Miscellanies of divinitie divided into three books, wherein is explained at large the estate of the soul in her origination, separation, particular judgement, and conduct to eternall blisse or torment. By Edvvard Kellet Doctour in Divinitie, and one of the canons of the Cathedrall Church of Exon.

CHAP. IIII.

1. Tabitha died again.

2. So did Eutychus.

3. They who were raised about the Passion of Christ, died not again, as many ancient and late Writers do imagine. M^r. Montague is more reserved.

1. NOw am I come to speak of those, who after Christs ascension were raised. For though in his life time, none of Christs inwardest disci∣ples or friends raised any; (as Elisha's servant could not raise the Shunammites sonne, but Eli∣sha himself must do it, and did it, 2. King. 4.31, &c. And Eli∣sha

himself raised none, while his master Elijah lived, but Eli∣jah himself did it, 1. King. 17.22.) yet after Christs ascension, by his power communicated to them, the beleever shall do the works that I do, and greater works then these shall he do, saith Christ, Joh. 14.12. One was raised by S. Peter, an other by S. Paul. You shall finde the first, Act. 9.40. When Peter had kneeled and prayed, and turned him to Tabitha her body, and said, Tabitha, arise; she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. Yet was she dead before, and washt, and laid in an upper chamber, vers. 37.

2. And for the other, the storie is this, Act. 20.9. As Paul was long preaching, Eutychus sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead: perchance broken in some parts of his bodie; bruised certainly: him S. Paul raised, and they brought the young man alive, and were not a lit∣tle comforted, vers. 12. Of these two, as well as of the rest, there is no doubt but that they lived again, again to die. So thinks Aquinas, 3. part. Summ. Quaest. 53. Artic. 3. and the whole School (following him) agree with us in this. So Suarez, Lorinus, who not? Take one of the ancients for all: Cy∣prian reckoneth up those who were raised in the Old Testa∣ment; and others raised by Christs command; and saith of these, h 1.1 They lived a while, and died again: and a little before of them in the Old Testament, i 1.2 They tasted of death the se∣cond time. And therefore it needs the lesse proof, because none denieth it: and the contrary needeth the lesse disproof, because none hath averred it.

3. Now it is time to come to the third and last part of my main first division, and to speak of them who arose about the time that Christ died; for of them there is a deep and in∣tricate question: and the historie of them is set down at large 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 wor∣thy men, both modern and ancient, conclude, That those Saints died not again, k 1.3 But appeared to many, and, with Christ, never after were to die, but went into heaven, saith Jacobus Fa∣ber Stapulensis. And M^r. 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 accom∣pany 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 Pi∣neda 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 Ju∣stinus, 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 M^r. Mon∣tague, 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.

Notes

• h 1.1

  Aliquo tempore be∣neficio vitae usi, iterum ad funera rediêre; Pag. 523. de Resur. Christi, paragr. 8.
• i 1.2

  Ad mortem quam gustaverunt iterum re∣dierunt.
• k 1.3

  Sed apparuerunt mul∣tis, & etiam cum Chri∣sto, nunquam ultrà mo∣rituri, abierunt in coe∣lum.