which our first parents lost by rebelling against God They could not use so fit a terme to expresse the rest and happinesse of blessed spirits in the world to come as by calling the place of it Paradise But that the place of this rest was the third heavens before the sitting down of our Lord Christ at the right hand of his Father I am yet to learn that there is any syllable or tittle in the holy Scripture to signify that the people of God understood at such time as our Lord delivered this Parable So that there can possibly be no reasonable presumption that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used not in reference to the body which goes to corruption in the grave but to the soul or spirit should signify the same with Gehenna in opposition to Abrahams bosome Neither the originall signification of the word nor the circumstance of the parable nor any opinion received then among Gods people so limiting the signification of it But that the bosome of Abraham should signify the place of rest which God had appointed for the righteous the reason is plaine The hospitality of Abraham being renowned in the Scripture and the happinesse of the world to come being usually represented to the people of God at that time under the resemblance of a Feast whereof Abraham is made the Master when his bosome is made the place to receive and refresh Lazarus There is therefore no reason why the bosome of Abraham and Paradise should not signify the same state or the same place to the apprehension of Gods people at that time But there is also no reason why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Parable should not extend to comprehend both Gehenna and Paradise in the sense of those to whom our Lord addresses this Parable For neither is it any way necessary when the good thief prayes Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome And our Lord answers To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke XXIII 42 43. that Paradise should here be understood to signify the third heavens the way into which was not yet laid open standing the first Tabernacle saith the Apostle Ebr. IX 8. And againe Which new and living way our Lord Jesus hath dedicated or hanseled for us through the vaile that is his flesh unlesse we abuse our selues with an imagination that words can signifie things which could not be aprehended on t of them by those to whom they were said For as for S. Paul who was ravished into the third heavens that is into paradise 1 Cor. XIV 3 4. I conceive I need not insist upon an exception which there is no issue to try To wit that S. Paul speakes of severall raptures one into the third heavens the other into Paradise For to speake freely it seems no more then reason to grant that S. Paul was ravished to the presence of our Lord Christ But I must needs insist that the word Paradise could not signifie the same thing to S. Paul after the Ascension of our Lord as to the hearers of our Lord afore it As for the words of the same S. Paul having a desire to depart and to be with Christ Phi. I. 23. whether they do confine the spirit of S. Paul departed to the place of our Lord Christs bodily presence in the third heavens I will not conclude till I have considered more of those scriptures which may concerne the same purpose And indeed the Apocalypse as it is the last of the new Testament so seemeth to declare more in this mater then all the rest of it before had done For when upon the opening of the fift seale Apoc. VI. 9 10 11. the soules of Martyrs having demanded vengeance upon their persecutors were cloathed with long white robes and bidden to expect the fulfilling of their numbers And after that the CXLIVM of the XII tribes that were to be preserved from the said vengeance were sealed It followeth Apoc. VII 9. 14. After that I looked and behold a great multitude whom no man could number of every nation and tribe and people and language standing before the Throne and before the Lambe and cloathed in long white robes with Pâ—lmes in their hands And to show who they were These be they who come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and have blanched their robes in the bloud of the lambe Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth upon the Throne overshadoweth them They shall not hunger nor thirst nor shall the sun fall on them nor any heate For the Lambe that is in the midst of the Thorne feedeth them and guidâ—th them to living wells of water and God wipes away all teares from their eyes Here you have the soules of the Martyrs before the throne of God over shadowed by him that sitteth on the Throne who wipeth away all teares from their eyes And again Apoc. XIV 1-5 where the CXLIVM that were sealed appear again upon mount Sion and the voice of harpers is heard singing to their harps a new song before the throne and before the foure living creatures and Elders which no man but the sealed could learne It followeth These are they that have not been defiled with women for they are Virgins These are they that followe the Lambe whithersoever he goeth These are redeemed from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lambe Nor was any deceite found in their mouthes For they are unspotted before the Throne of God Here CXLIVM appeare upon mount Sion hearing onely the song which the harpers sing to their harps And therefore those that were not defiled with women that followe the Lamb whithersoever he goeth that are unspotted before the thâ—one of God are the harpers not those that were sealed The same Martyrs soules that appeared before in long white robes with Palmes in their hands now appeare singing the song of triumph to their harps For so it followeth v. 13. after denouncing the the fall of Babilon and vengeance of God upon those that worship the Beast I heard a voice from heaven say to me Write Blessed are the dead that from henceforth dye in the Lord. Even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labour and their works goe along with them Well might Tertullian restraine this to Martyrs for the consequence of the text mightiâ—y inforceth it The Lambe indeed is seen on mount Sion with those that are sealed But it is never said that they are before the Throne but onely they who appeare in Heaven that is the Martyrs whose song of tryumph they heare and learne which needed not have been said if they were represented as of one company And perhaps it is said that they follow the Lamb whither soever he goes Because they followed him to his Crosse suffering that death for him which he had suffered for us And that they are Virgines Because not stayned
with the pollution of false Gods For truly when it is said that guile was not found in their month We cannot understand any thing more proper then the profession of the Christian Faith forwhich they dyed For of whom can it be more properly said that guile was not found in his mouth then of him that dies rather then transgresse that vvhich he undertook at his Baptisme to professe the name of Christ unto death He that likes not this vvill be obliged to grant that virgins also have the state of Martyrs by this Prophesy For besides all that hath been said to shovv that in all this prophesy save the XXIV none but Martyrs appear in heaven before Gods Throne unlesse vve say that here Virgins also are seene among the Martyrs vvhenas in the beginning of the VII Chapter order is taken for the sealing of those that should escape the vengeance of God in Judaea being Christians and servants of God who in the beginning of the fourteenth appeare againe with the lamb upon mount Sion But the Martyrs soules appeare in heaven before the Throne both in the fift and in the seventh besides what I argue here by consequence drawne from the meaning of the foureteenth it would be a thing incons quent to the text and grain of the Prophesy to say that the servants of God who are preserved by the name of God sealed on their foreheads Apoc. XIV 1. VII 3. from that destruction which involves the persecutors of Christianity should appeare in the same company ranck with the Martyrs Among whom are those that are slaine in the City of Jerusalem Ap. XI 7 8 9. of a several condition from those that are preserved alive Compare wee here with the doctrin of S. Paul 2. Cor. V. 1-4 For we know that if this earthly house of our Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens And for this we groan desiring that our dwelling from heaven be vested upon us If so be we shall not be found naked having put it upon us For wee that are in the tabernacle groane as grieved not because we desire to be stripped but to be invested that the mortall may be swallowed up of life The whole text of this discourse manifestly imports that S. Paul expects the resurrection as the accomplishment of his hopeâ— not groaning for the day of his death to have his soule stripped from his body but to have it invested with a heavenly tabernacle made by God his glorified body which bringeth life that swalloweth up the mortality of this As also he saith Rom. VIII 23. That we who have the first fruits of the spirit groane within our selves expecting the adoption even the redemption of our body Where the resurrection is the adoption of those who rise againe to be Sons of God according to the word of our Lord Luke XX. 36. For neither can they dye any more for they are equall to Angels And being children of the resurrection are children of God It is true it appeares by S. Paul that he was no further certified as then of the counsaill of God then to make it a question whether he and the Christians of his time should be found alive by the Lord Christ at his coming to judgement For therefore he saies with an if If we shall not be found naked of our bodies when we put on glorious bodies Though he had said afore that if this body be dissolved we shall have a heavenly body for it And so 1 Cor. XV. 57. The dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed And 1 Tim. IV. 15. 17. We that are left alive unto the comming of the Lord shall not prevent those that are falne asleep Againe We that are left alive shall be ravished with them in the clouds into the ayre to meet the Lord And so shall be alwaies with the Lord. So that the thousand yeares which it is revealed to S. Iohn that the Church shall indure after the fall of Babylon and the judgement exercised upon the whore Apoc. XX. is a further revelation of Gods will and pleasure for the subsistance of Christianity with the world how much soever he hath determined it shall indure more then he hath there declared But notwithstanding seeing that S. Paul though uncertaine thereof suspends the accomplishment of his and our happinesse upon the resurrection Most manifest it is that the stripping of our bodies by death is not the terme of Gods promise according to S. Paul Wherefore when it folowes Having therefore alwaies confidence and knowing that dwilling in the body wee are â—ilgrims from God for we walke by faith not by sight we desire with confiderce rather to travell out of the body and to dwell with God Supposing that S. Paul expected this change by Christs second coming before he died he contradicts not himselfe when he refers it to the resurrection which if we think that he assignes it unto the meane time wee make him to do Therefore S. Iohn 1 Epistle III. 2. Beloved we are now the Children of God But it is not yet manifest what wee shall be Yet wee know that when he or it is made manifest we shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is Sons of God because Sons of the resurrection we saw before in our Lords words Sons of God because adopted to his spirit wee have here in S. Iohn But as S. Paul made our adoption to be the redemption of the body so Eph VI. 30. Grieve not the holy spirit of God saith he by whom yee are sealed to the day of redemption And â— 14 speaking of the same spirit Who is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchase As our Lord saith also Luke XX. 28. Lift up your heades for your redemption draweth nigh speaking of his second coming If therefore neither our adoption and redemption nor Gods purchase be compleat before we rise againe whether wee read in S. Iohn When he shall be made manifest or when it shall be made manifest what we shall be the resurrection is the time For if wee be not like Angels till the resurrection as our Lord saies much lesse like God or like our Lord Christ as S. Iohn sayes As for the terme of seeing God upon which the School Doctors have stated the controversy of the Saints happinesse in the meane time It is a thing evident enough that the speech is borrowed from the comparison between Moses and other Prophets Num. XII 6 7 8. Where God saith he will deale with other prophets by a vision or a dreame but with Moses face to face And yet S. Paule 1. Cor. XIII 12. comparing the knowledge of God by faith with the knowledge of God by sight Wee see now by a glasse in a riddle but then face to face Now wee know in part then shall I know as I am knowne Which S. â—ohn calls as he is for sure
God delivered to the Church by the Apostles commanding them so to live For that which was as difficult as impossible to have been introduced without conviction of the will of God as the rest of Christianity of necessity must go for a part of it But that in such variety of mens fannies reasons and inclinations the Church consisting from the beginning of all Nations and dispersed all over the world should of their own inclination not swayed by any information of Gods will received with Christianity agree in the same Lawes and Rulers submitting to the exercise of the same Power upon themselves is as impossible as that the world should consist of the casual concurse of atomes according to Democritus and Epicurus The name of the Church without peradventure was first used to signifie the whole body of Gods people in the Wildernesse when they might be and were called together and assembled upon their common occasions which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies After which time the people continuing still one and the same by virtue of the same Lawes then received and the Powers placed in their Ruler Not onely the whole people but such parts of it as resorted to the same Government have still born and do bear the same name The Synagogue of Libertines Cyrenaeans Alexandrians Cilicians and Asians by example Acts VI. 9. which name first belongs to the respective Bodies of Jewes that subsisted at Rome Cyrene or Alexandria in Cilicia or Asia And consequently by Metonymy to the Places where such of those Bodies as chanced to be at Jerusalem might assemble themselves And to so many of those Bodies as being at Jerusalem did assemble at those Places Now no Christian can doubt that the Body of Christians succeeds in the stead of Gods ancient people And therefore the name of Gods Church when it stands without limitation signifies no lesse As when our Lord saith Mat. XVI 18. Vpon this rock will I found my Church Whatsoever the Disciples then conceived the Church should be our Lord that knew all by the name of it meant all that duly beares the name And therefore when hee saith once again Mat. XVIII 17. Tell it to the Church It is strange there should be Christians that should think hee means the Jewes and their Rulers And that the precept concernes Christians no longer now they have left the Jewes Though it is true a man cannot tell his cause to the whole Church but to that part of it to which hee can resort which is called by the name of the Whole as I said even now of the Synagogue S. Paul to the Colossians II. 24 25. calling the Church the Body of Christ saith That hee by the dispensation of God towards them which hee is trusted with is become the minister of the Church to wit as Angels are ministers of the Church because ministers of God towards it And therefore minister of the whole Church which is the Body of Christ not of any particular Church as if an Apostle could be bound to execute his office according to the discretion of any Church which for Gods cause hee attends As all Ministers are bound to execute their Office according to the will of them whose Ministers they are It is therefore the whole Church in which God hath set Apostles Evangelists Prophets and the use of the Graces rehearsed 1 Cor. XII 28. Eph. IV. 11. Because the Office of these Graces can by no means be confined either to any particular Church or to any part of the whole Church The name of the Church signifies the same thing again Eph. I. 22. III. 21. V. 23-32 While all Christendome was contained in the Church at Jerusalem the name of the Church is so used Acts II. 47. V. 11. VIII 1 3. that it is no mater whether wee understand by it the whole Church or the Church of Jerusalem The reason Because all right and power that can at any time be found vested in the whole Church was then as fully in the Church at Jerusalem as it can be at any time in the whole Church though in respect of a Body never so much greater than it As a childe is as much a man the day of his birth as the day of his death and a tree as much as a tree when it growes one as when it is come to the height But Christianity being propagated among Jewes and Gentiles as wee reade of the Churches of Judaea Samaria and Galilee Acts IX 31. and must needs understand the Epistles to the Ebrewes to have been written to Churches consisting onely of Ebrewes as those of S. Peter and that of S. James which mentions the Elders of the Church James V. 14. So the Churches of the Gentiles in S. Paul Rom. XVI 4. wee easily understand to be the Churches of Asia 1 Cor. XVI 9. Apoc. I. 11. the Churches of Galâ—â—ia 1 Cor. XVI 1. the Churches of Macedonia 2 Cor. VIII 1. and the rest that were visible in S. Paâ—ls time Now suppose for the present that these Churches mentioned by the Apostles were no more than so many Congregations as our Independents would have it Seeing they deny not so many Churches to be so many Bodies what reason can they give why the name of the Church when it stands for the whole Church should not signifie the like There is a prerogative attributed to the whole Church by S. Paul 1 Tim. III. 25. when hee calls it the base and pillar of Truth For that this should be said of any particular Church it were too ridiculous to imagine Can the Church bear this attribute if it be not capable of doing any act that may verifie it And if it be not a Body what act can it do In fine the correspondence between Gods ancient people and his new Israel according to his Spirit seems to require That as the Religion of the Jewes and not any Civil Power of the Nation makes them all one Body at this day in point of fact by sufferance of Soveraignes because they were once so in point of right So the Religion of Christians should make them one Body in point of right how many Bodies soever they are burst into in point of fact by their own wantonnesse For the Independents exception which I spoke of can be of no force unlesse they will make it appear that all those Churches that are mentioned in the writings of the Apostles did assemble in one place Not that if this could be made to appear they had done their businesse But because if it do not appear their plea is peremptorily barred Wee reade then of M M M soules added in one day to CXX of the Church at Jerusalem Acts I. 15. II. 41. To these were added or with these they became VM Acts IV. 4. To whom were added multitudes of men and women Acts II. 47. V. 14. These assembled daily in private to serve God as Christians as well as in
for the waters are come in even unto my soul And Let not the water-stood drown me neither let the deep swallow me up And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me And XLII 9. One deep calleth another because of the noise of thy water-pipes All thy waves and billows are gone over me Whereupon S. Paul Romans VI. 3 4 5 Know ye not that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death We are therefore buried with him by baptism into death that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should also walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted into the like death of his then shall we be also into the like of his rising again For when he saith again Rom. X. 7. Who shall go down into the deep to wit to bring up Christ from the dead He sheweth plainly that by the waters of the deep he understands death whereby I suppose it appears sufficiently that the water of Baptism not the fire of the Holy Ghost is the antitype to the waters of the deluge Besides the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is not called Baptism but by resemblance of the fire thereof infusing it self into all the soul as the whole body is drenched in the waters of baptism Therefore it is not called absolutely Baptism but with an addition abating the property of the sense the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire Therefore where the term Baptism stands without this addition or any circumstance signifying the same it cannot be understood Again the interrogating of a good conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as all men of learning agree metonymically or by Synecdoche the answer or rather the stipulation consisting of the interrogatories of Baptism and the answer returned by him that is baptized undertaking to believe and to live like a Christian For it is manifest that it Fath been alwayes the custom in the Church of God as still in the Church of England which S. Peter here shews that it comes down from the Apostles to exact of him that is baptized a solemn vow promise or contract to stand to that which he undertaketh And this it is which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies whereof he that doubts may see enough in Grotius his Annotations to make him ashamed to doubt any more When therefore S. Peter saith that Baptism saveth us not the doing away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God he does not intend to distinguish the Baptism of water from the Baptism of the Holy Ghost in opposition to the same But to distinguish in the Baptism of water the bodily act of cleansing the flesh from the reasonable act of professing Christianity which being done out of a good conscience towards God he saith saveth us And that by the resurrection of Jesus Christ By vertue whereof S. Paul also saith that if we planted into the like death to Christs death we shall also be planted into the like resurrection of Christs Supposing that whosoever is baptized takes upon him the profession of Christs Crosse that is the bearing of it when his Christianity cals him to it For when our Lord saith in the Gospel I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. XII 50. And again to the sons of Zebedee Mat. XX 22. Are ye able to be baptized with the Baptism which I shall be baptized with He shews sufficiently that his Baptism is his Crosse In consideration whereof that is of undertaking to bear it out of a good conscience as Christ was raised from death to life again by the Spirit of Holinesse which dwelt in him without measure So those that are planted into the likenesse of Christs death in Baptism are promised the Grace of Gods Spirit to dwell in them and to raise them from sin here to the life of Grace and from death hereafter to the life of Glory in the world to come as I shewed you in the first Book So that S. Pauls argument proceeds not upon consideration of the Ceremony of Baptism and the naturall resemblance it hath with the duty of a Christian to rise from sin because he professes to die to it For that were to think that the Apostles have but weak argumens to inforce the obligation of Christianity with when this prime one is made to signifie no more then an indecorisne impertinence or inconsequence in signifying and professing that by our Baptism which by our lives we perform not But maketh Baptism the protestation of a solemn vow and promise to God and men and Angels to live for the future as the profession of Christians importeth And is it possible to show man overtaken in sin a more valuable consideration to expect salvation upon and therefore a stronger means to inforce the performance of what he hath undertaken then his own ingagement upon such a consideration as that We are therefore baptized with Christ unto death because we have undertaken upon our Baptism to mortifie our selves to the world that we may live to Gods service And upon that condition we promise our selves that we shall be raised from the dead again though by vertue of Christs rising again Being buried with him in Baptism wherein ye are also risen with him by faith of the effectuall working of God which raised him from the dead saith S. Paul Col. II. 12. For by obliging our selves to the profession of Christianity from a good heart and clear conscience we obtain the promise of the Holy Ghost whereby God effecteth the raising of us to a new life of righteousnesse necessarily consequent to the mortifying of sinne Besides these how many and how excellent effects are attributed to Baptism in the writings of the Apostles which without S. Peters distinction might seem strange that they should depend upon the clensing of the flesh but that they should by Gods appointment depend upon that ingagement whereby we give our selvs up to Christ for the future according to his distinction not at all For that this ingagement should not be effectuall till consigned unto the Church at Baptism cannot seem strange to him that believes the Catholick Church to be as I have shewed a corporation founded for the maintenance and exercise of that Christianity to which we ingage our selves by Baptism When the Jewes were pricked in heart to see our Lord whom they had crucified to be risen again and asked the Apostles Men and Brethren What shall we doe Acts II. 37 38. Peter saith unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you unto remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Which if it depend upon Baptism what promise of the Gospel is there that does not To the same purpose Heb. VI. 6. It is impossible for them that have once been inlightned and tasted the heavenly gift and become partakers
the Father but of the World But what is there between God and the world but the old serpent and the leaven which he hath poisoned man with And this is that venim which we read of Psal LVIII 4 5 6. The wicked are estranged from their mothers womb as soon as they are born they go astray and speak lies They have venime like the venime of a serpent like the deaf addar that stoppeth his eare That will not hear the voice of the inchanters that inchant with charmes cunningly For if it be said that all this speakes onely of the wicked which of their own choice have addicted themselves to sinne and that by being bred to it by their Fathers and predecessor and so debauched from their own natural innocence I shall presently appeale to David himself and his confession with which he pretends to grace Psal LI. 7. 8. Behold I was formed in wickednesse and in sin did my mother conceive me But behold thou requirest truth in the intrailes and shalt make me to understand wisdome secretly I know it is said that this is nothing but an hyperbolicall expression of the Prophet whereby he chargeth himselfe with sinne even before he could understand what sinne was and that from the time of his conceiving in the womb were that possible he hath been liable to sinne and so left without mercy And to this purpose is alledged that of the Pharisees to the blind man John IX 34. Thou wast wholly born in sinne and dost thou teach us To argue that among the Jews it was an ordinary expression to aggravate a mans sinne by saying That he was borne in sinne And truly what the Jews of that time might conceive of the coming in of sinne is not alltogether so cleare in regard of the Apostles words to our Lord upon the occasion of the same man when they askt our Lord whether he was born blinde for his owne sinne or for the sinne of his parents John IX 2. Which our Lord answering for neither but for a particular intent of shewing a particular work of God upon him Denies not the common taint of our nature when he affirmes That particualr workes of providence upon particualr persons have particular reasons and ends for which God will have them come to passe But shews that there were severall opinions in vogue at that time through the nation and that there might be a conceit of mens soules sinning in other bodies or before they came into these bodies according to the position of Pythagoras or the conjecture of Origen Though the opinion of Herod concerning John the Baptist that he should be alive againe in our Lord Mat. XIV 2. doth not appeare to proceed from any such presumption as this but from an imagination that dead mens soules might come and live againe in the world whether in the same or other bodies From this opinion then the reproach of the Pharisees to this man that he was born in sinne may well seem to proceed And their error will not prejudice the truth that all men are indeed born in sinne But I observe further that the people of God as they were totally divided from the worship of Idols so from the consequences thereof which Paul in the first of the Romanes sheweth to have been all sorts of uncleanness in the first place and then the rest of those evils which towards the end of the Chapter he qualifies the Gentiles with For it is manifest that uncleannesse which contained no civil in justice was counted but an indifferent thing with all the Gentiles Let him that would be satisfied of this peruse what the Wise man hath said of the seed of the Gentiles which he compareth with the Jews whom they persecuted all along his whole work Wisdom III. 12-IV 1-6 Where it is manifest that he setteth forth the posterity of the Gentiles as defiled with the uncleannesse wherein they were bred and born And this is most certainely the reason why S. Paul saith of Christians married to Gentiles 1 Cor. VII 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband Else were your children uncleane but now are they holy To wit that a heathen husband or wife consenting to dwell in wedlock with a Christan is sanctified by a Christian husband or wife by whose meanes he is brought to this ingagement For when S. Paul adviseth the Christian party to continue in wedlock contracted with an Idolater before Christianity he presupposeth that the Gentile shall be willing to forbear the vulgar uncleannesses of the Gentiles for the love of a Christian yokefellow Otherwise it could not be honest nor for the reputation of a Christian among the Gentiles having power of divorcing as both parties had in the Romane Empire to continue in wedlock with him that acknowledged not Christian but onely civil wedlock That is the wife to be tied in regard of the issue but the man free to all uucleannesse which the Romane Lawes no way restrained And therefore their children so farre from being unclean according to the manners of heathen parents that they are holy upon presumption that they shall be bred in the instruction of Christianity by the meanes of that party which was Christian I observe againe that the Prophet David speaking of his wicked enemies the figure of the Jewes whom thereby he designeth aforehand to be the enemies of our Lord and his Church applieth the same expression to them being of the carnall people of God but farre from Jewes according to the spirit which the people of God other whiles use concerning the Gentiles when he saith that they are estranged from the wombe and as soone as they are born go astray and speak lies For it is manifest that he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal LIX 6 9. which by the title appeares to be written of the Jewes his enemies And so Psal XLII 2. Which word commonly stands in as ill a sense with the Jewes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gentes Nationes to the Christians not for people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for Ethnicks or Gentiles that is to say Idolaters And so to this day the Jewes call us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Gentiles And upon these observations I am induced to believe that the Pharisees and those of the Consistory out of the confidence they had of their own holinesse which they presumed of upon the Curisity which they kept the Law with did judge of those that pretended not to the same as of people once removed from Gentiles and so sinners from their birth by the grossenesse of those manners in which they were bred But when David comes to confesse of himself that he was altogether born in sinne and conceived by his mother in wickednesse It is not possible that any such reason should take place but rather such a one as may make good whatsoever
uprightnesse of Adams posterity upon the condition of his obedience when as it is evident enough that it was in his power to have done otherwise And this account being rendred it will be easie to say why Eve found not the effect of her transgression before Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit To wit Not because she should never have found any had not he sinned But because the effects of it do not necessarily follow instantly at all times and in all things and that in tempting Adam which was the next thing she did they did instantly appear As for the great difficulty how the spirituall substance of the soul should receive a taint from the carnall concupiscence whereby it cometh to be united to the body I will here challenge the benefit of that principle which I have once established That which once was not matter of Faith can never by processe of time or any act the Church can do become matter of Faith Though we may become more obliged to believe it not by the generall obligation of Christianity but by having studied the reasons by which it is deduced from the principles of Faith Besides that light of reason which Faith presupposeth And by the same reason the Church may justly injoyne it to be received â—hat is to say not openly contradicted For such is the matter of the propagation of mans soul whether by transplanting as part of the Fathers hold or by immediate existence from God in the body which nature prepareth for it Which having been manifestly disputable in S. Augustines time I hold it very consequent to that which I have done in the point of the Trinity whether it may be made evident to reason or not to leave it without producing any mans reason by which I pretend to maintaine that it is either traâ—uced or created A wayes supposing that no reason can be receivable which provideth not for the immortality of it which no man questions Lastly it is manifest that actuall sinne â—s first called by the name of sinne because first subject to sense but so that the displeasure of God and by consequence the name of sinne is no lesse reall against habituall sinnes So I will confesse further as afore of the terms of essence and person in the mystery of the blessed Trinity that they were brought into the Church to prevent the malice of hereticks and to settle a right understanding in that which was necessary to be received by Christians So now that the terme of Original sinne was first brought in by S. Augustine and the Church of his time to expresse that ground upon which the Church had from the beginning maintained the grace of our Lord Christ and the necessity of it But that thâ—s ground is not to be maintained unlesse we acknowledge besides those habits of sinne which we contract an habituall inclination to sinne bred in our nature from the fall of Adam which may be called sinne in regard of the likenesse and correspondence of it to and with other inclinations to sinne contracted by custome Having thus set aside this opinion before I come to decide the difficulty proposed I hold it necessary to debate that which both parts seem to take for granted neither of them having expressed any reason to oblige us so to take it That is whether Adam were created to supernaturall happinesse which is that which Christians now expect in the presence of God for everlasting and therefore indowed with those graces which might make him capable of it Or onely in a state of naturall happinesse consisting in the content of this life onely and supposing perfect obedience to God in the course of it Were it but for the the repute I have of Grotius for his skill in the Scriptures who in one of his Annotations upon Cassander hath declared this opinion for part of his judgement I should count it worth the debating But I have found it further maintained by reasons which seem to me considerable and no way prejudiciall to the Faith Which notwithstanding I do not intend to propose for mine own ingaging my self to maintaine this but to confront with the reasons brought for it what I find reasonable to be said on the other side that in a nice and obscure point the discreet reader may chuse what he shall think most fit to allow Now all the argument that can be drawn into consequence on either side arising from the relation of Moses compared with such texts of the New Testament as may give light to it It is first argued That seeing God first framed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soule It seemeth evident that he was made in a state of naturall life onely S. Paul having said in comparing him with Christ 1 Cor. XV. 45. So also it is written The first man Adam became a living soul The last Adam became a quickning Spirit Meaning to say That as Moses saith that Adam became a living soul So not that Moses saith but that Christians may say that Christ is become a quickning Spirit For hereupon it followes in S. Paul that as that which is spirituall was to follow so that which is naturall or animall was to go before But to this on behalf of the other part me thinks it may be said That Moses as all the Old Testament speakes onely of the state of our naturall life but intends by the correspondence between materiall and spiritual things as the figure and that which it figures to signify to us that which belongs to that spirituall life which the Gospel introduces Of which intent all that I have produced to settle that difference between the litterall and mysticall sense of the Old Testament is evidence So that Gods breathing the breath of life into mans nostrills is the figure of his breathing the spirituall life of Grace into the soul which divers ancient Fathers of the Church have understood to be signified by the same words and that according to the true ground and rule of expounding the Scripture if they suppose the breath of naturall life signified first by the same words to be inspired as a figure of the spirituall life of grace To which agrees well enough that which followes That man became a living soul in correspondence to the second Adam who is become a quickning Spirit according to S. Paul For Christ is become a quickning Spirit because he shall raise the mortall bodies of those in whom his Spirit dwelt here But Adam though we suppose him to be made a living soul in respect of the life of Grace yet had that life from the Spirit of Grace the fullnesse whereof dwelt in Christ On the other side it is argued that seeing man was made in the image of God and his likenesse Gen. I. 26 27. IX 6. and that the image of God consists in that righteousnesse and true holinesse to which Christians are regenerated by grace Ephes IV.
Sacrament mystically I conceive I am excused of any further answer and am not obliged to declare the maner of that which must be mystical when I have said what I can say to declare it Onely I will take leave to tell him that hee will remain neverthelesse obliged to believe the truth both of the sign and of the thing signified and that by virtue of the Sacrament that is of the consecration that makes it a Sacrament not of the faith of him that receives it though I answer not all that hee demands upon the question What the Sacramental presence of the body and bloud of Christ in or with or under the Elements of the Eucharist signifies I would now consider wherein the Consecration of the Eucharist consists that I might thereupon inferre what kind of presence it inforceth But I hold it fit first to set aside those two opinions the one whereof I said ascribeth it to the Faith of them that receive being accidental to the Consecration and not included in it The other to the Hypostatical Union and that communication which it inferreth between the properties of the united natures That which I have already said I suppose is enough to evidence the mystical and spiritual presence of the flesh and bloud of Christ in the Elements as the Sacrament of the same before any man can suppose that spiritual presence of them to the soul which the eating and drinking Christs flesh and bloud spiritually by living Faith importeth Onely that I may once conclude how faith effecteth the Sacramental presence in the Elements as well as the spiritual in the Soul I will distinguish between the outward profession of Christianity which maketh us Members of Gods visible Church and the inward performance or faithful purpose of performing the same which makes a man of that number whom God owns for Heirs of his Kingdome whether you call that number an invisible Church or not And then I say that it is the visible profession of true Christianity which makes the Consecration of the Eucharist effectual to make the body and bloud of Christ Sacramentally present in the Elements of it But that it is the invisible faithfulnesse of the heart in making good or in resolving to make good the said profession which makes the receiving of it effectual to the spiritual eating and drinking of Christs body and bloud For supposing that God hath instituted and founded the Corporation of his Church upon the precept or the privilege of assembling to communicate in the offices of his service according to Christianity Whensoever this office is rendred to God out of that profession which makes men Members of Gods Church there the effect followes as sure as Christianity is true Where otherwise there can be no such assurance But if eating and drinking the body and bloud of Christ in this Sacrament unworthily be the crucifying of Christ again rendring a man guilty of his body and bloud then is not his flesh and bloud spiritually eaten and drunk till living faith make them spiritually present to the Soul which the Consecration maketh Sacramentally present to the body And it is to be noted that no man â—â—n say that this Sacrament represents or tenders and exhibites unto him that receiveth the body and bloud of Christ as all must do that abhorre the irreverence to so great an Ordinance which the opinion that it is but a bare sign of Christ crucified necessarily ingendreth but hee must believe this Unlesse a man will say that that which is not present may be represented that is to say â—â—nâ—râ—d and exhibited presently down upon the place It is not therefore that living faith which hee that receiveth the Eucharist and is present at the consecrating of it may have and may not have that causeth the body and bloud of Christ to be Sacramentally present in the Elements of it But it is the profession of that common Christianity which makes men Members of Gods Church In the unity whereof wheresoever this Sacrament is celebrated without enquiring whether those that are assembled be of the number of those to whom the Kingdome of Heaven belongs thou hast a Legal presumption even towards God that thou receivest the flesh and bloud of Christ in and with the Elements of bread and wine and shalt receive the same spiritually for the food of thy Soul supposing that thou receivest the same with living faith For one part of our common Christianity being this That our Lord Christ instituted this Sacrament with a promise to make by his Spirit the Elements of bread and wine Sacramentally his body and bloud so that his Spirit that made them so dwelling in them as in his natural body should feed them with Christs body and bloud that receive the Sacrament of them with living faith This institution being executed that is the Eucharist being consecrated according to it so sure as Christianity is true so sure the effect follows So that the faith which brings it to effect is the faith of them who believing Gods promises proceed to execute his Ordinances that they may obtain the same Whereas those that would have justifying faith to consist in believing a mans own Salvation or the decree of God perempâ—orily passed upon it and the Sacrament of the Eucharist to be appointed for a sign to confirm this faith which is nothing else but the revelation of this decree are not able to say how the signifying of the eating of Christs body and bloud conduces to such a revelation as this or why any such thing is done which conduceth not to the purpose Besides that having showed wherein justifying faith indeed consists I have by that means made it appear that the Sacramental nourishment of the Soul is the means of the spiritual nourishment of the Soul as well as the resemblance of it Here indeed it will be requisite to take notice of that which may be objected for an inconvenience That God should grant the operation of his Spirit to make the Elements Sacramentally the body and bloud of Christ upon the dead faith of them who receive it to their condemnation in the Sacrament and therefore cannot be said to eat the body and bloud of Christ which is onely the act of living faith without that abatement which the premises have established To wit in the Sacrament But all this if the effect of my saying be throughly considered will appear to be no inconvenience For that the body and bloud of Christ should be Sacramentally present in and under the Elements to be spiritually received of all that meet it with a living faith to condemn those for crucifying Christ again that receive it with a dead faith can it seem any way inconsequent to the Consecration thereof by virtue of the common faith of Christians professing that which is requisite to make true Christians whether by a living oâ— a dead faith Rather must wee be to seek for a reason why hee that â—ateth this bread and drinketh
is to be attributed to the Unction appears to be of so much the later date And therefore I alledge also the words that are quoted out of the Book de rectitudine Catholicae conversationis among S. Austines Works Qui aegrotat in solâ dei miserecordiâ confidat Eucharistiam cum fide devotione accipiat oleumque benedictum fideliter ab Ecclesiâ petat unde corpus suum ungatur Et secundum Apostolum oratio fidei salvabit infirnuim alleviabit eum dominis Nec solum corporis sed animae sanitatem accipiet Let him that is sick trust onely in the mercy of God and receive the Eucharist with faith and devotion and faithfully send for the consecrated oyl from the Church that his body may be anointed with it And according to the Apostle the Prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall give him ease And he receive health not onely of Body but soul also This indeed is something like that which they say now in the Church of Rome that our originall inclination to evill dulnesse and faintnesse to good and aversenesse of the mind from spirituall exercises are those reliques of sinne which this Unction cureth In the mean time remission of sinne is or ought to be presupposed by the Keyes of the Church passed upon him that duly receives the Eucharist Nor can that health of the mind which cureth these infirmities be attributed to the Unction which pretends bodily health but to the prayers of the Church prescribe to be made for the sick in that estate And since those that deduce the office of anoiniting the sick and by consequence the effect of it from the practice of the Apostles curing with oyl as Bede Theophylact and Euthynius upon Mark VI. how will they justifie the spirituall promise of remission of sinne to depend upon the bodily act of anointing the sick but upon supposition of that disposition of the soul which qualifieth for it which cannot be supposed when recourse ought to be had to the Keyes of the Church for obtaining it and is not And thereforâ— there can be no greater argument thereof in the practice of the Church then this that the orâ—inary use of this unction both in the Eastern and Western Church is after receiving the Euâ—hariâ—l which supposeth in the Church a legall presumption at least of the parâ—â—es being in the state of grace The words of venerable Bede upon Mark VI. 13. are by no means to be neglected Dicit Apostolus â—acobus Infirmatur quis in vobis Inducat Presbyteros Ecclesiae orent super ipsum ungentes eam â—leo in nomine dâ—mini Et si in peccatis sit dimittentur ei Unde patet ab ipsis Apostolâ—â— hunc Sanctae â—cclesiae morem esse traditum ut energumeni vel alii quilibet aegroti uâ—gantur oleo pontificali benedictione consecrato The Apostle James saith Is aâ—y man among you sick let him bring the Priests of the Church and â—et them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord. And if he be in sinnes they shall be forgiven him Whence it appeareth that this custome was delivered to the Holy Church by the Apostles that the vexed with evill Spirits and other sick persons be anointed with oyl consecrated by the blessing of the High Priest I believe no lesse By that which the Apostles did then it appeareth that thereupon S. James ordered and the Church used to anoint the sick in hope of bodily health but with prayers for the soul also and that by the ministers of the Church when the case required their presence that is when the ministers of the Keyes was requisite But when he saith That the vexed with unâ—leâ—n spirits as well as the sick were to be anointed with it he toucheth thar whiâ—h he declareth more at large uâ—on James V. 14. 15. Hoc Apostolos fecisse in Evangelio legimus nunc Ecclesiae consuetudo tenet ut infirmi oleo coâ—secrato ungantur a Presbyteris oratione comitante sanentur Nec solum Presbyteris sed ut Innocentuis Papa scribit etiam omnibus Christianis uti licet eodem oleo in sua aut suorum infirmitate ungendo Quod tamen oleum non nisi ab Episcopis licet confici Nam quod ait in nomine domini significat oleum consecratum in nomine domini Vel certe quia cum ungunt infirnium momen domini super eum invocare debent This was not onely read in the Gospel that the Apostle did but also the custome of the Church now holdeth that the sick be anointed with consecrated oyle by the Priests and cured by Prayer accompanying the same Nor may onely Priests but also all Christians as Pope Innocent writeth use the same oyle when they or theirs are sick by anointing Which oyl notwithstanding is not to be consecrated but by the Bishop For that which he sath in the name of the Lord signifieth that the oyl must be consecrated in the name of the Lord. Or he saith it forsooth because when they anoint the sick they are to call upon the Name of the Lord over him The words of Pope Innocent Epist I. Quod non est dubinum de fidelibus aegro tantibus accipi vel intelligi debere qui sancto oleo Chrismatis perungi possunt quo ab Episcopo confecto non solum sacerdotibus sed omibus uti Christianis licet in sua aut suorum necessitaâ—e inungendo Which words of S. James are without doubt to be taken and understood of believers that are sick who may be anointed with the holy oyle of anointing Which being consecrated by the Bishop not Priests onely but all Christians may use when they or theirs need it by anointing And by and by Nam poenitentibus istud infundi non potest quia genus est Sacramenti Nam quibus reliqua Sacramenta negantur quomodo unum genus putatur concedi For it cannot be poured upon Penitents because it is a kind of Sacrament For how should it be thought that one kind can be allowed them whom the rest of the Sacraments are refused Bede agâ—in Si ergo infirmi in peccatis sint haec Presbyteris Ecclesiae confessi fueriâ—â— ac perfecto corde ea relinquere atque emendare sategerint dimittentur eis Neque enim sine coâ—fessione emendationis peccà ta querunt dimitti Unde recte subiungitur Confitemini ergo alteurtium peccata vestra orate pro invicem ut salvemini In hac autem sententia illa debet esse discretio ut quotidiana leviaque peccata alterutrum coaequalibus confiteamur eorumque quotidianà credamus oratione salvari Porro gracioris leprae immunditiaem juxta legem sacerdoti paudamus aâ—que ad ejus arbitium qualiter quanto tempore jusserit pacificari curemus If the sick then be in sins and shall have confessed them to the Priests of the Church and indeavoured to leave and mend them with a perfect heart
whereby they thought they held their estate whether of this world or the hope they might have of the world to come For my opinion obligeth me not to say that Idolatry was commanded by this law of Jeroboam or practised by all that conformed to it But that though not expresly commanded yet it followed by necessary consequence upon the introducing of the Law Not by consequence of naturall necessity from that which the terms thereof imported but by that necessity which the Schoole calls morall when the common discretion of men that are able to judge in such matters evidences that supposing such a Law it must needs and will come to passe CHAP. XXVI The Place or rather the State of happy and miserable Soules otherwise understood by Gods people before Christs ascension then after it What the Apocalypse what the rest of the Apostles declare Onely Martyrs before Gods Throne Of the sight of God I Come now to the nicest point if I mistake not of all that occasions the present Controversies and divisions of the Western Church the state of soules departed with the profession of Christianity till the day of Judgement The resolution whereof that which remaines concerning the publick service of God the order and circumstances of the same must presuppose This resolution must procede upon supposition of that which the first book hath declared concerning the knowledge of the Resurrection and the world to come under the Old Testament and the reservation and good husbandry in declaring it which is used in the writings of it The consideration whereof mightily commendeth the wisdome and judgment of the ancient Church in proposing the bookes which we call Apocrypha for the instruction of the Ca echumeni or learners of Christianity For these are they in which the Resurrection and the world to come and the happy state of righteous soules after death is plainly and without circumstance first set forth I need not here repeat the seven Maccabees and their mother professing to dy for Gods Law in confidence of Resurrection to the world to come 2 Mac. VII 9 11 23 36. nor the Apostle Ebr. XI 35-38 testifying the same of them and the rest that lived or died in their case But I must not omit the Wisdom of Solomon the subject whereof as I said afore is to commend the Law of God to the Gentiles that in stead of persecuting Gods people they might learn the worship of the onely true God For this he doth by this argument that those who persecute Gods people think there remains no life after this but shall find that the righteous were at rest as soone at they were dead and in the day of judgement shall triumph over their enemies Wisdome II. III. 1-8 V From hence proceeding to show how the wisdome of Gods people derives it selfe from Gods wisdome who so strangely delivered them from the persecutions of Pharaoh and the Egyptians for a warning to those that might undertake the like In particular the Kings of Egypt under whom this was writ and the Jewes most used the Greek The Wisdome of Jesus the sonne of Sirach pretending to lay down those rules of righteous conversation which the study of the Law the off-spring of Gods Wisdome had furnished him with is not so copious in this point though the precepts of inward and spirituall obedience and service of God from the heart which he delivers throughout can by no meanes be parted from the hope of the world to come being grounded upon nothing else And he proposeth it plainly from the beginning when he saith He that feareth God it shall go well with him in the end and at the day of his death he shall be blessed The very additions to Daniel are a bulwarke to the Faith of the Church when it appeares that the happinesse of righteous soules after death is not taken up by any blind tradition among Christians but before Christianity expressed for the sense of Daniels fellows in those words of their hymne O ye spirits and souls of the righteous blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnify him for ever And whatsoever we may make of the second book of Maccabees the antiquity of it will alwayes be evidence that the principall author of it Jason of Cyrene could never have been either so senselesse or so impudent as to impose upon his nation that prayers or sacrifices were used by them in regard of the resurrection if they believed not the being and sense of humane souls after death 2 Mac. XII 43. Proceed we to those passages concerning this point which the Gospell afford us and consider how well they agree herewith I will not here dispute that our Lord intended to relate a thing that really was come to passe but to propose a parable or resemblance of that which might and did come to passe when he said Luke XVI 19 There was a certaine rich man that was clad with fine linnen and purple and made good chear every day But I will presume upon this That no man that meanes not to make a mockery of the Scriptures will indure that our Lord should represent unto us in such terms as we are able to bear that which falls out to righteous and wicked soules after death if there were no such thing as sense and capacity of pleasure and paine in souls departed according to that which they do here I will also propose to consideration the description of the place whereby he represents unto us the different estate of those whom it receiveth And in Hell lifting up his eyes being in torments he sees Abraham from afarre and Lazarus in his bosome And afterwards And besides all this between us and you there is a great gappe fixed so that those who would passe from hence cannot nor may they passe from thence to us For I perceive it is swallowed for Gospell amongst us that Dives being in Hell saw Lazarus in the third heavens Whereas the Scripture saith onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the invisible place of good and bad â—oules For so the processe of the Parable obliges us to understand it Sâ—â—ing it would be somewhat strange to understand that gappe wherewith the place of happy soules is here described to be parted from the place of torments to be the earth and all that is between the third heavens and it The Jewes at this time as we see by the Gospell believing according to the testimonies alleged that righteous soules were in rest and pleasure and happinesse wicked in misery and torments called the place or state of those torments Gehenna from the valley of the sonnes of Hinnom neer Jerusalem where those that of old time sacrificed their children to devils burnt them with fire The horror of which place it appears was taken up for a resemblance fit to represent the torment of the wicked soules after death In like manner Gods people being sensible of Gods mercy in using meanes to bring them back to the ancient inheritance
God knowes us as we are Nay he saith there that Moses beheld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek seems to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying that glorious appearance witnessing the presence of God which Moses communed with mouth to mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by sight for we have no better English for S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. V. 7. not by riddles Whereby it appeareth the knowledge of God which blessed soules have is described by S. Paul in the very same termes in which the knowledg of God which Moses had is described by God And yet none of those School Doctors believes that Moses saw God as the blessed shall doe Therefore both of them seeme to be such an expression of intellectuall and spirituall things borrowed from bodily things of this world as this weakenesse of our nature is able to beare And therefore seeing God is represented to us throughout the whole scripture in the Majesty of a King sitting upon his Throne as the most glorious thing that all sorts of men to whom the scripture is written can imagine to themselves it seemeth most reasonable to conceive that both expâ—essions are borrowed from thence For the custome of the world knowes no more evident marke of preferment then for a man to see his King and to be alwaies admitted to his presence of which admission Courts know that there are many degrees As the VII Princes in Ester I. 16. which see the Kings face Or stand before the Kings face as the Queen of Sheba expresseth it in Solomons servants 2 Kings X. 8. As the souls of the Martyrs are before Gods throne and see him day and night Apoc. VII 15. And so by consequence those soules that are admitted into Gods presence have an other manner of knowledge and familiarity with God then ever Moses had because it is one thing to see God to speake with God mouth to mouth in his Tabernacle Where by a glorious appearance speaking in his person he testified his presence another thing in the third heavens whereof the most Holy Place of the Tabernacle was but a figure Here take notice before we goe further in what fashion the Majesty of God appeareth or is described in the scriptures I saw the Lord sitting on his Throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left saith the prophet 1 Kings XX. 19. that is all the Angels attending on both sides of his Throne God is to be trembled at in the great council of his Saints and terrible above all that are about him Saith David Psa LXXIX 8. The Majesty of his Throne is terrible even to the Angels that stand beneath and about it For the Saints of heaven in the old Testament are onely Angels Thus far none of them sits in Gods presence In that vision of his throne which appeareth Dan. VII 9. 10. with God sitting on it like the Ancient of daies with a thousand thowsands and a miryade of miryads waiting upon him it is said indeed Thrones were set But no mention of any but this one in all that followeth And though the people of God are called there v. 22 25 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saints of the Highest Yet the Angles are still the Saints of heaven His people the Saints on earth whom God there giveth sentence for against their enemies But to the prophet Ezekiel I. 22 26 27. he appearteth in the likenesse of a man sitting upon a Throne pitched on a floor which is drawne by foure living creatures signifying those Angels which covered the Arke of the Covenant in the Tabernacle upon which God is described to sit as upon his Throne in so many places of the old Testament Whereas in the vision of the Prophet Esay his Throne is compassed by six Esay VI. 1 2. in that of S. Iohn Apoc. IV. 2 3 5-8 with foure But in the new testament our Lord promises his twelve Apostles that at the regeneration that is the Resurrection they shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Mat. XIX 28. Luke XXII 30. where by the way wee are also to note that the Kingdome of God which oure Lord bequeaths to them to eate and to drink in it and to sit on these thrones is not till the resurrection Therfore neither these joies which the said eating and drinking signifies Hereuppon it is that S. Paul saith Know you not that the Saints shal judge the world 1 Cor. VI. 2. When therfore God appeareth to S. Iohn as a bout to take vengeance upon the persecutors of his Church his throne appeareth invironed with XXIV Thrones for XXâ—V Elders to sit on and give sentence with him Apoc. VI. 4. the Angels attending upon their Thrones as upon his Apoc. V. 11. VII 11. and the soules of the Martyrs which Apoc. VI. â— appeare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beneath the Altar of incense which stands before the throne Apoc. VIII 3. appeare before the Throne Apoc. VII 9. Just as in the Church the people was wont to stand at the service of God with their faces towardes the Bishop sitting on his throne in the midst of the seates on which the Presbyters sate on both sides of him the Deacons standing to gâ—ve them attendance As I have shewed large in my booke of the service of the Church Chap. III. p. 53-62 Chap. IV. p. 71-76 besides the review p. 74 75. And further in my book of the Râ—ght of the Church p. 93-98 But all this while we must remember that though this vision appeares to S. Iohn in the heavens Apoc. IV. 1. yet doth it not appear that the Throne of God before which the soules of the Martyrs stand and round about which the XXIV Elders sit is seene by them as it is seene by S. Iohn in the vision here described For whereas it is plaine that all this is represented as if there wâ—re in Heaven such a Temple as that at Jerusalem in the inner court whereof the Elders sit the people stand praysing God For Apoc. VII 15. the Martyâ—s serve God before the Throne day and night in the Temple It is manifest that the Throne of God which in the Temple was the Arke of the Covenant shadowed with the Châ—rubâ—nes was not seene by those who worshipped without in the Court. And Apoc. IV 5. it is said that thunder and lightning came out of the Throne and that there were seven lamps burning before the Throne being the seven spirits of God So that the seven candelsticks being betweene the Holy of Holies and the Court in which these things appeare we are obliged to understand the Throne to be in the Holy of Holies as in the Temple and the VII lights in the outward Tabernacle or holy place of the Temple Which is still more plaine when it is said Apoc. XI 19. And the Temple of God in heaven was opened and the Arke of his Covenant was seene in
shall confirme it by so visible an instance as this Death was proposed to Adam for the mark of Gods wrath and vengeance which he was become liable to by sinne The turning of this curse into a blessing was to be the effect of Christs Crosse which was not yet to be revealed The life of the Land of Promise was proposed for the reward of keeping Gods law in stead of the life of Paradise Therefore the cutting off of that life was to be taken for a mark of that curse which mankind became subject to by the first Adam till it should be declared the way to a better life by the Crosse of Christ Therefore the Giants that left it with the markes of enmity with God upon them are described as within the dominion of Hell but not asleep unlesse we can think that it is a mark of misery to go to them that sleep when all do sleep Prov. II. 17. IX 18. XXI 17. Esay XXVI 14. For that there should be no praising of God after death holds punctually in virtue of the Old Covenant which brought no man to life and was then on foot though they who writ those things might and did know that by the virtue of the New Covenant under which they knew themselves to be they should not be deprived of the priviledge of praising God after death and before the resurrection how sparing soever they were to be in imparting this knowledge openly to all the world For how otherwise should they whom the Apostle Ebr. XI declareth to have sought the kingdom of heaven have showed themselves otherwise affected with death then the Martyrs that suffered for Christ were afterwards How could it be thought the same Spirit that moved them to such a difference of effects according to the difference of time And therefore the same Solomon that saith there is nothing to be done in the grave Eccles IX 10. saith further Eccles XII 8. that when the dust returns to the earth then the soul returns to God that gave it And when Exoch and Elias were taken away by God in their Bodies neither sleep they seeing Moses and Elias attend our Lord Christ at his transfiguration Mat. XVII 3 4. Mark IX 4 5. Luke IX 30. nor is it possible for any man that would have soules to sleep to give a reason why the Covenant by which all are ordered being the same the soules of Christians should sleep when their souls sleep not And therefore when our Lord proves the resurrection by this That God is called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob whereas God is not the God of the dead but of the living Mat. XXII 32. Mark XII 26. Luke XX. 37. he not onely supposes that his argument is good but that his adversaries the Sadduces granted it to be good And so Saint Paul when he argues that if the dead rise not againe then are we the most miserable of all people As having no further hope then this life 1 Cor. XV. 19. For what needed more to them that owned the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ and yet would deny the world to come questioning the resurrection that supposes it For the rest I will not repeate that which I produced afore out of the Books we call Apocrypha which he that peruseth will find a difference between the language of the Patriarchs and Prophets speaking of themselves and the language of those Bookes speaking of them But I will insist upon this that our Lord when he proposeth the Parable of Dives and Lazarus manifestly accepts of that opinion which notwithstanding such difficulties from the Scriptures of the Old Testament had prevailed over the better part of that people by Tradition of the Fathers and Prophets To wit that the soules of good and bad are alive in joy and paine according to the qualities in which they depart hence and shall resume their bodies to give account in them for their workes here The same doth the appearance of Moses and Elias at his transfiguration the rendering of his soul into his Fathers hand the promise of bringing the thiefe into Paradise the same day signify Whereby it appeareth that whatsoever might seeme to argue either that the soules of the Fathers were in the devils hands till the death and resurrection of Christ or that all soules go out like sparks when men dy and are kindled anew when they rise againe prove nothing because they prove too much For if they prove any thing they must prove that there is no world to come as the disputes of Ecclesiastes and Job seem to say because by the accidents of this world there is no ground of a mans estate in it Which seeing it is so farre from leaving any dispute among Christians that among Jewes the Sadduces were reputed Sectaries It is evident that whatsoever may seem to look that way in the Old Testament cannot prove that the soules of the Fathers were in the Verge of Hell till Christ riseing againe 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 to many as we read in the Gospel of Mat. XXVII 52 53. This indeed were something if the Scripture had said that those Saints who arose with their bodies when our Lord Christ was risen againe had ascended into heaven with him in their bodies Which because it derogates from the generallity of the last resurrection having no ground in the Scripture can beare no dispute Therefore seeing these Saints as Lazarus afore and the Widowes sonne of Naim whom our Lord raised restored their bodies to the grave there is no presumption from hence that their soules were brought from Hell by our Lord to be translated into the full happinesse of the world to come with his owne I do therefore allow that which is written in the Apocryphall 2 Esdras IV. 41 42. In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman For like as a woman that travaileth maketh hast to escape the pressure of her travaile Even so do those places haste to deliver the things that are committed unto them And VII 32. And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence and the secret places shall deliver those soules that were committed unto them For in most of those writings which the ancient Church counteth Apocryphal because they are suspected to intend some poisonous doctrine excellent things are contained which the agreement of them with Canonicall Scripture and their consequence and dependance upon the truth which they settle renders recommendable even from dangerous authors And for that which is here said whether we suppose this book to be written by a Christian or not before Christ or after Seeing there is no mention of any Saints in those visions of the old Testament where God is represented sitting upon his Throne but
oneby the Holy Angels though in the Apocalypse the Martyrs are before the Throne and the Elders sit on seates round about the Throne seeing it cannot be said that they are translated out of the Verge of Hell into the heavens by the resurrection and ascension of Christ who were in happinesse before by the parable of Dives Lazarus I take the chambers or the houses here mentioned to be the bosom of Abraham in the parable Paradise in our Lords promise secret indeed because the script is sparing in imparting unto us the knowledge of the place But such as oblige them earnestly to desire long for the consummation of all things which not only the comparison of the womb in this Apocryphal scripture but the cry of the souls in Apocal. VI. 10. XX. 12 17 20. witnesseth But I must go no further in this point till I have resolved the difficulty of Samuels souls which he that wil needs question whether it were in the deviles hand for a witch to bring up out of the earth or in the bosome of Abraham where ouâ— Saviour placed Lazarus may as well question whether the witch or the Law sent us to the true God To a heathen man that acknowledgeth not the enmity betweene God and the Devil which the scripture establisheâ—h Necromancy that bringeth the likenesse of the dead out of the earth need not goe for a diabolicall art nor those spirits which minister such appositions be counted uncleane spirits But the scripture even of the old testament placing the Giants Gods enemies beneath oblige us to take it for an uncleane spirit that serves an act forbiden by Gods Law by bringing the likenesse of Gods prophet out of the place where Gods enemies goe after death For though Gods friends goe to the dust as concerning their bodies and as concening theire soules the old Testament declares not whither they goe yet hath it no where described them in that company to which Solomon deputeth his foole And our Saviours parable representeth Dives in the flames which burnt Sodom and Gâ—morrhaâ— no otherwise then Solomon quartereth his fool with the Giants that tyranized over the old world or the land of promise Wherefore though I reject not Ecclesiasticus for commending Samuel because he prophesied after his death because at the worst it is not fit to reject a booke of such excellent use for one mistake yet I had rather say that Saul having by his Apostasy declined to the worship of the Devile by Necromancy did thinke it more satisfactory to be answered by Samuel then by any other likenesse that this is indeed for Samuels honour but that otherwise it is no more for Ecclesiasticus to say that Samuel prophesied then for the scripture that Samuel spoke to Saul Who whether he tooke it for Samuel or for an uncleane spirit the scripture would call it no otherwise then the witch whom he submitted to pretended Shee when she saith I see Gods ascend out of the earth though I find it no incongruity that she should pretend the Spirit whom she imployed to be of that number whom the scripture calleth Gods or Gods sonnes yet because it is rather to be thought that she pretended to bring up Samuel indeed it is more convenient to translate it I see a Judge come up out of the earth understanding that by the habit of a Judge in which he appeared she shows him to Saul for Samuel For the observation of the Jews doctors is most true that Elohim signifies the Judges of Gods people These things thus cleared it is manifest that the soule of Christ parted from his body which lay in the grave did not goe into hell to free the Fathers souls out of thâ— Devils hands and to translate â—hem to the full happinesse which wâ—nts only the company of the body as an accessary to complete it But seeing he may be thought to have gon thither to declare the victory of his Crosse to begin that triumph over the Devill and his partie which the Gospell shall accomplish at the generall judgement by the redemption of the Church Let us see what the Scripture teacheth S. Peter Acts. II. 25-35 first affirmes that David spake of Christ when he said Psalme XVI 11 12. Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell Nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou shalt shâ—w me the path of life thou shalt fill me with the gladnesse of thy presence And proves it because David was dead and buryed and his Seâ—ulchre was seen to thâ—t day Just as he proves afterwards that when David said Psalme CX 2. The â—ord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footestool he meant it of Christ because David never went up into the heavens And there is no doubt the opinion of the Jewes at that day bore him out in that exposition because as to this day so then they did expound those texts of the Messias So he had nothing to doe but to show hâ—w true they were of our Lord Jesus That this no way requireth that thâ—y should not be unâ—erstood of David in the literall sense I refer my self to that which hath been â—aid already But what fignifies it in the literall sense that God shâ—wes David thâ— path of life and fills him with the gladnesse of his presence Surely that he pâ—â—serves him alive in his state title of King of Gods people to serve God before the Arke So Hezâ—kias when he was unwilling to dy â— because the living onely praise God â—â—d â—aid What is the signe that I shall goe into the Temple of the Lord. Esa XXXVIII 19 22. So David how many times doth he â—et forth for the comfort of his life that he might come and see God in the Temple Ps XVII 15. XXIV 3. 5. XXVI 6-13 XLII And in a word every where If this be the literall sense of the Psalme what shall iâ— signifie in the mysticall sense supposing our Lord Jesus the Messias and suâ—posing him killed by the Jewes Let S. Peter be judge when he saies thaâ— â—avid knowing as a Prophet that the Messias our Lord Jesus whom ye have slâ—in should come out of his loines foretold of his resurrection that his oule was not left in Hell nor aid his flesh see corruption For is it any way reqâ—isite to the 〈◊〉 of this argument that our Lords humane soule should triumph over thâ— Devile and his party in the entralls of the earth Therefore â—f you accept his souâ—â— to signifie his person as David Psalm XXV 12. His soule himselfe shall lâ—ve at ease and his seed shall inherit the Land thou shalt not leave my soule in Hell will be no more then thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to lee corruption Thou shalt not suffer me to be cut off from thy presence to which I am to present the sacrifice of my Crosse But if you will needs have the soule to signifie that which stands
in opposition to the flesh seeing the soules of the Fatherâ— which by the dispensation of the Law appeared not freed from the Devin wâ—re indeed free by the Gospel uâ—der the Law it is no marvaile that â—ur Lord Christ represents his soule as in the power oâ— those who had the power oâ— death who â—aith This is your time and the time of the powers of darkenesse Doâ—h S. Paul make any more oâ— thâ—s text Heare his words Actâ— Xâ—Iâ— 34-37 That he raised him from the dead no more to returne to corruptioâ— thus he saith I will give you the sure meâ—cies of David Wherefore he saith also in an other Psalm Thou shall no suffer thine holy one to see corruption For David having served the counsaile of God in his generation fell asleep and was added to his Fathers and saw corruption But he whom God raised â—â—w no corruption He argues the mysticall sense in our Lord Christ 〈◊〉 the literall sense in David was come to nothing by his death but how the mysticall sense in our Lord Christ By his triumphing in Hell or by rising againe Therefore S. Paul againe Rom. X 6-9 thus wrâ—steth the words of Moses out of the Jewes hands to the establishing of the Gospel upon supposition that the law is the figure of it Say not in thy heart who shall goe up into heaven as Moses Deut. XXX 12. faith The Law is not in heaven that thou shouldest say would to God some body would bring it us from heaven that we might heare and doe it So saith he of the Gospel thou needest not say would to God some body would go up into heaven To wit to bring downe Christ Or who shall goe downe into the deep as Moses addeth The Law is not beyond sea that that thou needest say would to God some body would goe beyond sea and bring it us that we might heare and doe it So thou needst not say would to God some body would goe downe into the deep To wit to bring Christ up from the dead But what saith it The Law correspondent to the Gospell The word is neere in thy mouth and in thy heart That is the word of Faith which wee preach That if thou prâ—fesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus believing with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Here it is plaine the deepe is not named for the place of the damned but for that place or for that state out of which it was hard to recover Christ supposing him dead As it was hard to bring the law from beyond the seas The deep I deny not represents to us the place of the damned Luke VIII 31. as also the parts that are under the earth Phi. II. 10. Apoc. V. 13. may comprehend also the dead Therefore the deep signifies the place of the damned not necessarily as here but because the speech is of the region of Devils of the sealing up of the devill in the deep Just as I said of the grave the pit and the place under the earth that when the scripture speakes of the Giants of the enemieâ— of Gods people of Davids enemies in Gods people it signifies either the place or at least the state of the damned which the Old Testament must needs acknowledg acknowledging the happinesse of Gods people Psalme IX 18. Proverbs V. 8 VII 27. IX 18. And so went Corah and his complices quick into Hell Num. XVI 30 33. So Psalme LV. 24. LXIII 10. The proper place of the dâ—mned spirits seemeth to be properly called by S. Peter Tartara when he saies that God delivered them to be kept for judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in chaines of darkenesse being cast downe into Tartara or Hell 1. Peter II. 4. Now the state of death brings not Christian soules into Hell unlâ—sse wee suppose that the place of good souls under the Law which supposition I have destroyed Therefore the bringing of Christ from the deep is done by raising him again So quoting David againe Ephes IV. 8 9 10. Therefore he saith Psa LXVIII 17. Going upon high he led captivity captive and gave men gifts Now that he ascended what is it but that he first descended into the lower paâ—ts of the Earth He that descended is the same that ascended far above all things to fill or fulfill all things The Psalme speakes of the Arke going up into the Tabernacle or Temple figuring the going up of our Lord to the right hand of God as Psalme XXIV 6-10 XLVII 5. The going up of the Arke was Gods triumph over the Idolatrous nations whom he cast out of the Land of promise giving gifts to his people in it The going up of our Lord Christ S. Paul saies implies that he had come downe before into the lower pâ—rt of the Eearth Either in respect of mount Sinai upon which the Psalme describes God with that attendance which the aâ—ke the Cherubines thereof signifie his host of Angels in the words just afore Or we may well understand the lower parts of the earth to signifie by the figure of apposition the earth that is below as flumen Rheni Vrbs Patavii signifie the river Rhine and the City Padna For we have a peremptory instance in Psa CXXXIX 15 where David saith that he was fashioned in the lower parts of the earth speaking of his mothers wombe therefore meaning the earth below The ascension therefore of Christ pretending to fill rather then fulfill all with his graces of which he proceeds to speake requires no descent into hell which he pretends not to fill with his Graces If the resurrection ascension of Christ satisfie these texts so that they require no further descent then into the state of deaâ—h supposing what I said before of the soules of the fathers under the Old Testament I must needs conclude that the body of Christ being buryed his soule went with the good theifes soule into Paradise or the bosome of Abraham where the soules of the Fathers were refreshed of their travells till the first and then the second comming of our Lord. Paradise we know was the place of mans happniesse wherein he was created whence having sinned he was shut out In our Lords time Gods people it is plaine understood well enough the state of the righteous soules in the other world You have seene it out of those boâ—kes which we call Apocrypha Supposing the place unknown as indeed it is how could it be more properly signified then by the name of Paradise opening unto us the whole allegory by which the happinesse which wee seeke to recover by the covâ—nant of grâ—ce was expressed to us by God first in the Land of promise secondly in the Church after in the heavens after the redemption of our bodies The true Land of promise to which the Gospell and the Church secretly taught and built under the Law introduceth us because the Law cannot is that Paradise to which Christ restoreth Adam that was
utterly unreasonable For the Parable representing unto us Dives and Lazarus conferring together at that distance what reason can there be why this victory might not be declared at the same distance Or why the soul of Christ should move to do that which might be done at that distance Least of all why it should be necessary to salvation to believe that which there is no reason why it should be necessary to be done It is true our Lord entered into possession of his conquest when he raised the bodies of those Saints which upon his resurrection appeared in Jerusalem For that was to say that their bodies as well as their souls were from henceforth free from the dominion which sinne gave death over mankind But seeing their soules as we have seen were not to change their abode till the generall râ—surrection and seeing therefore that the soul of Christ was not to go to take them from the verge of Hell for the marke and exercise of his triumph I do not see why it should go into the nethermost Hell the place of the damned to declare his victory and to exercise his triumph and nothing else Now having proved that the soules of the Fathers were not removed from the Verge of Hell to heaven by the descent of Christs soul at such time as the passage from the Law to the Gospell might seem to make such a change reasonable I shall be very difficult to be perswaded that any soules of Christians who depart in the state of grace are sent to the Verge of Hell by the name of Purgatory there to remaine till having payd the debt of temporall punishment reserved at the restoring of them to the state of Grace they are by the prayers of their friends here dismissed to heaven and happinesse Every man knowes that this opinion is chiefly built upon the words of Saint Paul 1 Cor. III. 12-15 If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble Every mans work shall be made manifest For the day shall show it for it is revealed with fire and the fire shall try what every mans work is If any mans work remaine which he hath built upon this foundation of Christ he shall receive the reward If a mans work be burnt up he shall suffer losse yet himself shall be saved but so as through fire But who shall consider these words without prejudice seeing he findes them very difficult shall find it impossible to build an article of faith upon them And finding the issue of them to be at the generall day of judgement shall find that removing of souls out of Purgatory upon which all the consequence thereof depends utterly inconsistent with the same For the day whereof S. Paul here speakes can be no other then the day of judgement because had it been any day of inferiour note it must have been described by some further marke which that day needs not I know two opinions that will not have that day to signify the day of judgement Saint Augustine thinkes that it may signify any day of triall For the fire is the meanes of that triall And tribulation being that triall the day will be the day of tribulation Grotius thinks the day to be the judgement of the Church here whereby that which men build upon the foundation of Christ shall be tried whether it be gold silver precious stones according to the foundation or wood hay stubble no way suitable to it For that which agrees not with the foundation there is no reason why it may not be lost and yet he that laid it upon the foundation be saved though not by that fire yet through that fire that tries What pretense is here left for the purging of soules by that fire whereby they are tried If the triall be at the generall judgement to bring souls out of Purgatory then what thanks can it deserve And of the generall judgement S. Paul must needs speake because there is no other triall that is certaine Affliction may try and the Church may try but it may also not try S. Paul speakes of a triall that must be not that may be I confesse this is avoided by saying that Saint Paul here prophesies of a judgement of God to come upon those who adulterated the Gospell at Corinth of whom he speakes For that judgement which S. Paul foretelleth must certainly come to passe But S. Paul when he saith the day shall show it speaketh not of a day which hereby he declareth that it shall come But of a day which otherwise they acknowledge was to come Namely by our common Christianity whereof the day of judgement is a part And whatsoever judgement Saint Paul foretelleth to come upon them seeing the judgements of this world do not use to make every mans work manifest neither can it be said that he whose work remaines shall receive his reward he whose work is burnt up though he suffer losse shall escape as through fire Speaking of such a triall as by the ordinary course of providence manifests not all mens works but some Besides when S. Paul saith the day is revealed he speakes of a day which in the mean time is concealed when it shall be though allready revealed that it shall be And what day is that but the day of judgement Or what fire did they expect that day to be revealed with but that fire which our Lord shall come to judgement with Now the fire of Gods vengeance which the last day shall come with why should it not try as well as punish This is indeed in my understanding all that possibly can remaine questionable in the sense of those words the rest seems clear beyond dispute The fire of the last day is a bodily fire which shall burn up the world or purify it to that constitution which shall remaine for the future But what is that to the trying of their workes Saint Pauls words require it not The day tries the fire consumes the workes and so leaves the men purged by suffering that losse So mens workes being tried by that great day if it the fire of it cleanse their bodies by sensible torments for that which we speak of comes to passe after the restoring of bodies then it is plaine how the man escapes through fire whose workes are consumed by the fire which punishes the man by whom they are done If this fire cannot be properly understood to try what every mans work is it will be nothing unproper to understand the judgement of God to be the fire which examines mens workes by which examination they which have built hay and stubble upon the foundation of Christ shall loose what they have built and yet themselves scape through that fire of conflagration which shall involve those that hold not the foundation with their works The other text of S. Paul is more obscure then this and yet being brought to prove this purpose cannot here be balked 1 Cor. XV. 29.
against us This execution then is either upon refusing the termes of reconcilement or upon failing of that which we undertake by accepting them That is not upon those failleures which may consist with reconcilement as those who would have these words to signifie Purgatory imagine but which destroy it And therefore the limitation till thou hast paid the utmost farthing signifies as Mat. I. 15. He knew her not till she had brought fourth her first borne son though he never knew her That is to say his utmost farthing shall never be paid My opinion would allow me to accept of Tertullians and S. Cyprians sense of this text who do indeed acknowledge the voiding of those effects of sin which may remain upon those that depart in the state of Grace between death and the day of judgement to be the paying of this utmost farthing But I have shewed you why it agrees not with the intent of the words And if it did it were nothing to Purgatory because Tertullian expresseth it to be paid mâ—ra resurrectioniâ— by the delay of the resurrection that is not before tâ—e generall judgement whereby Purgatory is quite spoiled For pretending the expinting of veniall sin which consisteth with reconcilement together with satisfying the debt of temporall punishment reserved by God upon that sin which he remitteth it cannot be intended by him that gives warning of seeking reconcilement not of voiding the penalties which may remaine when it is obtained Where you may see by survaying the scriptures which have been debated that there is not the least pretense in them for paying this debt by induring the flames of Purgatory for that sin which is forgiven afore But that all satisfaction endeth in voiding the guilt of sin by appeasing the wrâ—th of God for it before wee goe hence There be other texts both of the old and New Testament that are usually alleaged in this dispute But because rather for show then substance I will rather presume that all reasonable men may see where the consequence failes then use so many words as it requires to show it He shall sit as a refiner that purifieth silver and â—â—all purifiâ— the Sons of Levi and purge them as Gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in rightousnesse saith the Prophet Malachi III. 3. But manifestly speaking of the first coming of Christ and triall which the Gospel passes them through that turn Christians upon mature advice Whatsoever trial the second coming of Christ may bring with it correspondent to the first it will be nothing to Purgatory the day of judgement determining it As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth the prisoners out of the pit where in was no water Saith the Prophet Zachary IX 11. speaking of the returne from the Captivity of Babylon and of the prince of Israel that should figure oâ—t our Lord Christ and rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth Whereby it appeareth that the spiritual sense of this Prophesy ending â—n the redemption of mankind by the death of Christ and his Kingdome by the preaching of his Gospel can by no meanes be extended to any delivering out of Purgatory and if it could must not be intended to take place before the second coming Which intent would also appear groundlesse in this Because I have showed that he did not deliver the soules of the Fathers out of the Devils hands at his first coming which this text is alleaged to prove no lesse then Purgatory For this will confine it to the delivery of mankind from sin by the death of our Lord Christ and his sufferings CHAP. XXVIII Ancient opinions in the Church of the place of soules before the day of judgement No Tradition that the Fathers were in the Verge of Hell under the Earth The reason of the difference in the expressions of the Fathers of the Church What Tradition of the Church for the place of Christs soule during his death The Saints soules in secret mansions according to the Tradition of the Church Prayer for the dead supposeth the same No Purgatory according to the Tradition of the Church LEt us now consider the Tradition of the Church in these particulars Justin the Martyr in his dispute with Trypho the Jew by the example of Samuel proveth that the soules of the Fathers and Prophets were in the hands of the Powers of darkenesse And that by the prayer of our Lord Psal XXII 21. wee are taught to pray at our departure that God would not give us up to them as he at his death commends his soule into his Fathers hands It â—s wel enough known that Clemens Alexandrinus believes that both our Lord his Apostles went into Hel to deliver from thence such soules as should admit that which he came to preach He followed in it the Apocryphall vision of Hermes then in request where this is still found libro III. similitud III. and what followers he hath in this opinion you may see by the late Lord Primate his answer to the Jesuites Challenge p. 274. S. Austine de Haer. LXXIX after Philastrius de Haer. LXXIV counts this opinion in the list of Heresies Yet doubted not that he did deliver thence whom he found fit Epist XCIX de Gen. ad Lit. XII 33 34. Nor S. Jerom that he did them good who were there though how it can not be said in Ephes IV. libro II. To the same purpose in IV. Dan. I. in III. Lament II. That this opinion had great vogue in the Church and must be counted in the number of Ecclesiasticall positions cannot be denyed That it is or ever was held as of the Rule of Faith it must Marcion was the fiâ—st that placed the Fathers soules in Hell that he might assigne heaven for the part of his Christ and his God as wee learne by Tertullian IV. 3 4. to wit to entertaine his disciples For this ingageth Tertullian to oppose the Gulfe and the rich mans lifting up his eyes in Hell for arguments that Abrahams bosome is no part of it but higher then Hell though not in heaven to refresh all believers Abr. children til the resurrection for he allowes paradise onely to Martyrs which he maketh also the place under the Alâ—ar where S. Iohn saw onely Martyrs soules though else where Apolog. cap XLVII and in his Poem de Judicio cap. VIII he assigneth it to incertaine the Saints soules without any difference alleaging a revelation to Perpetua a Montanist Virgine to that purpose de Resurr XLIII And therefore de Anima LV. makes that which he made before higher then hell but not in heaven a part of hell where our Lord visited the Fathers soules to wit the upper part of it being all contayned within the entrailes of the earth To the same purpose Iraeneus V. 31. saith it is manifest that the soules of Christians goe into an invisible place the English of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
answer to the Jesuites Challenge Pag. 308-326 that the spoiling of Hell is attributed by the Fathers to the rising of our Lord Christ from the grave whereby the law of death was voided Which if it be true what Tradition can there remaine in the Church that our Lord Christs soule should harrow hell and ransacke it of the soules of the Fathers there detained or in the Verge of it Saint Basil de Sp. S. cap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How then do we go down to Hell aright Imitating the buriall of Christ by Baptisme For the bodies of these who are Baptized are as it were buried in the water Saint Chrysostome in 1 ad Cor. Hom XL. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For to be baptized and first to sink then come up againe is an Embleme of going down into Hell and coming up againe And truly if the force of Christs death in voiding the dominion of death stood by the merit of his sufferings Then was the descent of his flesh into the grave of force to that effect without any descent further of his soul into the lower parts thereof And if the death of Christ and his continuing in death for the time that God had appointed was declared by God to be accepted by him to that effect then was his rising from death his triumph over hell and death whereby the title of his rising againe being declared it must needs appear that neither death nor hell nor the devil hath any more interest in Christians Nor is it so strange that the descent of Christ into hell should be mentioned by the Apostles Creed after his buriall if it signify not the descent of his soul as it would be that it should be left out of other Creeds if it did signify that it is necessary to the salvation of all so to believe For neither is it expressed in the Creed of Nicaea or Constantinople nor was it found in that which the Church of Rome or that which the Churches of the East used saith Ruffinus upon the Creed who notwithstanding expoundeth it because the Church of Aquileia which he belonged to used it Which had the signification of it been a distinct truth necessary to the salvation of all to be believed the Churches could by no meanes have connived at one another in not delivering it And truly seeing the dominion of death intimating the second death to which those who belong not to the New Testament are accursed is signified in the Old Testament by going under the earth The signification of going down into Hell in the Creed can by no meanes be thought superfluous though our Lord neither went thither to rescue the Fathers soules nor to triumph over the Powers of darknesse For as thereby the common curse from whence we are redeemed so is also the reason and meanes of our deliverance from it intimated And seeing there is appearance from that which hath been said that the divell himself did not understand the secret of Gods intent to dissolve his interest in mankind by the death of Christ untill it appeared by what right our Lord resumed his body which he had Laid downe this being declared in the other world by his rising again and in signe thereof the soules of the saints that slept rising againe with him and resuming their bodies there is no reason why the mention of his resurrection following immediately upon the descent into Hell in the Creed should not sufficiently expresse that triumph which this declaration importeth Which triumph being effected by the Godhead though in his flesh it will be no marvaile to meet with some sayings of the Fathers that ascribe it to his Godhead Now the common doctrine of the Schoole maketh it no matter of Faith to believe the descent of Christs soule into that Hell where the damned were but onely to the Verge of it where the souls of the Fathers were It is enough with them that the effect of this Power reached to the place of the damned Cardinall Bellarmine when he published his controversies held it probable that the soul of Christ descended to the place of the damned But upon better consideration in the review of them thinks that the other opinion of Thomas and the rest of the Schoole is to be followed And yet it is not possible to distinguish between this Verge and the lowest hell by any Tradition of the Church Nay Durandus goes so farre out of their rode as to maintaine that the soul of Christ went not to hell that is to Lymbus but onely by the effect of it in making the soules of the Fathers happy Which is in my opinion declaring to them the reason of their happinesse And the opinion of Suarez the Jesuite is remarkable That taking an Article of Faith for a truth necessary for the salvation of all Christians to be known the descent of Christ into hell is no Article of Faith For that is not very necessary for single Christians to know And for that cause perhaps it is not in the Nicene Creed which whoso believeth believes enough to save him And that perhaps for this cause some Fathers expounding the Creed to the People make no mention of it In III. Disput XLIII Sect. II. and IV. I may adde for the advantage of my opinion That if it be not necessary for single Christians to believe much lesse is it necessary for the Church as a body to believe it For those things which the Church believeth as a body it imposeth to be believed upon them who are of the body But it cannot be reasonable for the Church as a body to impose upon the members thereof the beliefe of that which it is not necessary to their salvation as single Christians to believe And therefore allowing the conscientiousnesse of S. Augustine who having presumed that he who believes not the descent is no Christiane doubts not that by the descent as many were delivered as Gods secter justice thought fit Epist XCIX And of Saint Jerome in Eph. II. allowing some work of God to be managed by it which we understand no more then what good our Lords death did the good Angels I allow also the reservedness of those of the Confession of Auspurg or of Suisse who acknowledging the literall sense of this Article find not themselves bound to maintaine for what reason it was I am not offended with those in the Church of England that assigne the triumph of our Lord for the reason of it But believing with Saint Gregory Nyssene in Pascha Resurrect Christi Epist ad Eustath that our Lord by the descent of his body into the grave abolished him that had the power of death by his soul made way for the thiefe into Paradise where it self was count this enough for the salvation of all Christians to be believed And therefore that the Church cannot impose upon them as the necessary meanes of their salvation to believe any more I do not intend to say much more
then I said before to show you that the ancient Church from the beginning held the happinesse of the Saints souls to continue imperfect till the resurrection of their bodies Gennadius de dogmat Eccles LXXVIII LXXIX will have us to take it for the doctrine of the Church that the soules of the Fathers before Christ were in hell tiâ—l they were delivered thence by Christ That since Christ they go straight to Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodies that with them they may attaine intire happinesse And that this doctrine had for some time great vogue in the Church I deny not Nor intend to deny that the Saints are with Christ some whereof the Apocalypse represents before the Throne But that there is no Tradition for the translating of the Fathers souls that the saints are in Abrahams bosom or Paradise with them till the resurrection I conceive I have showed by clearing the sayings of the most ancient Christians from the misprisions which they are intangled with He that shall consider the premises may find Tertul. Lactant. and Victorinus whom Cardinal Bellar. acknowledgeth to detaine all soules in their store-houses till the resurrection De S. Beat. I. 5. good company among the rest of the Fathers And therefore I will referre it to the reader to judge between that exposition that he fits the passages of the Fathers with which he produces and that which my opinion requires Especially having Doctor Stapleton Defens Ecclesiast Authorit â— 2. to confesse with others of that side that all the ancients in a manner do hold the contrary of that which is since defined by the Councile of Florence Saint Bernard I must not omit because it is he who considering the text of the Apocalypse which you may see by the premises sayes more then all the Scripture besides hath so pertinently observed out of it that they are but in the Court as yet but at the consummation of their blisse shall enter into Gods house Therefore he maketh three states of the soule The first in tents the second in the Courts the third in Gods house into which neither the Saints shall enter without the common people of the Church nor their soules without their bodies De omnibus Sanctis Serm III. And Serm. IV. the Saints which now see onely the manhood of Christ under the altar he saith shall be lifted upon the altar to see the essence of God The Schoole since his time upon occasion of the contest with the Greek Church believing with Saint Bernard hath stated the dispute upon this terme of seeing God And John XXII Pope is questioned whether intending to determine with Saint Bernard he held heresy heretically or not For his successor Bennet XII first and after him the Councile of Florence hath decreed that for matter of Faith which before the decree was not matter of Faith And therefore if that be true which I said in the first book can never become matter of Faith For my part I see Saint Augustine de cura pro mortuis cap. IX resolve the question how the dead can know what is done here three wayes By the report of those who go hence and by the will of God remember what is done here by the ministery of Angels and by the revelation of Gods Spirit And if Saint John being in the Spirit saw by vision of Prophesy God sitting upon his throne in heaven as well as the Elders and Martyrs soules did I can easily grant that those souls which should have such revelations of Gods Spirit whether by the ministery of Angels or without it might see God upon his Throne as Saint John and the Prophets did and and as the Elders and Martyrs are there described to do But this would be no more that sight of God in which Saint Paul and Saint John seem to place the happinesse of Gods kingdome then that sight of God which Moses had when he communed face to face with God before the Ark was that sight whereof God said to him Thou shalt not see my face For no man shall see my face and live This for certain S. Augustine deriving the knowledge of our maters which blessed soules may have from the ministery of Angels and revelations of Gods Spirit and perhaps from report from hence was farre enough from owning Saint Gregories consequence Quae intus omnipotentis Dei claritatem vident nullo modo credendum est quod foris sit aliquid quod ignorent Those who see within the brightnesse of Almighty God it is not to be thought that there is any thing which they are ignorant of without Moral XII 14. For supposing the Saints see the essence of God it followeth not that thereby they see what is done here because it is not the essence of God but his will by which it may appear So farre it is from any appearance of truth that he who hath recourse to soules that go hence to the ministery of Angels to revelations of Gods Spirit to inform the saints departed of that which is done here should believe them to have that sight of God wherein the happinesse of his kingdom consisteth In fine by the Arch-bishop of Spalato de Rep. Ecclesi VIII 110-120 you shall find the opinion of Calvine to be the same I here maintaine though his followers it seemes are afraid of the evidence for it or the consequence of it Let us see whether justly or not It hath been a custome so general in the church to pray for the dead that no beginning of it can be assigned no time no part of the Ch. where it was not used And though the rejecting of it makes not Aerius an Heretick as disbelieving any part of the faith yet had he broke from the Ch. upon no other cause but that which the whole Church besids him owned he must as a Schismatick have come into Epiphanius his lift of Heresies intending to comprise all parties severed from the Church All that I have known pretended is that which the learned Blondel in a French work of the Sibyls verses hath conjectured that it had the begâ—nning from that book Which book as divers before him have showed reason why it should be thought the worke of a Christian intending to advance Cristianity by such meanes So I confesse I can not see whence it should come more probably then from Montanus or some of his fellow Prophets as he conjectureth For though he hath failed of his usuall diligence in clearing the difficulties which the account of time raiseth how Justine Martyrs Apology and Hermes his Pastor should borrow from Montanus yet doe I not see why Montanus might not begin to declare himselfe by it before the date of them But neither doth my businesse require or my modell allow me to debate it For supposing Justine Martyr or Clemens or Tertullian or Lactantius or many more particular writers were induced to allege it as for the advantâ—ge of the common Christianity He that sees not how