. 11.40 149 4. Christ the first-fruits of the dead and of the raised Angelicall assumed bodies were seen and heard much rather should mens bodies ascending with Christ 150 5. S. Augustine Aquinas Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Euthymius Prosper Soto Salmeron Barradius Pererius Valentian affirm that the raised Saints died again Franciscus Lucas Brugensis holds it likely 151 CHAP. XVIII 1. THe arguments of the contrarie opinion answered Suarez and especially Cajetan censured 152 2. That by the holy Citie Jerusalem below was meant proved at large Josephus and the Jews erring about the name of Jerusalem Hierom uncertain 154 3. How the raised appeared A difference between appearing as men And appearing as newly raised men Franciscus Lucas Brugensis rejected 156 4. An argument of Maldonat answered by the prodigious Legend of Christina who died twice No hurt is to man if God will send his soul from an heavenly place to live a while on earth again 157 5. No harm to die twice The difference between death compleat and incompleat 159 6. God can dispense with his own laws 160 CHAP. XIX 1. STrange conceits concerning Nero from Suetonius Tacitus Hierom Augustine Nero supposed to be Antichrist 161 2. Another incredible relation of the Armenian who is said to have lived at Christs passion The Armenians have their holy frauds ibid. The Contents of the third book CHAPTER I. Sect. 1. MAny Papists are very peremptorie that all and every one must die Melchior Canus is more moderate The words are onely indefinite not universall 165 2. Objections brought to prove that universally all shall die Their answers Generall rules have exception Even many learned Papists have acknowledged so much The point handled especially against Bellarmine 166 3. Indefinites have not the force of universals Even universals are restrained 169 4. Salmeron bringeth many objections to prove an absolute necessitie that every one shall die All his objections answered Mans living in miserie is a kinde of death ibid. CHAP. II. 1. THe third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 173 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 174 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 178 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think Enoch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 180 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truely The materiall remaineth not the formall Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 194 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transfiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies
in heaven The place of Revel 11.7 concerning the two Witnesses winnowed by Bishop Andrews Enoch and Elias are not those two witnesses 200 CHAP. III. 1. SOme others hereafter shall be excepted from death The change may be accounted in a generall large sense a kinde of death The Papists will have a reall proper death Aquinas an incineration This is disproved 1. Thessal 4.17 which place is handled at large The rapture of the godly is sine media morte without death The resurrection is of all together The righteous prevent not the wicked in that 224 2. By the words of the Creed is proved that some shall never die The same is confirmed by other places of Scripture with the consent of S. Augustine and Cajetan The definitions Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum of the sentences and tenents of the Church leave the words doubtfully Rabanus his exposition rejected 227 3. The place of S. Paul 2. Corinth 5.4 evinceth That some shall not die Cajetan with us and against Aquinas Doctour Estius and Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit approve Cajetan S. Augustine is on our side and evinceth it by Adams estate before the fall which state Bellarmine denieth not Salmerons objections answered 228 4. Some shall be exempted from death as is manifested 1. Corinth 15.51 The place fully explicated The common Greek copies preferred The Greek reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall not all sleep standeth with all truth conveniencie probabilitie and sense The other Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall therefore all of us sleep and the more different Vulgat Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur Indeed we shall all arise but we shall not all be changed justly exploded as adverse to sense 230 5. The Pelagians though accursed hereticks yet held truely That some shall not die S. Augustine dubious Others stick in his hesitancie Yet other Fathers and late Writers are constant That some shall be priviledged from death yet that change may be called a kinde of death 235 FINIS A Catalogue of the severall Authours quoted in these three books of MISCELLANIES A ABen Ezra Abraham de Balmis Abulensis Adrichomius Cornelius Agrippa Albericus Gentilis Albertus Magnus Alchabitius Alexander ab Alexandro Ambrosius Bishop Andrews Anselmus Apollinaris Appianus Alexandrinus Aquila Aquinas Petronius Arbiter Arboreus Franciscus Aretinus Aretius Arias Montanus Aristoteles Athanasius Avenarius Augustinus B BAlthasar Bambach Moses Bar Cepha Baronius Barradius Basilius Beda Bellarminus Bernardus Bertram Beza Bilson Boëtius Bolducus Bonaventura Bosquier Brentius Broughton Lucas Brugensis Bucer Bullinger Busaeus C Coelius secundus Curio Caesaris commentaria Cajetanus Calvinus Melchior Canus Carafa Carthusianus Casaubonus Cassander Cassiodorus Catharinus Centuriatores Cevallerius Chaldee Targum Christopher Castrensis Chrysostomus Cicero Clemens Romanus Clemens Alexandrinus Joannes Climachus Philip de Comines Concilium Elibertinum Concilium Milevetanum Franciscus Collius Coverdale Cusanus Cyprianus Cyrillus Alexandrinus D DAmianus à Goës Rabbi David Del Rio. Demosthenes Petrus Diaconus Didymus Dionysius Areopagita Dorotheus Drusius Andreas Dudithius Durandus E ELias Levita Epimenides Epiphanius Erasmus Espencaeus Estius Eugubinus Eusebius Eustathius Antiochenus Euthymius F FAber Stapulensis Felisius Fernelius Ferus Festus Feuardentius Dr. Field Dr. Fox Fulgentius Dr. Fulk G GAgneius Galenus Gasparus Sanctius Genebrardus Gerson Gorranus Gregorius Greg. Nyssenus Greg. de Valentia Gretser H HAlensis Haymo Heinsius Helvicus Hermogenes Hieronymus Hilarius Hippocrates Hippolytus Holcot Homerus Horatius Hugo Cardinalis Hugo Eterianus I JAcobus de Valentia K. James Jansenius Ignatius Illyricus Irenaeus Isidorus Isidorus Pelusiota Josephus Justinus Benedictus Justinianus K KEmnitius Kimchi L LAertius Cornelius à Lapide Laurentii historia Anatomica Joannes Leo. Rabbi Levi. Libavius Livius Lombardus Lorinus Ludolphus Carthusianus Ludovicus de Ponte vallis Oletani Ludovicus Vives Lutherus Lyranus M MAjoranus Maldonatus Marianus Scotus Marsilius Andreasius Martin Marre-prelate Martinus Cantipretensis Justin Martyr Masius Matthew Paris Melchior Flavius Rabbi Menachem Mercer Minshew Mollerus Bishop Mountague Lord Michael de Montaigne Montanus Peter Morales Mr. Fines Morison Rabbi Moses Peter Moulin Muncer Musculus N HIer. Natalis Nazianzenus Nicephorus Nicetas Nonnus O OCkam Oecolampadius Oecumenius Jofrancus Offusius Olympiodorus Origenes P PAcianus Pagninus Paracelsus Paulinus Pererius Peter Martyr Petrus Pomponatius Philo Judaeus Photius Pighius Pineda Plato Plinius Plotinus Plutarchus Polybius Julianus Pomerius Porphyrius Postellus Primasius Procopius Gazaeus Propertius Prosper Ptolomeus R Dr. Raynolds Ribera Richeomus Jesuita Rodulphus Cluniacensis Monachus Rosinus Ruffinus Rupertus S EMmanuel Sa. Salianus Mr. Salkeld Salmanticensis Judaeus Salmeron Rabbi Salomon Mr. Sands Sasbout Scaliger Scharpius Dr. Sclater Scotus Mr. Selden Seneca Septuaginta Mr. Sheldon Barthol Sibylla Sixtus Senensis Sleidanus Socrates Sohnius Sophronius Soto Stapleton Robertus Stephanus Stow. Strabo Suarez Suetonius Suidas Surius Symmachus T TAcitus Tertullian Theodoretus Theodosius Theophylactus Petrus Thyraeus Tichonius Titus Bostrensis Toletus Tostatus Solomo Trecensis Tremellius Trelcatius Historie of the councell of Trent Turrianus V VAlla Terentius Varro Vasques Vatablus Didacus Vega. Ludovicus Vertomannus Blasius Viegas Joannes Viguerius Godfridus Abbas Vindocinensis Virgilius Vorstius Bishop Usher Leonardus de Utino W WHitakerus Willet Z ZAnchius Zimenes O Blessed God Father Sonne and holy Ghost whose deserving mercie to me hath been so infinite that nothing in earth which I enjoy is worthy enough to be offered unto thee yet because thou hast so plentifully rewarded the widow of Sarepta for sharing that little which she had unto the Prophet and hast promised even the kingdome of heaven to them who in thy name give a cup of water of cold water and hast most graciously accepted the poorest oblations both of the goats hair toward thy Tabernacle and the widows two mites into the treasurie receive I most humbly beseech thee the free-will-offering of my heart and weak endeavours of my hand in this intended service and as thou didst fill Bezaleel and Aholiab with an excellent spirit of wisdome and subtill inventions to finde out all curious works to the beautifying of thy Tabernacle so I most meekly desire thee to enlighten my soul to elevate my dull understanding that I may search for such secret things as may be found and finde such things as may be searched for lawfully and modestly and that I may like Joshuahs good spies acquaint my self and others with the desert wayes and the severall tracts and paths which our souls immediately after death must travell and passe over toward the Celestiall Canaan O God my good God grant me to accomplish this through the safe conduct of Him who is the faithfull Guide the onely Way the Light and Joy of my soul my Lord and Saviour JESVS CHRIST So be it most gracious Redeemer So be it MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THe subject of the whole Work The reason why I chose the Text of Hebrews 9.27 to discourse upon The division of it 2 Amphibologie prejudiciall to truth Death appointed by GOD yet for Adams fault The tree
by the Evangelist Matth. 27.52 and 53 verses The graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many So farre the text Of the various pointing of which words see more hereafter opening two windows for two expositions On which words divers worthy men both modern and ancient conclude That those Saints died not again k Sed apparuerunt multis etiam cum Christo nunquam ultrà morituri abierunt in coelum But appeared to many and with Christ never after were to die but went into heaven saith Jacobus Faber Stapulensis And Mr. Beza on this place opineth that they did not rise that again they might live among men and die as Lazarus and others did but that they might accompany Christ by whose power they rose into eternall life The late Writers saith Maldonate think that they went into heaven with Christ and with them doth himself agree So Pineda on Job 19.25 So Suarez a third Jesuit So Anselm So Aquinas on the place and on the Sentences So if Suarez cite them truely Origen in the first book to the Romanes about those words of the first chapter By the resurrection of Jesus our Lord and Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 6. and Justinus Quaest 85. Ambrose in his Enarration on the first Psalme and Eusebius Demonst 4.12 and of modern Authours and of our Church Bishop Bilson in the effect of his Sermons touching the full redemption of mankinde by the death and bloud of Jesus Christ pag. 217. So Baronius ad annum Christi 48. num 24. concerning those Saints whom Christ piercing the heavens carried with himself on high leading captivitie captive Ephes 4.8 More reserved and moderate is Mr. Montague that indefatigable Student sometime my chamber-fellow and President in the Kings Colledge in Cambridge now the Reverend Lord Bishop of Chichester who in his answer to the Gag of the Protestants pag. 209. saith of these Saints They were Saints indeed deceased but restored to life and peradventure unto eternall life in bodies as well as souls MOst cleare Fountain of Wisdome inexhaustible wash I beseech thee the spots of my soul and in the midst of many puddles of errour cleanse my understanding that I may know and embrace the truth through Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. V. 1. Who were supposed to be the Saints which were raised by such as maintain that they accompanied Christ into heaven 2. A strange storie out of the Gospel of the Nazarens 3. Adams soul was saved Adams bodie was raised about Christs Passion saith Pineda out of diverse Fathers Thus farre Pineda hath truth by him That the sepulchre of Adam was on mount Calvarie so say Athanasius Origen Cyprian Ambrose Basil Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustine Euthymius Anastasius Sinaita Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople 4. It was applauded in the Church in Hieromes time 5. Theophylact thought Adam buried in Calvarie Drusius unadvisedly taxeth the Fathers Tertullian consenteth with other Fathers and Nonnus who is defended against Heinsius 6. At Jerusalem they now shew the place where Adam his head was found Moses Barcepha saith that Sem after the floud buried the head of Adam 7. The Romane storie of Tolus and Capitolium much resembling the storie of Adam 1. TO the clearing of this cloud and that we may carry the truth visibly before us I think it fit to enquire First Who these Saints were which thus miraculously arose and then secondly to determine Whether their bodies were again deposited in the earth till the resurrection or Whether in their bodies with Christ they ascended into heaven 2. For the first Hugo Cardinalis on Matth. 27.53 hath an old storie It is said saith he in the Evangelisme of the Nazarens that two good and holy men who were dead before about fourty yeares came into the Temple and saying nothing made signes to have pen ink and parchment and wrote That those who were in Limbus rejoyced upon Christs descent and that the devils sorrowed Though the rest be fabulous yet herein the Gospel of the Nazarens agreeth with our Gospel That the names of the raised are not mentioned Others have been bold to set down both the names and the order of them who arose 3. Augustine Epist 99. ad Euodium thus a De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quòd eum ibidem Christus ad inserna descendens solverit Ecclesia ferè tota conseutit Almost the whole Church agreeth That Christ descending into hell freed the first Adam thence That the Church beleeved this non inaniter not vainly but upon some good ground we are to beleeve from whence soever the tradition came though there be no expresse Scripture If this be true of Adams soul yet is it nothing to our question of his bodily resuscitation Proceed we therefore to those that think his very bodie was raised Adam then arose saith Athanasius in his Sermon of the Passion and the Crosse saith Origen in his 35 Tractate on Matthew saith Augustine 161 quest on Genesis and others also if Pineda on the fore-cited place wrong them not And he giveth this congruentiall reason That Adam who heard the sentence of death should presently also be partaker of the resurrection by Christ and with him who had expiated his sinne by death To which may be added That as S. Hierom reports the Jews have a tradition that the ramme was slain on mount Calvarie in stead of Isaac as also Augustine Serm. 71. de Tempore ratifieth And to this day they say they have there the altar of Melchisedech So Athanasius reports from the Jewish Doctours that in Golgotha was the sepulchre of Adam This is true but it is not certain that Adam was raised and not true that he ascended bodily into heaven Mr. Broughton in his observations of the first ten Fathers saith thus Rambam recordeth that which no reason can deny how the Jews ever held by Tradition that Adam Abel and Cain offered where Abraham offered Isaac where both Temples were built on which mountain Christ taught and died And as the place was called Calvaria because the head or skull of a man was there found and found bare without hair and depilated saith Basil so divers Fathers have concluded that Adam was there buried and that it was his head See Origen tractat 35. on Matth. Cyprian in his sermon on the resurrection Ambrose in his tenth book of his commentaries on Luk. 23. Basil on the fifth of Esay Epiphanius contra Haeres lib. 1. Chrysostome Homil. 84. in Joannem Augustine Serm. 71. de Tempore and de Civitat 16.32 Euthymius on Matth. So Athanasius Sinaita lib. 6. in Hexam in Tom. 1. Bibliothecae Patrum and Sanctus Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople in Theoria rerum Ecclesiast as you may see in Tom. 6. Biblioth Patrum besides abundance of new writers with whose names I delight not to load my page 4 Hierom on
Gods commandment will worship honour keep govern thee somewhat according as in our marriages the husband promiseth to worship comfort honour and keep his wife save onely that the Jew did promise to govern his wife which we leave out which is also consonant to the authentick Hebrew Daniel 4.26 Dominantes Coeli or Coeli dominentur The Heavens do rule as it is in our late Translation that is God in the Heavens doth rule But also because the Jews in reverence and fear avoiding the naming of Jehova and calling him among many other attributes Coelum our Saviour representing in this historicall parable the person of a young penitent Jew speaketh as the Jew would and placeth the word Heaven in the singular number for GOD. Luke 15.18 Father I have sinned against Heaven Likewise Matth. 21.25 The baptisme of John whence was it from Heaven or of men it is not from Heaven or from Earth but from Heaven or of men not a place but persons are to be understood and in Heaven rather God then Angels and if likelihood lead us to expound it of Angels as it doth not yet those Angels represented God and were so called in his stead And thus we will passe from this point 6. The second thing fit to be premised is this If Heinsius mean onely that there are divers words phrases and sentences in the Greek Testament which never were coyned stamped or allowed in Athens as free-denizons of Greece but are borrowed and translated from the Hebrew Chaldee and Syriack no man will oppose him and the exemplifying of it were easie and delightfull if I had not made too large excursions before in a matter not much differing from this But when he saith They who were Jews by birth or generation and withall did both know and speak Greek may be called Hellenists and that these Hellenists writing in Greek much differed in language from the Heathen Grecians As I deny it not in the generall so some Jews there were who being wonderously well versed in the Greek wrote in Greek most politely whence Philo judaeus was said to Platonize and Josephus is styled by Baronius The Greek Livius Thirdly if Heinsius had onely said that S. John saw the Hellenists that S. John might have seen the paraphrase of Onkelos that the Chaldee Metaphrase Sanctissimo Joanni plurimis in locis placuit that S. John ad Chaldaicam saepe allusit interpretationem quâ Judaei Asiatici ut olim ità nunc utuntur all which he saith pag. 61. I would onely have wished to see his proofs Fourthly if Heinsius mean that the Hellenists onely who were not inspired from God conceived in one tongue what they did write and wrote in another what they conceived I will subscribe and adde that whatsoever they did speak in Greek they first had the notions of it in Syriack and thence did as it were translate their speech or writings even perhaps Philo and Josephus and such as trafficked much with Greece and Greeks unlesse among the Jews there might be such a case as was of Lord Michael de Mountaigne who as himself relateth in his Essaies 1.25 being born a French man yet never heard French till he was above six yeares old nor understood any word of his mother-tongue no more then he did Arabick because he was brought up where he heard no other language spoken then Latine onely and therefore long after when he usually spake nothing but his Perigordin or French yet upon great sudden exigents his conceits were first shaped in Latine and his words brake forth ere he was aware in Latine and not in French as himself recordeth So say I if a Jew were thus brought up in the Greek or in any other languages his conceits might be the apprehensions of his childish language and not of that tongue which he used after Fifthly and lastly if because Heinsius himself is a daintie Critick he will reduce the judgement of all Divinitie to Scriptures of all Scriptures to Criticisme I will not contradict it if we confine this judiciarie Censorship and Criticisme to men skilfull and eminent in all arts sciences and languages for who can so well interpret Scripture as such men It was a passionate conceit of hood winkt men as is recorded in the historie of the councel of Trent lib. 2. pag. 122. t Potestate unicuique factâ in Scripturae verstonem inquirendi utrùm proba sit nêcue vel cum aliis interpretibus eam comparando vel contextu Hebraeo consulto tum novos hosce Grammaticastros omnia interturbaturos sibi solis judicium arbitrium in rebus fidei arrogaturos When each man hath power to inguire into the translation of the Scripture whether it be good or no either comparing it with other interpreters or consulting with the Hebrew Text then these new-sprung pettie-Grammarians would make a confusion of all things and arrogate to themselves alone the judgement and resolutions in matters of faith And pag. 125. Almost all allowed the vulgat Edition u In praesulum animos vehementi indè impressione factâ quòd dicebatur Grammaticos Episcoporum ac Theologorum instituendorum potestatem sibi arrogaturos This made a powerfull impression upon the mindes of the Prelates because it was said Grammarians would assume to themselves authoritie to direct and instruct Bishops and Divines Wisely wisely as if Divines and Bishops ought not to have been perfect Grammarians before they were Divines As if both could not consist together As if famous and deep Divines had not been admirable yea the best and soundest of all Linguists and Criticks whom they scornfully term pettie Grammarians As if they envied any men these passages of learning which they kenned not and would put out the candle which other men lighted delighting rather in darknesse then suffering some places used by Popes and School-men to be questioned and cleared and it was a just indignation of the Friars against the Fathers in the councel of Trent because they were so prompt to define Articles and pronounce Anathemaes when they did not well understand and were loth to be taught the things themselves as it is in the Historie of the councel of Trent lib. 6. pag. 481. But since he saith of the Evangelist S. John x Perpetuò ad Targumistas respexit He alwaies had an eye to the Targumists pag. 289. and y Ad Targumistas semper respieâ—t He still respecteth the Targumists pag. 250. and z Totum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod voces sermonem spectat peregrinum est All the words and speech soundeth strange pag. 230. as if there were not in S. Joh. one line or phrase of pure good heathen Greek Since he maketh the Hellenisticall Greek the other Greek divers languages pag. 373. though they differ not so much as some Dialects besides his jerk at Nonnus for his Grecanick rather then Greek adding to this effect Prolegom pag. 93. Many have known superficially the
answered by the prodigious Legend of Christina who died twice No hurt is to man if God will send his soul from an heavenly place to live a while on earth again 5. No harm to die twice The difference between death compleat and incompleat 6. God can dispense with his own Laws THus having beaten down the opposite authorities if they were fully on that side with weight and number the third and last point which I propounded to handle was the answering of all their reasons and arguments Some are so weak that I need not to answer For Suarez himself who alledgeth them confesseth their weaknesse and answereth them These three proofs following he alledgeth but answereth not First It was decent and behovefull DECUIT saith Suarez that Christ who had both bodie and soul should have companions of his glory in their bodies as well as in their souls For his delight is to be with the children of men Proverb 8.31 Which Suarez it may be took as an hint from Cajetan for he on Aquin. parte primâ quaest 53. art 3. hath it thus a Rationale videtur quòd sucrexerint perfectè ad vitam penitus immortalem ut beatitudo corporis in Christo haberet socios minus enim corporalis felicitas aliquid habere videretur it desit corporalis societas est enim homo secundùm vitam corporcam animal sociale c. It standeth with reason that they arose perfectly to a life fully immortall that the bodily blessednesse of Christ might have some fellows For the bodily happinesse seems not perfect and compleat if bodily societie and company be wanting for man is according to the corporeall life a sociable creature or good fellow not onely for want of necessaries unto life as happeneth in this world but for naturall delight consisting in bodily conversation saith Cajetan dissenting in this from the great Summist his master I answer that Cajetans argument is ridiculous for it holdeth chiefly in children or babies in fools and in striplings who love play-mates or in worldly factours whom businesse forceth into societie and commerce But that the Saints in heaven yea Christ himself the all blessed Saviour of the world both God and Man should not have the full of delight or have too little of bodily felicity if other humane bodies be not present savoureth rather of the Turkish Coran and the Arabian school then of the sacred Text and that Christ in heaven is animal sociale naturally delighting in bodily conversation for so much the application of that Axiom importeth or els he saith nothing to the purpose doth imply his brutish conceit of our most holy Redeemer The sweet singer of Israel saith Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore If this befall other holy Saints much more it belongeth to Christ from whose fulnesse all the whole bodie of his Church receiveth comfortable influences But grant we that such bodily companie might be desired by Christ yet he needed not these Many but he might have had Enoch and Elias or Moses and Elias with whom he conferred at his transfiguration Secondly unto Suarez his words Barradas his fellow-Jesuite answereth Christ needeth not men indued with bodies now in heaven As for the place of the Proverbs the precedent words give light unto them I rejoyced in the habitable parts of the earth saith the Text So his delights were with the sonnes of men in and upon the earth but of his delight in them with their humane bodies in heaven Before the last resurrection there is no inkling or intimation given Suarez argueth thus secondly b Animae gloriosae connaturale est c. It is very naturall for a glorified soul to be united unto an immortall and glorious bodie But their souls were glorious Therefore their bodies also And the glorie of a blessed soul of its own nature redounds upon the bodie I answer It doth so naturally if it be not hindered But the blessed souls of these Many Saints were in bodies not immortall not blessed not glorious for a few dayes or houres and that by miracle saith Barradius Besides whilest Christ lived on earth unlesse at his Transfiguration or some such especiall occasion the glorie of his most happie soul which was then beatified as much as any of the souls of the Saints are now and more did not impart visible glorie to his bodie but it was passible and mortall for it died Then why may not these Saints have the glorious light of their souls eclipsed from their bodies Again the assumed bodies of blessed Angels ever did resolve into their first principles when the ends why they assumed them were fulfilled the like might be in the Saints whose souls were hindered from communicating incorruptible and glorious qualities to their bodies and so they were partakers not of the perfection of the last eternall resurrection but of the imperfections incident to the temporarie and mortall resurrection Thirdly saith Suarez Corah Dathan and Abiram are in hell with their bodies therefore some to shew Gods mercie must now be in heaven with their bodies and therefore these Many I answer that both the sequences are lame though we should grant the ground or antecedent of the Argument For first was not Gods mercie seen in heaven from the houre of Corah and his companies descent into hell till these Many ascended Then why may it not still be seen though these ascended not especially since that Christ is there in a most blessed incorruptible bodie as they are in hell in cursed bodies which would take corruption for a favour Lastly why must these Many Saints be the counter-pattern in heaven rather then Enoch or Elias or Moses being the Magistrate against whom Corah and his complices combined themselves 2. Others there are who object It is said THEY ENTRED INTO THE HOLY CITIE But the holy citie is the new Jerusalem Jerusalem above Revel 21.2 Therefore they died not but went into heaven I answer Jerusalem below the materiall Jerusalem the seat of the kings of Judah because of Gods worship there especially to be performed in that glorious Temple was also called the holy citie GLORIOUS THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF THEE THOU CITIE OF GOD Psal 87.3 Amongst others thou art styled holy Rev. 11.2 The holy citie shall the Gentiles tread under foot but the Gentiles shall never trample on the new Jerusalem above On the one side of a shekel of the Sanctuarie which once I saw was stamped in Hebrew characters Holy Jerusalem Again Tobit 13.9 O Jerusalem the holy citie he will scourge thee but he will never scourge Jerusalem above which is the Mother of us all therefore Jerusalem below must needs be this holy Citie Bellarmine himself de Pontifice Romano 3.13 accordeth with us and interpreteth the strife of the two Witnesses against Antichrist in Jerusalem below And before him Hierom in his answer to the eighth question of Hedibia Tom. 3. fol. 50. saith Of these words
pec 4.15 The decree is performed if all the posterity of Adam be obnoxious to death Or as S. Augustine answered the Pelagians concerning those which shall be alive at Christs coming x Satìs est illos fuisse morti destinatos 〈◊〉 quae subsecuta esset si seculum processisset Quòd eximantur à morte erit casus neque privilegium paucorum universali causae derogat It sufficeth that they were appointed to die and die they should if the world had endured By casualty they are freed from death nor doth the dispensation with some particular ones infringe the universall cause as I vouched in the second book And as S. Augustine goeth on when they have lived a life full of miserie and calamitie who can say they have not tasted death especially since thirst hunger cold heat infirmities crosses sicknesses are nothing else but a daily dying In which regard the wise woman of Tekoa in her subtile oration saith not We shall all and every one die but 2. Sam. 14.14 We die MORIENDO MORIMUR so runneth the Hebrew and are as water spilt on the ground when immediately both before and after she had spoken of outward crosses y Etiam dum crescimus vita decrescit Even whilest we are growing our life decreaseth saith Seneca Which S. Augustine in libro Soliloq cap. 2. thus enlargeth z Vita mea quantò magìs crescit tantò magìs decrescit quantò magìs procedit tantò magìs ad mortem accedit My life in going forward groweth backward and by how much it advanceth forward by so much it maketh a nearer approach to death As the fire it self consumes its fuell and is nourished by the consumption of it so mans age is fed and nourished by the consumption of his life and of the age he liveth in Man at the same time begins to live and die for LIFE is but the way tending to DEATH a Nascendo morimur imò longè ante nativitatem morimur In our birth we die yea long before it From the instant of the souls infusion we begin to die Lastly I say in that Christ died for all Although some be extraordinarily dispensed withall every one may be said to die Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man Hebr. 2.9 Thus much shall serve for the first part of the answer O Blessed Saviour who art life in thy self and the fountain of life unto others Grant I humbly beseech thee that when I shall passe from this present world from this dying life or living death I may evermore live by Thee in Thee and with Thee Amen Amen CHAP. II. 1. The third question resumed Whether every one must die The second part of the answer unto it That some have been excepted as Enoch and Elias The controversie hath been exquisitely handled by King James and Bishop Andrews 2. Bellarmines third demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come propounded The place of Malachi 4.5 expounded by Bishop Andrews and enlarged by my additions The Papists objection answered 3. The place of Ecclesiasticus 48.10 concerning Elias examined 4. Another place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 concerning Enoch handled at large against Bellarmine Enoch was never any notorious sinner in some mens opinions Others otherwise Their arguments for both opinions are onely probable and answered My opinion and it confirmed Some think E. noch died Strange and various opinions concerning S. John the Evangelist his living death and miraculous grave More miracles or else mistakings in the Temples of Christs Sepulchre and of his Assumption about Jerusalem S. John did die Enoch did not die but is living Mine own opinion of the place Genes 5.24 Et non ipse and it confirmed A comparison between Enochs Elijahs and Christs ascension The posture and circumstances of Christs ascending 5. Bellarmine and others say Paradise is now extant In the earth or in the aire saith Lapide the Jesuit The old translation censured The heaven into which Enoch and Elias were carried was not Aërium nor Coeleste but Supercoeleste The earthly Paradise is not extant as it was Salianus with others say truly The materiall remaineth not the formal Superest quoad Essentiam non quoad Ornatum The Place is not removed but the Pleasure and Amenitie Salianus his grosse errour That Enoch and Elias are kept by Angels within the bounds of old Paradise on earth 6. Enoch shall never die as is proved from Hebr. 11.5 Three evasions in answer to that place confuted Melchizedech and strange things of him The East-Indian language hath great affinitie with the Hebrew An errour of moment in Guilielmus Postellus Barentonius Elias was not burnt by that fire which rapted him Soul and bodie concur to make a man saith Augustine from the great Marcus Varro Vives taxed Moses at the transsiguration appeared in his own bodie An idle conceit of Bellarmine concerning Moses his face and good observations of Origen upon that point It is probable that Elias was changed at his rapture and had then a glorified bodie An humane soul may possibly be in a mortall bodie in the third heaven Corah Dathan and Abiram are in their bodies in hell properly so called and alive in the hell of the damned Ribera and Viegas confuted Our Doctour Raynolds was not in the right in this matter Some kinde of proofs That Enoch and Elias are in glorified bodies in heaven The place of Revel 11.7 concerning the two Witnesses winnowed by Bishop Andrews Enoch and Elias are not those two witnesses THe main third question being Whether all men and every one must of necessitie die the first part of the answer was That there was no absolute necessitie but there might be an exception The second part of the answer touched at was this That some have been excepted who never did die nor shall die If I be further demanded Who they be I will onely insist in Enoch and Elias The controversie concerning which two men is so exquisitely handled by the most learned Monarch our late Soveraigne King James in his monitory Preface and by his Second the reverend Bishop Andrews in his answer to Bellarmine his Apologie cap. 11. that the most scrupulous inquisitour may be satisfied After I have selected some matters of moment from that unanswerable Prelate I will take leave to glean after the gathering of their of their full sheaves and to discover a few clusters after their plentifull vintage and to bring to your taste some remarkable passages concerning Enoch and Elias which perhaps they thought fit to omit as affecting brevitie or tying themselves most strictly to the question whilest the nature of my Miscellanies give me licence to travel farre and neare 2. Bellarmine Tom. 1 de Romano Pontifice 3.6 makes it his third Demonstration as he calleth it that Antichrist is not yet come Because Enoch and Elias are not come who yet do live and must oppose Antichrist Bellarmines first place is from Malach. 4.5 and sixth
first coming though it was accompanied with good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Luke 2.10 yet was it also a dreadfull day to the wicked and disobedient men worse then if he had never come and it was dolefull also to the evil spirits whom he then vanquished cast out and tormented before their time Matth. 8.29 triumphing over them in his own person and trampling them down and breaking them in pieces with his rod of iron in their own kingdome and therefore may justly be called in respect of them a terrible day The Prophets testimonie reacheth home for confirmation hereof Isa 61.2 He hath sent me to preach the acceptable yeare of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn Which Prophesie Christ himself Luke 4.18 c. applieth to his first coming and addeth remarkably vers 21 This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares The day of vengeance you see is threatned in Christs first coming And is not the day of vengeance unto such to whom vengeance passively belongeth a terrible day Which truth is also confirmed by that admirable similitude fore-prophesied in the law of Moses and applied to Christ in the law of Grace concerning Christs being not onely a chief corner-stone 1. Pet. 2.6 and the head of the corner Psal 118.22 Elect and precious saith S. Peter a tried stone a sure foundation Isa 28.16 and for a sanctuarie Isa 8.14 and whosoever beleeveth on him shall not be ashamed Rom. 9.33 But also Christ is compared to a stumbling stone and a rock to make men fall Rom. 9.32 33 or as Isaiah hath it a stumbling stone and as a rock to fall upon and as a snare and as a net And many shall stumble and fall and be broken and snared and taken Isa 8.14 c. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grinde him to powder Matth. 21.44 And is not such a stone terrible to such as fall on it or on whom it falleth and is not that time terrible when it falleth This is prophesied of Christs first coming and so his first coming is truely said to be a terrible day unto some Lastly it is insinuated that Christ when he cometh may smite the earth with a curse which must be understood of his first coming for after his second coming after the day of judgement the earth is not to be cursed but rather blessed For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth â—no sorrow nor crying nor pain Revel 21.1 4. Upon which reasons and others I have wondred that the divine Drusius should be so caught with the Jewish fable as to doubt whether Elias be come or no. Drusius in his castigations or notes on Ecclesiasticus 48.11 thus a Hodie multorum â—pinio est credentiuÌ„ istud Malachiae vaticinium ex parte tantùm in Joanne completum fuisseâ— Hi tenent venturum abhuc Eliam in propria persona sub adventum Domini quem vocant alterum sive secundum hoc est ante extremum judicium Quae vera an falsa sint non decerno Hâ—c tantùm Judaeos etiamnum cum suo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expectare Eliam de quo hî◠sermo est unde dicunt Cùm venerit Elias ipse docebit nos omnia To this day many think and beleeve that this prophesie of Malachi was onely by the Baptist in part fulfilled and they hold that Eliah shall personally and bodily appeare toward the second coming of our Lord before the last judgement Whether these things be true or false I determine not This onely I will say The Jews do as yet and to this houre look for Eliah to come with their Messiah and of him they have this saying WHEN ELIAH COMETH HE SHALL TEACH VS ALL THINGS I reply What part what syllable in Malachi concerning Elias was not fulfilled by John the Baptist If many do now beleeve otherwise they are such as are Jews who neither beleeve the words of our Saviour who said Elias was come and therefore think Elias shall come because they think their Messias is not come at all or at least they do Judäize in this point whosoever they be that expect the personall coming of the Tishbite Christopher Castrus the Jesuit on Malach. 4.8 concludeth That the true Elias shall yet come because it was the voice of the Jews and the expectation of the Scribes and Pharisees who said in the same places that Elias should come b Ante Christum gloriosum ut super Matthaeum assâ—rit Hâ—eronymus before Christs glorious appearing as S. Hierom writeth on Matthew First I answer that the Jews did expect the coming of their Messias to be glorious in all worldly pomp Secondly I call not now to minde that the Scribes Pharisees or Jews ever expected a second coming of their Messias Thirdly whereas our Saviour saith Matth. 17.11 Elias truely shall first come and restore all things though these words were spoken after John the Baptist was beheaded yet Christ meaneth not that Elias shall come corporally but in answering his disciples he propoundeth the objection of the Jews which they before alledged more briefly and speaketh according to their opinion Elias indeed shall come and then in the verse following Christ saith unto his disciples thus in effect by way of correction Whatsoever the Scribes say or affirm concerning Elias his bodily coming is not literally to be understood BVT I SAY VNTO YOV THAT ELIAS IS COME ALREADY And what he saith to his disciples here he saith to the people Matth. 11.14 If ye will receive it This is Elias which was for to come He fore-knew that some would not beleeve him and therefore he said If ye will receive it This is Elias This John who then did live this John is Elias not which shall come this is the exposition of the Jews but this John is that Elias which was to come and now is come and the prophesie fulfilled He that hath eares to heare let him heare The last words as Hierom well observeth do evince that the former to wit If ye will receive it This is Elias are mysticall and hard to be understood no plain sense or manifest sentence Whence I inferre that plain and easie it would have been to the Jews if he would have said as they did think That Elias should come bodily although the Baptist did resemble him in vertue and power and was equall unto him But here is the mysterie That Malachi never intended that Elias should live on earth corporally against Christs second coming but that the Baptist was prefigured in Elias and whatsoever was prophesied by Malachi of Elias was accomplished by the Baptist and no other Elias to come but the Baptist in vertue and power of Elias and not according to the outward letter Here is a mysterie here is depth which the c Judaei Judaizantes haeretici Jews and Jewishly addicted hereticks
is living or that he is dead The reason why some thought S. John liveth was because Christ said to Peter John 21.22 If I will that he tarrie till I come what is that to thee Neither doth it satisfie them that John himself saith ver 23. Jesus said not He shall not die for they expound that exposition John shall not die namely till that time that Christ doth come Dorotheus speaking of S. John hath it thus John lived 120 yeares which being expired he living as yet the Lord would so have it buried himself The storie is enlarged by S. Augustine Tract 124. in Joannem thus Some report that in certain Scriptures though Apocryphall it is found that S. John being in health caused a grave to be made and laid himself in it as in a bed and presently died or as some think lay down as dead but not dead and being thought to be dead was buried sleeping and that he sheweth his being alive a Scaturigine pulveris by the ebullition of the dust of his grave b Qui pulvis creditur ut ab imo ad superficiem tumuli ascendat flatu quiesoentis impelli which dust is beleeved to arise and to be forced from the bottome of the tombe to the top by his breath And truly saith Augustine We heard not this of light credulous men Whereupon he adviseth c Viderint qui hunc locum sciunt utrùm hoc ibi faciat terra vel patiatur quod dicitur Let them who know the place consider whether the earth spring up there so as is reported If it be so saith he if the earth or sand bubble up like water and that being taken away other ariseth and boyleth up in the room it doth so either to commend the precious death of that Saint or for some other reason which we know not So farre Augustine Some such thing in another case is recorded by S. Hierom Heare his own words Tom. 3. de locis Hebraicis out of the Acts of the Apostles d Cùm Ecclesia in cujus medio sunt vestigia rotundo schemate pulcherrimo opere conderetur summum tamen cacumen ut perhibent propter Dominici corporis meatum nuilo modo contegi concamerari potuit sed transitus ejus à terra ad coelum usque patet apertum Mount Olivet is situated on the East of Jerusalem parted by the stream of Cedron where the last footsteps which Christ set upon this earth are imprinted on the ground and even to this day are to be seen and shewed And whereas the same earth is taken away daily by the beleeving Christians neverthelesse the same holy footsteps presently and immediately recover their old form and fashion Who also in the same place addeth another strange thing e Mons Oliveti ad Orientem Hierosolymae situs est torrente Cedron interfluente ubi ultima vestigia Domini humo impressa bodiéque monstrantur Cúmque terra eadem quotidie à credentibus hauriatur nihilominus tamen eadem sancta vestigia pristinum statum continuò recipiunt Whereas the Church in the midst whereof these footsteps are was built of a round form with most exquisite workmanship yet the very top of that Church as people report could by no means ever be covered or vaulted over by reason of our Saviours bodily ascent into heaven but Christs passage and way by which he mounted from earth even to heaven lieth open and is visible But our late traveller M. Sands relateth That the footstep is on a firm naturall rock and the passage open at the summitie or top of the temple of the Ascension is to receive light into that sacred place For that is covered as the sepulchre or rather as the temple of the sepulchre whose round is covered with a CVPVLO sustained with rafters of Cedar all of one piece open in the midst like the Pantheon at Rome whereat it receiveth the light that it hath and that as much as sufficeth Just in the midst and in view of heaven standeth the glorified sepulchre So farre M. George Sands M. Fines Morison saith On the top of mount Olivet the highest of all the mountains that compasse Jerusalem in a Chappel they shew in stone the print of Christs feet when he ascended into heaven It did a little amaze me that these our two countreymen both being learned and both being there eye-witnesses do differ so much the first mentioning a footstep in the singular number the other feet in the plurall Antiquitie saith On the Earth late Writers On a Rock which maketh me rather bear with the good S. Hierom who relateth from others that the top could by no means be covered Open perhaps the top was left and open purposely by some exquisite workmen whose skill some credulous ignorants could not discern and they might report that what was done could not be done otherwise But of this in either of our countreymen there is not one word I return to the old matter Sixtus Senensis Bibliothecae sanctae lib. 6. Annotat. 93. saith Many most grave and worthy Authours have written that S. John the Evangelist yet liveth But Chrysostom Hom. 66. in Matt. reporteth f Illum violentâ morte obtruncatum obtisse That he was put to a violent death and he bringeth in Christ speaking these words to the two sonnes of Zebedee of whom S. John the Evangelist was one Mark 10.35 g Calicem meum bibetis Matth. 20.23 id est Martyrii coronâ potiemini violentâ morte sicut ego à vita discedetis YE SHAL DRINK OF MY CVP shall be put to a violent death and be crowned with martyrdome like unto me Euthymius also testifieth that Chrysostom in two other places saith that S. John the Evangelist was slain in Asia which makes me wonder that George Trapezuntius if he be truely alledged by Sixtus Senensis ibid. should interpret Chrysostoms words of the martyrdome and violent death which John forsooth should suffer with Enoch and Elias under the last persecution of Antichrist especially since Chrysostom so punctually designeth out the time past and telleth what was done to John and where Hippolytus Portuensis Episcopus in his short Tractate de mundi consummatione saith As Christs first coming had John the Baptist his forerunner so the second shall have Enoch and Elias and John the Evangelist This comparison is very lame and halteth for it may be applied as well to any as to John the Evangelist Others use not so foolish a similitude but yet embrace a wilder opinion for they say that S. John died and rose from the dead and was assumed into heaven Nicephorus 2.42 addeth DECEBAT It was fit convenient decent and requisite that he who kept Christs mother and was so beloved of Christ should be so assumed as Christs mother was O man how proud art thou to judge what is convenient or inconvenient for God to do Baronius Tom. 2. Anno Christi 101. numero
a tempestuous winde did he make him to ascend including an intimation that in a whirlwinde they were both rapted If the Scripture had used the very words in describing the nature of Elias I should the sooner have liked the conceit but the Rabbinicall speculations conclude not therefore I will Lastly it is improbable but divers of the Disciples or Apostles who saw Christs ascending might and would have sought and looked for him but that they were in a sort dehorted by two Angels who told them That Christ was taken from them into heaven Act. 1.11 and therefore it was vain to seek him any longer on the earth And most certain it is that when the sonnes of the Prophets saw Elijah snatcht up and Elishah parting Jordan with Elijahs mantle they said unto Elishah There be with thy servants fiftie sonnes of strength let them go we pray thee and seek thy master 2. Kings 2.16 and accordingly they sent fiftie men and they sought three dayes but found him not vers 17. Semblably we may well imagine that some also did seek for Enoch after he was translated yea it approacheth nearer to belief then to imagination upon this fair resultance He was not found say the Septuagint He was not found saith the Apostle therefore he was sought after therefore he was searched for TV NON INVENTA REPERTAES I have found thee whom I could not finde when I sought thee saith the old Poet but it is harsh to say TV NON QVAESITA REPERTA ES Thou art found and wast never lookt after Finding implieth precedent search or going after most ordinarily but Not being found necessarily implieth a former inquirie Elias was not found by Ahab therefore Ahab sought for him Enoch was not found therefore they made enquirie after him So much be spoken in defence of my Comment upon the words Et non ipse which I have supplied from the Septuagint and most especially from the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was not found And with it is also ended and terminated the second Quaere by me propounded Whether Enoch did ever die with its Answer That Enoch died not either a sweet death or a sowre an easie death or a painfull 5. The third Question followeth Whether Enoch and Elias now live in and with their bodies in Paradise Bellarmine is for the affirmative That Paradise is now extant and Enoch and Elias live in it More particularly concerning Elias Rabbi David in his Comment on 2. Kings 2. reports it as the common opinion of the Jews That Elias went with his bodie into Paradise and there liveth in the same estate that our Parents did before the fall Others have taken upon them to describe and circumscribe exactly the place of Paradise in an Island now called Eden not farre from Babylon as certain Nestorians of the Greek Church have fabled I say fabled because millions of learned men both Heathen Jews and Christians have seen Babylon and lived in it and round about it who never had such a thought or belief or tradition so farre as may be gathered by any ancient extant records Of which Paradise whosoever desireth to see more at large let him have recourse to my learned friend M. John Salkeld in his Treatise of Paradise I will onely adde somewhat which he omitteth Salianus the great Annalist from the creation of the first Adam to the death of the second Adam or rather to his resurrection and ascension Ad annum mundi 987 saith Cyprian Ambrose Hierom Tertullian Gregorie Epiphanius and Hippolytus acknowledging the translation of Enoch and Elias are silent concerning the place of their being Augustine leaves it as doubtfull and disputable Chrysostom and Theodoret like not the enquirie Rupert saith The Scripture is silent neither are the words of Paradise or Eden in the place of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 in the Greek text but onely in the Vulgat So farre Salianus But indeed first me thinks that the old Translatour should have been constant to himself and adding somewhat to the words of Ecclesiasticus 44.16 should not have added In Paradisum as he doth without any shadow of ground from any other place but In coelum because it is so written 1. Macc. 2.58 Elias was taken up into heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In coelum receptus est as the Vulgat it self hath it Secondly the Jesuit Salianus is somewhat too favourable in that point for S. Ambrose in lib. de Paradiso cap. 13. saith expressesly Enoch was r Raptus in coelum caught up into heaven and S. Hierom on Amos 9. saith Enoch and Elias were carried into heaven Bellarmine and other Papists distinguishing COELVM into AERIVM COELESTE ET SVPERCOELESTE Aëriall heavenly and supercelestiall say Enoch was carried into the aëriall heaven I must confesse that the region of the aire that Expansum the aëriall orb is sometimes called Heaven The Lord thundred from heaven 2. Sam. 22.14 God gave us rain from heaven Act. 14.17 and birds are called the fowls of the heaven Psal 104.12 The Lord cast down great hailstones from heaven Josh 10.11 and they were more which died with hailstones then they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword These hailstones came from the middle region of the aire I confesse also that Enoch was carried up into the aëriall heaven but with this distinction He was taken into it as his way not as the end of his journey not as his habitation or resting place The case of Enoch and Elias is so like so one in this puncto that you are not to marvell if sometimes I use the name of one sometimes of the other what is said of one is meant of both f Qui unum rectè nôrit ambos noverit Who knoweth one is not ignorant of the other Chrysostom in his oration of Elias is expresse that he resteth not in the aire and bringeth in Satan as wondring at Elias his riding through and above the clouds neither is his reason to be contemned Elias is not there where the devil is Prince and what should he do among lightning and thunder hail snow storm and tempest This is the portion of the wicked to drink If you flee to the miraculous omnipotent hand of God why may not I say the like concerning Gods extraordinary clothing him with immortalitie and that by dispensation unusuall in the act of translating him God did not let him continue on the earth or in the aire but assuming him into the highest heaven did glorifie his bodie For concerning coelum coeleste Bellarmine will not say that he resteth there nor did ever any afford patrocinie to that conceit Indeed Seneca De consolatione sheweth that the Stoicks thought that the souls of men departed hovered about their bodies and in the end were carried up t Ad ipsos orbes astrâ—s ornatos to the starry heaven And Cicero De somno Scipionis placeth that heroïcal soul among the starres Besides that the conceit is heathenish it
of foure parts of foure hills 23 6. If Kiriath-Arba doth signifie the citie of foure men yet they might be other men besides the foure Patriachs 24 7. If it had its denomination from foure Patriarchs and from their buriall there yet Adam is none of them 25 8. Augustine peremptorie for Adams buriall in Calvarie and Paula and Eustochium or rather Hierom. 26 9. Another objection answered The Jews never shewed extraordinary honour to Adam or Noah but to Abraham and others after him Drusius preferreth the reading used by our late translation Hos 6.7 before the Genevean and Tremellian 27 CHAP. VII 1. THough Adam was buried on Calvarie as Pineda saith yet his proofs are weak that Adam was raised with Christ and went bodily into heaven with him The cited place of Athanasius proveth onely Adams buriall there Origen in the place cited is against Pineda Augustine is palpably falsified 29 2. Adams skull shewed lately at Jerusalem 30 3. Dionysius Carthusianus saith Eve then arose His opinion is without proof ibid. 4. Nor Abraham then arose ibid. 5. Nor Isaac then arose whatsoever Pineda affirmeth 31 CHAP. VIII 1. PIneda his phansie that Jacob then was raised 33 2. The reason why the Patriarchs desired the translation of their bones was not to rise with Christ as Pineda opineth but upon other grounds and to other ends ibid. 3. Where Joseph was first buried where secondly 34 4. The great difficultie of Act. 7.16 propounded Two answers disliked The originall is not corrupt 35 5. Beza taxed for imputing corruption to the originall on Mat. 13.35 and on Luk. 22.20 and on Matth. 27.9 All these places defended and the sacred Majestie of Scripture vindicated from criticisme Many good answers to Matth. 27.9 Erasmus faulty with Beza 36 6. S. Augustine and Cyrill against them 40 7. Masius and Junius prefer the Arabick and Syriack before the Greek Junius recanteth A little errour may perhaps be ascribed to the Transcribers A generall errour in Greek and Latine may not be admitted in all copies of Scriptures ibid. CHAP. IX 1. THe second answer disliked Melchior Canus censured for saying S. Steven his memorie failed him His like proof from Jephthah his mistaking answered 42 2. Another argument of his from Matth. 2.6 answered 44 3. Heinsius touched at Cusanus rejected for holding that Adam could have understood all languages now in use The manner of the confusion of tongues at Babel ibid. 4. The Orientall languages a goodly ornament and necessary in some places The Syriack enlightening the Greek 48 5. The Jewish excommunications Donations to Religious houses sealed up with curses to the infringers Mr Selden in part defended though his Historie of Tithes hath done hurt MARAN-ATHA The Amphibologie of Act. 3.21 cleared by the Syriack Vbiquitaries with Illyricus taxed Heavens and Heaven taken for God ibid. 6. Heinsius strictly examined and rejected 54 7. Things granted viz. The inspirations and conceptions of holy Pen-men were under one or other language in which conceptions they could not erre nor could they erre in writing 57 8. Questions handled at large Whether it were necessary that the Scripture should be written Whether the sacred writers wrote casually Whether they were commanded to write Whether they were compelled to write Whether they understood all that they wrote Whether they did reade profane Authours Whether they studied the things before hand 68 9. Conclusions against Heinsius There was no difference between the Pen-men of the Divine writ of the Old and New Testament in the point of conceiving and writing in different languages We are not to have recourse to the thoughts of S. John rather then his words They had no libertie left them to put in their own conceits or in writing to adde or blot out what they had done They had no libertie to cloath their inward apprehensions with words of their own They did not conceive in one language and write in another 95 CHAP. X. 1. REall truth in the Greek and Latine texts of Act. 7.16 The place expounded thus The Fathers were not Abraham Isaac and Jacob but the twelve sonnes of Jacob 112 2. These twelve Fathers were not buried in Abrahemio but in Sychem 114 3. Abraham in this place is not taken properly but patronymicé ibid. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by S. Stephen amphibolous and expounded 116 5. Two opinions concerning the place of Acts 7.16 propounded 117 6. The last preferred 118 CHAP. XI 1. PIneda makes Moses to be one of the raised at Christs Passion if once he died Pineda censured for his assertion or rather his hypothesis 119 2. David then arose in Pineda his judgement 120 3. His argument answered Bishop Bilson wavering and rejected as he rejecteth S. Augustine ibid. 4. A demonstration upon S. Augustine his ground and Act. 2.24 that David was not raised nor ascended bodily into heaven 122 5. Davids sepulchre now kept by the Turk 123 CHAP. XII 1. PIneda doubteth whether Ananias Azarias and Misael were raised at Christs passion because there now are said to be some reliques of them some at Rome and some at Venice saith Lorinus 124 2. Other reliques The table at which Christ ate with his Apostles Some hairs said to be the hairs of our glorious Saviour others of his all-gracious mother A bone of Philips A sandall of S. Peters 125 3. S. Peters chain miraculous as they report ibid. 4. Mr. Mountague now the reverend Bishop of Chichester defended ibid. 5. S. Pauls chain also miraculous from Gregorie Bellarmine 126 6. False reliques taxt by Erasmus and Calvin John the Baptist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposed to have three heads at the least Three or foure prepuces of Christ ibid. 7. Reliques before Christs time The ark The holy oyl The rod of Moses and Aaron The throne of Eternitie phansied by the Jews The horns of Moses One finger of the holy Ghost The Papists faults in forging of false reliques 128 8. All Reliques are not false What respects are to be denied to true Reliques 130 9. What are to be given 131 10. No likelihood of the raising up of Ananias Azarias and Misael about Christs passion 132 CHAP. XIII 1. PIneda saith Jonas arose then and Noah His reasons very shallow 133 2. Daniel arose saith Pineda from Nicetas If Daniel arose he arose but with one leg the other leg is yet shewed at Vercellis ibid. 3. Job arose now saith Pineda His proof lame Jobs Epitaph poeticall His sepulchrall pyramis made of imagination 134 4. Job shall arise at the generall judgement Pineda wrincheth the Scripture ibid. 5. The end of Jobs book according to some Greek copies a double exposition of the words 135 6. Jobs bodie supposed to be translated to Constantinople ibid. 7. Bartholomaeus Sibylla saith S. Hierom is expresse that the holy mother of our Lord and John the Evangelist are bodily ascended The like cited from Aquinas And Holcot saith That the glorious virgins bodie was not to be incinerated Her supposed day of
in her personall chastisement Eve was created in Paradise and for all her sin we had continued still in Paradise if Adam had kept in it but as Adam was made out of Paradise so out of it again by his fall he brought both himself us S. Ambrose saith * Fuit Adam in illo fuimus omnes periit Adam in eo perierunt omnes Ambr. in Lucam lib. 7. Adam was in him we were all he perished in him all perished Eve was onely a part of Adam till his fall he being till then the onely root after his sinne she is now also Eva mater viventium a root yet radix de radice we receive our sap bring forth fruit through both of them And for all this both Scripture and Fathers runne with a torrent ascribing that great sin which plunged mankinde into destruction not unto Eve save onely as the occasioner but unto Adam as the immediate causer And though Eve sinned before Adam and that in divers respects yet is he chiefly yea onely faultie for presenting vs by his fall to destruction Hosea 6.7 They like Adam have transgressed the covenant there or as the Vulgar hath it joyning Ibi to the latter clause Ibi praevaricati sunt in me Ibi saith Hierom that is in Paradise And Adam is excellently painted out Esai 43.27 Thy first father hath sinned Eve is not mentioned for her sinne considered by itself reached not to them nor hurt any but herself per se and us per accidens as Adam yeelded to her temptation When God had denounced severall punishments first to Eve then to Adam and proper to each by themselves he added this to Adam onely Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return For even in him and by him was Eve to return to dust and by his offence formally Death cometh on all And therefore not from Eve but from Adam doth S. Luke draw our pedegree Luke 3.38 Which was the sonne of Adam which was the sonne of God And therefore as the Genealogies were ever drawn from the males perchance to shew that the woman was but accidentall to our first making and the first sinne reducing all up to the Protoplast Adam who derived originall sinne both to Eve and all us though in different manner so when they had drawn their Genealogies down to Christ who had no man to be his father nor had originall sinne but satisfied for it all other sinnes all Genealogies are ceased yea counted by the Apostle as foolish and vain Titus 3.9 Against one of these passages if it be objected that Joab is not termed after his father but full often yea alwayes after his mother The sonne of Zeruiah for she was the sister of David 1. Chron. 2.16 I answer that Zeruiah the mother of the three famous brethren Joab Abishai Asahel was perhaps married to some base ignoble groom before David came to his greatnes or she herself was an extraordinary Virago active in State plotting and furthering the plots of her children though she crost her brother David and therefore as I take it she is named not so much in honour as in dislike These men the sonnes of Zeruiah be too hard for me 2. Sam. 3.39 Or lastly the father of Joab had committed such a sinne or sinnes that the remembrance of him was odious and might resemble Judas Iscariot who deserved that in the next generation his name should be blotted out Psal 109.13 When Adam transgressed my statutes 2. Esdras 7.11 12. then were the entrances of this world made narrow full of sorrow and travel And in reference it may be to Adams especiall sinning both a man-childe was born before a woman-childe and a man-childe died before a woman-childe the males onely were circumcised and Adam himself died ten yeares before Eve as Salianus out of Marianus Scotus Genebrard Fevardentius collecteth though never a woman els except Eve from the creation til the Law of Moses is recorded to have outlived their good husbands As for Er Onan they were wicked for their sin cut off shortly Genes 38.7 c. Sure I am he had an especiall manner of transgression since some are punished who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 Other sinnes we sinned are like to Adam but herein we are unlike His sinne hurt us aswell as himself our sinnes hurt not him but ourselves Bellarmin hath brought unto my hand the thre following authorities Tertullian * Omnis anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur Tert. lib. De Anima Every soul is counted in Adam untill it be reckoned in Christ Hierom * Vnusquisque nostrûm in Paradiso cum Adamo cecidit Hieron in Mich. 2. Every one of us fell in Paradise with Adam Cyprian derives the infants sin from Adam onely For we were in him tanquā in activo principio In him to stand or fall Adam is the figure of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 Was Eve a type of Christ was Christ ever resembled or compared or contra-opposed unto Eve The Apostle Rom. 5.15 16 * Cypr. lib. 3. Epist 8. Ad Fidum sheweth wherein Adam was like and unlike to Chirst of which hereafter And most divinely to our purpose verse 17 c. If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more the righteous shall reigne by one Iesus Christ No inkling no intimation of more sinnes then of one of more persons first sinning that one sinne then of one and that one was not Eve but Adam therefore as Christs Merits onely save us so Adams sinne onely did destroy us Cherubim faceth Cherubim Type and Antitype must agree When the Apostle saith of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illius futuri as the Interlinearie reades it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not quae but qui proveth the exclusion of Eve But of the first man Adam and the last Adam is a noted sweet resemblance 1. Corinth 15.45 Where he holdeth it not enough to say The first Adam but lest Eve might seem to be included in the comparison he addeth The first man Adam and so compareth him to Christ Likewise verse 47 The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven Yet was not Christ the second man in number but in representation of mankinde being the substance of the first shadow Adam was the first the onely one who hurt us Christ is the second man the onely one who helpeth us Yea I think I may be bold to averre that Christ would have taken on him the feminine sex if by Eve we had fallen but since we fell by man by man onely therefore our Redeemer though he came of a woman yet was made a man And Christ having determined to be not a woman but a man I dare further avouch if he had been a stone cut out not * Et abscissus est
were begotten and conceived was an unclean thing saith Bishop Bilson as Job calleth it saying Who can make a clean thing of an unclean Job 14.4 It is also corruptible that is saith he full of corruption as Peter nameth it when he saith Born again not of corruptible seed 1 Peter 1.23 of which we were born of our parents Thirdly The Apostle calleth our flesh The flesh of sinne Rom. 8.3 If by these places he takes uncleannesse corruption and sinne improperly for such ill dispositions as seed bloud and livelesse flesh is capable of the Question is ended I confesse all But he understandeth uncleannesse corruption and sinne properly The title of his pages 174. and 175. is this Mans flesh is defiled in conception before the soul is created and infused And in the body of his Discourse he enlargeth it as in his Conclusion to the Reader at the end of his Sermons pag. 252. he first propoundeth it and citeth Ambrose to assist him saying * Priùs incipit inhomine macula quà m vita Amnr. Apolog. David cap. 11. Pollution sooner beginneth in man then life Now the soul is the life of the body then if pollution cleave to the flesh before life come and consequently before the soul come whencesoever it cometh it is evident that Adams flesh defileth and so condemneth us So farre he None of these proofs reach home to cleare this That sinne true sinne proper sinne originall sinne or actuall is in the seed or bloud or flesh before the reasonable soul be united Neither did that learned Bishop consider that it can not be called our originall uncleannesse pollution or sinne till we have originem that is till our soul hath its first being in the body He erreth to say Pollution cleaveth to the flesh before life cometh and more erreth saying Adams flesh defileth and condemneth us if he make the flesh subject to condemnation before its life and union of the soul For then many thousand abortions should be damned which never had rationall soul annexed to them As for Ambrose * Whitak De Origin Peccato 1.4 Whitaker thus citeth him from the same Book and Chapter * Antequam nafcimur maculamur contagio antequam usuram lucis originis ipsiut accipimus injuriam Before we be born we are stained with contagion before we enjoy the light we receive the injurie of our verie beginning Ambrose saith not We have sinne ere we have life but We are conceived in iniquity which is true and confest if we take conception largely so Ambrose taketh macula for such inclination to evill as is in the seed potentially maculative Concerning the place of Job First Job saith not The seed is unclean but Quis dabit mundum ex immundo Which may have reference to the person or the nature of the unclean father Secondly it may be a parallell with that of Job 25.4 How can he be clean that is born of awoman yea the starres are not pure in his sight vers 5. Lastly things may be said to be unclean that have no sinne Ask the unclean beasts and they will justifie it and the trees will send forth this truth as leaves Levit. 19.23 24. The fruit of the trees planted shall be as uncircumcised or unclean unto you three yeares it shall not be eaten of but in the fourth yeare it shall be holy to praise the Lord withall yet was not the fruit sinfull it self but quoadusum The place of S. Peter is answered by the same Apostle 1 Pet. 1.18 Silver and gold are things corruptible yet these creatures as creatures are good in themselves though they are causes of most sinnes yet have no sinne many other corruptible things as heaven earth are void of all sinne As concerning the place of the Apostle S. Paul I answer it is apparent he speaketh of flesh after the soul is united which is nothing to our Question and therefore a most impertinent proof of the Bishop Lastly the Reverend Bishop bringeth this objection against himself How could David say he was conceived in sinne when at the conception he had neither soul nor body His main answer is With God nothing is more frequent then to call those things that are not as though they were Rom. 4.17 and speaketh in Scriptures of things to come as if they were past or present David and Job call that seed which was prepared to be the matter of their bodies by the names of themselves because it could not be altered what God had appointed But the void conceptions of women which miscarry before the body be framed never had either life or soul and so neither name nor kinde but perish as other superfluous burdens and repletions of the body So he I reply that I may not question the worthy Bishop about the meaning of that place Rom. 4.17 He hath made a great stirre to little purpose since he maketh many conceptions void of finne or punishment like superfluous burdens and repletions of the body which none ever said to have sinned Secondly which is the better answer to the place of the Psalmist to say as the Bishop doth Conceptions which come to nothing are not sinfull but such as may have souls are sinfull before they have souls whereby he splitteth himself on this rock That a perfect conception susceptible of a soul and aborsed casually before the unition with the soul is sinfull and liable to account or to answer with me That sinne and iniquity in the place of the Psalmist is taken for the aptitude to sinne which is in the matter or els conception is taken in its latitude for our time in the mothers wombe and so true original sinne not to be in the body without a soul Aquine saith * Quum sola creatura rationalis sit susceptiva culpae ante infusionem animae rationalis proles concepta non est peccato obnoxia Aquin. part 3. Quaest 27. art 2. in corp art Sith none but the reasonable creature is susceptible of fault the childe conceived is not subject to sinne before the infusion of a reasonable soul Whitaker saith well * Carnem nihil concupiscere sine anima nec doctus nec doctus dubitat ut loquar cum Augustino Quid enim caro iâ—animis a trunco differt Whitak De Origin Peccato 3.1 That the flesh covets nothing without the soul neither the learned nor the unlearned doubts that I may speak with Augustine For what doth the inanimate flesh differ from a stock And I hope the Bishop will not say A block or a stock hath sinne Moreover after thousands of sinnes committed in the body and by and with the body yet the body separated from the soul hath no sinne is not sinfull much lesse is sinne and shall the seed in the wombe be called sinfull or sinne as Kemnitius or Luther calleth it before it is warmed with life or enlivened with a soul Lastly in our very Creed conception is used with libertie and
countrey if upon imposed crimes by an appellant the defendant shall yeeld or be overcome in battell b Vâ—imo supplicio punietur cum poena gravi vel graviori secundum criminis qualitatem cum exhaeredatione haeredum suorum omnium bonorum amissione He shall be put to death with a grievous or more grievous pain according to the qualitie of the crime with the disinheriting of his heirs and losse of all his goods Furthermore though he were slain yet the formality of the Common-law proceeding adjudgeth him to capitall punishment that thereby his posterity may suffer the grievous concomitancy of his deserved infamy saith that most learned M. Selden my most courteous and loving friend in his Duello or Single Combat pag. 30. 5. But let us come from the sword where things are cut out with more rigour if not crucltie unto matters Ecclesiasticall and so more civil and peaceable Did not S. Peter stand in stead of all the Apostles when Christ said to him Joh. 21.15 16. Feed my lambes Feed my sheep And again Feed my sheep vers 17. Likewise when Christ said to him Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keyes of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And when this promise to Peter was promised to the rest of the Apostles also Matth. 18.18 and when both these promises were fulfilled and accomplished as they were after Christs resurrection and not before and authoritie given and by a solemne ceremony exhibited by Christ not onely to S. Peter but to all and every of the Apostles saying Joh. 20.21 c. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sinnes ye retain they are retained Did not the Apostles represent the whole body of the Ministery unlesse you will fable that in the Apostles dayes they had more need of remission of sinnes then we have now or that Christ loveth not his Church now nor affordeth the like means of pardon and reconciliation as he did in those times But by the same deceitfulnesse of cavillation you may say as well that when Christ brake bread and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my body and gave the cup to them saying Drink ye all of it none but they might eat or drink the Supper of the Lord. But it is undeniable that when Christ said to his twelve Apostles Luk. 22.19 This is my body which is given for you Do this in remembrance of me he spake it to them as representours of the whole Priesthood onely who onely have power to consecrate the body and bloud of our Lord. Indeed Hierome saith c Quid facit Episcopus exceptâ Ordinatione quod Presbyter non facitâ— Epist 85. ad Euag. What doth a Bishop except Ordination which a Priest doth not as if the Apostles represented the Bishops in that point onley and the Centuriatours acknowledge that the first Bishops after the Apostles were made Bishops by the Apostles and they say no more then is confirmed 1. Timothy 5.22 and Titus 1.5 Act. 20.28 But other Fathers extend the comparison between the Apostles and Bishops to other matters appropriating to the Bishops above the Presbyters the power of Confirmation and divers other things All which though we grant yet no man will deny but for preaching baptizing and especially for consecrating of the Eucharist and Sacerdotall Absolution or Ministeriall Remission of sinnes the Apostles represented not the people in any wise nor the Bishops onely but the universall body of Christs Ministers And do not among us the Right Reverend Arch-bishops and Bishops and the Clergy assembled in the Convocation represent the whole Church of England are not they our Nationall Councel do not their Articles of Religion binde in conscience all and every one of the Church of England as much if not more then Civill laws Nor is there the like humane authority on earth for the setling of our consciences in matters of Scripture or Scriptures controverted or to be controverted as the externall publick breathing voice of a true Oecumenical Councel of the Patriarchs Bishops and choice Divines of the Christian world The essentiall universall Church of Christ is and we must beleeve it is the house of God the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth 1. Tim. 3.15 It never erred it cannot erre its iudgement is infallible The Spirit leadeth this Church into all truth Joh. 16.13 Of the Church of God consisting of the faithfull in any one age or time I dare say it never did erre damnably or persisted in smaller errours obstinately but alwayes some truly maintained things necessary to salvation and unto this fluctuant militant part of the Church Christ hath promised to be with it to the end of the world Matt. 28.20 The whole visible Church at no time can fall into heresie but some seek after the truth and embrace it and professe it Subject it is to nesciency of some things and perhaps to some kinde of ignorance but it cannot erre in things necessary nor in lesse matters schismatically with obdurate pertinacy Of the representative Church of Christ in Councels this may be said truly and safely viz. Of the first six Generall Oecumenicall Councels not one de facto erred in any definition of matters of faith Of other lawfull general Councels that may hereafter be called though I will not deny but they may possibly be deceived as they are men and therefore are not free from errability but if such Councels may erre or pronounce amisse cannot coblers yet there is least likelihood of their erring Such Oecumenical Councels have the supremest publick externall definitive judgement in matters of Religion if any oppose them they may not onely silence them but censure them with great censures and reduce them into order Private spirits must sit down and rest in their determinations else do the Councels lose operam oleum What S. Ambrose Epist 32. said of one general Councell d Sequor tractatum Niceni Concilii à quo me 〈◊〉 mors nec gladius 〈◊〉 separare I follow the decision of the Nicene Councel from which neither death nor sword shall be able to separate me I say of all true and generall Councels and of the major part of them who binde the rest without which issue the gathering of Councels yea and of Parliaments also would be ridiculous For though it were a true and just complaint of Andreas Duditius Quinquecclesiensis Episcopus That in the Conventicle of Trent the voices were rather numbred then well weighed yet he doth not he cannot finde fault with that course in a just and lawfull Generall Councel but directeth his complaint against the tyrannicall power of the Pope
Charles the fifth his Edicts n Nè quis de Sacra Scriptura maximè de rebus dubiis difficilibus privatim aut publicè disputet aut ejus interpretationem sibi sumat nisi sit Theologus qui probatae alicujus Academiae testimonium habeat Let no man take upon him to dispute publickly or privately of the sacred Scripture especially of doubtfull and hard points or to interpret it except he be a Divine that hath the testimonie of some approved Vniversitie It was an holy Edict breeding reverence to the sacred word of God and I could wish it were in practise with us though I must needs confesse the breach of the edict was too severely punished for the men were to be beheaded and the women to be buried alive though they desisted from their errour but if they were obstinate they were to be burned and their goods confiscated Yet the rebellions of the Anabaptists in Germanie may be some cloke for that cruell sentence which rebellions also forsooth were moved by the Spirit of God if for example sake you wil give credit to Thom. Muncer his oration unto the armed rebellious clowns o Constat nobis auspicatum esse me hanc actionem non meâ quadam autoritate privatâ sed jussu divino We are sure saith he that I began not this action by any private authoritie of mine but by a divine injunction c. And again p Videbitis ipsi manifestum Dei auxilium Ye your selves shall see the manifest help of God And he had Scripture to confirm it Scripture in word not in sense Scripture misapplied things falling out contrary to his propheticall Spirit for they were overcome and he beheaded Likewise Sleiden Comment 30. fol. 28. saith of the Anabaptists q Cum Deo colloquium sibi esse mandatum se habere aiebant ut impiis omnibus interfectis novum constituerent mundum in quo pii solùm innocentes viverent They said they had conference with God and a mandate from him to kill all the wicked and then to frame a new world wherein none but the godly and innocent should live This I will say of mine own knowledge that when that man of happy memory the late right Reverend now most blessed Saint Arthur Lake Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells appointed Doctour Sclater now also a Saint of heaven then my most learned loving friend and sometime fellow-Collegian in the two royall Colledges at Eaton and Cambridge with my self to conferre with an Anabaptisticall woman we heard her determine great depths of Divinitie as confidently as ever S. Paul did though he was taught by Christ himself and as nimbly as ever an ape crackt nuts yet so ignorantly and with such non-sense that we both wondred at her incredible boldnesse The Revelation she had at her fingers ends she thought that she understood it better then S. John himself and defined in a few houres conference more depths of Divinitie then six Generall Councels would in a long time Mysteries were no mysteries to her if an Angel of earth or one from heaven instruct her contrary to her frantick prepossest imagination she would conclude Because the Spirit bloweth where it listeth that the Spirit instructed her in the right way A fit consequence for such a pseudo-prophetissa 7. But what do I speak of her self-conceit when of late an other of her sex hath printed a book of her phantasticall crudities and by English anagrams expoundeth Scripture A new kinde of interpretation never thought of fit for a woman to be the inventour of She teacheth Daniel to reveal himself after a new fashion and such things which were he alive and racked he must say he never thought of She thinks she untieth knots and gives light to prophesies but indeed misapplieth things past and perhaps future contingents to present times and while she gathereth many excellent strains of words and sentences out of the divine Writ in coupling them together she maketh such a roaring hotch-potch as if she had vowed to write full-mouthed non-sense in loftie terms others not knowing nor perhaps herself what she aimeth at Take a taste of her anagrams DANIEL I END AL. Yet did not he end all prophesies nor all things MEDES AND PERSIANS SEND MEE SPANIARDS What would she do with them It was feared that they would have come too soon for her and others too THE ROUGH GOATE THE GOTH ROAGUE Like you this you shall have more as bad as void of wit PRINCE OF PERSIA I CAN POPE FRIERS If Friers should come and prevail they would teach her to be more humble DARIUS THE MED I DREAMED THUS Awake dreamer no sense is in thy dreams much lesse religion Was ever Scripture made such a nose of wax did ever any religious heart think such could be the meaning of those words Let me but touch at her obscene exposition of the end of Christs Circumcision pag. 5 and consider her fanaticall imagination that the Spirit of God by Michael understood King James pag. 50 And the warre in heaven with Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his Angels is thus expounded by her pag. 55. The fray is fought by seconds by Michael is meant King James the Dragon is the Pope whom Michael overcame by the bloud of the Lambe and by the testimonie of so many Bishops and other faithfull crowned with the glory of Martyrdome whereas King James had never a Bishop so crowned and never a Bishop was so crowned since he was born Holy peaceable and harmlesse King James who would scarce hurt a worm is now interpreted to be the greatest fighter among the celestiall host I could wish she would repent for her blasphemy pag. 70 where she writeth That the person of the sonne of God not made was turned into a lump of clay and for her pointing out the day of judgement For though she confesseth pag. 90 Of the day houre no man knoweth no not the Angels that are in heaven nor the Sonne but the Father yet she addeth The account of this book of note is by centuries of yeares Suppose it were so as it is not could not Christ and his Angels know the day by the computation of centuries as well as she but she by a new account hath found out as she imagineth what Christ and the good Angels were ignorant of namely the exact day of doom For thus she determineth pag. 100 There is nineteen yeares and a half to the day of judgement July the twenty eighth one thousand six hundred twenty five Had not this woman been better never to have seen Scripture then thus to profane it and take Gods word in vain You think you have the Spirit of God as you write in the last page but I am sure if you repent not betimes for your wire-drawing of Gods word and intruding into hidden and unsearchable depths of Divinitie you are in a desperate case and all the Separatists and Enthusiasts of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here whereas in the place of Exodus it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also in the Septuagint the first place is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Leviticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well be expounded one manner of pleading their causes as there was one law This I am sure of the verb is so used Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill he plead my cause Why may not then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the pleading of ones cause And why may not the meaning of our Apostle be That as Adam was ostium mortis The doore of death so Christ is clavis resurrectionis The key of the resurrection as Tertullian sweetly calleth him And as by Adam all and every one was guilty of death and damnation so by Christs merit every one shall arise to free himself from it if he can and to plead wherefore he should not be condemned to defend himself and answer for himself as Paul did Acts 26.2 to apologize And herein Adam and Christ to be like That as every one was made guilty by one of condemnation so every one for Christs all-sufficient condignity shall be permitted yea enabled to speak for himself why the sentence shall not be executed But these things I leave to the Professours of the Greek tongue and suo quisque judicio abundet So much for the second exposition of the words and for the similitudes and dissimilitudes between Adam and Christ from which resulteth That Adam representing us did not so much hurt us as Christ representing us did do good unto us And therefore since we are acquitted from sinne from all sinnes originall and actuall since we are acquitted from eternall death and have grace and abundance of grace and the gift of righteousnesse and shall have life eternall and shall reigne in life by ones obedience by one onely Jesus Christ who in his life and on the altar of the crosse merited all these things for us it is no hard measure no iniquity of God if for Adams sinne and disobedience when he sustained our persons both himself and his posterity in his loyns implicitly consenting with him be appointed to die And thus much shall suffice for the first generall Question upon the words of the Text. The second followeth Drusius towards the end of his Preface before his book called Enoch thus * Haec alia quae hoc libro continentur ut in aliis omnibus à me unquam editis aut edendis subjicio libens Ecclesiae Catholicae judicio à cujus recto sensu si dissentio non er◠pertinax These and other things which are contained in this book as also in all other books which have been or shall be set forth by me I willingly submit to the censure of the Catholick Church from whose right judgement if I dissent I will not be pertinacious O Deity incomprehensible and Trinity in Unity in all respects superexcellent and most admirable with all the faculties of my soul and body I humbly beg of thee to shew thy mercy upon me for Jesus Christ his sake and O blessed Redeemer accept my prayer and present it with favour to the throne of grace where thou canst not be denied If thou O gracious Jesu art not able to help me and to save my sinfull soul let me die comfortlesse and let my soul perish but since thy power is infinite I beseech thee to make me one of those whom thou bringest to more happinesse then all our enemies could bring to miserie Heare me for thy tender mercies sake and for thy glorious name O great Mediatour Jesu Christ AMEN AMEN MISCELLANIES OF DIVINITIE THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THe question propounded and explained 2. Armenius or rather his sonne Zoroaster dead and revived 3. Antillus dead and living again because the messenger of death mistook him in stead of Nicandas Nicandas died in his stead 4. A carelesse Christian died and recovered life lived an Anchorite twelve yeares died religiously SECT 1. THe second Question which from the words of my Text I propounded is this Whether such as have been raised from the dead did die the second time yea or no because it is said It is appointed for men once to die I speak not of those who have been thought to be dead and have been stretch't out and yet their soul hath been within them though divers for divers daies and upon severall sicknesses have had neither heat nor breathing discernable but onely of such who have suffered a true separation of their souls from their bodies Whether these have again delivered up the ghost and died I make my question 2. Before I come to mention those whom the Scripture recordeth to be truly raised I hold it not amisse to propound to your view a few stories out of other authours Theodoret lib. 10. de fine judicio hath two strange relations The first is out of Plato of one Armenius but Clemens Alexandrinus Stromat 5. relateth from Zoroaster himself that it was Zoroaster the sonne of Armenius He who onely of all the world laughed so soon as he was born saith Plin. 7.16 and was so famous a Magician One of these two either father or sonne the twelfth day after he and others fell in the battell and was to be buried ante pyram constitutus revixit and being come to himself told what he had seen apud inferos namely that his soul being divided from his bodie came with many others who died with him to an admirable and incredible place in which there were two gulfs opes or ruptures of the earth and two open places of heaven right over them In the midst of these hiatus or gulfs judges did fit who when judgement was ended bade the just souls ascend by the heavenly opennes and gaps the judges sowing on their breasts the notes of their judgement But the souls of the wicked men were commanded to go on the left hand and to be hurried to hell carrying with them on their backs the memoriall of their passed life But as for himself being now come in fight the judges bade him diligently heare and see all things and tell all those things which were done when he revived These are sayings worthy of Philosophy saith Theodoret. 3 A second storie is cited in the same place by Theodoret from Plutarch among those things which he wrote De anima Sositiles Heracleon and I saith Plutarch were present when Antillus told us this of himself The Physicians thought Antillus to be dead but he came to himself as one out of a deep sleep and neither said nor did any other thing * Quod emetae mentis signum possit censeri which might argue him to be crazy or light-headed but he told us that he was dead and that he was again revived and that his death upon that sicknesse
and finde fault with him 2. Esdr 7.48 O thou Adam what hast thou done for though it was thou that sinned thou art not fallen alone but we all that come of thee And a little before namely verse 46. This is my first and last saying that it had been better not to have given the earth unto Adam or else when it was given him to have restrained him from sinning Mark also the Antithesis used Ecclesiasticus 49.16 Sem and Seth were in great honour among men and so was Adam above every living thing in the creation where he remarkably extolleth Sem and Seth but praiseth Adams excellencie onely at the creation And so Vatablus expounds it Howsoever after his fall he was not so highly esteemed as others were No more did the multitude shew any extraordinary estimate of Noah though as Adam was the fruitfull root the protoplast so Noah was the restorer of mankinde under God For these were the founders as well of Gentiles as Jews But Abraham and the Patriarchs and the Prophets since them they reverenced above measure for the extraordinary blessings vouchsafed by God unto the Jews above the Gentiles for their sakes and in them and by them Now to such indeed their posteritie builded tombes Matth. 23.30 though their fathers had killed some of them To the second part of the objection Why they did suffer malefactours to be there punished I answer that it is a doubt undecided whether the ordinary delinquents were put to death on mount Calvarie before the Romanes overcame the Jews If not then patience perforce they could not remedie it if the other appointed it If so yet the Jews might be ignorant of Adams sepulchre and how could they grace and beautifie his tombe when they knew not where he lay Again what if I say That like as Gods eternall decree and determinate counsel being that Christ should die for our sinnes the Jews and Gentiles Priests Scribes and Pharisees yea the devils themselves were for a while and a time blinded that they knew not or would not know Christ to be the Messiah though they had more evident miraculous proofs of his working then could be of a buriall-place so long fore-passed as Adams was but put him to death Act. 2.23 and chap. 3.17 So Gods eternall decree that Christ should be crucified in the execution-place of malefactours and in the place of Adams sepulchre being perhaps to this end to manifest that Christs bloud did wash and purge sinne originall sinne actuall Adam and notorious offenders with all and all manner of persons and all and all kinde of sinnes the people were also blinded that either they did not know or not respect the place of Adams buriall especially since God often casts in their teeth Adams disobedience and compared their sinnes to his They like Adam have transgressed the covenant Hos 6.7 Where Drusius preferreth this reading with us with Hierom with Pagnine and with Rabbi Solomon the ordinarie Interpreter of the Hebrews before the reading of Junius and Tremellius and the Genevans And Jerem. 32.19 Gods eyes were open to all the wayes of the sonnes of Adam Which is also confirmed Isa 43.27 2. Esdr 7.11 Thus much in love of truth against all opposites with Pineda for the common opinion of the Fathers that Adam was buried on Golgotha I adde that if any of the Patriarchs arose bodily Adam was one For upon other reasons hereafter to be shewen I dare not be so assertive as the Liturgies of divers Churches and as divers Fathers who are expresse that Adam was raised from his grave See them cited by the learned James Usher Bishop of Meath in his answer to a challenge made by a Jesuit pag. 324. which is the next point to be handled O Light inaccessible O Ancient of dayes O Fulnesse of knowledge govern me walking in the paths of darknes in things of old in ambiguities and uncertainties of opinion and keep me from singularitie of self-presuming that I may keep the unitie of truth in the bond of peace through him who is both our Truth and our Peace even Jesus Christ the Righteous Amen CHAP. VII 1. Though Adam was buried on Calvarie as Pineda saith yet his proofs are weak that Adam was raised with Christ and went bodily into heaven with him The cited place of Athanasius proveth onely Adams buriall there Origen in the place cited is against Pineda Augustine is palpably falsified 2. Adams skull shewed lately at Jerusalem 3. Dionysius Carthusianus saith Eve then arose His opinion is without proof 4. Nor Abraham then arose 5. Nor Isaac then arose whatsoever Pineda affirmeth 1. BUt the second part of Pineda his opinion on Job the 19.25 I cannot like though he laboureth to prove it partly by authoritie partly by reason That those many who arose about the time of Christs Passion ascended bodily into heaven with him As Authours he citeth Athanasius in his Sermon on the Passion and the Crosse Origen c. That Adam was buried on Golgotha Athanasius saith but that Adam arose not long after Christs resurrection I cannot finde in him or cited by any other out of him As for Origen his second Authour in the same Tractate cited by Pineda he maketh directly against him for he maintaineth from Tradition that the first Adam was buried where Christ was crucified that as in Adam all die so in Christ all should be made alive that in the place of a skull the head of mankinde namely Adam Resurrectionem inveniat cum populo universo Should partake of the generall resurrection by the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour who there suffered and rose again But the last and best Authour the divine S. Augustine is palpably and apparently falsified for he hath no such word in the quoted place Lastly the reason that Pineda alledgeth is shallow That Adam who heard the sentence of death should presently be partaker of the resurrection by him and with him who had satisfied for the sinne What likelihood is there of inference or coherence I dare say not one of the Fathers cited at large by Baronius Salianus and Maldonate to prove that Adam was buried in Golgotha do give the least touch at this reason of Pineda but many other ends of Adams being there buried do they muster up 2. And the Jesuite Pineda either knew it not or forgot it or sleeked it over as little imagining we should have notice that the cheating priests who kept the sepulchre and the Church built over it at Jerusalem did shew to the devout Christians a skull which they said was the skull of Adam of which they said also the mountain was called Golgotha as saith the eye and eare-witnesse Mr. Fines Morison in his first part 3. book 2. chap. pag. 230. and pag. 233. Thus according to them Adam either arose not hitherto or arose without a head at least without his skull or with an other mans head which three latter wayes destroy the truth of the resurrection
of Act. 7.16 propounded Two answers disliked The original is not corrupt 5. Beza taxed for imputing corruption to the original on Mat. 13.35 and on Luk 22.20 and on Matth. 27.9 All these places defended and the sacred Majestie of Scripture vindicated from criticisme Many good answers to Matth. 27.9 Erasmus faulty with Beza 6. S. Augustine and Cyrill against them 7. Masius and Junius prefer the Arabick and Syriack before the Greek Junius recanteth A little errour may perhaps be ascribed to the Transcribers A generall errour in Greek and Latine may not be admitted in all copies of Scriptures 1. JAcob then also arose saith Pineda in the same place since he had a great care of translating his bones out of Egypt into the land of Canaan Genes 49.29 By the same reason the Jesuit might have argued that Joseph then also arose for he had the like care of his bones Genes 50.25 yea a greater care for he took a strict oath Exod. 13.19 of the children of Israel for the performance of his desire whereas Jacob put Joseph onely to the oath and concerning the rest of his children it was but a fatherly command Yet Pineda skippeth over Joseph who was a lively parable and figure of Christ in most things as being the best beloved of his father as being sent to look to his brethren as hated of them and sold by them and put into the pit as thrust into the dungeon as being innocent and falsly accused as being taken out of the pit Genes 37.28 and out of the dungeon Genes 41.14 as raised and raised to be next to Pharaoh himself as being worshipped by his brethren as having the double portion of the first-born as a mediatour for his brethren and a preserver of them in the time of need 2. But the truth is neither Jacob nor Joseph ever desired the removal of their bones in that regard which Pineda aimeth at and never any that I could reade but he and the Authour of the scholasticall historie Quaest 100 in Genes averre so much it being against reason for then the Patriarchs would have caused their bones to have been translated to Jerusalem being the right way from Hebron to Calvarie or to mount Calvarie itself But Jacob was buried by Hebron thirtie miles or thereabout from Golgotha and Joseph was buried in the Tribe of Ephraim and not of Judah Now as they were to passe from the land of Goshen to Sychem they must passe not farre from Hebron and from thence neare to Jerusalem and leaving Jerusalem and mount Calvarie but a little the way was to Sychem in the Tribe of Ephraim Therefore if they desired to be translated in hope of such a resurrection with Christ as Pineda wildely imagineth they would never have carried their bones close by mount Calvarie and so beyond it but there would have deposited them nor would have transported them to Sychem which was about as farre beyond the sepulchre of the first and second Adam as Hebron the buriall-place of Abraham Isaac and Jacob was short of mount Calvarie Their aim was to be buried in the land of Canaan as the land of promise as the figure of heaven as the ground which their Fathers bought and payd for and were interred in I will lie with my Fathers and thou shalt carrie me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying-burying-place saith Jacob Genes 47.30 and bury me with my Fathers Genes 49.29 saith the same Jacob. Besides if with reference to Christ his resurrection and in hope to be then and there raised by him and with him they removed their bones into Canaan it was to be neare to Christs rising-place and to save part of the long journey from Goshen to Golgotha But this can be no reason for Job arose saith Pineda but he was buried in the land of Hus in Arabia not neare unto Calvarie though not so farre indeed as Goshen And Moses died in the wildernesse and Daniel in the captivitie of Babylon which was farther off then the land of Goshen from Christs sepulchre by almost five hundred miles and yet Daniel and Moses arose also saith Pineda And Noah died hard by mount Ararat in Armenia 600 miles North-ward from Jerusalem or thereabout yet Noah also arose saith Pineda Now why could not Jacob and Joseph be raised and come a shorter way from Goshen to Jerusalem then Daniel or Noah could a longer way And to beat Pineda with his own words a Nunquid lassitudine viae deterrerentur fatigarentur qui immortali vitâ potiebantur ut venire ex regione longin qua opportunè non possent Were they terrified or wearied with the tediousnesse of the way who enjoyed an immortall life that they could not come fitly from so remote a region Or can they be truelier said to come into a place into the holy citie that come from neare then they that come from farre This Pineda alledgeth to prove that the graves of Saints opened afarre off as well as at Jerusalem Therefore say I What need they care to have their bones brought neare to Golgotha to that end and purpose 3 Concerning Joseph he was first buried on an high ground upon a little branch of Nilus in a citie now called EL-FIUM saith John Leo upon report in his eighth book of the historie of Africa and Moses digged up his bones Secondly it is said expresly Josh 24.32 the children of Israel buried his bones in Sychem in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sonnes of Hemor the father of Sychem for an hundred pieces of silver and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph On which place Masius inquiring why holy men should so earnestly contend to be buried in Canaan answereth himself b Vt apud sucrum popularium animos fidem promissis Dei firmarent qualem nè mors quidem cripere potuisset To confirm their countrie-mens mindes by the promises of God with such a faith as death should not take away Whereunto I adde the place of the Apostle Heb. 11.22 By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones making the removing of his bones and the memoriall thereof a divine prognostick that they should come forth of the Egyptian captivitie or slaverie and enjoy the land promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob of which their bones and their wives bones before-hand did and Joseph his bones should take seizen and possession Kimki saith and Masius likes it that Jacob gave to Joseph that place of buriall because he being as it were the Parent Monitour and Guide of his brethren should be wholly alienated from Egyptian affairs to think of the land of promise And since Masius taxeth the Jews for thinking that they who were buried in Canaan should first arise he would have laughed at Pineda if he had read in him that a Patriarch caused his bones to be translated in hope to be raised within a
while of Christs resurrection c Solenne autem fuit priscis illis Patribus ut quisque in suam inferreretur possessionem Each of those Fathers were solemnly brought into their own possession saith the same Masius which is thus confirmed because Abraham did bury Sara in his own possession Genes 23.19 20. Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham in the field which Abraham purchased of the sonnes of Heth Genes 25.9 10. And to summe up the rest In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah the purchased cave and field which is before Mambre was buried Abraham and Sara Isaac and Rebeka Jacob and Lea Genes 49.30 31. The distance of which cave or field from Calvarie I gathered before from Adrichomius to be 250 Stadia which upon allowance of eight Stadia to one Mile amounteth to one and thirty miles and a quarter from which account S. Augustine differeth but little considering the various reckoning of miles with the diverse measurings of beginnings and endings for Augustine Quaest sup Genes lib. 1. quaest 161. thus reporteth d Dicunt ab eo loco quod ABRAHEMIUM vocatur ubi sunt ista corpora abesse locum ubi crucifixus est Dominus ferè triginta milliaribus From the place called Abrahemium or Abrahams church-yard where are these bodies namely of Abraham and Sara Isaac and Rebeka Jacob and Leah to the place where our Lord was crucified there is almost thirty miles distance Now as the sepulchre of the three Patriarchs was thus farre from Jerusalem South-west-ward so Sychem where Joseph his bones were buried was farther from Jerusalem toward the North. 4 One difficultie more there is and a great one I may not passe it for the length will be recompensed by the sweetnesse Acts 7.15 16. Jacob and our fathers died and were carried over unto Sychem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of money of the sonnes of Emor the father of Sychem Which passage seemeth to contradict what out of other parts of Scripture I proved concerning the Patriarchs sepulchre That this is a knot hard to be untied all confesse S. Hierom promised in his 101 Epist to clear it saith Lorinus And in his Questions on Genes saith Beza but he hath not performed his promise say both of them on Acts 7. Nodum nectit Hieronimus nec eum dissolvit saith Erasmus And I onely propound it saith he that the studious reader may be stirred up to discusse it But this is a shallow slurre unfit for so great a Critick for many had done so much before and more then so I come to the point That there are invented many wayes and means of answering cannot be denied but some are vast and improbable some more fair and expedite The absurd answers are two The first That the Originall is there corrupt and that for Abraham Jacob is to be written and read I say not meant expounded or interpreted but exchanged and intruded into the Text and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be expunged as needlesse it being with equall ignorance and boldnesse added by one or other saith Andrew Masius on Josh 24.32 With Masius agreeth Beza in this that the name of Abraham is crept into the Text adding that the erring in notes of number or proper names must not be ascribed to the Authours but to the ignorant transcribers But I say that the erring in a proper name or notes of number may breed as great and unsufferable confusion unlikelihood inconvenience yea untruth as the errour in any other common word And why the errours in proper names should be ascribed to ignorant transcribers rather then errours in other words or that the holy Spirit doth priviledge other words and not proper names or numbers from being mistaken misplaced misadded or superadded in the Text I see not Aretius bluntly blundereth it out that you must understand Jacob for Abraham yet by what example or for what reason he mentioneth not but stumbleth on a truth of which hereafter Drusius Praeterit lib. 5. on the words Quod emit Abraham hath yet some shew of reason It seemeth saith he it was sometimes written EMIT IPSE that is JACOB into whose place the name of ABRAHAM is crept 5. Beza defends it by two parallels the first out of Hierom who in his book de optimo genere interpretandi ad Pammachium noteth that the name of Isaiah was crept into many copies on Matth. 13.35 that afterward the name of Asaph was substituted for Isaiah and now neither of them is there read I answer to the misapplied instances of Beza that I cannot abide to hunt after errours in the Scripture and to cast aspersions on it To question the corruption of the Canon to passe our judgements whether the square or rule be right or crooked to put into the Text or to take from it as some Philologizing Neotericks endeavour in their super-nice criticisme is to tear up the very foundation of religion Whilest other answers may be found though but probable I should not have such a thought as Beza had on Luk. 24.13 where he acknowledgeth both the Syriack and all our Copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sexaginta Threescore and the exact truth is accordant to that reading for Emaus is seven miles from Jerusalem as Mr Sands who rode from Jerusalem to Emaus witnesseth pag. 174. and threescore Stadia allowing eight Stadia to a mile make seven miles and an half which halfe-mile upon diversitie of measures or the beginning of measuring or ends thereof maketh small difference Yet Beza saith Aut hîc peccatum est in numero aut apud Josephum de Bello Judaico 7.27 non rectè scribuntur stadia triginta The more favourable phrase should have been by Beza ascribed rather to the Scripture then to Josephus Or can we think that all Copies do erre He maketh us fight upon the ice and to have no firm footing Why should he use the first part of the disjunction when he might better distinguish and so reconcile all Likewise Beza on Luke 22.20 confessing the uniformitie of reading both in the Syriack and all the Greek Copies which he had seen yet addeth boldly Aut manifestum est soloecophanes aut potiùs cùm haec essent ad marginem annotata ex Matthaeo Marco postea in Contextum irrepserunt Now though he would sleek it over afterwards saying Potest excusari soloecismus c. yet the wound which he gave to the Word of Truth is too deep to be so healed and the very plaister is offensive for he committed a soloecisme who looking on the earth cried out O Coelum and casting his eyes up to heaven cried O Terra Had the Reverend Beza no handsomer word for his plaister might he not have defended it by the Hebrew Idiotisme without calling it a Soloecisme Soloecophanes might have well been spared but Soloecismus is not to be endured Much more might be said but I dwell unwillingly on this point and return
in expectancie of Christ the Lord and on every occasion with reference to him MARAN Our Lord He will come he cometh MARAN MARAN But after Christ was born indeed and God took on him our nature and many Jews beleeved whensoever the unbeleeving brethren still cried their old MARAN as if the Messiah were not come the beleevers answered ATHA to their MARAN MARAN-ATHA Our Lord is come which because the other would not beleeve they were called Marani and Maranitae from their iterated Maran and rejecting of Maran-atha Baronius in fine Anni 775. reporteth from Mariana in his Spanish storie 7.6 That a gift was given to a Monasterie and the violatour of that donation jubetur esse Anathema Marrano Excommunicatus Where the word is not taken as some suspect à Mauris from the Moors because most of them in Italie renounced their Christianitie in the dayes of Frederick Enobarbus for he reigned 360 yeares and more after that gift but rather it is to be borrowed from the Syriack MARAN-ATHA saith Mariana commended by Baronius The consideration of which curse and excommunication strikes horrour to my soul in compassion of those who have raised their houses out of the ruines of things sacred with such dreadfull imprecations and feed themselves fat with revenews properly belonging to the Altar If man had not cursed such sacrilegious infringers God would but Founders have blasted them with lightning and thunder from heaven What saith King Stephen in confirmation of his gift to the Priorie of Eye in Suffolk cited by M. Selden in his Historie of Tithes cap. 11. pag. 350 l Quicunque aliquid de his quae in hac charta continentur auferre aut minuere aut disturbare scienter voluerit autoritate Domini Omnipetentis Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti sanctorum Apostolorum omnium Sanctorum sit excommunicatus anathematizatus à consortio Domini liminibus Sanctae Ecclesiae sequestratus donec resipiscat Whosoever shall willingly and wittingly take away diminish or disturb any one of all these things which are contained in this Charter By the authoritie of God Omnipotent the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and of all the Apostles and Saints let him be excommunicated and anathematized and sequestred from the companie of the Lord and not be admitted into the Church till he repent By which words he intended to terrifie succession and to keep them from sacriledge Let the world know that there are many and as it falleth out now too many such direfull execrations annexed by holy Benefactours to eternize their gifts And as that good King said of himself That he was m Volens partem habere cum iis qui felici commercio coelestia pro terrenis commutant Willing to partake with them who by an happie commerce exchange earth for heaven So I fear that the sacrilegious Usurpers have indeed exchanged Heaven for Mammon and I pray to God that such devout and deliberate maledictions hang not over their posteritie to this day nor may extend beyond the first Atheisticall cormorants The same M. Selden in his book called Marmora Arundelliana pag. 65. mentioneth a Christian inscription which as he conjectureth both prayed to the most holy Mother of God for such as were Benefactours to a Monasterie and cursed them who did it any damage with the imprecations of divers holy men wishing that whosoever did so might in the day of judgement have against him for an adversarie the same most holy Mother of God These things I have related out of that most learned Antiquarie my worthy friend M. Selden rather then the like out of other Authours because I would not have either Clergie or Laitie conceit of him as full many do that he intended as great a devastation to our tithes consecrated by God and to God by a double Jus divinum as ever the Black-smiths sonne brought upon Religious houses or that he was the instrument of ungracious Politicians or his book the trumpet to animate the armies of the destroyers against the pitifull poore remnants of our Church not enough forsooth as yet reformed that is not enough beggarly though some poison in that book hath already wrought so piercingly upon us that our hair is fallen from our heads and our nails from our fingers as needing no more paring and in the cases of our tithes we are shaved and cut worse then the messengers of peace 2. Sam. 10.4 Yet saith M. Selden himself in his Review pag. 471. The many execrations annexed to the deeds of conveyance of them and poured forth against such as should divert them to profane uses should be also thought on Not onely thought on say I but trembled at till the houre of restitution And let them remember also who saith That it is a destruction for a man to devoure what is consecrated Prov. 20.25 which destruction is damnation not cared for by our devouring Esaus if they may fill their bellies with our hallowed morsels as appeared in those whirl-winde-dayes of Henrie the eighth and would have appeared since if God had not ruled the heart of religious King James of most happie memorie and of our sacred Soveraigne to whom we of the Clergie do more especially pray God to send all happinesse equall to his desires on earth and a more glorious estate among blessed Saints then he hath now among men to keep the commandments of their and our God above any worldly benefit I must return back to Maran-atha whose composition is thus as Martyr opineth The first part of it is the Noun MARA the second is an affix of the possessive Pronoun of the first person with the number of multitude making MARA to be MARAN the third particle and the close is the Verb ATHA venit Moreover concerning the tense of the Verb there is question Chrysostom Theodoret Theophylact reade it in tempore praeterito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Lord is come with whom agree Hierom and Estius others will have it to be the present tense speaking as if he did come presently because he shall come certainly and because none can say he shall not come at this present This tense Cornelius à Lapide approveth on this consideration because the Jews condemning any were wont to do so under the commination and contestation of the instant divine judgement as Psal 9.19 Arise O Lord let the heathen be judged in thy sight or rather saith Lapide it may be in the Optative MARAN-ATHA Veniat Dominus howsoever he is peremptorie that it is a cold exposition which applieth the words to the Preterperfect tense and the meaning to the first coming of Christ Let me adde that whether the word be read in the Present tense in the Indicative or in the Optative mood Venit or veniat He cometh or let him come it pointeth not at the past but at the future coming of Christ Yea Jude 14. where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used our Translation hath it
Vpon just occasions and newly emergent occurrences the Spirit of God inspired them to write who otherwise would not have written I will say they wrote casually for casualtie in this notion presupposeth things done upon reason and who dareth say that God did ever any thing without good ground or reason saith the divine S. Augustine They wrote fortuitò say the Papists non fortuitò saith Vorstius Cleare the terms by the former distinction and the question is ended No part of Jeremie is in Chaldee but one verse onely and upon what occasion was that The Chaldee Paraphrast thus relateth it saith Vatablus Jeremie wrote to the Elders in the Captivitie If the Chaldean people did say House of Israel worship idols the Israelites should answer The idols which ye worship are idols indeed in which is no profit they cannot draw forth rain from heaven or fruit out of the earth Let them and their worshippers perish from the earth and be destroyed from under heaven And to that effect speak Lyra and Rabbi Solomon but the words of God by the Prophet are thus to be rendered Jer. 10.11 Thus ye shall say unto them May the gods or Let the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth perish from the earth and from under these heavens PEREANT so the Vulgat Vatablus the Interlinearie and translated Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint And this doth somewhat ammuse me why our last English Translation with others embrace the Future tense reading They shall perish when the words are a present execration of past present and future idols I come to the point If the Jews had said the effect of these words in Hebrew the Chaldeans could not have understood it nor had it been written in Chaldee if the Chaldeans had had no intercourse with the Jews and in this sense that verse was written casually As Ananias and Sapphira their with-holding of things consecrated ministred occasion to the holy Spirit both to impart the knowledge of their sacriledge to S. Peter and to inspire into him that particular prophesie Act. 5.9 which S. Peter otherwise had never spoken So if Onesimus had not been a bad servant and after converted S. Paul had not written that Epistle to Philemon at least not the greatest part of it Chemnitius in Examine part 1. declareth at large Quâ occasione propter quam causam in quem usum primùm Scriptura tradita sit à Deo And he speaketh of the Old Testament Concerning the New Testament neither Christ nor any of his Apostles wrote any thing for many yeares nor did any one Evangelist or Apostle singly write till the Church was pestered with Schismaticks Who troubled them with words subverting their souls Act. 15.24 To remedie which discord a Councel was gathered at Jerusalem of the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church and they wrote Letters or an Epistle to the brethren And a Acts 15.28 Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us was the forefront of their main decree And this was the beginning of writing of any part of the New Testament saith Chemnitius in his Examen of the Councel of Trent part 1. pag. 32. though others dissent from him I will onely say If that schisme had not been that Councel had not been gathered that Epistle had not been written Briefly thus Eusebius in the second and third book of his historie specializeth the causes and grounds why each of the foure Evangelists did write which is exemplified by Chemnitius in the place before cited even to satietie whilest he at large describeth the occasions and inducements or reasons why all and every book of the New Testament was written Thus the conclusion being firm That the word of God was written casually that is the sacred Pen-men were inspired to write all of it upon just motives and fair occurrences and yet not casually if we take the word in sensu profano usu forensi I proceed to the third Question Whether they were commanded to write They who reade the Scripture may think this question idle and impertinent but who hath been conversant in the thornie paths of controversies shall finde much opposition by our adversaries Bellarmine de Verbo Dei non scripto 4.3 saith thus b Falsum est Dâ—um mandâsse Apostolis ut scriberent Legimus mandatum ut praedicarent ut scriberent nunquam legimus Deus nec mandavit expreseè ut scriberent nec ut non scriberent It is false that God commanded the Apostles to write We have read they were commanded to preach Matth. 28.19 we have not read that they were commanded to write God did not command expressely either that they should write or not write To the place alledged by Bellarmine I answer They are not there commanded Praedicare but his verie Vulgat hath it Docere which may be by writing as well as by preaching The Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discipulate or discipulas facite omnes gentes where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not taken neutro-passively for discipulum esse for that implieth that the Apostles should learn of the Gentiles and not teach them but actively as if it were in the Conjugation HIPHIL ac si dicas DISCIPULARE saith Beza The very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praedicate preach used Mark 16.15 doth not necessarily imply onely the Apostolicall preaching vivâ voce in suggesto aloud in a pulpit but doth signifie a publication in generall not onely a going up into the pulpit as idiots imagine for an Angel did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 5.2 preach or proclaim as it is in our last Translation and Christ preached to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 and the possessed of a legion of devils being dispossessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 5.20 Began to preach or publish how great things Jesus had done for him None of these I dare say climbed up into the pulpit Moreover publication may be by writing aswell as by preaching and more disciples have been made by Evangelicall and Apostolicall writings then ever were by their preachings in their own times I answer again He saith It is false To prove a falshood a man must have expresse truth which he confesseth he hath not and how lamely followeth this Because we now reade it not Ergò they were not commanded He would have laught at such a negative proof of ours Augustine saith c Quicquid Christus de suis factis dictis noâ— legere voluit hoc scribendum Evangelisâ—is tanquam suis manibus imperavit Whatsoever Christ would have us reade of his words and works that did he command the Evangelists as if they had been his own hands to write Bellarmine answereth d Lequitur de imperio interno quod suggestio quaedam inspiratio potiùs quà m praeceptum propriè dictum existimari debet He speaketh of the inward command which is rather a
glorie of the Creatour If I be bold with Bishop Bilson he is as bold with S. Augustine and sleighteth his reasons and crosseth the very argument which Aquinas magnifieth and which we have now in hand concerning David All the Reverend Bishops words are too large to be transcribed you may reade them pag. 217. and 218. I will onely single out such passages as shew him to be singular or dubious in that point That David is not ascended into heaven doth not hinder saith he but David might be translated into Paradise with the rest of the Saints that rose from the dead when Christ did but it is a just probation that Davids bodie was not then ascended when Christ sat in his humane nature at the right hand of God Again he saith Augustine hath some hold to prove that David did not ascend in body when Christ did or at least not into heaven whither Christ ascended because in plain words Peter saith * Acts 2.34 DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN But saith he either the bodies of the Saints slept again when they had given testimonie to Christs resurrection or they were placed in Paradise and there expect the number of their brethren which shall be raised out of the dust or lastly David was none of these that were raised to bear witnesse of Christs resurrection but onely such were chosen as were known to the persons then living in Jerusalem So farre Bishop Bilson Before I come to presse the argument let me desire the Reader to observe these things in the forecited words and to censure accordingly That the Saints may be in Paradise with their bodies but not in Heaven Is there any paradise but in heaven and when S. Paul was in paradise was he not in the third heaven Shall the Saints that rose upon Christs resurrection and if they ascended at all ascended upon his ascension Shall they I say be taken up from the earth and not be glorified or being glorified not be with Christ Shall they be kept at distance from the blessed spirits of Angels and men that attend upon the Lambe and hang between the earth and that heaven where their Redeemer reigneth Secondly against his former determination and against the reasons which he brought to confirm it he saith Either the bodies of the Saints slept again But doth it not impeach the power of Christs resurrection or will it not seem an apparition rather then a true resurrection as you before reasoned or they were placed in Paradise or David was none of those who were raised to bear witnesse of Christs resurrection You see now his resolution is come down but S. Augustines argument is sound that David was not excluded from that priviledge which other ancient Fathers and Patriarchs enjoyed if they enjoyed them Bishop Bilson himself confesseth that David ascended not when Christ ascended but Christ sat in his humane nature at the right hand of God when Davids bodie was not ascended If not then when did he or they ascend or how were they witnesses of his ascension Lastly that the Fathers before Christ were in blisse is out of doubt that they were in some mansion of heaven is probable that they were comforted and made happier by Christs exaltation may be beleeved But that either the souls of the Patriarchs and David are not with the other blessed Angels and spirits of men now where Christ is or that the Apostles and Evangelists and other most holy disciples of Christ do not follow the Lambe wheresoever he now is but are in a paradise out of heaven seems strange divinitie somewhat touching on the errour of the Chiliasts But I leave Bishop Bilson in this point unlike himself he being a chief of our worthies famous above thousands for a most learned Prelate 4. And if from the ground of S. Augustine and the words of S. Peter I do not demonstrate that David rose not to an eternall resurrection I am much deceived The confessed ground of S. Augustine is That it is hard and harsh to exclude David from being one that arose if any arose to eternall life so that if David arose not none may be thought of them so to arise as to ascend in their immortall bodies to heaven since he had greater gifts or priviledges then some of them and as great as almost any of them But say I David was none of those that arose or if he did he ascended not into heaven And this I will undertake to prove by S. Peter For first S. Augustine in the same Epistle saith The intent of S. Peter was to prove that these words Psal 16.10 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption were spoken of Christ onely and not of David and the Apostle evinceth it by this reason Because David did die and was buried and his sepulchre is with us that is his bones and his bodie and his ashes are yet with us whereas if David had bodily ascended they would have fitted David as well as Christ who died and was buried and his sepulchre remained but his bodie was not incinerated neither was his flesh corrupted as Davids was but ascended And so the Apostles argument had been impertinent Secondly it is said most remarkably Act. 2.34 David is not ascended into the heavens But Christ is by Davids confession Note first the force of the Antithesis Secondly observe that S. Peter spake this after Christs ascension into heaven whereas if any arose to incorruptible glorie they arose or ascended with Christ and so by just consequent before this time when S. Peter spake these words yet the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not yet ascended or He hath not ascended into the heavens Again though David were in heaven in his soul long before that time as we say or if he went up out of Limbus Patrum as some Papists say yet certainly someway he was not ascended when S. Peter thus preached If any way he ascended not it must needs be in bodie or soul They dare not say He ascended not in soul and therefore we may boldly say He ascended not in bodie unlesse they will shew us some third nature in David that might ascend which thwarteth both Philosophie and Divinitie 5. Moreover the Turks now inhabiting Jerusalem keep the sepulchre of David forbidding entrance to all Christians into it as every traveller into those parts knoweth and they questionlesse respect the sepulchre as containing the bodie bones or ashes of David there present and unremoved Lastly if David ascended not when Christ did or a little after which is evidenced from the words of S. Peter our enemies themselves will not say that he ascended long after or of late Therefore David is not ascended bodily as yet howsoever Pineda fancieth O Most mercifull Saviour the sonne of David the Lord of David who hast supereminently the Key of David and openest and no man shutteth and shuttest and no man openeth
me qui fecit coelum terram fluctuans converto me ad Christum quia ipsum quaero hîc invenio quomodo sine impietate adoretur terra I am in a doubt I am afraid to adore earth lest he damn me who made both heaven and earth In this hesitancie or pendulousnesse I turn my self to Christ and here I seek and finde how without impietie earth may be worshipped As if no earthly thing should be adored but his bodie onely I would not say or think that any relique or reliques have in themselves or from themselves power to expell devils or to work wonders for a spirituall power as Thyraeus well observeth though it wound himself is not within a thing corporeall and a bodily power cannot drive away devils or work miracles say I. The great works of healing c. which have been done at the tombes of Martyrs reade S. Augustine de civitat Dei 22.8 might in those dayes extraordinarily be done by the Martyrs or by the Angels l Suscipientes personam Martyrum in assumed bodies like to the Martyrs as Augustine phraseth it in lib. de cura pro mortuis gerenda cap. 16. The reliques have no vertue in themselves to effectuate or actuate such miracles yea the very Angels or Martyrs themselves were but the agents instruments and the right hand of the Almighty who onely worketh great wonders by his power independent I would put no trust no confidence in the relique of any Saint or Martyr whosoever or whatsoever for help either of soul or bodie For this also is a wrong offered unto him in whose name our help standeth Our help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth Psal 121.2 And my God shall supply all our need according to his riches in glorie by Christ Jesus Philip. 4.19 9. What would I then do or how would I behave my self toward a true unquestioned choice relique I would which is the positive part by me promised with Chrysostom Hom. 5. in Job tom 1. honourably esteem of it kisse it and reverently both touch it and behold it and think of it and charily lay it up I would shew it to others not mercenarily but with joyfull and comfortable remembrance of him whose relique it was I would esteem of it above silver gold or precious stones I would make it my remembrancer of things past as a motive stirring me up to the imitation of that Saints vertues and actions which is their best relique I would use it as a bridle to curb evil in me and as a spur to goodnesse If any instrument of Satan should debase it and say that it is vilissimus pulvis I would scorn his scorn and esteem it as a most especiall instrument of the most High and would say to the caviller or rather to his master Lucifer the Father of lies and detraction m Saepe hoc vilissimo tortus es pulvere Even this which thou callest most vile dust hath often tormented thee as S. Hierom said of old Lastly till of it self it decayed and by its imperfection or rottennesse called for interment I would not bury it but commend it to be kept even in Churches and other holy places except idolatrie were committed with it or people in their profane religion adored it And then would I also burie it 10. Much more might be said but I must take manum de tabula or make a quick end and returning to Pineda say That if Ananias Azarias and Misael have no relique now remaining which Lorinus reports from report if they did arise or intend to arise with Christ they having a farre longer journey from the place of their captivitie to the sepulchre of Christ then Jacob had to the land of Goshen would or should have had as great a care as Jacob of translating their bones if Jacob translated his in hope to arise with Christ as Pineda intimateth O Gracious God who art to be loved by me for thine own self onely Grant I beseech thee that no worldly thought may nestle and breed in me nor that I may fasten any respect on any creature which may be derogatorie to the devotion due to thee my Creatour for Jesus Christ his sake in whom onely thou art well pleased Amen CHAP. XIII 1. Pineda saith Jonas arose then and Noah His reasons very shallow 2. Daniel arose saith Pineda from Nicetas If Daniel arose he arose but with one leg the other leg is yet shewed at Vercellis 3. Job arose now saith Pineda His proof lame Jobs Epitaph poeticall His sepulchrall pyramis made of imagination 4. Job shall arise at the generall judgement Pineda wrincheth the Scripture 5. The end of Jobs book according to some Greek copies a double exposition of the words 6. Jobs bodie supposed to be translated to Constantinople 7. Bartholomaeus Sibylla saith S. Hierom is expresse that the holy mother of our Lord and John the Evangelist are bodily ascended The like cited from Aquinas And Holcot saith That the glorious virgins bodie was not to be incinerated Her supposed day of Assumption most honoured among the Papists and yet there is monstrous disagreeing among them who favour her Assumption The last instances concern not our question 8. Pineda presumed too farre upon uncertainties Lorinus dareth not name any particularly that were raised It cannot be known certainly NOw also arose Jonah saith Pineda That Jonas was a lively type of Christs resurrection appeareth Matth. 27.40 But if every lively type of Christ arose then Samson Samuel Joshuah Gedeon Melchizedech Aaron Solomon then hundreds of others arose whom Pineda mentioneth not a Tandem resurrexit Noah At last Noah arose saith Pineda Why AT LAST since he was living before other and great in Gods favour who was saved and delivered from the common destruction of all mortall men This last reason as well holdeth That every one that was in the Ark arose also For they were delivered as well as Noah from the inundation of waters and especially Sem who was an holy man and was great in Gods favour 2. And Daniel arose who was brought out of the lions den saith Pineda and he proves it by Nicetas But neither he nor Nicetas proves it by any reason He might as well argue that Jeremie arose with Christ Because he being cast into the dungeon where he sunk in the mire was afterwards drawn out of the dungeon Jerem. 38.6 and 13. And if Daniel arose he arose but with one leg for b Crus Danielis asservatur Vercellis c. A leg of Daniel is kept at Vercellis a citie of Liguria saith Lorinus on Act. 2.29 Daniel died in Babylon saith Sixtus Senensis concerning him Of reliques he makes no mention nor of his rising again with Christ but alledgeth the last of Daniel the last verse Which words may prove that he arose not with Christ or if he did that he died again For the Spirit saith to him Go thou thy way till the end be for thou
seen as well as Christs But their bodies were not seen ascending for the Evangelists would not have omitted a matter of such moment Suarez denieth this because the Evangelists do describe such things as may be seen with bodily eyes in which regard neither the Angels nor the souls of Saints are reported to have accompanied him which yet divers beleeve to have kept wing and way with him to heaven I answer Though Angels and the spirits of men be not specified as not being seen as not being to be seen without bodies yet such Saints as arose with their bodies and went into heaven with their bodies as Suarez and others think all they who arose out of their graves did might in likelihood be seen ascending with Christ as well as Christs bodie And their bodies were as subject to be seen with bodily eyes as Christs was yea more visible by how much Christs bodie was more glorified then any of the Saints if claritie impassibilitie agilitie and subtilitie do make glorified bodies to be lesse visible all which Christ had in an eminent degree above any other An unglorified eye can see naturally a glorified bodie though a glorified bodie can be seen or not seen according as it pleaseth See the Supplement of Aquin part 3. quest 85. artic 2.3 Therefore my conclusion is firm as his objection is impertinent Thirdly from Epiphanius in Ancorato I gathered what before I onely conjectured That such onely were raised as died a while before who rising were known to such as then lived that their testimonie might by their former familiaritie the rather be beleeved and be void of exception whereas if such were raised as died long before they must first use arguments to prove that themselues had sometimes lived and that they once died that they were newly raised and that they were the same persons whom they reported themselves to be 2. Now that these should go into eternall happinesse both of souls and bodies and leave the Patriarchs bodies in the dust is in judgement improbable Therefore if it were to be proved that those who arose out of their graves after or upon Christs Passion did ascend into the most glorious happinesse in heaven both of bodie and soul as above other men I should think and maintain that Adam Seth Noah Abraham Isaac and all the rest before mentioned and others unmentioned holy Prophets and others were they that did arise and were they who were partakers with Christ of perfect immortalitie and had more favours and priviledges then other men So since Epiphanius concludeth That others of later times were raised I will be bold to inferre that others ascended not into heaven before those holy Patriarchs but laid their bodies in the graves again 3. Again if the end of their resurrection mho now arose was to testifie that Christ was risen this dutie they might fulfill though they ascended not into heaven with him If to testifie that Jesus was the Christ that he was just that he was the Sonne of God which was the collection of the Centurion when he saw the graves open and that many bodies arose Matth. 27.54 their ascension into heaven was not necessary to that certificate If they say They arose to be witnesses of his ascension into heaven I answer He had other witnesses of it Act. 1.9 who would have been witnesses of their ascension also if they had ascended with him If you say they arose to be companions of his ascension I reply that you do but beg the question and hold a groundlesse conclusion 4. Moreover Christ was seen of the Apostles fourtie dayes and spake of things pertaining to the Kingdome of God Act. 1.3 and He shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs as is said immediately before and they saw when he ascended into heaven vers 9. But that Christ ever conversed with any of those that were raised or was seen with them or they with him or they with the Apostles or Disciples or that any ascended into heaven is no direct mention as perhaps there would if Adam and the rest of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets had been raised and had gone into heaven 5. Neither would Christ who vouchsafed Peter James and John to see him conferre with Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration have now denied Peter James and John to see him conferre with the same Moses and other Patriarchs after his resurrection if they had arose and conferred with him as out of doubt during the time of fourtie dayes that he conversed on earth since their and his resurrection if they arose he often discoursed with them for he did but about twelve times appeare to the Apostles and that most on the Sabbath-dayes and then stayed not very long with them and so I may probably think that he did imploy some part of the rest of the time from his resurrection to his ascension in conference with Moses and the Patriarchs raised especially if they were to ascend bodily into heaven with him But none of these things are once pointed at Therefore there is no likelihood that they were raised much lesse that they ascended with Christ into heaven O Glorious Saviour of mankinde who didst ascend bodily into heaven to prepare a place for us amongst those many mansions filled with blisse Open the gate to me who do knock bid me enter into my masters joy that I may praise thy name and wait on thee my onely stay my delight and the life of my soul my Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ So be it CHAP. XVI 1. Angels taken for men Angels representing men are called men 2. The name JEHOVAH ascribed to an Angel representing JEHOVAH say Estius and Thyraeus Picking of faults in the Apocryphall Scriptures to be abhorred 3. Drusius his povertie The Apocrypha is too little esteemed The Angel who guided young Tobie defended 4. The great difference between Christs manner of rising and Lazarus his INdeed it is said Act. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold two men stood by them in white apparel whiles the Apostles were looking stedfastly into heaven after Christ and they told them of his coming to the last judgement in the same manner as he ascended Which two certainly might be men and were men saith the Text yea say some Expositors were some of those Many who arose out of their graves after Christs resurrection These were amicti vestibus albis saith Erasmus In albo vestitu saith Beza Now the Saints are arayed in white robes Revel 7.13 and whitenesse of garments is a token of joy Ecclesiastes 9.7 8. and these had cause to joy I first answer with most of the Ancients with the modern Beza Sa Montanus and Sanctius That these two men so called were Angels For the Angels representing mens persons are called according to their names or titles whom they represent As in the vision which S. Paul saw by night Act. 16.9 it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There stood a man
raised the tombe-stone was first removed and Lazarus arose tied with the grave-clothes and his face bound with a napkin yea came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes Joh. 11.44 by a new miracle walking being bound and bound with grave-clothes to shew that though he did live he did live to die again In which respect also perhaps the graves were opened at Christs passion when he yeelded up the ghost and continued open till his resurrection yea till the ends of their rising were fulfilled and after his resurrection many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves Matth. 27.52 53. O Blessed Lord God who hast commanded that we shall not adde to thy Word nor yet take from it Grant I beseech thee that I may neither think thy certain true Scriptures to be doubtfull nor the uncertain to be Canonicall but possesse me with awfull and reverent thoughts concerning thy holy writ that I adoring the fulnesse thereof may avoid all hastie supine forced and uncharitable expositions and fetch my little light and candle of knowledge from that first shine and prime rayes of thee the onely Light my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. XVII 1. The place of Matth. 27.53 is diversly pointed and according to the pointing is the diversitie of meaning The first implieth that the Saints arose with Christ though their graves were opened before This interpretation is not so likely though received generally 2. The second inferreth that they arose before Christ though they went not into the citie till after his resurrection This is favoured by the Syriack and is more agreeable to reason 3. That the raised Saints died again proved by reasons and Hebr. 11.40 4. Christ the first-fruits of the dead and of the raised Angelicall assumed bodies were seen and heard much rather should mens bodies ascending with Christ 5. S. Augustine Aquinas Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Euthymius Prosper Soto Salmeron Barradius Pererius Valentian affirm that the raised Saints died again Franciscus Lucas Brugensis holds it likely THose last cited words of Matth. 27.53 being differently pointed will bear a double and different interpretation Our late Translation hath it thus The Saints came out of the graves after his resurrection there is one pause and went into the holy citie there is another pause so is it in the Vulgat and in most Greek copies This sense in those words is involved That the Saints arose not till Christ arose and that their resurrection was a little after or almost contemporary with Christs which also is evidently foretold Isaiah 26.19 if the prophet prophesieth there of Christ or speaketh in Christs person Thy dead men shall live together with my dead bodie shall they arise c. For Christs bodie ariseth not from the earth at the generall resurrection and therefore they punctually signe out the resurrection of other Saints with Christ and with his dead bodie But if Isaiah speaketh of his own resurrection and not of Christs nor in Christs person but in his own by these words and the words following he pointeth out the generall resurrection and so Vatablus Hierom and Lyra expound the place Now if he point at the last day of the world the argument is demonstrative that either Isaiah arose not with Christ though he was the most Evangelicall Prophet and in no likelihood to be secluded from those benefits which other Prophets are said to enjoy or if he arose that he died again to rise with others at the day of judgement which they who ascended bodily into heaven did not Therefore Isaiah is not bodily ascended into heaven and if not he why others 2. The second way of pointing that place of S. Matthew is this Many bodies of the Saints arose there is one Colon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and coming out of the graves after his resurrection went into the holy citie there is the full period and no other pointing of the words And thus it is read in the edition printed at Geneva by John Vignon 1615. and illustrated with Casaubon his notes but I take it that a pause should be immediately after the word Graves and then they might arise before Christ but not enter into the holy citie till after his resurrection I am sure the Syriack translated by Tremellius thus readeth and pointeth it and Lucas Brugensis disliketh it not a Et egressi sunt post resurrectionem ejus ingressi sunt in urbem sanctam And they came forth and after his resurrection went into the holy citie In the Syriack you have these steps Obdormierant surrexerunt egressi sunt post resurrectionem ejus ingressi sunt in urbem From which second reading the resultance is That those Saints arose before Christ arose Neither is it against reason for at Christs passion the graves were opened vers 52. Shall the graves be opened and nothing be raised No for it is added immediately Many bodies of Saints were raised Shall the bodies be raised and either lie down or sit still in the graves To what end Many bodies arose of the Saints which HAD SLEPT 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in the preterperfect tense Now were they waked now were they raised now went they forth out of their monuments and between the time of Christs passion and his resurrection perhaps the raised conferred with themselves perchance they communed with others without the citie or being rapt with divine speculations might either on mount Olivet or rather on mount Calvarie spend that time in solitary devotions expecting the triumphant return of their captain Jesus Christ from hell and the grave and after his resurrection they came into the holy citie 3. The summe is These reliving Saints arose at Christs passion and before him but none ever arose before him unto an eternall resurrection for in that regard Christ was the first fruits of them that slept 1. Corin. 15.20 and it is Christs priviledge which the Apostle toucheth at Rom. 6.9 That Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him of which hereafter though I have spoken of it also before Death had power over others who were raised before him Therefore they ascended not into heaven with their bodies nor were partakers of the eternall incorruption and immortalitie Let me adde That as the sepulchres were opened that they might come forth and continued open till the resurrection and perhaps after so in that they were opened to their hand and did not shut again I take it as a figure that they did as it were expect the return of their bodies and as a probable argument that they did lie down again in their old repositories or dormitories And that you may the sooner give credit unto this in the next place consider the generall law That all of us shall have glorie and immortalitie together for Hebr. 11.40 God hath prepared a better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect If
verses Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet c. The Bishop pag. 255. from Chrysostom well observeth that most Greek and Latine copies misreade it thus Ecce mitto ad vos Eliam Thesbitem Behold I send unto you Elias the Tishbite and so because the Baptist was not Elias the Tishbite we might expect the Tishbite after John Indeed the Septuagint turned by Hierom and in Theodoret on Malachi 4.5 have it Eliam Thesbitem And Codex Vaticanus so hath it saith Christopher Castrus on the place and all the Greek Fathers and Tertullian and Augustine de civit 20.29 But in the Hebrew it is not Elias the Tishbite but Elias the Prophet and so it is in the fair great Bibles of our Adversaries of Vatablus and others Ribera the Jesuit is bold as other Jesuits were before to finde fault with the Bibles of Arias Montanus a Malè atque vitiosè in Bibliis Regiis scriptum est in Translatione 70 Ecce ego mittam vobis Eliam Prophetam In the King of Spains Bibles it is vitiously and erroneously written in the translation of the Septuagint BEHOLD I WILL SEND UNTO YOU ELIAS THE PROPHET as if there had not been diversitie of copies and as if those copies which are most agreeable to the Originall were not to be preferred or were ill and erroneous as if we were to bring and bend the Originall to the Septuagint as Carafa professeth to reduce the 70 to the Vulgat There is an errour also saith Bishop Andrews b Cùm Graeci utrobique legant ascendisse Eliam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non In coelum quod expresseÌ„ tamen habetur in Hebraeo sed Quasi in coelum When the Grecians in both places reade that Elias ascended AS INTO HEAVEN not INTO HEAVEN which is expressely in the Hebrew but AS IT WERE INTO HEAVEN I doubt not but the Bishop had good ground to write so But the Septuagint of Vatablus on 2. King 2.11 hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even into heaven so also it is read by him on 1. Maccab. 2.58 with whom agreeth the 70 of Montanus on the Maccab. so also Drusius both reades it and expounds it ASSUMPTUS EST IN COELUM USQUE He was taken up even into heaven confirming it also in his notes on the place So these reade it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Quasi but Vsque which reading affordeth no patrocinie to them but helpeth our sides Bishop Andrews further proceedeth to this effect That concerning the words of Malachi Christ both of his own accord Matth. 11.10 and being questioned Matt. 17.10 and Mark 9.12 affirmed That that prophesie was compleat That John did do what Malachi said Elias was to do And because John came in the vertue and power of Elias Christ expounding Malachi saith Elias is come Mark 9.13 Brugensis a Papist on Malachi 4 saith What is spoken of Elijah by the Prophet seems properly to be expounded of John the Baptist And Vatablus ibid. saith The place is to be expounded of Christs first coming So Arias saith from the wise interpretation of the ancient Scribes That The terrible day hath not reference to the last day of judgement but to the coming of the Messias Christ both approving and proving it The same Arias interprets The smiting of the earth with a curse Mal. 4.6 by laying it waste and desolate as Judea hath been from the time of Titus The reverend Bishop thus recollecteth Elias was to be sent before the coming of Christ Malachi 4.5 Before the first coming none was sent in the spirit of Elias but John The first coming is to be understood and not the second by the confession of our learned adversaries Elias was called the messenger or Angel Malac. 3.1 so is John called Matth. 11.10 Mark 1.2 Luke 7.27 Elias was to come Matth. 17.11 but This is Elias which was for to come Matth. 11.14 and Elias is now come Matth. 17.12 Elias shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children Mal. 4.6 John the Baptist shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children Luk. 1.17 Let me adde these things That Elias is called the Prophet Mal. 4.5 and He shall prepare the way before the Lord Mal. 3.1 So John the Baptist parallell-wise Luk. 1.76 is called the Prophet which shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes Yea More then a Prophet Matth. 11.9 S. Hierom on Matth. 11. draweth out the parallels to more length John came in the vertue and power of Elias c Et eandem Spiritus sancâ—â— vel gratiam habuit vel mensuram sed vitae austeritas vigâ—rque mentis Heliae Joannis pares sunt c. Elias and John had both the same grace and measure of the holy Ghost and were equall in austeritie of life and vigour of minde Each lived in the wildernesse each was girded with a leathern girdle Elias was forced to flee because he reproved Ahab and Jezabel John was beheaded for finding fault with Herod and Herodias And yet to speak truth the same S. Hierom is not constant to himself but crossing what he said on Malachi and otherwhere he on Matth. 17.11 thus expounds these words d Elias quidem venturus est Ipse qui venturus est in secundo Salvatoris adventu juxta corporis fidem nunc per Joannem venit in virtute Spiritu EIIAS INDEED IS TO COME He who is bodily to come in the second coming of our Saviour is now come by John Baptist in Power and in Spirit Which I much wonder that the two great scholars of the world either did not see or would not ingeniously confesse but towing at the rope of contention each of them would have S. Hierom to be wholly on his side when in this point he is on both sides Again the first coming of Christ is necessarily to be understood by Malachi For the messenger and the covenant whom ye delight in are coupled together Mal. 3.1 but no covenant that we delight in cometh at the second coming of Christ but did come at the first approach of the Messias even the covenant of peace Moreover what offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to the Lord as in the dayes of old and as in former yeares Malach. 3.4 shall such offerings be after Christs second coming And if such were yet after all this he saith Mal. 3.5 Christ will come neare to you to judgement Shall we have an other judgement after the second which the Spirit of God calleth the Eternall judgement Heb. 6.2 and is the last judgement by an universall agreement Besides as the last day may be called and truely is a terrible day yet the righteous are then to hold up their heads Luk. 21.28 and it shall be a day of joy and rejoycing to them though it be dismall to the wicked So the day of Christs
flcut sua eisque propter seipsos hoc velit quod sibi They say that an happy life is a sociable life which loveth the welfarre of friends as it doth its own good and wisheth as well to others as to it self Ludovicus Vives on the place saith They were the Stoicks who said so but I rather guesse they were the Peripateticks and Aristotle their cheif Chaunter Which blessed life the heathen meaned not of eternall blessednes after the resurrection but of a blessed naturall life in this world and on this earth such an one cannot Enoch and Elias have though they were in Paradise because they have no more companie of their kinde Enoch more especially had lesse happines by this argument if he be supposed to be in the earthly Paradise because he was long by himself ere Elias came to him by the space I say of above two thousand yeares To the further illustration of the former point I may truly say If Adam and Eve had lived in Paradise by themselves alone without any other companie at any other time I should not much have envied or wished that felicitie yea though he had not fallen whereby he became Radix Apostatica in the phrase of Augustine Yea such a blessednes there is in communication of happines that the all-blessed onely-blessed ever-blessed Deitie of the Vnitie would not be without the conjoyned happines of the Trinitie The singlenes of Nature would not be without the pluralitie of Persons Thirdly do they see those men and women and their actions who now live in the bounds of old Eden whilest themselves in their bodies are invisible Fourthly here is a multiplying of miracles daily that Angels shall keep them yet so that they cannot be seen From Enochs assumption which is now above 4000 yeares since have Angels kept him that he hath not been once seen Besides no one place of Scripture Canonicall saith they are in Paradise and it is so farre from a favour as it is rather a durance and captivitie if they be kept from all other parts of the world within the bounds of old Paradise since many places are now more delightfull then the place or places whereabouts Salianus himself now holdeth Paradise to be situated Moreover Elijah was taken up into heaven Suppose that to gratifie Bellarmine we grant Coelum aerium is there meant yet must he needs be taken up from the earth and so not abide on earth in the circuit of old Paradise as Salianus foolishly conceiveth Likewise Ecclesiasticus 49.14 Enoch was taken from the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Vatablus hath it and rendreth it De terra sublimis assumptus est He was taken up on high from the earth the Vulgat hath it Receptus est à terraâ— Eâ—terra had been more pithie When the Apostle saith He was translated Heb. 11.5 was he left on the same earth on which he was before Or after he was in heaven did he come again on the earth It was an excellent and true observation of our learned Whitaker That Bellarmine sometimes confuting his fellows answers confuteth farre better answers then himself bringeth And I will be bold to say of Salianus though he doth justly deride them who make Paradise in the aire as Cornelius à Lapide and Bellarmine or in the orb of the Moon as others Yet his crotchet is as foolish as any of theirs For in what part of Paradise were they kept when the floud was or was not all the earth overflown The Angels then kept them in the aire or else by an other miracle kept the water from over-flowing that place That the Angels kept people from entring into Paradise I have read that they kept any from going out of it and kept them in it I have not read k Nemiui conspicul esse possunt None can see them saith Salianus They may say I by the same divine power by which they are invisible if invisible they be Can they be seen by none How was Elias seen by our Saviour and his three Disciples at the Transfiguration Or were all they within Paradise or was Elias out of the bounds of the old Paradise when Christ was transfigured on the mount But these and greater inconveniences must these men run into who will maintain against Scripture that Enoch and Elias are in earthly or aeriall Paradise that they may uphold an other crotchet worse then this namely That Enoch and Elias shall hereafter die and be slain by Antichrist and are not l In coelo supercoelesti in the highest heaven which is the last question 6. Let us speak of them severally then joyntly Concernning Enoch the first of them who were rapti it seemeth to me that the Apostles words Heb. 11.5 not onely do reach home to that point unto which before I applyed them viz. That Enoch died not but evince also that he shall never die For it is not said Enoch was translated that he should not die for a good while but he was translated that he should not or might not see death Therefore he cannot he shall not die hereafter since the holy Ghost hath expressed and signed out the end of his translation Nè videret mortem That he should not see death Some may answer to that place of the Apostle first that he speaketh of THE DEATH OF SINNERS as if he had meant with the book of * Wisd 4.11 Wisdome to say NE MALITIA MVTARET INGENIVM EJVS LEST HE SHOVLD BE CHANGED TO THE WORSE for sinners are called DEAD MEN according to that saying l Improbi dum vivunt mortui sunt WICKED MEN EVEN WHILE THEY LIVE ARE DEAD So farre Drusius To whom let me adde that Christ saith Luke 9.60 Let the dead bury their dead And 1. Timoth. 5.6 She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilest she liveth And to the Angel of the Church of Sardis the Spirit saith Revel 3.1 Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead In all which places wicked men are taken for the dead yet in the place of the Apostle it cannot be so for he was speaking of the true lives and deaths of Gods Saints And if the literall sense can be admitted we must not flee to the mysterie but here is no inconvenience in the letter Moreover the same God who mercifully placed him in the state of Grace could as easily have kept him so without inflicting death on him Lastly the Apostle said Hebr. 11.4 Abel is dead and then descending to Noah and Abraham at the 13. verse These all died in faith I hope no man will say the word died is here taken for sinned but it is taken literally that their souls were parted from their bodies So the words That he should not see death prove that Enochs soul was not parted from his bodie Indeed he is one of them that are mentioned between Abel and Abraham but yet singled out by expresse words That he was translated lest he should or might see
nobilitie richly clad do wait on Kings Tertullian adversus Marcionem cap. 22. saith Moses and Elias were seen p In consortio claritatis equally bright and glorious Luke 9.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered q Nemo putet Salvatorem veritatem corporis amisisse externam tantùm speciem permutavit splendore Let no man imagine saith Hierom that our Saviour lost the nature of a true bodie onely he converted the outward form and fashion all into brightnes The like may I say of Moses and Elias if they had their glorie by redundance from Christs glorie as Suarez maintaineth and then there is no necessitie nor indeed great likelihood that Christs glorious transfiguration should leave to himself a mortall bodie and they should be by him then invested in eternall tabernacles of incorruptible flesh Now as I have clearely declared my judgement that it holdeth not demonstratively from any puncto that Elias at the transfiguration had an unchangeably glorious estate of bodie so I hold it very probable that Elias did never die properly but was changed at his rapture and at his ingresse into heaven enjoyed a truly glorified bodie and both unto the time of Christs transfiguration and then and ever since enjoyeth and liveth in flesh incorruptible not Animall but Spirituall as the blessed Saints shall have after the end of the world If any one think to choke me with my former words That Christs glorie was greater then the glorie of his servants And therefore if Elias had an immortall bodie Christ must have one also which he had not I answer That the hypostaticall union of the Divine Nature to the Humane in Christ was at all times of greater glorie then the glorified estate of the Saints shall be after the resurrection Secondly as intensively Christs glorie was greater then Elijahs though it was eclipsed by Christs voluntarie condescent that he might accomplish the work of our redemption so extensively at the instant of the transfiguration I doubt not but the bodily glorie of Christ was as farre above his servants glorie as the light of the sunne surpasseth the light of lesser starres Therefore all things considered Christs bodily glorie was greater then Elijahs though Elijahs was immortall and Christs then changeable and mortall Bellarmine in his Apologie against the judicious Monitorie preface of King James esteemeth it as p Valde admirandum much to be admired at that the learned King said Enoch and Elias are now glorified in heaven Many things indeed might Bellarmine learn by his Majestie which are laudanda valde admiranda both to be praised and wondred at but taking valde admirandum in the worser sense I say his wonder is full of ignorance and malice Wherefore omitting much of what that really-unanswerable Bishop hath copiously alledged I say It is no such strange matter to say or beleeve that Enoch and Elias have glorified bodies And yet here first of all I will ingenuously confesse that a man both in soul and in a corruptible bodie may be in the third heaven because S. Paul else might have known that himself was not in the third heaven in his bodie but his doubting and nesciencie 2. Cor. 12.2 c. Whether in the bodie I cannot tell or whether out of the bodie I cannot tell God knoweth proveth that either might have been The disjunctive might else have been spared if it could have been done onely one way Therefore it is possible unto the Almightie that Elias might or may have a passive mortall bodie though he were rapt into heaven and there be at this present But A posse ad esse non valet consequentia and the reasons and authoritie which place Elias in heaven in an unpassible bodie are more ponderous and numerous then theirs which embrace the contrarie If it be objected that Elias went not up into the third heaven because he was carried up in a whirlwinde and whirlwindes reach not to the third heaven I answer By the same cavill they may say Our Saviour ascended not into heaven when a cloud received him out of their sight Act. 1.9 because clouds pierce not to the highest heaven But we must distinguish between things ordinarie and extraordinarie Both the whirlwinde and the cloud had somewhat in them above the common leuell of nature and were not meerly elementarie but adapted to higher and diviner uses then common clouds or whirlwindes I remove this passant tabernacle of discourse from an objection unto the standing mansion of our great Adversaries confessions Suarez in tertiam partem Summ. quaest 53. artic 3. confesseth in this manner q Sunt in inserno aliqui homines corpore animâ ante generalem resurrectionem ut Dathan Abiram similes Some men are in hell both soul and bodie before the generall resurrection as Dathan and Abiram and the like He is seconded by Peter Morales another Jesuit in his fifth book on the first chapter of S. Matthew Tract 11. This opinion is somewhat minced by Ribera upon the words Revel 19.20 These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone who hath his second also viz. Blasius Viegas for they say Korah Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up alive but then the earth closed and they died and their souls onely were carried into hell The like they say of Antichrist and his fore-runner But this nicetie is contradicted by the Vulgat which to them is authenticall Num. 16.33 Descenderunt vivi in infernum so also in the thirtieth verse and so the Interlinearie rightly readeth it according to the Hebrew And if infernus did signifie the grave in the case of Korah and his complices as it doth not for then it had been no such extraordinarie miracle for people alive to be swallowed up by the earths rupture since many people yea whole cities have often been so punished and came to destruction but they were for a signe Numb 26.10 that is for an example that others should not murmure and rebell against Gods Ministers as the Genevean Note on the place soundly and pertinently and deeply interpreteth yet concerning Antichrist and his false-prophet mentioned by them it cannot be so for it is said most punctually Revel 19.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vivi missi sunt hi duo in stagnum ignis ardentis sulphuris These both were cast alive into a lake of burning fire and brimstone as it is in their Vulgat Montanus varieth it thus In stagnum ardens in sulphure Into a lake burning in brimstone They did not descend r Ad sepulchrum ad infernum ad stagnum ignis exclusivé to the grave to hell to the lake of fire exclusively coming onely to the brink but ſ Descenderunt in infernum in stagnū ignis they descended into hell into the lake of fire they were plunged into it Therefore they did not die by the way or at the gates of hell but actually
and shall be certainly the estate of the righteous who shall be alive at that great and dreadfull day I would be loth also to say That nothing else is noted by the words but that Whereas others die first and then are buried these men were buried alive or as live men that I may passe by his amphibolous phrase i Non inficior quin eorum animae si sint mortui pertinaces in seelecata sua obstinatione adjudicatae sint inferis cum Divite I denie not but their souls if they died obstinate in their wicked rebellion were sentenced to hell with Dives Why doth he not specialize where those inferi are and in what place Dives is or did they go to a parabolicall hell for he could not be ignorant that many hold that historie of Dives to be but a parable The truth and summe of all is this By divine power extraordinarie the houses or tents the beasts and the goods of Korah and his complices were separated and secluded from the use of men were swallowed up and covered in the earth and came to that end and destruction which they were capable of No word of God saith expressely no inference or reason evinceth no probabilitie induceth us to think that their tents houshold-stuffe or utensils were alive or that they yea or the beasts of these conspiratours went into the graves of them if graves they had any much lesse did such trash descend into hell that place of torment that Tophet prepared for wicked men that Deep excruciating and affrighting both the Devil and his Angels That tents goods and faculties should go thither to what purpose were it but God doth nothing unlesse it be to some great end or purpose therefore to the lowest hell their goods descended not But as concerning the men themselves it is plainly said That both the earth did open its mouth and swallowed them up even as it did their tents or beasts or goods and after that most distinctly that they went down alive into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but their souls could not go into the graves and there reside and their bodies might go into hell and there reside therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needes there be expounded not of the grave nor of locus corporum as Doctour Raynolds phraseth it but of the hell of the damned of the locus animarum which place also must be the receptacle for all humane bodies of the wicked after the day of doom and retribution and may be the prison of those reprobate both souls and bodies whom God miraculously thither adjudgeth as he did this rebellious rout Though Lyra cited by Doctour Raynolds thinks the grave is meant because it is appointed for all men to die and after that cometh judgement yet I have many wayes proved that by especiall dispensation and by extraordinarie priviledge some may receive favour beyond the common rule or course of nature and contrarily I doubt not but upon so great a commotion and furious rebellion God could and did by way of exemplarie punishment punish these men bodily before the usuall time and sent their bodies to hell before the generall judgement If Cajetan and Hieronymus ab Oleastro cited by that Reverend Doctour expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the grave yet they want both weight and age to put down Epiphanius before recited and many other Ancients who place their bodies in hell I accept then of Suarez his confession before mentioned and agree with him That Korah Dathan and Abiram are now both in souls and bodies in hell And upon this ground I thus work If they be there they are there to be punished and are punished if they burn in hell-fire they have no longer mortall bodies But as at the last day the bodies of the wicked that are alive then shall put on immortalitie so the bodies of Korah Dathan and Abiram were not properly separated from their souls but were changed and fitted for such places of punishments in the instant of their descent and so they descended alive into the pit of hell Then why may not Enoch and Elias be in immortall and glorified bodies since they were assumed up into heaven especially since Suarez himself again ingenuously confesseth k Animae gloriosae connaturale est uniri corpori immortali glorioso It is convenient yea proper to nature that a glorified soul should be united to an immortall and glorified bodie And the souls of Enoch and Elias are now glorified by the like acknowledgement of our learned Adversaries Again where the souls of Enoch and Elias are there also are their bodies But their souls are in the highest heaven For our Saviour saith John 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am And John 12.26 Where I am there shall also my servant be But Christ is in the highest heavens Therefore both Enoch and Elias are with their bodies in the third heaven unlesse you can say They were not given by God to Christ and were not Christs servants Now since they are there in their bodies it is very unlikely that they should be there some thousands of yeares in bodies mortall and unglorified Hierom ad Pammachium avoucheth l Fruuntur divino consortio cibo coelesti They enjoy and have the fruition of the Deitie and are fed with heavenly food which is not meat for mortall bodies Besides S. Hierom Tom. 3. Epist pag. 189. in Epistola ad Minerium Alexandrum citeth Theodorus Heracleotes instancing in Enoch and Elias as carried to heaven and as having overcome death And Apollinarius fully agreeth with the other with this addition onely that Enoch and Elias have now glorified bodies Dorotheus in Synopsi de Elia thus m Qui humi iucedebat instar spiritus cum Angelis in coelis agit Who was on the earth as other men now as a spirit liveth in heaven with the Angels therefore he hath not a mortall bodie Again in most of the generall promises that God hath made he giveth some instance or other to be as it were a taste of what shall succeed lest mens hearts should fail in expectancie of that whereof they see no kinde of proof As for example because it was promised that there shall be a resurrection it was figured not onely more obscurely in Isaac his rising up from the Altar in the drawing of Joseph out of the pit in the Whales deliverie of Jonah in Samsons breaking from the cords in Daniels escape from the lions in the waters yeelding and giving up Moses to live in the Kings house and the like but more evidently by the reall and temporarie raising up of divers dead both in the Old and New Testament Likewise the glorification of our bodies being determined by God and by him promised yea Enoch himself prophesying that God cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all Jude 14 and 15 verses which is not
justly suspected saith the worthy Estius the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being so easily turned into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a little dash And he findeth just fault with Acacius in Hierom for saying it was so read in most Greek copies when as certainly it was read so but in verie few copies whereof there is scarce one now extant and not many proofs that ever there were many copies of that extant Neither indeed doth the reading stand with sense For the Apostle solemnly premizeth Behold I shew you a mysterie and then subjoyneth immediately according to this new-fangled mis-writing We shall all therefore sleep or die Is this a mysterie that all shall sleep or all die Doth he promise mountains and bring forth a molehill Every Heathen knows that we shall die every Christian Turk and Jew that we shall be raised again But when God justly for sinne sentenced man to death with a morte morieris That some sinfull men should be excepted is a mysterie deserving such a watchword as Behold Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed Secondly from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thus argue That death if such a death there be any which is so speedily begun by separation of the soul from the bodie and ended as I may so say by the swift and momentanie reuniting of the same soul to the same bodie cannot handsomely be called a sleep Doth he sleep who in the twinkling of an eye is changed from mortalitie to immortalitie yea from being alive is made dead and from being dead is made alive and that incorruptibly Was ever sleep confined to an instant till now or may one be said to sleep in the midst of these great works It is not so much as Analogicall sleep The greatest sleepers have more then an instant ere they can begin to sleep Sleep creepeth or falleth on men by degrees heavinesse and dulnesse usher it and the spirits have a time to retire to their forts and cittadels the senses are not locked up nor do they deposite the use of their faculties in a moment And may that be called properly rest or sleep which resteth not above an instant and is as quick as thought Rest and sleep do couch upon the bed of time likewise it is as much as possibly can be done if so much can be done to awake one in an instant The Scripture useth the phrase of sleeping towards them who rest as it were in death in the earth in the grave Our friend Lazarus sleepeth saith Christ John 11.11 when indeed he was buried Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 Let one place of holy Writ be produced where one and the same instant beginneth sleep and endeth awaking and then I may say there may be some shadow for that reading But here is no pause no rest no quiet therefore no sleep therefore the word sleep in this place is applied to such as died before and not to such as are alive and shall die as the second lection implieth Thirdly it wanteth force to say in the whole conjoyned sentence We shall therefore all sleep or die but we shall all be changed If the Apostle had intended any such thing he would not have used the adversative particle But but the implicative word And We shall all therefore sleep AND we shall all be changed This had been sense if thus it had been but not being so we may the more confidently shake off the second lection of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent from reason and cleave to the first of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes quidem non dormiemus c. All we shall not die but all we shall be changed And so from the varietie of Greek copies I come to the Vulgat the Translation in Latine Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur Truely we shall all of us arise but we shall not all of us be changed First I say this differeth from all Greek copies whereas if it had been according to any sort of them it might have swayed us much that way Secondly the same argument toucht at before may also give a side-blow to this translation The Apostle raiseth up their considerations by promising to tell them a mysterie But it was no mysterie to tell them that they should all be raised when he had told it so pithily so divinely and so often beat upon it before by so many kindes of arguments as he did Thirdly where the Vulgat saith Non omnes immutabimur it is not true for Omnes immutabimur We shall all be changed from mortalitie to immortalitie from naturall bodies to spirituall If you say We shall not be all changed to glorie I say so with you I adde That is no mysterie all know that Therefore the Apostle speaketh not of a change to glorie eternall in the heavens whereunto some onely shall be changed but he speaketh of a change from mortalitie to immortalitie from corruptible bodies to incorruptible which even the wickedest men shall have And perhaps he meaneth that this generall immutation shall be made sine media morte without intercurrent or intercedent death even in the wicked that shall be then alive yet in the change you must alwaies make this diversitie The wicked shall be singled out to shame to losse to punishment eternall with their raised or changed bodies for even in their raising also there is a change from corruption to incorruption but in the change of the godly there is glorious incorruption joyfull immortalitie pleasurable eternitie The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a change of a thing from place to place as when we take a piece of wood from the earth and cast it into the water Thus the wicked shall be hurried from their graves to the judgement seat and shall be placed on the left hand of our Saviour and after sentence shall be haled and cast from earth into hell On the other side the righteous in their change shall be mounted up from their graves or from the earth into the aire to meet Christ and shall be at his right hand and after sentence be carried or ascend up into heaven in most glorious manner to live with Christ eternally Fourthly if we reade it with the Vulgat We shall all arise but we shall not all be changed we must also immediately annex the words In a moment in the twinkling of an eie at the last trump for there is the pause and stay to be made there is the full sentence The Vulgat hath done very ill to make the stay and full point at immutabimur for then the words following bear no construction at all if they be considered by themselves In a moment in the twinkling of an eie at the last trump For then cometh in new matter For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be