glorie of the Creatour If I be bold with Bishop Bilson he is as bold with S. Augustine and sleighteth his reasons and crosseth the very argument which Aquinas magnifieth and which we have now in hand concerning David All the Reverend Bishops words are too large to be transcribed you may reade them pag. 217. and 218. I will onely single out such passages as shew him to be singular or dubious in that point That David is not ascended into heaven doth not hinder saith he but David might be translated into Paradise with the rest of the Saints that rose from the dead when Christ did but it is a just probation that Davids bodie was not then ascended when Christ sat in his humane nature at the right hand of God Again he saith Augustine hath some hold to prove that David did not ascend in body when Christ did or at least not into heaven whither Christ ascended because in plain words Peter saith * Acts 2.34 DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN But saith he either the bodies of the Saints slept again when they had given testimonie to Christs resurrection or they were placed in Paradise and there expect the number of their brethren which shall be raised out of the dust or lastly David was none of these that were raised to bear witnesse of Christs resurrection but onely such were chosen as were known to the persons then living in Jerusalem So farre Bishop Bilson Before I come to presse the argument let me desire the Reader to observe these things in the forecited words and to censure accordingly That the Saints may be in Paradise with their bodies but not in Heaven Is there any paradise but in heaven and when S. Paul was in paradise was he not in the third heaven Shall the Saints that rose upon Christs resurrection and if they ascended at all ascended upon his ascension Shall they I say be taken up from the earth and not be glorified or being glorified not be with Christ Shall they be kept at distance from the blessed spirits of Angels and men that attend upon the Lambe and hang between the earth and that heaven where their Redeemer reigneth Secondly against his former determination and against the reasons which he brought to confirm it he saith Either the bodies of the Saints slept again But doth it not impeach the power of Christs resurrection or will it not seem an apparition rather then a true resurrection as you before reasoned or they were placed in Paradise or David was none of those who were raised to bear witnesse of Christs resurrection You see now his resolution is come down but S. Augustines argument is sound that David was not excluded from that priviledge which other ancient Fathers and Patriarchs enjoyed if they enjoyed them Bishop Bilson himself confesseth that David ascended not when Christ ascended but Christ sat in his humane nature at the right hand of God when Davids bodie was not ascended If not then when did he or they ascend or how were they witnesses of his ascension Lastly that the Fathers before Christ were in blisse is out of doubt that they were in some mansion of heaven is probable that they were comforted and made happier by Christs exaltation may be beleeved But that either the souls of the Patriarchs and David are not with the other blessed Angels and spirits of men now where Christ is or that the Apostles and Evangelists and other most holy disciples of Christ do not follow the Lambe wheresoever he now is but are in a paradise out of heaven seems strange divinitie somewhat touching on the errour of the Chiliasts But I leave Bishop Bilson in this point unlike himself he being a chief of our worthies famous above thousands for a most learned Prelate 4. And if from the ground of S. Augustine and the words of S. Peter I do not demonstrate that David rose not to an eternall resurrection I am much deceived The confessed ground of S. Augustine is That it is hard and harsh to exclude David from being one that arose if any arose to eternall life so that if David arose not none may be thought of them so to arise as to ascend in their immortall bodies to heaven since he had greater gifts or priviledges then some of them and as great as almost any of them But say I David was none of those that arose or if he did he ascended not into heaven And this I will undertake to prove by S. Peter For first S. Augustine in the same Epistle saith The intent of S. Peter was to prove that these words Psal 16.10 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption were spoken of Christ onely and not of David and the Apostle evinceth it by this reason Because David did die and was buried and his sepulchre is with us that is his bones and his bodie and his ashes are yet with us whereas if David had bodily ascended they would have fitted David as well as Christ who died and was buried and his sepulchre remained but his bodie was not incinerated neither was his flesh corrupted as Davids was but ascended And so the Apostles argument had been impertinent Secondly it is said most remarkably Act. 2.34 David is not ascended into the heavens But Christ is by Davids confession Note first the force of the Antithesis Secondly observe that S. Peter spake this after Christs ascension into heaven whereas if any arose to incorruptible glorie they arose or ascended with Christ and so by just consequent before this time when S. Peter spake these words yet the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not yet ascended or He hath not ascended into the heavens Again though David were in heaven in his soul long before that time as we say or if he went up out of Limbus Patrum as some Papists say yet certainly someway he was not ascended when S. Peter thus preached If any way he ascended not it must needs be in bodie or soul They dare not say He ascended not in soul and therefore we may boldly say He ascended not in bodie unlesse they will shew us some third nature in David that might ascend which thwarteth both Philosophie and Divinitie 5. Moreover the Turks now inhabiting Jerusalem keep the sepulchre of David forbidding entrance to all Christians into it as every traveller into those parts knoweth and they questionlesse respect the sepulchre as containing the bodie bones or ashes of David there present and unremoved Lastly if David ascended not when Christ did or a little after which is evidenced from the words of S. Peter our enemies themselves will not say that he ascended long after or of late Therefore David is not ascended bodily as yet howsoever Pineda fancieth O Most mercifull Saviour the sonne of David the Lord of David who hast supereminently the Key of David and openest and no man shutteth and shuttest and no man openeth
seen as well as Christs But their bodies were not seen ascending for the Evangelists would not have omitted a matter of such moment Suarez denieth this because the Evangelists do describe such things as may be seen with bodily eyes in which regard neither the Angels nor the souls of Saints are reported to have accompanied him which yet divers beleeve to have kept wing and way with him to heaven I answer Though Angels and the spirits of men be not specified as not being seen as not being to be seen without bodies yet such Saints as arose with their bodies and went into heaven with their bodies as Suarez and others think all they who arose out of their graves did might in likelihood be seen ascending with Christ as well as Christs bodie And their bodies were as subject to be seen with bodily eyes as Christs was yea more visible by how much Christs bodie was more glorified then any of the Saints if claritie impassibilitie agilitie and subtilitie do make glorified bodies to be lesse visible all which Christ had in an eminent degree above any other An unglorified eye can see naturally a glorified bodie though a glorified bodie can be seen or not seen according as it pleaseth See the Supplement of Aquin part 3. quest 85. artic 2.3 Therefore my conclusion is firm as his objection is impertinent Thirdly from Epiphanius in Ancorato I gathered what before I onely conjectured That such onely were raised as died a while before who rising were known to such as then lived that their testimonie might by their former familiaritie the rather be beleeved and be void of exception whereas if such were raised as died long before they must first use arguments to prove that themselues had sometimes lived and that they once died that they were newly raised and that they were the same persons whom they reported themselves to be 2. Now that these should go into eternall happinesse both of souls and bodies and leave the Patriarchs bodies in the dust is in judgement improbable Therefore if it were to be proved that those who arose out of their graves after or upon Christs Passion did ascend into the most glorious happinesse in heaven both of bodie and soul as above other men I should think and maintain that Adam Seth Noah Abraham Isaac and all the rest before mentioned and others unmentioned holy Prophets and others were they that did arise and were they who were partakers with Christ of perfect immortalitie and had more favours and priviledges then other men So since Epiphanius concludeth That others of later times were raised I will be bold to inferre that others ascended not into heaven before those holy Patriarchs but laid their bodies in the graves again 3. Again if the end of their resurrection mho now arose was to testifie that Christ was risen this dutie they might fulfill though they ascended not into heaven with him If to testifie that Jesus was the Christ that he was just that he was the Sonne of God which was the collection of the Centurion when he saw the graves open and that many bodies arose Matth. 27.54 their ascension into heaven was not necessary to that certificate If they say They arose to be witnesses of his ascension into heaven I answer He had other witnesses of it Act. 1.9 who would have been witnesses of their ascension also if they had ascended with him If you say they arose to be companions of his ascension I reply that you do but beg the question and hold a groundlesse conclusion 4. Moreover Christ was seen of the Apostles fourtie dayes and spake of things pertaining to the Kingdome of God Act. 1.3 and He shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs as is said immediately before and they saw when he ascended into heaven vers 9. But that Christ ever conversed with any of those that were raised or was seen with them or they with him or they with the Apostles or Disciples or that any ascended into heaven is no direct mention as perhaps there would if Adam and the rest of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets had been raised and had gone into heaven 5. Neither would Christ who vouchsafed Peter James and John to see him conferre with Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration have now denied Peter James and John to see him conferre with the same Moses and other Patriarchs after his resurrection if they had arose and conferred with him as out of doubt during the time of fourtie dayes that he conversed on earth since their and his resurrection if they arose he often discoursed with them for he did but about twelve times appeare to the Apostles and that most on the Sabbath-dayes and then stayed not very long with them and so I may probably think that he did imploy some part of the rest of the time from his resurrection to his ascension in conference with Moses and the Patriarchs raised especially if they were to ascend bodily into heaven with him But none of these things are once pointed at Therefore there is no likelihood that they were raised much lesse that they ascended with Christ into heaven O Glorious Saviour of mankinde who didst ascend bodily into heaven to prepare a place for us amongst those many mansions filled with blisse Open the gate to me who do knock bid me enter into my masters joy that I may praise thy name and wait on thee my onely stay my delight and the life of my soul my Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ So be it CHAP. XVI 1. Angels taken for men Angels representing men are called men 2. The name JEHOVAH ascribed to an Angel representing JEHOVAH say Estius and Thyraeus Picking of faults in the Apocryphall Scriptures to be abhorred 3. Drusius his povertie The Apocrypha is too little esteemed The Angel who guided young Tobie defended 4. The great difference between Christs manner of rising and Lazarus his INdeed it is said Act. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold two men stood by them in white apparel whiles the Apostles were looking stedfastly into heaven after Christ and they told them of his coming to the last judgement in the same manner as he ascended Which two certainly might be men and were men saith the Text yea say some Expositors were some of those Many who arose out of their graves after Christs resurrection These were amicti vestibus albis saith Erasmus In albo vestitu saith Beza Now the Saints are arayed in white robes Revel 7.13 and whitenesse of garments is a token of joy Ecclesiastes 9.7 8. and these had cause to joy I first answer with most of the Ancients with the modern Beza Sa Montanus and Sanctius That these two men so called were Angels For the Angels representing mens persons are called according to their names or titles whom they represent As in the vision which S. Paul saw by night Act. 16.9 it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There stood a man
first parent before the soul be united is not sinne but a punishment of sinne a debilitie of nature an effect of sinne For if the Embryo should die or suffer abortion before the infusion and unition of the reasonable soul as such a time there is such a thing may be it must appeare in judgement and without extraordinarie mercy be damned if there were sinne in it but that a lump of flesh which onely lived the life of a plant at the utmost the life of a brute creature for indeed some abortions seeming livelesse lumps being pricked have contracted themselves and shewed they had sense which never had reasonable soul or spirit or life of man for those three severall lives are not onely virtually but really distinguished I say that such a rude masse of flesh should be lyable to account and capable of eternall either joy or pain is strange Divinitie which yet followeth necessarily if sinne be in the seed or unformed Embryo But you may ask When sinne beginneth I answer So soon as the soul is united * Subest rationale peccati susceptibile There is a reasonable subject susceptible of sinne and then sinne entreth Original sinne is in the reasonable soul as in the proper subject and is there formally the fleshly seed is the instrumentall means of traduction both of humane nature and originall sinne Originall sinne in a large sense may be said to be in the flesh and fleshly seed virtually as in the cause instrumental and to be in it originally causally materially and in such sort to be sooner in the body then in the soul by the order of generation and time but exactly and in most proper terms sinne is sooner in the soul by the order of nature and hath its first residence in the substance of the soul then in the faculties of it and last of all in the body 2 In Bishop Bilsons Survey pag. 173. this Position following is produced and maintained against him by his opposers Pollution that is sinne and reall iniquity is not in our flesh without the soul The Bishop answereth very copiously The soul cometh not to the body presently with the conception Mothers and Midwives do certainly distinguish the time of quickning from the time of conceiving neither doth the childe quicken presently upon conception That the body is not straightway framed upon the conception many thousand scapes in all females and namely women do prove Physicians and Philosophers interpose many moneths between the conception and the perfection of the body Job saith we were first as milk then condensed as cruds after clothed with skinne and flesh lastly compacted with bones and sinews before we received life and soul from God Job 10.10 The New Testament noteth three degrees in framing our bodies Seed bloud flesh Upon the premisses he thus argueth If nothing can be defiled with sinne as by your doctrine you resolve except it have a reasonable soul of necessitie we either had reasonable souls at the instant of our conception which is a most famous falshood repugnant to all learning experience and to the words of Job or els we were not conceived in sinne which is a flat heresie dissenting from the plain words of the Sacred Scriptures and from the Christian Faith So farre Bishop Bilson If company may excuse his opinion I adde these First Mollerus accordeth with him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be referred to the time of conception so soon as ever it was conceived in the wombe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the time that the Foetus lieth hid is carried in the wombe signifying the seed was impure the conception was not without the flames of concupiscence and all the masse of bloud that nourisheth the Embryo was defiled with vices in the wombe and lastly the masse of the Embryo when in the first ardor of conception it first began to be warmed by the wombe was contaminated with sinne Enough of Mollerus Kemnitius in his Examen de Peccato Originali pag. 167. thus * Cùm mossa Embryonis in primo ardore conceptionis primùm inciperet uteri calore foveri jam erat peccato contaminata quae contaminatio juxta Davidis confessionem habebat veram rationem peccati cùm nondum formata essent vel mentis vel voluntatis vel cordis organa When the masse of the Embryo in the first ardor of conception began to be warmed and cherished by the heat of the wombe it was already defiled with sinne which defilement according to Davids confession was truly a sinne when the instruments of the minde or of the will or of the heart were not yet framed Luther on the words In iniquitatibus conceptus sum thus * Non loquitur David de ullis operibus sed simpliciter de materia ipso esse dicit Semen humanum id est massa ex qua conceptus sum tota est vitio peccato corrupta Materia ipsa vitiata est lutum illud ex quo vasculum bee fingi coepit damnabile est foetus in utero antequam nascimur homines esse incipimus peccatum est David speaks not of any works but simply of the matter and being and he saith The humane seed of which I have been conceived is all corrupted with vice and sinne The matter it self is infected that clay of which this little vessel hath begun to be fashioned is damnable the fruit in the wombe before we be born and beginne to be men is sinne Hierom in his Commentary on the words * Concipitur nascitur in originali peccato quod ex Adam trahitâ—r Whatsoever is drawn and derived from Adam is conceived and born in originall sinne Cajetan thus * Hic est textus unde trâ—kitur originale peccatum quo scilicet ex commixtione maris foeminae conceptus dicitur in originali peccato This is the Text from which originall sinne is deduced wherein every one is said to be conceived in originall sinne by the conjunction of male and female All this shall not make me beleeve that there is sinne and real iniquity without a reasonable soul Illyricus is justly deserted for saying The very substance of the soul is sinfull And these deserve as few followers who say That the substantiall bodily soul-wanting masse is sinfull And I professe in this latter to take part with others rather then with the otherwise most Reverend and learned Bishop For * Culpa non potest esse in re irrationali There can be no sinne in a thing reasonles Unto Bishop Bilson I thus answer That all his premisses are true that I subscribe to his opinion in the first member of his disjunction The second part of it I do wholy deny nor do I fear his aspersion of heresie To the place of the Psalmograph I answer with reverence by distinguishing First that the words sinne and iniquitie are taken rather for inclinations to sinne then for sinne
our own implicit will we may draw on us a necessitie of after-sinning which most justly may be imputed to us and we may tie our selves with our own bonds To the former part this may give satisfaction That against the will of the soul the soul it self can not be corrupted for then the will should be forced and so no will at all but Noluntas and not Voluntas It is not necessary saith Bellarmine that our soul must needs come from Adam because we draw sinne from him if but one part come from him it is enough For a father doth not per se produce originall sinne in the childe but per accidens namely as by the act of generation it cometh to passe that his sonne is a member of mankinde which was overtaken in Adams corruption and that the propension unto evill of the earthly part traducted meeting with a soul not much resisting causeth this originall sinne to result thencefrom and death by this original sinne So that no sooner is the soul united to its body and the matter glewed to the form but the infant deserveth to be and is the childe of death by reason of the primigeneall corruption If you enquire after what manner the body worketh the soul unto this evill we may truly say * Corpus non agit in animam actione physicâ immediatâ The body worketh not upon the soul by a naturall and immediate action You heard what Hugo Eterianus said It is stricken or cast down onely by fellowship He enlargeth himself in the same Chapter thus * Vitium languor corruptio ante animae conjunctionem in carne persistunt ex qua tabe anima maculatur sicut si testa odore malo imbuta sit quemcunque liquorem susceperit suâ corruptione inficit Imperfection languishing and corruption abide in the flesh before the souls conjunction from which disease the soul is infected as if a vessel be tainted with an ill odour it infects therewith whatsoever liquour it receiveth Gerson thus * Anima ex conjunctione ad corpus contrabit illud vitium sicut quandoquis cadit in lutum foedatur maculatur Gers in Compend Theolog. The soul by the conjunction with the body contracteth that infection as when one falleth into the mire he is besmeared and stained Felisius thus * Pomum mundum in manu immunda positum foedatur Vinum bonum tranâ—fusum in vas acetosum suum naturalem perdendo saporem centrabit alienum sic anima quando incipit esse in carne unita suum naturalem amittit vigorem A clean apple put in an unclean hand is soiled Good wine poured into a fustie vessel contracts a strange taste and loses its own naturall so the soul loses its naturall vigour when it is united in the flesh Another thus Anima cum labente simul labitur frustra nititur dum innititur To the same effect another saith thus As the purest rain-water falling on dust is turned with the dust into a lump of mire so at the coadunation of the soul unto the earthly part both spirit and flesh are plunged in the durt of corruption Augustine against Julian the Pelagian 4.15 preferreth the very Heathen before Julian for he held That nothing was conveyed unto us from Adam and they held * Nos oh antiqua scelera suscepta in vita superiore poenarum luendarum causâ esse natos That we were born to be punished for old crimes committed in a former life And saith Augustine it is true which Aristotle relateth That we are punished like to those who fell among the Hetrurian robbers * Quorum corpora viva cum mortuis adversa adversis accommodata quà m optissimè colligabantur necabantur Whose living bodies being coupled face to face with dead mens carcases were so killed Of the Hetrurian Tyrant Mezentius Virgil Aeneid 8. recordeth the like Mortua corporibus jungebat corpora vivis Componens manibúsque manus at que oribus ora Tormenti genus sanie tabóque fluentes Complexu in misero longâ sic morte necabat But I return from this Digression The Heathen say as S. Augustine relateth * Nostros animos cum corporibus copulatos ut vivos cum mortuis esse conjunctos That our souls united to our bodies are like the living coupled with the dead They saw somewhat saith he and commendeth their wisedome in discerning the miseries of mankinde to be for somewhat before committed in acknowledging the power and justice of God though without divine revelation they could not know that it was Adams offence which brought such a wrack both on our souls and on our bodies What hath been hitherto related seemeth too much to encline to the naturall physicall immediate working of the soul upon the body Others are as faultie who say The soul receiveth no annoyance from the body but by way of IMPEDITION onely where the spirituall faculties are hindered and the Musick spilt by reason of the untuneablenes of the organes But they wil not seem to heare That a spirituall substance can receive infection from a nature corporeall Both opinions may rest contented in the middesse or mean That as the body cannot go beyond the sphere of its activitie and work properly and physically upon the soul so by the interposition as it were of a middle nature the body not onely hindereth the faculties of the soul from working but sometimes worketh upon the soul Thus the naturall vitall and animall spirits do binde and unite the soul to the body that neither part can part from other though it would Thus bodily objects work on the minde but it is by the mediation of the outward and inward senses Shall corporeall outward and remote objects by degrees draw the soul into sinne even in our perfect age when our naturall reason is most vigorous and may not the corrupted seed having as great a propension to evill as Naphtha to take fire at the conjunction infect the soul with a participation of uncleannes though the operation be not physicall or immediate By Adams soul sinning was Adams flesh infected may not our soul be infected as well by our flesh A spirituall substance can produce a bodily effect Boëtius saith excellently Forms materiall came from forms immateriall Our will was moved by our intellect our appetite by our will and a bodily change conformable to our appetite And may not a bodily species work by the same degrees backward on the soul it self The reason is alike in the contrarietie Doth the corporeall fire of Hell torment and affect the incorporeall spirits of evill Angels and shall it of wicked men as most certainly it doth and must which shall be proved God willing otherwhere and may not the matter make some impression on the form the body upon the soul when there is such a sympathie in nature betwixt them If the soul do no way suffer from the body how doth it follow the
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 6. Our conversation is in heaven Philip. 3.20 From which positive proofs and doctrine that Christ stood in our stead and that almost all if not all his actions and passions as he was the Mediatour between God and man were representative of us let us descend to the comparative and shew that Christ hath done and will do more good unto us then Adam hath done harm Which point I have more enlarged in my Sermon at the re-admitting into our Church of a penitent Christian from Turcisme being one of the two intituled A return from Argier where these five reasons are enlarged First that Adam conveyed to us onely one sinne but Christ giveth diversities of grace and many vertues which Adam and his posterity should never have had as patience virginity repentance compassion fraternall correction martyrdom Secondly Adams sinne was the sinne of a meer man onely but the Sonne of God merited for us Thirdly by Adams offence we are likened to beasts by the grace of Christ our nature is exalted above all Angels Fourthly Adams disobedience could not infect Christ Christs merit cleansed Adam saving his soul and body Fifthly as by the first Adam goodnes was destroyed so by the second Adam greater goodnes is restored and all punishments yea all our own sinnes turned to our further good To which I will annex these things following By Adams sinne we were easily separated from God Satan the woman and an apple were the onely means But I am perswaded saith the Apostle Rom. 8.38 that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God Again Rom. 5.13 c. the Apostle seemeth to divide the whole of time in this world into three parts under three laws the law of Nature of Moses of Christ In the first section of time sinne was in the world Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses saith the Apostle In the law of Moses though death was in the world yet sinne chiefly reigned and the rather for the law Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimúsque negatum This the Apostle confirmeth often especially Rom. 7.8 Sinne taking occasion wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The third part of times division is in the dayes of grace under Christ and now not so much death not so much sinne as righteousnes and life do reigne or rather we in them by Christ and the power of both the other is diminished and shall be wholly demolished If Adam hurt all mankinde one way or other Christ hath helped all mankinde many wayes In this life he giveth many blessings unto the reprobate his sunne shineth on all his rain falleth both upon good and bad and I do not think that there ever was the man at least within the verge of the Church but had at some time or other such a portion of Gods favour and such sweet inspirations put into his heart that if he had not quenched by his naturall frowardnes the holy motions of the Spirit God would have added more grace even enough to have brought him to salvation For God is rich in mercy Ephes 2.4 The Father of mercies 2. Corinth 1.3 Thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made for never wouldest thou have made any thing if thou hadst hated it Wisd 11.24 What thou dost abhorre or hate thou dost wish not to be what thou dost make thou dost desire it should be saith Holcot on the place In our Common-prayer-book toward the end of the Commination this is the acknowledgement of our Church O mercifull God which hast compassion of all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made which wouldest not the death of a sinner but that he should rather turn from sinne and be saved c. God is intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amator animarum A lover of souls Wisd 11.26 Holcot on the place confirmeth it by Ezek. 18.4 All souls are mine saith God Men commonly love the bodies saith Holcot but God the souls b Amat Deus animas non singulariter sic quòd non corpora amet sed privilegialiter quia eas ad se in perpetuum fruendum praeparavit God loveth the souls not onely as if he did not love the bodies but principally because he hath fitted them for the eternall fruition of himself It is not the best applied distinction for whose soever souls shall enjoy God their bodies also shall and that immortally for ever If he had said that God had loved humane souls privilegialiter because man had nothing to do in their creation or preservation he had spoken more to the purpose Nor think I that God forsaketh any but such as forsake him but Froward thoughts separate from God Wisd 1.3 c. For into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sinne For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding Concerning the souls of infants dying without the ordinary antidotes to originall sinne baptisme and the pale of the Church though they may most justly be condemned yet who knoweth how easy their punishment may be at least comparatively as some imagine For that some drops of mercy may extraordinarily distill upon them they cannot deny who say That the rebellious spirits of actually sinfull men and Angels are punished citra condignum But to leave these speculations I dare boldly affirm that if there be any mitigation of torments in any of them it is not without reference to Christ Moreover the redeeming of man was of more power then the very creation for this was performed by a calm Fiat but the redemption was accomplished by the agony passion and death of the Sonne of God c Aug. in Joan. Tractatu 72. post medium Augustine on those words John 14.12 Greater works then these shall he do saith thus It is a greater work to make a wicked man just then to create heaven and earth Therefore much more doth Christs merit surmount the fault of Adam In the first Adam we onely had posse non peccare posse non mori A possibility of not sinning a possibility of not dying We should have been changed though we had not died posse bonum non deserere A possibility of not forsaking goodnesse and should by his integrity and our endeavours have attained at the utmost but bene agere beatificari To do well and be blessed By Christ we have not onely remission of sinnes and his righteousnes imputed but rich grace abundance of joy and royall gifts Not a more joyfull but a more powerfull grace saith d Non laetiorem sed potentiorem gratiam Aug. de Correp Gratia cap. 11. Augustine and we shall have non posse peccare non posse
nobilitie richly clad do wait on Kings Tertullian adversus Marcionem cap. 22. saith Moses and Elias were seen p In consortio claritatis equally bright and glorious Luke 9.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered q Nemo putet Salvatorem veritatem corporis amisisse externam tantùm speciem permutavit splendore Let no man imagine saith Hierom that our Saviour lost the nature of a true bodie onely he converted the outward form and fashion all into brightnes The like may I say of Moses and Elias if they had their glorie by redundance from Christs glorie as Suarez maintaineth and then there is no necessitie nor indeed great likelihood that Christs glorious transfiguration should leave to himself a mortall bodie and they should be by him then invested in eternall tabernacles of incorruptible flesh Now as I have clearely declared my judgement that it holdeth not demonstratively from any puncto that Elias at the transfiguration had an unchangeably glorious estate of bodie so I hold it very probable that Elias did never die properly but was changed at his rapture and at his ingresse into heaven enjoyed a truly glorified bodie and both unto the time of Christs transfiguration and then and ever since enjoyeth and liveth in flesh incorruptible not Animall but Spirituall as the blessed Saints shall have after the end of the world If any one think to choke me with my former words That Christs glorie was greater then the glorie of his servants And therefore if Elias had an immortall bodie Christ must have one also which he had not I answer That the hypostaticall union of the Divine Nature to the Humane in Christ was at all times of greater glorie then the glorified estate of the Saints shall be after the resurrection Secondly as intensively Christs glorie was greater then Elijahs though it was eclipsed by Christs voluntarie condescent that he might accomplish the work of our redemption so extensively at the instant of the transfiguration I doubt not but the bodily glorie of Christ was as farre above his servants glorie as the light of the sunne surpasseth the light of lesser starres Therefore all things considered Christs bodily glorie was greater then Elijahs though Elijahs was immortall and Christs then changeable and mortall Bellarmine in his Apologie against the judicious Monitorie preface of King James esteemeth it as p Valde admirandum much to be admired at that the learned King said Enoch and Elias are now glorified in heaven Many things indeed might Bellarmine learn by his Majestie which are laudanda valde admiranda both to be praised and wondred at but taking valde admirandum in the worser sense I say his wonder is full of ignorance and malice Wherefore omitting much of what that really-unanswerable Bishop hath copiously alledged I say It is no such strange matter to say or beleeve that Enoch and Elias have glorified bodies And yet here first of all I will ingenuously confesse that a man both in soul and in a corruptible bodie may be in the third heaven because S. Paul else might have known that himself was not in the third heaven in his bodie but his doubting and nesciencie 2. Cor. 12.2 c. Whether in the bodie I cannot tell or whether out of the bodie I cannot tell God knoweth proveth that either might have been The disjunctive might else have been spared if it could have been done onely one way Therefore it is possible unto the Almightie that Elias might or may have a passive mortall bodie though he were rapt into heaven and there be at this present But A posse ad esse non valet consequentia and the reasons and authoritie which place Elias in heaven in an unpassible bodie are more ponderous and numerous then theirs which embrace the contrarie If it be objected that Elias went not up into the third heaven because he was carried up in a whirlwinde and whirlwindes reach not to the third heaven I answer By the same cavill they may say Our Saviour ascended not into heaven when a cloud received him out of their sight Act. 1.9 because clouds pierce not to the highest heaven But we must distinguish between things ordinarie and extraordinarie Both the whirlwinde and the cloud had somewhat in them above the common leuell of nature and were not meerly elementarie but adapted to higher and diviner uses then common clouds or whirlwindes I remove this passant tabernacle of discourse from an objection unto the standing mansion of our great Adversaries confessions Suarez in tertiam partem Summ. quaest 53. artic 3. confesseth in this manner q Sunt in inserno aliqui homines corpore animâ ante generalem resurrectionem ut Dathan Abiram similes Some men are in hell both soul and bodie before the generall resurrection as Dathan and Abiram and the like He is seconded by Peter Morales another Jesuit in his fifth book on the first chapter of S. Matthew Tract 11. This opinion is somewhat minced by Ribera upon the words Revel 19.20 These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone who hath his second also viz. Blasius Viegas for they say Korah Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up alive but then the earth closed and they died and their souls onely were carried into hell The like they say of Antichrist and his fore-runner But this nicetie is contradicted by the Vulgat which to them is authenticall Num. 16.33 Descenderunt vivi in infernum so also in the thirtieth verse and so the Interlinearie rightly readeth it according to the Hebrew And if infernus did signifie the grave in the case of Korah and his complices as it doth not for then it had been no such extraordinarie miracle for people alive to be swallowed up by the earths rupture since many people yea whole cities have often been so punished and came to destruction but they were for a signe Numb 26.10 that is for an example that others should not murmure and rebell against Gods Ministers as the Genevean Note on the place soundly and pertinently and deeply interpreteth yet concerning Antichrist and his false-prophet mentioned by them it cannot be so for it is said most punctually Revel 19.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vivi missi sunt hi duo in stagnum ignis ardentis sulphuris These both were cast alive into a lake of burning fire and brimstone as it is in their Vulgat Montanus varieth it thus In stagnum ardens in sulphure Into a lake burning in brimstone They did not descend r Ad sepulchrum ad infernum ad stagnum ignis exclusivé to the grave to hell to the lake of fire exclusively coming onely to the brink but ſ Descenderunt in infernum in stagnū ignis they descended into hell into the lake of fire they were plunged into it Therefore they did not die by the way or at the gates of hell but actually
and really entred into those fierie mansions or burning chambers For both Ribera and Viegas will be ashamed to say that the grave burneth with fire and brimstone which they must be forced to say if they continue to hold that Antichrist and his fore-runner leave their bodies in the grave Andreas Caesariensis saith Viegas on Revel 13. thinketh that Antichrist and his fore-runner shall not die t Sed incorrupto corpore vivos ad infernum descensuros but with incorruptible bodies shall descend alive into hell And as concerning Korah and his fellow-mutiners though some think it cannot be understood literally of the nethermost hell because it is said Numb 16.33 They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit but their goods and their houses went not to hell therefore not their bodies Yet I answer The Text is too much wrung and strained for by the like wrench they may as well prove that their houses and goods were alive the letter will bear one as well as the other if they ground on some translation of the Seventie for of the Originall I shall speak anon But the true meaning is They and all their things came to that destruction which in their nature they were capable of their tents and goods were swallowed up and consumed their bodies were hurried to their own places not of rest as is the common death of all men till the judgement generall but extraordinarily they endured present punishment Our learned Doctour Raynolds Tom. 1. de libris Apocryphis praelect 81. pag. 973. relateth that Epiphanius in Ancorato held Korah Dathan and their rebellious troups u Dâ—scendisse viventes in orcum non corporibus solutis neque reliquiis traditis aut parte sed totis ipsis cum corpore anima traditis in supplicium descended living and quick into hell their souls not disunited from their bodies no remnant or part left behinde but they all and wholly souls and bodies were delivered up to torment And thus that most learned Professour discourseth x Descenderunt ipsi cum omnâ—bus quae ipsorum erant vivi in infernum quomodo babetur in Hebraico contextu Quae sunt illa omnia Tabernacala domus cpes ipsorum Atqui non dicent credo Pontificii domes corum facultates omnes in lscum animarum descendisse sed in locúm corporum They descended with all things that were theirs alive into hell as it is in the Hebrew What is meant by those words All things Their Tabernacles houses and goods But I beleeve the Papists will not say that their houses and goods descended into the place of souls but into the place of bodies Therefore Moses denoteth the place of bodies not of souls The honoured Doctour might also have considered that it may be as well said that their bodies went to hell as their souls to the sepulchre if the place of their descent had been understood onely of the receptacles of bodies and not of souls Secondly as I touched before may not as well their bodies go to hell alive as they and all that appertained to them went down as the Seventie in Vatablus have it alive into the pit Thirdly did their tabernacles houses beasts and goods go down into their graves Graves are not the proper places for tents beasts and goods but for humane bodies Those terms of locus corporum are obscure and culled out purposely for a starting-hole whereas if he had said Moses denoted their sepulchres onely and not hell which he doth in effect afterward we may presse him with this That they are much happier then other for whereas others bring nothing into this world nor carrie any thing out of it these men went not to hell in Moses his meaning but carried with them out of this world their beasts their goods yea their very tents But their miserie and curse extraordinarie is described and not their happinesse Lastly I could wish that the worthy Doctour had throughly weighed how divinely the Holy Writ discriminateth severall matters Moses prophesied Numb 16.30 If the earth swallow them up with all that appertain unto them and they go down quick into the pit c. where you must interpret it as if he had thus said The earth indeed shall swallow and cover alike both them and all their goods but the persons themselves shall go down alive VIVENTES living as the Interlinearie hath it vivi as Doctour Raynolds lower even to the pit And accordingly it came to passe vers 32. The earth swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods where you see the earth swallowed all alike the chief leaders and their goods the associates of Korah and all their goods Yet for the persons themselves it is said in the next verse by way of distinction remarkably They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit which you cannot possibly interpret of their goods and tabernacles for they never were alive and never could go down alive no not to the grave or to any pit whatsoever but of the principals and the accessaries viz. the chief rebels and their partakers for diverse men appertained to them as is apparent vers 32. and therefore what our English translation hath somewhat dubiously and ambiguously They and all that appertained to them where it is not significantly enough expressed whether men onely or men and goods are comprised under the words the Interlinearie hath exactly and truly determined y Descenderunt ipsi omnes qui eis viventes in infernum They descended and all the men which lived with them alive into hell and Vatablus z Descenderúntque ipsi quoâ—quot ad eospertinebant viventes in infernum And both they descended and as many men as were their partakers living and quick into hell the quot quot having reference to men onely not to other things for then it would have been viventia and not viventes and therefore in the margin of Vatablus it is thus varied a Omnes qui eis All they who belonged to them Where the masculine gender designeth out the men onely to go alive into the pit To be plain I care for no opinion as it is an opinion of Bellarmines or of the Pontificians but if they light upon a truth I will accept of it not as theirs but as true b Amicus Socrates amicus Plato sed magìs amica Veritaâ— Socrates shall be my companion Plato my friend truth my familiar friend and Vel veritas vel Virtus in hoste probatur Or truth or any vertue do I like Even in an enemie that would me strike And I hold Bellarmines opinion true That Korah his partisans and companie descended alive into hell And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Numbers 16.30 and 33 verses signifieth hell properly c Ex manifestis loci circumstantiis intelligetis notari à Mose locum subterraneum
made quick But as I said the specializing of two sorts quick and dead evinceth that some shall not die and some have died These words of the Creed did much move Cajetan as himself confesseth and they are brought by S. Augustine to establish this point That some shall not die but shall be changed though I confesse the definitions Ecclesiasticorum Dogmatum cap. 8. leave it doubtfull For thus they say a Quod dicimus in symbolo in adveÌ„tu Domini vivos mortuos judicandos non solùm justos peccatores significari credimus sed vivos eos qui in carne invenienâ—i sunt qui adhuc morituri creduntur vel immutandi sunt ut alii volunt ut suscitati continuò vâ—l reformati cum antè mortuis judicentur What is said in the Creed That Christ at his coming shall judge the quick and the dead we beleeve doth signifie that not onely the just but the sinners also shall be judged And even those also who shall be found alive in their bodies of flesh of whom our belief is that they shall yet die or as others think be changed that being raised immediately or changed they may be judged with those who died before And yet me thinks another exposition of Ruffinus is as bad for quick and dead he understandeth of souls and bodies As if the souls were not sentenced before in the particular judgement as if the bodies were then dead or to be dead when they are judged 3. I have not yet ended with the words of the great S. Augustine but from the phrases used by him out of the Holy Writ of Expoliari Superindui To be unclothed and clothed upon I thus frame another argument S. Paul saith 2. Corinth 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We would not be unclothed but clothed upon that mortalitie might be swallowed up of life He who is not unclothed but clothed upon holdeth what he had layeth down nothing and hath somewhat added to him But by this garment Metaphorically is the bodie meant which shall not be cast off from the soul or the soul from it but in the change shall be arayed with immortalitie Now if there be not an expoliation if there be not a separation of the soul from the bodie there is no death But there is no such expoliation therefore they who have other clothing put upon them shall not die Cajetan upon the words SVPERINDVI CVPIENTES DESIRING TO BE CLOTHED VPON c. saith The same shall truly befall us b Si in die Domini vestiti corpore non nudi inventi fuerimus id est si tunc residui futuri sumus nondum mortui if at Christs coming we shall be found clothed with our bodies and not naked that is if we shall then remain alive and not be dead before And the same Cajetan confuteth Aquinas his exposition on the place Doctour Estius approveth Cajetan and so doth Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide on the words Lorinus on Act. 10. and Justinian upon these passages of S. Paul will by no means censure our opinion as Catharinus and Soto do and this they professe though they be Jesuits For indeed our opinion is confirmed by S. Augustine de peccatorum meritis remiss 1.2 c Si non peccâsset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortalitate incorruptione ut abscrberetur mortale à vita id est ab animali in spirituale transiret If Adam had not sinned his soul had never been disunited from his bodie but he had been clothed upon with immortalitie and incorruption so that the mortall part should have been swallowed up of life that is should be changed from a carnall life into a spirituall Otherwhere S. Augustine saith Adam had a state by which he might passe from mortalitie to immortalitie without tasting or partaking of death Bellarmine speaking of Adam citeth this and liketh it Why therefore may not they that shall be residui left be also without death translated into glorie If the Jesuits had had such an argument they would have said It were convenient for God so to do it yea necessarie that by plain demonstration mankinde might see and know what estate they had and what estate sometimes they lost in Adam and that all mankinde should have been so translated if sinne had not hindered and thrust death among us I will onely say It may be that some are therefore kept to be translated to shew the manner how Adam without death should have been changed Salmeron objecteth Children found alive at that time if they die not shall continue in the same stature which may not be beleeved I answer he derogateth from the power of God as if he were not able to make children to be men by the change as he is able by death Can God make children of stones and can he not make men of children Did he create Adam to be a full grown man of earth and will his hand be shortned in the immutation God out of the little dust of little children raiseth up by Salmerons confession intire perfect bodies of men therefore the same God may as well as easily and perhaps more easily if God doth such things more easily then other of the same living bodies of little children by that mysterious change produce and ampliate every member to the full growth of perfect men God caused the rod of Aaron to bud and it brought forth buds and bloomed blossomes and yeelded almonds Numb 17.8 and yet it was severed from the root and laid up in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the testimonie free from water or earth to nourish it and this was done the morrow after it was there laid though it would not have born almonds if it had been still united to the stock perhaps for many moneths after Did the same God restore unto Jeroboam his hand which was dried up before so that he could not pull it back to him again 1. Kings 13.4 and that on a sudden at the prayer of the Prophet And will Salmeron think that if children do not die they shall continue still children although they be changed Who knoweth not that the change is as great a part of Gods power as the resurrection Salmeron again objecteth If the living or quick at that day shall not die The wicked ones d Ignem conflagrationis evadent shall avoid the fire of conflagration I answer first That the fire of conflagration shall be after judgement Secondly if they should escape that fire they cannot flee from the fire of hell Thirdly the wicked ones shall arise with the just all together The wicked ones may be changed also at the same instant that the just are and that is at the same instant of the resurrection Christ is the resurrection and the life John 11.25 The resurrection to them that are dead perhaps the life to them that are changed and die not The resurrection of the dead
after death excluding judgement in this life and placing death rather before judgement then any great distance betwixt death and judgement according to the native use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which before The second exposition is of Gregory de Valentia * Tom. 4. Disp 1. quaest 22. punct 9. who applieth the words to the particular judgement immediately upon death So doth Ludovicus de ponte Vallis Oletani * Part. 1. Meditat. medit 9. who sets it down as a veritie of faith * De particulari judicio animae quod sit proximè post mortem judicium singulorum exerceri invisibiliter statim post eujusque mortem Concerning the particular judgement of the soul which is done immediately after death every one is judged invisibly presently after his death and evinceth it by this Text. So doth Joannes * Viguer Instit pag. 692. Viguerius * Bus initio Panarii Antidotorum spiritual Busaeus the Jesuite likewise accounteth * Secundum novissimum est judicium particulare mortem proximè consequens the second last thing to be the particular judgement following death immediately the severitie whereof saith he Job the holy patient feared Job 31.14 What shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him S. Ambrose on this place hath it thus * Post mortem judicabitur unusquisque â—uxta userita sua Every one shall be judged after death according to their own deservings Which words do point at the particular judgement saith Suarez Lastly lest I may seem too eager against the second book of Esdras let me borrow a testimony or two from thence 2 Esdr 9.11 12. They that lothed my law while they had yet libertie and place of repentance open unto them must know it after death by pain And 2. Esdr 7.56 While we lived and committed sinne we considered not that we should BEGIN to suffer for it AFTER DEATH Whence we may probably collect That the beginning of punishment is immediately after death upon the particular judgement and the increase or additament at the generall judgement 2 That some are in torments before the generall day of retribution 3 That the beginning to suffer is not after a long time GOD onely knoweth how long but after death yea presently after it All these proofs on each side make way for the third and best interpretation That the Apostle meaneth not onely either of these judgements but both of them Benedictus Justinian on these words thus * Post eujusque obitum sequitur judicium privatum in quo quisque suarum actionum reddit urus estrationem post finem mundi erit judicium omnium tum hominum tum daemonum After every ones death private judgement follows in which every one is to give an account of his actions after the end of the world shall be the judgement of all both men and devils Of both the Apostle may be understood saith he So also Salmeron and Hugo Cardinalis and Carthusianus Oecolampadius thus * Sive speciale judicium intelligas sive generale uihil refert Whether you understand the speciall judgement or the gener all it matters not Thus have I brought you back to the point where I first began That this text is fitted to my intentions affording me just liberty to write whatsoever may be conceived or expressed concerning the estate of humane souls in their animation or in death or after it in the life future because the words must be expounded of both judgements And now the text being cleared from ambiguities the termes explained the state being made firm and sure not rolling and changeable and being fixed upon its basis and foundation three questions do seem to arise from the first words of the text and each of them to crave its answer before I come to my main intendment First How and when Death came to be appointed for us Secondly Whether Adam and his children all and every one without priviledge or exception must and shall die It is appointed for men to die Thirdly Whether they that were raised up from the dead at any time did die the second time It is appointed to men once to die O Gracious LORD who orderest all things sweetly and who dost dispose whatsoever man doth purpose I humbly implore thy powerfull guidance and enlightning assistance in all this work for his sake who is Alpha and Omega the Way the Truth and the Life thy onely SONNE my blessed SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Amen CHAP. II. 1 How GOD is immortall how angels and the souls of men how Adams body was mortall and yet immortall though compounded of contraries 2 Aristotles last words his death Holcot or the Philosophers pray for him Aristotle canonized by his followers Plato and Aristotle compared Vives taxed Adams body was not framed of â—he earth or dust of Paradise 3. Adam should not have been subject to any externall force he was Lord of the creatures inward distemper he could not have Adams bodily temperature Christs who was fairer then the children of Adam the helps for Adams body meat drink and sleep 4. Divers opinions of the tree of life If Adam had eaten of the tree of life before or after his fall he had lived for ever If he had not sinned he had not died though he had not tasted of the tree of life To what use the tree of life should have served 5. The Councel of Millan Cardinall Cajetan Richeomus the Jesuite Julianus Pomerius and S. Augustine think that Adam could not have died if he had not sinned The book of Wisedome Holcot Doctor Estius and two passages of Scripture Canonical are authorities evincing that Adam had in the state of innocency an immortall body 1. TO the full answering of the first question how or why Death was appointed for us I shall need to cleare but these two points That Adam for sinne was appointed to die That Adams sinne and punishment was propagated to us Thus sinne was the mother of death thus we were appointed to die because of sinne As a preparative to the first of these two points I hold it fit to demonstrate that Adam at first was made an immortall creature Concerning Adams soul and the spirits of all men descended from him that they are immortall I hope to prove it so soundly in an other part of this tractate that I will fear no other reproof but this that I bring too much proof for it Therefore supposing or rather borrowing that truth which by GODS grace shall be repayed with interest I now come to shew that Adams bodie was created immortall Immortall I say not as GOD is immortall who neither had beginning nor shall have end with whom is no shadow of change much lesse any reall substantiall change who hath as all other good things else so immortalitie eminently and so eminently that our Apostle in some sort excludeth all others and appropriateth it to him saying 1.
by the Evangelist Matth. 27.52 and 53 verses The graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many So farre the text Of the various pointing of which words see more hereafter opening two windows for two expositions On which words divers worthy men both modern and ancient conclude That those Saints died not again k Sed apparuerunt multis etiam cum Christo nunquam ultrà morituri abierunt in coelum But appeared to many and with Christ never after were to die but went into heaven saith Jacobus Faber Stapulensis And Mr. Beza on this place opineth that they did not rise that again they might live among men and die as Lazarus and others did but that they might accompany Christ by whose power they rose into eternall life The late Writers saith Maldonate think that they went into heaven with Christ and with them doth himself agree So Pineda on Job 19.25 So Suarez a third Jesuit So Anselm So Aquinas on the place and on the Sentences So if Suarez cite them truely Origen in the first book to the Romanes about those words of the first chapter By the resurrection of Jesus our Lord and Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 6. and Justinus Quaest 85. Ambrose in his Enarration on the first Psalme and Eusebius Demonst 4.12 and of modern Authours and of our Church Bishop Bilson in the effect of his Sermons touching the full redemption of mankinde by the death and bloud of Jesus Christ pag. 217. So Baronius ad annum Christi 48. num 24. concerning those Saints whom Christ piercing the heavens carried with himself on high leading captivitie captive Ephes 4.8 More reserved and moderate is Mr. Montague that indefatigable Student sometime my chamber-fellow and President in the Kings Colledge in Cambridge now the Reverend Lord Bishop of Chichester who in his answer to the Gag of the Protestants pag. 209. saith of these Saints They were Saints indeed deceased but restored to life and peradventure unto eternall life in bodies as well as souls MOst cleare Fountain of Wisdome inexhaustible wash I beseech thee the spots of my soul and in the midst of many puddles of errour cleanse my understanding that I may know and embrace the truth through Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. V. 1. Who were supposed to be the Saints which were raised by such as maintain that they accompanied Christ into heaven 2. A strange storie out of the Gospel of the Nazarens 3. Adams soul was saved Adams bodie was raised about Christs Passion saith Pineda out of diverse Fathers Thus farre Pineda hath truth by him That the sepulchre of Adam was on mount Calvarie so say Athanasius Origen Cyprian Ambrose Basil Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustine Euthymius Anastasius Sinaita Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople 4. It was applauded in the Church in Hieromes time 5. Theophylact thought Adam buried in Calvarie Drusius unadvisedly taxeth the Fathers Tertullian consenteth with other Fathers and Nonnus who is defended against Heinsius 6. At Jerusalem they now shew the place where Adam his head was found Moses Barcepha saith that Sem after the floud buried the head of Adam 7. The Romane storie of Tolus and Capitolium much resembling the storie of Adam 1. TO the clearing of this cloud and that we may carry the truth visibly before us I think it fit to enquire First Who these Saints were which thus miraculously arose and then secondly to determine Whether their bodies were again deposited in the earth till the resurrection or Whether in their bodies with Christ they ascended into heaven 2. For the first Hugo Cardinalis on Matth. 27.53 hath an old storie It is said saith he in the Evangelisme of the Nazarens that two good and holy men who were dead before about fourty yeares came into the Temple and saying nothing made signes to have pen ink and parchment and wrote That those who were in Limbus rejoyced upon Christs descent and that the devils sorrowed Though the rest be fabulous yet herein the Gospel of the Nazarens agreeth with our Gospel That the names of the raised are not mentioned Others have been bold to set down both the names and the order of them who arose 3. Augustine Epist 99. ad Euodium thus a De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quòd eum ibidem Christus ad inserna descendens solverit Ecclesia ferè tota conseutit Almost the whole Church agreeth That Christ descending into hell freed the first Adam thence That the Church beleeved this non inaniter not vainly but upon some good ground we are to beleeve from whence soever the tradition came though there be no expresse Scripture If this be true of Adams soul yet is it nothing to our question of his bodily resuscitation Proceed we therefore to those that think his very bodie was raised Adam then arose saith Athanasius in his Sermon of the Passion and the Crosse saith Origen in his 35 Tractate on Matthew saith Augustine 161 quest on Genesis and others also if Pineda on the fore-cited place wrong them not And he giveth this congruentiall reason That Adam who heard the sentence of death should presently also be partaker of the resurrection by Christ and with him who had expiated his sinne by death To which may be added That as S. Hierom reports the Jews have a tradition that the ramme was slain on mount Calvarie in stead of Isaac as also Augustine Serm. 71. de Tempore ratifieth And to this day they say they have there the altar of Melchisedech So Athanasius reports from the Jewish Doctours that in Golgotha was the sepulchre of Adam This is true but it is not certain that Adam was raised and not true that he ascended bodily into heaven Mr. Broughton in his observations of the first ten Fathers saith thus Rambam recordeth that which no reason can deny how the Jews ever held by Tradition that Adam Abel and Cain offered where Abraham offered Isaac where both Temples were built on which mountain Christ taught and died And as the place was called Calvaria because the head or skull of a man was there found and found bare without hair and depilated saith Basil so divers Fathers have concluded that Adam was there buried and that it was his head See Origen tractat 35. on Matth. Cyprian in his sermon on the resurrection Ambrose in his tenth book of his commentaries on Luk. 23. Basil on the fifth of Esay Epiphanius contra Haeres lib. 1. Chrysostome Homil. 84. in Joannem Augustine Serm. 71. de Tempore and de Civitat 16.32 Euthymius on Matth. So Athanasius Sinaita lib. 6. in Hexam in Tom. 1. Bibliothecae Patrum and Sanctus Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople in Theoria rerum Ecclesiast as you may see in Tom. 6. Biblioth Patrum besides abundance of new writers with whose names I delight not to load my page 4 Hierom on
twelve times to write that he was compelled I reade not The second of Johns Epistle vers 12. the Apostle had many things to write yet would not write with paper and ink or with ink and pen as he phraseth it Epist 3. vers 13. If he would not how was he constrained S. Jude gave all diligence to write vers 3. so farre was he from coaction And it was needfull for me to write saith he in the same place It was not absolutely necessarie he saith not that he was compelled Divers followers of Solomon wrote his Proverbs who coacted them S. Paul wrote according to the wisdome given unto him 2. Pet. 3.15 Was this a power compulsive In the Epistle to Philemon vers 21. Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee knowing that thou wilt also do more then I say which words imply he would not have writ if he had thought Philemon would have been obstinate or refractarie and would have done nothing at his request howsoever he was free from coaction 2. Tim. 1.5 The remembrance of the unfeigned faith in Timothie in Lois and Eunice was the reason of S. Pauls writing unto him Doth reason use violence By Silvanus I wrote briefly exhorting you saith the Apostle 1. Pet. 5.12 Was he compelled himself who exhorted others m Simpliciter voluntatem cogi ad actum volendi contradictio est It implieth a contradiction to say simply The will was inforced to the act of willing saith Scotus The will may be compelled by God or by the creature quantum ad actus imperatos so farre as belongeth to the commanded acts in which the body is passive Joh. 21.18 Another shall gird thee and carrie thee whither thou wouldest not saith Christ to Peter Many are compelled to go to the Gaol and to be hanged but the will is induced quantum ad actus elicitos by the emanant and distilled acts What the holy Penmen spake or wrote they did freely and willingly void of compulsion The fifth question followeth viz. Whether the holy Pen-men understood all that they wrote Christopher Castrus on the smaller Prophets lib. 3. de vera futurorum cognitione cap. 12. handleth this point at large and to him I ow a great part of these authorities Montanus held that the Patriarchs and Prophets spake in an ecstasie not knowing what they said as Epiphanius Haeres 48. contra Montanistas relateth But he was an heretick for it The devil so moveth the tongues of the rapted or ecstaticall heathen that they neither understand what they speak nor have power not to speak and their speech is low out of the dust and their voice out of the ground Isa 29.4 as with the Montanists their Prophetisses Prisca and Maximilla and among the heathen the Pythonists and divers orders of religious irreligion this day among the Turks especially the Dervises But our Prophets saith the worthy Estius did speak and write propheticall light being infused into them and the knowledge of the mysteries inspired and with the free motion of their will The Father 's run in full streams to this depth Origen Homil. 6. in cap. 16. Ezekielis n Non excidebant mente Prophetae The Prophets were in their right mindes And Tom. 6. in Joan. o Fatendum est quae proprio ore protulerunt Prophetae eos intellexisse inque labiis gestâsse animi candorem We must confesse that the Prophets understood what they spake and carried in their lips the courteous grace of their minde And Periarch 3.3 p Omnes Prophetae vel Apostoli divinis responsis sine ulla mentis obturbatione ministrabant All the Prophets and Apostles were obedient to the words divine without any disturbance or distraction of minde Basil in Prooemio Isaiae q Sunt qui dicunt eos extra se raptos prophetare humanâ mente à Spiritis absorptâ Verùm id abhorret à professione divinae praesentiae â—t amentem reddat qui à numine corripitur cúmque plenus divinorum decretorum esse coeperit tum à Propria mente excidat Quomodo consentaneum est ut quis ex sapientiae Spiritu reddatur simillimus insano Quin potiùs neque lumen caecitatem parit verùm videndi vim à natura insitam expergefacit nec Spiritus tenebras inducit animis Some say that the divinely illuminated do prophesie their humane soul being swallowed up of the Spirit But it abhorreth from the professed truth and goodnesse of the divine presence to make him a mad man who is inspired by God and when he shall begin to be filled with divine Oracles that then hâ— should be out of his own wits Is it likely or convenient that one by the Spirit of wisdome should be made most like to a mad man Rather light stirreth up the visive facultie naturally nor doth light breed blindenesse nor the Spirit infuse darknesse into the mindes of men See the same Basil on Isaiah 13 at the beginning Chrysostom Homil. 29. in primam Epist ad Corinth 12. Hierom in prooem Isaiae Nahum Abacuc in 3. cap. ad Ephes Augustine de Genes ad literam 12.9 and Epist 112. and contra Adamantium Manichaeum cap. 28. Gregorie Moral 11.12 All aim at this mark That they were rapti or in an ecstasie none denieth but there is a double ecstasie The first either from outward and inward senses the minde remaining more enlightened and free and perfect Thus were they sometimes in an ecstasie Secondly there is an ecstasie from the minde it self when it understandeth not Thus they were never in an ecstasie So Philo Judaeus in his book Quis rerum divinarum haeres Cyril lib. 8. in Joannem cap. 3. r Non ad Prophetae rationem id semper exigitâ—r necessarium est ut quae sutura denuntiat intelligat habuit Dauiel complures visiones quas primum non intellexit sed ab Angelo postea est edoctus nomen Prophetae non perdidit It is not alwayes necessarie that a Prophet should understand whatsoever he foretelleth Daniel had many visions which at the first he understood not but was after taught by an Angel and yet he forfeited not the name of a Prophet I answer with Hierom on Daniel 10. They did know what the things signified though they were not presently inlightened Å¿ Vt per moram occasio daretur anepliùs Deum deprecandi lacrymis je junio invocandi Deum ut mitteret Augelum suum qui docereâ— Danielem that upon the delay occasion might be ministred unto them to pray oftner and more unto God and with tears and fasting call upon him that God would send his Angel to instruct Daniel So that every Prophet knew what words he spake and knew the literall meaning of every word but the spirituall meaning they understood not at the first or presently but afterwards So Zacharie saw many things and knew them not but asked the Angel Zach. 6.4 What are these my Lord
Either of these wayes is better then that of Canus But the truth is The father of the faithfull knew that though himself did kill Isaac yet God who is able to stones to raise up children unto Abraham Matth. 3.9 was able to raise up Isaac even from the dead Heb. 11.19 and in hope or full assurance thereof might say I and the lad will return and yet intend faithfully to sacrifice his sonne And who knoweth but he might be divinely and extraordinarily assured that his childe should return with him The third Objection consisteth of these parcels 1. Pet. 5.12 By Silvanus a faithfull brother unto you as I suppose 2. Cor. 11.5 I suppose I was not a whit behinde the very chiefest Apostles In both places is used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 computo supputo Existimo saith the Vulgat I suppose 1. Cor. 7.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I think I have the Spirit of God Joh. 21.25 There are many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written I suppose that even the world it self could not contain the books that should be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arbitror I opine think or suppose From which or the like places the objection thus ariseth Opinion is conversant about those things which are changeable and is onely of all the powers of the soul busied about contingents and is a trembling pendulous shaking and uncertain habit circa complexa upon probable reasons inclining to one side yet fearing or doubting the contradictorie for opinion is framed on likelihood as knowledge is upon truth Where opinion or supposall is there is not certain knowledge But our Apostles did think or suppose Therefore they had not immediate divine revelation or certaintie in the points supposed and therefore wrote somewhat which they knew not I answer to each of these Apostles in particular and first to S. Peter who seemeth to be in doubt and uncertainty what was to be thought concerning Silvanus Divers say he speaketh modestly of him as the Apostolicall men were wont to do of themselves S. Augustine Tract 37. in Joan. averreth that under those words is couched an asseveration As if one should say to a stubborn servant Thou dost contemn me Consider I suppose I am thy master where the seeming supposall makes him neither to be nor seem to be ever a whit the lesse his master But I answer That the holy Ghost having not revealed unto S. Peter fully what the heart of Silvanus was or was like to be left him to suppose and according to the supposall of his soul did dictate unto S. Peter what the blessed Spirit knew better then S. Peter these words The supposall of the Apostle inferreth not a supposall of the Spirit The Spirit was most certain when the Apostle might be dubious The holy Ghost spake if I may so say representing Peter and in Peters person which might be subject to a supposall and yet divinely inspired to know certainly what he wrote namely to know this that he did suppose And that upon good motives Whereas S. Paul saith 2. Cor. 11.5 I suppose I was not a whit behinde the very chiefest Apostles and 1. Cor. 7.40 I think I have the Spirit of God he speaketh not so much doubtingly as humbly To use diminuent and sparing phrases concerning ones self is lawfull 2. Cor. 11.23 I speak as a fool saith S. Paul yet there was as great a dissimilitude between a fool and him as between any I think then breathing Ephes 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnto me who am lesse then the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ No man had the like priviledge in every degree as he had in this S. Peter was Doctor Judaeorum the Doctour of the Jews S. Paul Doctor Gentium the Doctour of the Gentiles yet no man can speak more modestly then S. Paul doth of himself Lesse then the least of the Apostles had been much but lesse then the least of all Saints is the depth the heart the soul of humilitie which yet is further evidenced in that he saith not this grace was given when he was a persecuter and so indeed worse then any Saint yea almost worse then any man but to me even now when I am called now when I am turned to me now lesse then the least of all Saints is this grace given Lesse then the least is contrary to the rules of Grammar which admit not a comparative above a superlative contrary to common sense contrary to the literall truth of the things themselves for he was a chosen vessell a chief Apostle few if any more chief though he should boast more of his authoritie he should not be ashamed 2. Cor. 10.8 No whit inferiour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the very chiefest Apostles 2. Cor. 12.11 A Minister of Christ more then others 2. Cor. 11.23 Now though S. Paul used terminis diminuentibus and spake sparingly and modestly in some places concerning himself yet otherwhere he revealeth the whole truth he knew the certaintie of things to wit that he was not lesse then the least that he was not as a fool and when he said I suppose or I think he did know Dum minus dicit majus innuit Whilest he speaketh the lesse he intimateth the more he was never a trumpeter of his own worth but when he was urged unto it by opposition Concerning the place of S. John thus I answer The Apostle was governed by the holy Ghost to use an Hyperbole or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Orientall Idiotisme and perchance aimed at the words Gen. 13.6 The land was not able to bear Abraham and Lot that they might dwell together Or at the place of Amos 7.10 The land is not able to bear all his words as is well observed by the curious Heinsius He also here is guided by the same Spirit to write I suppose or I think that even the world could not contain the books as for other reasons to us unknown so perhaps because both the Spirit would qualifie the Hyperbole and speak within truth which is allowed rather then beyond truth which is disallowable I suppose rather then I know Secondly I answer more punctually If the holy Spirit did leave S. Paul nescient whether he were rapt in bodie yea or no and Paul did know his own nesciencie 2. Cor. 12.2 why might not the same Spirit leave S. Paul S. Peter S. John in supposals and yet no inconvenience ariseth thencefrom since they perfectly knew that they did suppose This is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimonie is true John 21.24 as S. John saith of himself To conclude this point No man ever said that whatsoever the holy Penmen mentioned or treated of they understood perfectly invested with all their circumstances for they spake and writ of the day of judgement and other
thoughts were in my heart The like I say of all and every of them Psal 39.2 I was dumbe with silence I held my peace even from good and my sorrow was stirred and vers 3. My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned then spake I with my tongue and vers 4. Lord make me to know mine end From whence appeareth that David was premeditating as other people do and at the last as other mens his thoughts brake forth The similitude is taken from sorrow and grief which being for a while suppressed groweth greater or from fire which being smothered or half quenched with water upon recovery of its strength groweth farre more violent The answer is that David relateth what course he took when he could not exonerate and alleviate his soul by conference with men whose wayes he liked not He poured out his complaints and prayers unto God So Musculus And this no doubt did the Spirit of God stirre him up to do It pleased the holy Ghost to make those thoughts of David which before were pure and divine yet private now to be divine publick and canonicall Again That they might conceive and understand by the Spirit a great deal more then the holy Ghost would have to be written I denie not and on such things they might muse Yet I conjecture that what they wrote in holy Scripture they studied not before-hand the Spirit hath no need of mans studie or learning and I do remove from every part of it all humane premeditation and maintain that the Spirit did frame both matter and words as by Gods grace shall anon appeare pro re nata as occasion offered it self One chief reason may be this That nature which is the right hand of God hath greatest care of greatest matters and lesse of least and equall care of things equall If the Apostolicall and Evangelicall writings are not consideratis considerandis weighing one thing with an other of more esteem then their words were yet let them go as equivalent Then Christ will have as much care of their writings as of their speaking But their speeches were without premeditation and were commanded so to be Therefore all their writings Matth. 10.19 Take no thought how or what ye shall speak you see both the matter and manner is not to be from them For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you vers 20. Not they there is the negative but the Spirit there is the positive Likewise Mark 13.11 Take no thought before-hand neither do ye premeditate An absolute inhibition and it had been a great sinne to transgresse it and a distrust of the holy Ghost The like I say concerning all their writings They might have indeed in their meditation before-hand divers of those things which afterwards they wrote but when they thought on them they knew not they should write them and when they did write they wrote them not as copies or extracts of former conceits out of the wombe of their own memories but as freshly and newly inspired apprehended indited and dictated unto them There is one kinde of knowledge proceeding from principles known by the naturall light of the intellect as Arithmetick Geometrie c. Others proceed out of principles known by light of an higher knowledge as Perspective from the principles evinced by Geometrie and Musick from principles known by Arithmetick So is the Scripture beleeved by an higher light even by the revelation of God saith Aquin. part 1. quaest 1. art 2. and not beleeved onely but the matter and manner and words proceeded from a diviner understanding then humane conceit could reach unto and were written by an higher and better hand then the hand of man All was the holy Spirits doing even the leading of their hands whilest they wrote that they could not erre Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide on 2. Tim. 3.16 thus The Spirit did not dictate all Scripture after one manner The Law and the Prophesies are revealed and dictated to a word the Histories and Morall exercitations which before by sight hearing reading or meditation the holy Writers had learned there was no necessitie to be inspired or dictated from the Spirit since they knew them alreadie So John 19.35 He that saw it bare record and Luk. 1.3 It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto thee in order Then doth he mince modifie and qualifie his former saying in this manner But the holy Spirit may be said to have dictated even the latter also First because q Astitit scribentibus nè vel in puncto à veritate aberrarent he was present whilest they wrote that they could not go one jot from the truth Secondly because it stirred them up and suggested that they should write this rather then that r Conceptum ergò memoriam corum quae sciebant non iis ingessit Spiritus Sanctus Therefore the conceptions and remembrance of such things as they knew the Spirit did not inspire into them Thirdly saith he The Spirit did order direct and methodize all their conceits that they might put this in the first that in the second another in the third place In which words of his three things deserve censure even the strict censure of the Inquisition First That the Spirit did not dictate all Scripture after one manner I answer Then all is not of a like dignitie that which is after the divinest manner is to be held best that wherein there is a medly of divine and humane knowledge and wisdome is of an inferiour sort But this may not be granted for All Scripture is of divine inspiration Excellently saith Doctour Estius on 2. Tim. 3.16 Rightly and most truely from hence do we conclude that all the sacred Canonicall Scripture was written by the dictate of the holy Spirit not in that manner say I that he left the Penmen to their own memories and knowledge which as humane were weak and imperfect but f Ità nimirum ut non solùm sententiae sed verba singula verborum ordo ac tota dispositio sit à Deo tanquam per semetipsum loquente aut scribente so that not onely the sentences but every word and the order placing and the whole disposing of the words was from God as speaking or writing by himself But God I dare say hath no need of their memories nor his writing or speech of their hearing reading sight or premeditation Secondly he is to be taxed for saying there was no necessitie that things Morall and Historicall should be inspired I say there was a necessitie that histories and moralities should be inspired if they are to be parts of the sacred Writ otherwise this knowledge and writing are onely parcels of humane learning Though S. John bare record to what he saw his bearing record without the Spirit had been but an ordinary testimonie Not his saying but
on Psal 144. Now follow the Reasons why they concelved and writ in the same tongue First there is little or no difference between the Apostles and other men if the Apostles did frame words to their heavenly inspirations For when it pleaseth the blessed Spirit who bloweth where he listeth to drop down into the soul of an ordinary man some thoughts divine and in the language of spirits saith unto the same soul Of these see that you make a prayer the righteous man accordingly obeyeth and of those inward apprehensions shapeth a verbal prayer and poureth it forth before God Almightie and setteth it down in writing Shall the prayer be held as Divine as Scriptures Then may Manasses his Apocryphall prayer immediately before the books of Maccabees as it is in our last translation be no longer Apocryphall but Divine as Divine as any prayer made by the selected holy Penmen To have a thing perfectly Divine is required that heavenly words may be mixed with heavenly illumination Secondly our faith will be questioned if thoughts were inspired and the Penmen should adde what words they pleased f Titutabit fides si Scripturarum vacillat authoritas Our faith will stumble if the authoritie of the Scripture be shaken never so little saith Augustine de doctr Christian 1.37 But the Scriptures authoritie shaketh if God give onely the matter and men the words Thirdly the Prophets and Apostles wrote not alwayes all their own things themselves but sometimes used the ministerie of divers others A Scribe and a Prophet were two distinct persons and offices Jer. 36.26 Jeremie had Baruch Jer. 36.4 Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord so then the words of Jeremiah to Baruch were the words of the Lord to Jeremiah And when that roll was burnt Jeremiah by the word of the Lord was bid to take another roll and write in it vers 28 c. Which Jeremie did not by himself but by Baruch the scribe vers 32. The nine first chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon were written by Solomon himself The rest were writ by others who attended on Solomon and heard them and are like so many precious stones apart and severally though not made up into one jewell or chain nor hanging together in any setled method yet to be esteemed at as high a rate and value as the very writings of Solomon The same Spirit inspired all the same mouth spake all though they were penned by severall hands by the command of the same holy Spirit In the New Testament S. Paul wrote much with his own hand The whole Epistle to the Galatians Gal. 6.11 at least to these very words and to Philemon vers 19. Many saluations 2. Thessal 3.17 18. The saluation of Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every Epistle so I write The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen So that we may soundly gather that whatsoever Epistle under his name hath not that in it it was not written by him There was an Epistle written in his name to the Thessalonians terrifying them as if the generall judgement had been present as may be gathered 2. Thess 2.2 But S. Paul disclaims it It had not belike the salutation with his own hand his friendly farewell and prayer which saith Anselm was in these or the like words Grace c. as all the rest of his Epistles have toward their end though with a little variation of words sometimes larger sometimes briefer even the Epistle to the Hebrews also Hebr. 13.25 Grace be with you all Amen That you may not question but also that is his Epistle whereas no other Apostles have it so fully though S. Peter cometh nearest him 1. Pet. 5.14 For all this he used the help of some others in writing All the second Epistle to the Thessalonians was written with another hand except the salutation at the end saith Estius Rom. 16.22 I Tertius who wrote this Epistle salute you in the Lord. The words will bear this sense I Tertius who wrote this Epistle in the Lord salute you or thus as the Vulgat hath it I Tertius salute you who wrote this Epistle in the Lord. He said IN THE LORD to shew that he wrote not for money saith Cajetan Questionlesse Paul dictated and Tertius wrote the Epistle saith Estius Even those words themselves are not Tertius his own inserted as a private mans or secretaries but are divine Scripture And either by the Spirit he was commanded to write so and that thought was from heaven put into his heart and those words into his mouth to be written by his hand or else which I take to be most likely S. Paul knowing the minde of Tertius perhaps in part by Tertius his own expression but rather and chiefest by Divine revelation that Tertius did salute them in the Lord he willed him so to write I hope Heinsius will not say that Tertius conceived in Syriack and wrote in Greek or when S. Paul made his narrative in the Hebrew tongue Act. 22.2 that Luke conceived in Syriack and wrote in Greek neither can he say the like of the holy secretaries to whom not first thoughts in language spirituall and then words but thoughts by words outward and expressed were revealed Yet Erasmus in his last Annotation on the Epistle to the Hebrews saith thus g Quod affâ—runt hîc quidam Paulum ipsuÌ„ scripsisse Hebraicè caeterùm Lucam argumentum Epistolae quam memoriâ tenebat suis explicuisse verbis quantum valeat viderint alii What some do affirm THAT S. PAUL HIMSELF VVROTE IN HEBREVV BUT S. LUKE DID EXPRESSE IN HIS OVVN VVORDS THE ARGUMENT OF THE EPISTLE VVHICH HE HAD GOTTEN BY HEART let others consider what force and power it hath What will you say nothing to this Not so great a Critick Sure this drop might have fallen from your pen That such manner of writing had savoured no more of the Spirit then any ordinary writing where a skilfull scribe doth amplifie the heads given unto him Again Erasmus on Hebr. 2. in his Answer to Fabers 57 objection relateth that Faber h Quicquid est incommodi offâ—ndiculi id in Interpretem rejicit sed meo judicio parùm prudenter Whatsoever seems incommodious or offensive layeth the fault thereof upon the Interpreters but not prudently enough as I think saith Erasmus and in the answer to the one and fourtieth objection i Faber flagellat Interpretem huius Epistolae qui in Psalmo non verterit ELOHIM A DEO cùm idem fecerint Septuaginta quibus magìs conveniebat hoc imputari Faber scourgeth the Interpreter of this Epistle who did not turn the word ELOHIM in the Psalm FROM GOD when the Septuagint did so to whom this might rather be imputed Again Erasmus saith ibid. of Faber k In â—us trahit Interpretem Epistolae He commenceth a suit against the Interpreter of this Epistle All this
God had sent in stead of it one of the very coals with which S. Laurence was broiled to death and thereupon shewed them the coal which was foisted in 7. He that would rake this sink might have his nose full I must ascend somewhat higher and whereas I imagined no reliques were found beyond Christ now Salianus annal tom 6. pag. 34. saith from report that the heads of the seven brethren martyrs 2. Macc. 7.1 c. are in a Nunnerie at Cullein in a Church of the Maccabees so called 400 yeares since And Pineda tells us that the reliques of Ananias Azarias and Misael are reported to remain and not those onely for Lorinus on Act. 7.44 saith The Scholasticall historie reporteth that the Ark was carried in triumph at Rome and is kept in the Church of Lateran Lorinus indeed disliketh that opinion but it may passe as well as this That unto Lewis the eleventh were brought the holy oyl and the rod of Moses and Aaron as the French historie hath it at the end of his life How missed they a piece of Noahs Ark for I take it that the Scholasticall historie speaketh of the Arca Testamenti and the fruit of some of the trees of Paradise A parcell of the Tohu-Bohu had been an excellent relique as the primitive and ancientest remainder of the unformed lump and masse of the first immediate creation For a piece of that Nothing out of which the Tohu-Bohu was made cannot be had since Nothing hath no parts If the Papists did think with the Jews that Solium Aeternitatis The Throne of Eternitie was one of those things which was made before the grand creation as Mr. Calvin relateth concerning the Jews on Micah 5.2 some of the Papists perhaps would outstrip the Jews and say that they had a relique even of that Throne In no foolerie have the Papists prejudiced themselves more then in this yea they are not onely come to that degree of infatuation as to feigne that they can shew the horns of Moses which were meerly non entia none at all growing onely in the imagination of the deceivers and deceived but they are carried even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that height of madnesse that they say they have had horresco referens I quake to write it one of the fingers of the holy Ghost which was a most blasphemous imposture I had almost said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above and beyond pardon See Mr. Sheldon in his book concerning the miracles of Antichrist pag. 335. Sleidan Comment 4. fol. 37. ad annum Dom. 1624. saith That among other things it was decreed in an assembly of the Helvetians at Lucerna thus e Qui sancti Spiritûs Mariae virginis divi Antonii circumferunt reliquias à nemine rideantur Let not them be laughed at who carrie about the reliques of the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary of S. Antonie And yet the same Sleidan Comment 12. fol. 129. makes it to be a part of the very pretended reformation to be made even by the Papists themselves That they who carry about the reliques of S. Antonie are to be put down because they lead the people into superstition and cozen them Their own learned Valla and Vives reproved this mercenary juggling and long before them Glaber Rodulphus Cluniacensis Monachus in Historia sui temporis lib. 4. cap. 3. tels strange stories of Leger de la main about reliques and of their working of miracles which he ascribeth to devils or humane errours Likewise the moderate ingenuous unsiding learned George Cassander Consult art 21. hath branded them and giveth some advice concerning them especially against the false reliques 8. I speak not unreverently of any true relique and I think many both Orientall and Occidentall reliques were and are true and fully beleeve that divers holy reliques were in this last age torn down and buried in ruines by those sacrilegious hot-brains in the giddie whirl or by those Turkish acquists which in a whirlwinde regarded more the benefit of sinfull men then the good of souls or glory of God in the beautie of his Churches If I could see one undoubted ancient relique of the best sort for they do much differ I would reverence though not worship it f Venerandi sunt martyres non adorandi ut Deus The martyrs are to be very highly esteemed yet not to be adored as God saith Ludovicus Vives on Augustine de Civit Dei 8.27 and establisheth it out of Hierom. The same say I of reliques and thus expound my self in particulars First negatively Secondly positively I would not kneel unto any relique much lesse pray unto it nor say as the Papists do to the Sudarium Christi g Sanctum sudarium ora pro nobis libera nos à peste Holy napkin pray for us and free us from the plague Or to the linen handkerchief of Veronica h Salve sancta facies impressa panniâ—ulo nos ab omni macula purga vitiorum All hail holy face printed or stamped on this handkerchief cleanse us from all the blots of our sinnes Nor to any part of the crosse or to all of it if I saw it intire would I crie i O crux ave salva nos God speed O crosse do thou save us Yet such idolatrie Scharpius imputeth to the Papists I would not light lights before the bones or ashes of a martyr which Hierom condemneth as the dotage of superstitious women who have zeal but not knowledge I would not erect altars temples or appoint holy dayes or form a prayer to worship them but to God for them All these are derogatorie to the honour of the Almightie If I were sure to have help if I prayed unto a relique I would not pray and would refuse that help I would not dig up the bodie or any part of the bodie of the greatest Saint buried unlesse it were buried in unseemly and unfit places then would I not worship it but translate it to a decent sepulchre The bodies of the Patriarchs Jacob and Joseph were not taken up to be kept as reliques but to be translated to their severall sepulchres and David caused the bones of his dearest Jonathan when they had been carried from Gilboah to the street of Beth-shan from Beth-shan to Jabesh-Gilead to be buried in Zelah of Benjamin in the sepulchre of Kish 2. Sam. 21.12 c. He kept them not for reliques nor worshipped them I would not give so much reverence to any relique as I would to the Saint himself if I were divinely ascertained that the Saints soul presented it self in a shape unto me and yet I would not fall down to worship that Saint and should I to his relique I would not religiosè venerari religiously worship as Petrus Thyraeus de locis infest part 1. cap. 67. Thesi 4. confesseth the Papists do But what saith sober S. Augustine on Psal 98.5 k Anceps factus sum timeo adorare terram nè damnet
things but if he turned it to the back side of his hand he was as conspicuous as an other man So Cicero in the third book of his offices out of Plato 4. The same Maldonat presseth us sore with an other argument What should they do here living again in mortall bodies who had a taste of Gods glory surely they had been in worse condition then if they never had been raised out of the bosome of Abraham where they were quiet to come to a turbulent life again Because this Maldonat is an importunate snarler at our religion I give him this bone to gnaw upon and for my first answer I will call to minde the prodigious Legend which divers eminent men of their own side have recorded of one Christina called by them by way of eminency e Mirabilis Wonderfull To omit what Surius and others relate I will speak in the words of Dionysius the Carthusian f Cùm defuncta esset in pueritia ducta erat in paradisum ad Thronum Majestatis Divina Domino congraiulante ineffabiliter gavisa est Dixitque Dominus Revera hac charissima filia est Christina died young and was carried into paradise to the throne of the Divine majesty and she was ineffably glad God congratulating with her And the Lord said Truly this is my deerest daughter And then he telleth That God gave her choice either to stay with him or to return unto her bodie and by penitentiall works to satisfie for all the souls in purgatorie and to edifie those who lived and to return to God b Cum meritorum augmentis with increase of her merits She answered the Lord presently that for that cause she would return to her bodie And so she did and because sinnefull men by their stench did too much afflict her O tender-nosed virgin she did flie or the Papists did lie and sit on the top-boughes of trees pinacles or turrets since noisome smells ascend it had been her farre better course to have crept into some dennes and caverns of the earth or vaults and tombes as he said she did sometimes and when her neighbours or kindred thought her mad and kept her from meat she prayed once to God and milk came out of her breasts was not she an intemerate rare virgin and so she refreshed herself This and a great deal more hath that Carthusian holy and learned above many of their side de quatuor novissimis part 3. Artic. 16. Let censorious and maledicent Maldonat ponder these things well and it will stop his mouth for ever from barking at the belief of us whom they style Hugonets Calvinists Hereticks though none of us think or say otherwise then the good Pacianus did of old in his first epistle to Sempronius CHRISTIAN is my name and CATHOLICK is my surname The Turks indeed have some strange figments of this nature but though the Mahumetan priests have devised and feigned many superstitious miracles concerning their great Saintesse Nafissa as is confessed by Joannes Leo in his African historie lib. 8. yet the Papists have surmounted both this and other their impostures with this their mirabilarie Christina Secondly concerning these Many raised I answer unto Maldonat They continued not long in this life but as I guesse shortly after Christs ascension laid their bodies down to sleep again in the earth Thirdly what thinks Maldonat of Lazarus Was not his soul in Abrahams bosome as well as the other poore Lazarus his soul who was so tenderly beloved of Christ and his Apostles and yet he lived long after and whatsoever can be objected against these Saints holds stronger against Lazarus Fourthly I denie that they by their return into the flesh were in worse condition Lorinus on Acts 9.41 saith c Non affert molestiam ut Deo vocanti mortuus obtemperet reviviscendo It is no trouble to a man if being dead he obey Gods call and live again And Salmeron saith No reason but holy men at Gods command may put on and put off their own bodies as well and as contentedly as the Angels do their assumed bodies which I do the rather beleeve because I do say with Tostatus on the 2. King 4. Quaest 56 Though it cannot be certainly proved yet it is probable That none of those that ever were raised did perish everlastingly nor that any reprobate had the favour of an extraordinary resurrection for a separated soul that hath been partaker of these unspeakable joyes will esteem worse then dung or salt that hath lost its savour all the pleasures and profits of this life though their severall excellencies were distilled into one quintessence of perfection So that as Lorinus saith well in the place above cited Whosoever hath once escaped the perill of damnation he shall not come into the same danger again 5. The last objection that I have met withall is this That to die the second time is no favour but a punishment and a punishment iterated I answer If a righteous man should die thrice or oftner death is no punishment unto him yea to passe seven times through hell to come once and everlastingly to heaven a despairing soul would hold to be a cheap blessednesse Secondly Suarez himself saith It is no punishment to die the second time no more then it was to Moses to die twice as saith Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3.10 though others dissent from Augustine Nay saith Suarez To lay down their bodies the second time is more acceptable and pleasing to God To this doth Peter Martyr agree in 1. King 4.22 If by mans hurt or losse God be glorified it is no injurie to man But in truth it is no hurt or losse to man for saith Barradius Perchance without any pains they might redeliver their carcases to the earth And if the pains be any the pains both of the latter and former death may be so tempered and diminished that they both shall not exceed the pains of one death saith Peter Martyr ibid. Which learned Peter Martyr out of S. Augustine de Mirabilib Scripturae 3. ult hath an excellent observation or two First That to every man is setled and appointed a prefixed time of death Secondly That before the last prefixed time some do die that they that raise them up to life may be more famous and God more glorified And this is proved by the very phrase which Christ used concerning Lazarus John 11.4 This sicknesse is not unto death Yet did he die and besides the time intercedent between his death and his buriall he was foure dayes buried But his sicknesse was not d Ad mortem plenam in qua Lazarus maneret to an intire death in which estate he should remain Neither is that so properly called death e Quando praeoccupat ultimum terminum when it is abortive and cometh before its time So Luke 8.52 She is not dead but sleepeth and yet verse 55. her spirit came again Therefore it was gone and she was
raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption c. What coherence subsequent then shall you make unto these words None at all The coherence must be with the antecedent words But say I take the antecedent words as the Vulgat hath them and reade as you must the connexion in this sort We shall indeed all arise but shall not all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump For the trumpet shall sound c. I say even in this reading there is little sense also yea much untruth Is it not certain that we shall be changed in a moment Or how long shall the time of change be There is no way to avoid this foul absurditie which cometh by the Vulgat edition unlesse it be by a greater that is by saying that you will make an Hyperbaton and include these words We shall not all be changed in a Parenthesis and then the sense will be We shall arise in a moment c. For though it be true that we shall arise in a moment yet there is no ground that we shall not be changed in a moment In all likelihood a change may rather be more speedie which is without death then that change which is made through death and resurrection If they may be and shall be raised and changed in a moment they may in a moment be changed and not raised Secondly no authoritie that I know runneth for such a needlesse Parenthesis and I deem it as a violence offered to the Text so to strain it when the sense will runne fairly otherwise according to the best Greek copies We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump Let this also serve to have been spoken against the Latin Vulgat edition and its bad reading Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutabimur In momento in ictu oculi in novissima tuba canet enim tuba mortui resurgent incorrupti c. By how much the lesse sense is in this by so much the more are we bound to adhere to the Originall and the most common and best copies of it This I may be bold to averre That if some shall not die and yet be changed there shall be an infallible yea demonstrative proof unto sense That the very self same bodie which man had shall inherit eternall glorie For if they die not they must needs keep and have the same bodies from which they are not parted by immutation Yea the identicall resurrection of the same very bodies which were dead may thus farre be proved That if the changed bodies shall be still the same in substance though differing in qualities the raised bodies also shall be no otherwise nor any way different and Pythagoras will then disprove his * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transmigration of souls into diverse bodies and his heathenish * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regeneration to which Nicodemus seemed to have an eye Joh. 3.4 when every soul cometh arayed with its own bodie and when they who by change put not off their bodies shall come alive to judgement 5. The Pelagians were wont thus to argue If sinne came in by Adam then all must needs die But some shall not die namely those y Qui reperientur vivi who shall be found remaining alive Therefore sinne came not into the world by Adam S. Augustine answereth this argument very sufficiently otherwise and it may easily and briefly be answered All shall die reatu though not actu Yet that holy Father and that great just enemie of the accursed Pelagians z In majorem cautelam for the greater and better securitie and safetie would seem to rest doubtfull of their assumption which he needed not Whereupon de Civitat 20.20 he saith a Dormitio praecedit quamvìs brevissima non tamen nulla Death goeth before a most short and speedie one yet a death And in the same place b Per mortem ad immortalitatem mirâ celeritate transibunt They shall slip sail or passe over by death to immortalitie with wonderfull speed Again de peccat merit remiss 2.31 c Hoc quibusdam in sine largietur Deus ut mortem istam repentiuâ commutatione non sentient God at the end of the world shall grant this priviledge unto some That by reason of their sudden change they shall not feel death And Retract 2.33 d Aut non morientur aut de vita ista in mortem de morte in aeternam vitam celerrimâ commutatione tanquam in ictu oculi transeundo mortem non sentient Either they die not or otherwise they glide from this life into death and from death into eternall life as it were in the twinkling of an eye by a most speedie alteration taking no notice or sense of death He leaves it doubtfull as you see in these his last books though sometimes before he thought That all should die and otherwhere as ad Dulcitium quaest 3. That they should not die The Master of the Sentences saith concerning the question Whether the change be by death or without it e Horum quid sit verius non est humani judicii definire Man cannot determine certainly which of these is truest Rabanus lib. 4. de sermon proprietat having alledged the consent of divers Fathers to establish his own opinion That all must die yet annexeth this Because there are others alike Catholick and learned men who beleeve That the soul remaining in the bodie those shall be changed to immortalitie who shall be found alive at the coming of our Lord f Et hoc eis reputari pro resurrectione ex mortuis quòd mortalitatem immutatione deponant non morte c. and that it stands them in stead of rising from the dead that they cast away mortalitie by change not by death Let any man rest on which opinion he pleaseth c. Which very words also you shall finde in the book de Ecclesiast Dogmat. cap. 7. Now though S. Augustine was dubious and some with him and though some also have imbraced the contrary opinion yet equally Catholick and learned men have been constant to maintain That some shall not die but be changed as you have heard confessed If you please you may take a view of some more particularly The afore named Theodorus Heracleotes cited by Hierom in his epistle to Minerius and Alexander hath it thus i Sancti qui in die judicii in corporibus reperiendi sunt non gustabunt mortem erúnt que cum Domino gravissimâ mortis necessitate calcatâ The Saints who in the day of the last judgement shall be found to be alive and remain in their earthly bodies shall not see death or taste of it and shall be with the Lord kicking and spurning at death and the greatest inforcing necessitie thereof Apollinaris cited in