A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein every word and particle in the original is explained ... : being the substance of thirty years Wednesdayes lectures at Black-fryers, London / by that holy and learned divine Wiliam Gouge ... : before which is prefixed a narrative of his life and death : whereunto is added two alphabeticall tables ...

§. 19. Of principles about Death.

THe fifth principle is thus set down, And of the resurrection of the dead. Of this principle there are two heads. One concerning the dead: the other concern∣ing their resurrection.

About the dead, there might be these principles. No man ever yet remained alive on earth for ever. It is appointed unto men once to dye. Heb. 9. 27. onely one exception is recorded, which was Enochs, of whom it is said, that God took him,* 1.1 Gen. 5. 24. which phrase the Apostle thus expoundeth, Enoch was translated that he

should not see Death. Heb. 11. 5. as for Elijah, who went up by a whirlewind int•…•… heaven. (2 King. 2. 11.) it is not expresly said that he died not. Though in his bo∣dy he were taken up from the earth, yet might his soul onely be carried into hea∣ven. Yet I will not deny, but that he also might be exempted from Death. But if this be granted, there are onely two, that we read of, exempted from this common condition: and one or two exceptions, especially they being extraordinary, do not infringe a generall rule. [This rule must not be extended to such as shall be* 1.2 living at the moment of Christ's comming to judgement: for in reference to them, thus saith the Apostle, We shall not all sleep, 1 Cor. 15. 51. and again, we which are a∣live shall be caught up together in the clouds, with them that are raised from the dead, 1 Thess. 4. 17.] Death is only of the body: which the soul leaveth, and thereupon* 1.3 it remaineth dead: the soul it self is immortall, Eccles. 12. 7. mans body was not at first made mortall: for Death came by sin, Rom. 5. 12. yet by Christ is the sting of Death pulled out, 1 Cor. 15. 55. and the nature of it is altered. For at first it was denounced as an entrance to hell, Gen. 2. 17. Luk. 16. 22, 23. by Christ it is ma•…•… a sweet sleep, 1 Thes. 4. 13. and the entrance into heaven, 2 Cor. 5. 1. Phil. 1. •…•…3. it is to believers, a putting off the rags of mortality, 1. Cor. 15. 53, 54. it is a full a∣bolition of sin, Rom. 6. 7. and they rest from all labours, and troubles, Rev. 14. 13

Notes

• * 1.1

  Enoch died not.
• * 1.2

  Who live at Christs com∣ming die not.
• * 1.3

  The soul doth not dye.