Explication of the place in Mark ix. 1.
But they that require an exact interpretation of this text, let them interpret first the like words of our Saviour to St. Peter, concerning St. John, (chap. xxi. 22), If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? upon which was grounded a report that he should not die. Nevertheless the truth of that report was neither confirmed, as well grounded; nor refuted, as ill grounded on those words; but left as a saying not understood. The same difficulty is also in the place of St. Mark. And if it be lawful to conjecture at their meaning, by that which immediately follows, both here, and in St. Luke, where the same is again repeated, it is not improbable, to say they have relation to the Transfiguration, which is described in the verses immediately following: where it is said, that after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John (not all, but some of his disciples), and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and was transfigured before them: and his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them: and there appeared unto them, Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus, &c. So that they saw Christ in glory and majesty, as he is to come; insomuch as they were sore afraid. And thus the promise of our Saviour was accomplished by way of vision. For it was a vision, as may probably be inferred out of St. Luke, that reciteth the same story (chap. ix. 28, &c.), and saith, that Peter and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep: but most certainly out of Matth. xvii. 9, where the same is again related; for our Saviour charged them, saying, Tell no man the vision until the Son of Man be risen from the dead. Howsoever it be, yet there can from thence be taken no argument, to prove that the kingdom of God taketh beginning till the day of judgment.
Abuse of some other texts in defence of the power of the Pope.
As for some other texts, to prove the Pope’s power over civil sovereigns, (besides those of Bellarmine,) as that the two swords that Christ and his apostles had amongst them, were the spiritual and the temporal sword, which they say St. Peter had given him by Christ: and, that of the two luminaries, the greater signifies the Pope, and the lesser the King; one might as well infer out of the first verse of the Bible, that by heaven is meant the Pope, and by earth the King. Which is not arguing from Scripture, but a wanton insulting over princes, that came in fashion after the time the Popes were grown so secure of their greatness, as to contemn all Christian kings; and treading on the necks of emperors, to mock both them and the Scripture, in the words of Psalm XCI. 13, Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under thy feet.
The manner of consecrations in the Scripture, was without exorcisms.
As for the rights of consecration, though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgment of the governors of the Church, and not upon the Scriptures; yet those governors are obliged to such direction, as the nature of the action itself requireth; as that the ceremonies, words, and gestures, be both decent and significant, or at least conformable to the action. When Moses consecrated the tabernacle, the altar, and the vessels belonging to them, (Exod. xl. 9), he anointed them with the oil which God had commanded to be made for that purpose: and they were holy: there was nothing exorcised, to drive away phantasms. The same Moses, the civil sovereign of Israel, when he consecrated Aaron, the high-priest, and his sons, did wash them with water, not exorcised water, put their garments upon them, and anointed them with oil; and they were sanctified, to minister unto the Lord in the priest’s office; which was a simple and decent cleansing, and adorning them, before he presented them to God, to be his servants. When king Solomon, the civil sovereign of Israel, consecrated the temple he had built, (1 Kings viii.), he stood before all the congregation of Israel; and having blessed them, he gave thanks to God, for putting into the heart of his father to build it; and for giving to himself the grace to accomplish the same; and then prayed unto him, first, to accept that house, though it were not suitable to his infinite greatness; and to hear the prayers of his servants that should pray therein, or, if they were absent, towards it; and lastly, he offered a sacrifice of peace-offering, and the house was dedicated. Here was no procession; the king stood still in his first place; no exorcised water; no Asperges me, nor other impertinent application of words spoken upon another occasion; but a decent and rational speech, and such as in making to God a present of his new-built house, was most conformable to the occasion.
We read not that St. John did exorcise the water of Jordan; nor Philip the water of the river wherein he baptized the Eunuch; nor that any pastor in the time of the apostles, did take his spittle, and put it to the nose of the person to be baptized, and say, in odorem suavitatis, that is, for a sweet savour unto the Lord; wherein neither the ceremony of spittle, for the uncleanness; nor the application of that Scripture for the levity, can by any authority of man be justified.
The immortality of man’s soul, not proved by Scripture to be of nature, but of grace.
To prove that the soul separated from the body, liveth eternally, not only the souls of the elect, by especial grace, and restoration of the eternal life which Adam lost by sin, and our Saviour restored by the sacrifice of himself, to the faithful; but also the souls of reprobates, as a property naturally consequent to the essence of mankind, without other grace of God, but that which is universally given to all mankind; there are divers places, which at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn: but such, as when I compare them with that which I have before (chapter [XXXVIII].) alleged out of the 14th of Job, seem to me much more subject to a diverse interpretation, than the words of Job.
And first there are the words of Solomon (Eccles. xii. 7), Then shall the dust return to dust, as it was, and the spirit shall return to God that gave it. Which may bear well enough, if there be no other text directly against it, this interpretation, that God only knows, but man not, what becomes of a man’s spirit, when he expireth; and the same Solomon, in the same book, (chapter iii. 20, 21) delivereth the same sentence in the same sense I have given it. His words are: All go, (man and beast), to the same place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again; who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth? That is, none knows but God; nor is it an unusual phrase to say of things we understand not, God knows what, and, God knows where. That of (Gen. v. 24) Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him; which is expounded, (Heb. xi. 5), He was translated, that he should not die; and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God; making as much for the immortality of the body, as of the soul, proveth, that this his translation was peculiar to them that please God; not common to them with the wicked, and depending on grace, not on nature. But on the contrary, what interpretation shall we give besides the literal sense, of the words of Solomon (Eccles. iii. 19), That which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so doth the other; yea, they have all one breath, (one spirit); so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast, for all is vanity. By the literal sense, here is no natural immortality of the soul; nor yet any repugnancy with the life eternal, which the elect shall enjoy by grace. And (Eccles. chap. iv. 3) Better is he that hath not yet been, than both they; that is, than they that live, or have lived; which, if the soul of all them that have lived, were immortal, were a hard saying; for then to have an immortal soul, were worse than to have no soul at all. And again, (chapter ix. 5), The living know they shall die, but the dead know not any thing; that is, naturally, and before the resurrection of the body.