ventriloqui), and so make the weakness of his voice seem to proceed, not from the weak impulsion of the organs of speech, but from distance of place, is able to make very many men believe it is a voice from Heaven, whatsoever he please to tell them. And for a crafty man that hath inquired into the secrets and familiar confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to another of his actions and adventures past, to tell them him again is no hard matter; and yet there be many that by such means as that obtain the reputation of being conjurers. But it is too long a business to reckon up the several sorts of those men, which the Greeks called @avuaтoupyo, that is to say, workers of things wonderful: and yet these do all they do by their own single dexterity. But if we look upon the impostures wrought by confederacy, there is nothing how impossible soever to be done that is impossible to be believed. For two men conspiring, one to seem lame, the other to cure him with a charm, will deceive many; but many conspiring, one to seem lame, another so to cure him, and all the rest to bear witness, will deceive many more.

In this aptitude of mankind to give too hasty belief to pretended miracles, there can be no better, nor I think any other caution, than that which God hath prescribed, first by Moses, as I have said before in the precedent chapter, in the beginning of the xiiith and end of the xviiith of Deuteronomy; that we take not any for prophets that teach any other religion than that which God's lieutenant, which at that time was Moses, hath established; nor any, though he teach the same religion, whose prediction we do not see come to pass. Moses therefore in his time, and Aaron and his successors in their times, and the sovereign governor of God's people, next under God himself, that is to say, the head of the Church, in all times, are to be consulted, what doctrine he hath established, before we give credit to a pretended miracle or prophet. And when that is done, the thing they pretend to be a miracle, we must both see it done, and use all means possible to consider, whether it be really done; and not only so, but whether it be such as no man can do the like by his natural power, but that it requires the immediate hand of God. And in this also we must have recourse to God's lieutenant,_to whom in all doubtful cases we have submitted our private judgments. For example: if a man pretend, after certain words spoken over a piece of bread, that presently God hath made it not bread, but a god or a man, or both, and nevertheless it looketh still as like bread as ever it did: there is no reason for any man to think it really done, nor consequently to fear him, till he inquire of God, by His vicar or lieutenant, whether it be done or not. If he say not, then followeth that which Moses saith (Deut. xviii. 22), "he hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not fear him." If he say it is done, then he is not to contradict it. So also if we see not, but only hear tell of a miracle, we are to consult the lawful Church; that is to say, the lawful head thereof, how far we are to give credit to the relators of it. And this is chiefly the case of men that in these days live under Christian sovereigns. For in these times I do not know one man that ever saw any such wondrous work, done by the charm, or at the word, or prayer of a man, that a man endued but with a mediocrity of reason would think supernatural and the question is no more whether what we see done be a miracle; whether the miracle we hear or read of were a real work, and not the act of a tongue or pen; but in plain terms, whether the report be true or a lie. In which question we are not every one to make our own private reason or conscience, but the public reason, that is, the reason of God's supreme lieutenant, judge; and indeed we have made him judge already, if we have given him a sovereign power to do all that is necessary for our peace and defence. A private man has always the liberty, because thought is free, to believe or not believe in his heart those acts that have been given out for

miracles, according as he shall see what benefit can accrue by men's belief, to those that pretend or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether they be miracles or lies. But when it comes to confession of that faith, the private reason must submit to the public; that is to say, to God's lieutenant. But who is this lieutenant of God, and head of the Church, shall be considered in its proper place hereafter.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption.

THE maintenance of civil society depending on justice, and justice on the power of life and death, and other less rewards and punishments, residing in them that have the sovereignty of the commonwealth; it is impossible a commonweath should stand, where any other than the sovereign hath a power of giving greater rewards than life, and of inflicting greater punishments than death. Now seeing "eternal life" is a greater reward than the "life present;" and "eternal torment" a greater punishment than the "death of nature;" it is a thing worthy to be well considered of all men that desire, by obeying authority, to avoid the calamities of confusion and civil war, what is meant in Holy Scripture by "life eternal," and "torment eternal;" and for what offences and against whom committed, men are to be "eternally tormented ;" and for what actions they are to obtain "eternal life."

And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life, as had he not broken the commandment of God, he had enjoyed it in the paradise of Eden everlastingly. For there was the "tree of life," whereof he was so long allowed to eat, as he should forbear to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; which was not allowed him. And therefore as soon as he had eaten of it, God thrust him out of paradise (Gen. iii. 22), "lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and live for ever." By which it seemeth to me (with submission nevertheless both in this, and in all questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures, to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the commonwealth, whose subject I am), that Adam, if he had not sinned, had had an eternal life on earth, and that mortality entered upon himself and his posterity by his first sin. Not that actual death then entered; for Adam then could never have had children; whereas he lived long after, and saw a numerous posterity ere he died. But where it is said (Gen. ii. 17), "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," it must needs be meant of his mortality and certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by Adam's forfeiture in committing sin, he that should cancel that forfeiture was to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for the sins of all that believe in Him; and therefore recovered to all believers that eternal life which was lost by the sin of Adam. And in this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth (Rom. v. 18, 19), "As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life;" which is again (1 Cor. xv. 21, 22) more perspicuously delivered in these words: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that eternal life which

Christ hath obtained for them, the texts next before alleged seem to make it on earth. For if as in Adam all die, that is, have forfeited paradise and eternal life on earth, even so in Christ all shall be made alive; then all men shall be made to live on earth, for else the comparison were not proper. Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the Psalmist (Psalm cxxxiii. 3), "upon Zion God commanded the blessing, even life for evermore; " for Zion is in Jerusalem upon earth; as also that of St. John (Rev. ii. 7), "To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." This was the tree of Adam's eternal life; but his life was to have been on earth. The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. John (Rev. xxi. 2), where he saith, "I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: " and again (verse 10) to the same effect; as if he should say, the new "Jerusalem," the paradise of God, at the coming again of Christ, should come down to God's people from heaven, and not they go up to it from earth. And this differs nothing from that which the two men in white clothing, that is the two angels, said to the apostles that were looking upon Christ ascending (Acts i. 11), "This same Jesus, who is taken upon from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him go up into heaven." Which soundeth as if they had said He should come down to govern them under His Father eternally here, and not to take them up to govern them in heaven; and is conformable to the restoration of the kingdom of God instituted under Moses, which was a political government of the Jews on earth. Again, that saying of our Saviour (Matt. xxii. 30), "that in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," is a description of an eternal life, resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of marriage. For seeing Adam and Eve, if they had not sinned, had lived on earth eternally in their individual persons; it is manifest they should not continually have procreated their kind; for if immortals should have generated as mankind doth now, the earth in a small time would not have been able to afford them place to stand on. The Jews that asked our Saviour the question, whose wife the woman that had married many brothers should be in the resurrection, knew not what were the consequences of life eternal and therefore our Saviour puts them in mind of this consequence of immortality; that there shall be no generation, and consequently no marriage, no more than there is marriage or generation among the angels. The comparison between that eternal life which Adam lost, and our Saviour by His victory over death hath recovered, holdeth also in this; that as Adam lost eternal life by his sin, and yet lived after it for a time, so the faithful Christian hath recovered eternal life by Christ's passion, though he die a natural death, and remain dead for a time, namely, till the resurrection. For as death is reckoned from the condemnation of Adam, not from the execution; so life is reckoned from the absolution, not from the resurrection of them that are elected in Christ.

That the place wherein men are to live eternally, after the resurrection, is the heavens (meaning by heaven, those parts of the world which are the most remote from earth, as where the stars are, or above the stars, in another higher heaven, called cælum empyreum, whereof there is no mention in Scripture, nor ground in reason), is not easily to be drawn from any text that I can find. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the kingdom of the King that dwelleth in heaven; and His kingdom was the people of Israel, whom He ruled by the prophets, His lieutenants; first Moses, and after him Eleazar, and the sovereign priests, till in the days of Samuel they rebelled, and would have a mortal man for their king, after the manner of other nations. And when our Saviour Christ, by the preaching of His

ministers, shall have persuaded the Jews to return, and called the Gentiles to His obedience, then shall there be a new kingdom of heaven; because our king shall then be God, whose "throne " is heaven without any necessity evident in the Scripture, that man shall ascend to his happiness any higher than God's "footstool" the earth. On the contrary, we find written (John iii. 13) that "no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, that is in heaven." Where I observe by the way, that these words are not, as those which go immediately before, the words of our Saviour, but of St. John himself; for Christ was then not in heaven, but upon the earth. The like is said of David (Acts ii. 34), where St. Peter, to prove the ascension of Christ, using the words of the Psalmist (Psalm xvi. 10), "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption," saith they were spoken not of David but of Christ; and to prove it addeth this reason, "For David is not ascended into heaven." But to this a man may easily answer and say, that though their bodies were not to ascend till the general day of judgment, yet their souls were in heaven as soon as they were departed from their bodies; which also seemeth to be confirmed by the words of our Saviour (Luke xx. 37, 38), who proving the resurrection out of the words of Moses, saith thus, “That the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for they all live to Him." But if these words be to be understood only of the immortality of the soul, they prove not at all that which our Saviour intended to prove, which was the resurrection of the body, that is to say, the immortality of the man. Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those patriarchs were immortal; not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of mankind; but by the will of God, that was pleased of His mere grace to bestow "eternal life" upon the faithful. And though at that time the patriarchs and many other faithful men were "dead," yet as it is in the text, they "lived to God;" that is, they were written in the Book of Life with them that were absolved of their sins, and ordained to life eternal at the resurrection. That the soul of man is in its own nature eternal, and a living creature independent on the body, or that any mere man is immortal otherwise than by the resurrection in the last day, except Enoch and Elias, is a doctrine not apparent in Scripture. The whole of the xivth chapter of Job, which is the speech not of his friends, but of himself, is a complaint of this mortality of nature; and yet no contradiction of the immortality at the resurrection. "There is hope of a tree," saith he (verse 7), "if it be cast down. Though the root thereof wax old, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet when it scenteth the water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" And (verse 12), "Man lieth down and riseth not, till the heavens be no more.' But when is it that the heavens shall be no more? St. Peter tells us that it is at the general resurrection. For in his second Epistle, chap. iii. verse 7, he saith that "the heavens and the earth that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men ;" and (verse 12), "looking for, and hasting to the coming of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire and shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we according to the promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Therefore where Job saith "man riseth not till the heavens be no more ;" it is all one as if he had said the immortal life (and soul and life in the Scripture do usually signify the same thing) beginneth not in man till the resurrection and day of judgment; and hath for cause, not his specifical nature and generation, but the promise. For St. Peter

says, not "We look for new heavens and a new earth from nature," but "from promise.".

Lastly, seeing it hath been already proved out of divers evident places of Scripture, in chap. xxxv. of this book, that the kingdom of God is a civil commonwealth, where God himself is sovereign, by virtue first of the "old," and since of the "new" covenant, wherein He reigneth by His vicar or lieutenant; the same places do therefore also prove, that after the coming again of our Saviour in His majesty and glory, to reign actually and eternally, the kingdom of God is to be on earth. But because this doctrine, though proved out of places of Scripture not few nor obscure, will appear to most men a novelty, I do but propound it; maintaining nothing in this, or any other paradox of religion; but attending the end of that dispute of the sword, concerning the authority, not yet amongst my countrymen decided, by which all sorts of doctrine are to be approved or rejected; and whose commands, both in speech and writing, whatsoever be the opinions of private men, must by all men, that mean to be protected by their laws, be obeyed. For the points of doctrine concerning the kingdom of God have so great influenee on the kingdom of man, as not to be determined but by them that under God have the sovereign power.

As the kingdom of God, and eternal life, so also God's enemies, and their torments after judgment, appear by the Scripture to have their place on earth. The name of the place, where all men remain till the resurrection, that were either buried or swallowed up of the earth, is usually called in Scripture by words that signify "under ground;" which the Latins read generally infernus and inferni, and the Greek dons, that is to say, a place where men cannot see; and containeth as well the grave as any other deeper place. But for the place of the damned after the resurrection, it is not determined, neither in the Old nor New Testament, by any note of situation; but only by the company: as that it shall be where such wicked men were, as God in former times, in extraordinary and miraculous manner, had destroyed from off the face of the earth: as for example, that they are in Inferno, in Tartarus, or in the bottomless pit; because Corah, Dathan, and Abiron, were swallowed up alive into the earth. Not that the writers of the Scripture would have us believe there could be in the globe of the earth, which is not only finite, but also, compared to the height of the stars, of no considerable magnitude, a pit without a bottom, that is, a hole of infinite depth, such us the Greeks in their "demonology" (that is to say, in their doctrine concerning "demons"), and after them the Romans, called Tartarus; of which Virgil (Æn. vi. 578, 559) says,

Bis patet in præceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,
Quantus ad ætherium cœli suspectus Olympum :

for that is a thing the proportion of earth to heaven cannot bear: but that we should believe them there, indefinitely, where those men are on whom God inflicted that exemplary punishment.

Again, because those mighty men of the earth, that lived in the time of Noah before the flood, (which the Greeks called "heroes," and the Scripture "giants," and both say were begotten by copulation of the children of God with the children of men,) were for their wicked life destroyed by the general deluge; the place of the damned is therefore also sometimes marked out by the company of those deceased giants; as Proverbs xxi. 16, "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the giants" and Job xxvi. 5, "Behold the giants groan under. water, and they that dwell with them." Here the place of the damned is under the water. And Isaiah xiv. 9, "Hell is troubled how to meet thee (that is, the king of Babylon) and will displace the giants for