A Treatise of Paradise, Chapter 32
CHAP. XXXII.
What death that was which God threatned to inflict vponupon Adam for his tranſgreſſion.
AS it is certaine that the mortalitie of Adam, and conſequently of all mankinde, did proceed of ſinne; ſo it hath no ſmall difficultie to declare what inſtant death that was, which God ſo inſtantly threatned ſhould follow mans ſinne, for ſo ſaith the text, Gen. 2. the 17. verſe: In the day that thou eateſt thereof, thou ſhalt die the death. What day is this? what death is this? ſeeing that he neither firſt ſinned the laſt day of his life, nor yet died the firſt day of his ſinne: true it is, that as death was due at his laſt day, for his firſt ſinne, ſo was it not inflicted in the firſt houre, for his firſt dayes ſinne. Was this death peraduenture the priuation of grace, by which his ſoule ſupernaturally liued? for as the body liueth by the ſoule, ſo Adams ſoule liued by grace, conſequently as the body is ſaid to die by the abſence of the ſoule, ſo the ſoule ſpiritually by the priuation of grace: but yet though this be true, yet it cannot bee the ſole meaning of the aforeſaid words; ſo that then no other death ſhould hauehave beene due vntounto man, but only the death of the ſoule, the ſeparation from God, who as he had ſinned both in body and ſoule, was iuſtly to be puniſhed in body and ſoule; which the effect afterward ſhewed, that God had before accordingly decreed: ſo that the ſentence of his death, as it was executed both in body and ſoule, ſo it is to bee vnderſtood to hauehave beene decreed as well in regard of the body, as of the ſoule; becauſe the corporall death is a neceſſary conſequent of the ſpirituall; now then the ſpirituall being inflicted in the very inſtant of mans ſinne, how chanced it that the corporall alſo did not befall him in the day of his ſinne? eſpecially ſeeing that though God threatned not death in the inſtant of his ſinne, for the inſtant of his ſinne, yet at leaſt God ſaith, that man ſhall die in the day of his ſinne.
Is it peraduenture threatned, and not truly decreed? or if really decreed, how is it not abſolutely performed? God threatned his death in the day of his eating; Adam eateth, and yet liueth long after his eating. Could Adam change the decree of God, or could God decree that hee meant not to performe? Hee performed not, therefore he decreed not; if he decreed not, how then was it ſaid, In the day that thou eateſt thou ſhalt die the death; not of the ſoule only, for that was inſtantly, but of the body principally, ſeeing that is ſaid to be in tempore, in the day, not in inſtanti, or momentarily. Was it a threat only, as wee reade of the Niniuites? but they changed their minde, they repented their ſinne; therfore as the ſentence was conditionall, the condition being changed, the ſentence of God (though eternall) is ſaid to be reuoked, not changed in act, but immuted in obiect, the act being immutable, the obiect mutable, according to the decree of the immutable act. But here in this of Adam, the cauſe is altered; God threatneth, the ſinne is committed, why then is not the ſentence preſently executed? In the day that thou eateſt thou ſhalt die the death.
Iuſtinus the Martyr,Iuſtinus in dialogo cum Triphone Iren. lib. 5. aduerſus haereticos. in this more acute then Catholike, anſwereth, that euen the very ſame day that Adam was depriued of the ſpirituall life of his ſoule, he was no leſſe alſo of the other of his body: for though he died not the ſame day, according to the naturall reuolution of the heauen, yet ſeeing that a thouſand yeeres (as Dauid and Peter ſpeake) are but as one day in regard of Gods eternitie, Adams death being within the compaſſe of the thouſand yeeres, may well be ſaid according to Gods and the Scriptures phraſe, to hauehave died euen the ſame day that he was created.
But ſeeing true hiſtories doe ſeldome admit any ſuch ſubtilities, I rather incline to the interpretation of Ierome and S. Auſtine, who vnderſtand that ſentence of death, not of death then inſtantly inflicted, but of the neceſſitie of death then forthwith contracted. Ierome therefore commendeth Symmacus, who for that which our tranſlation hath, morieris, thou ſhalt die, tranſlateth mortalis eris, thou ſhalt become mortall: ſo that whereas hee had beene created to an eternitie of life, now he is made ſubiect to the penaltie of death; or as our interpretation ſeemeth to inſinuate, euen to death it ſelfe, ſeeing that euen from thenceforth hee began to be mortall, who by grace before was altogether immortall. So that, as according to true Philoſophie, wee may ſay, that the alteration of qualities, or the diſpoſitions vntounto generation, are in ſome ſort generation; ſo likewiſe by this phraſe of Scripture, that Adam ſhould die in the day of his ſinne, we may well vnderſtand that he began to die, diſpoſitiuè, by way of diſpoſition, in the day of his ſinne, ſeeing ſinne was the immediate diſpoſition or cauſe of his mortalitie and death, ſinne (I ſay) being the cauſe of his mortalitie, his mortalitie conſequently prepared forthwith the way vntounto death. For ſo it is ſaid in the ſecond booke of the Kings; We all die, and ſlide away as water: for though at the preſent, while we liue, we be not iointly dead, yet becauſe wee ſlide away towards death, as the flouds towards the Ocean, wee are all ſaid to die inſtantly, becauſe our life, euen from the firſt inſtant thereof, is nothing elſe but a ſwift ſliding towards death: yea our temporall life (as Gregory the great well noteth) compared to the eternall, is rather to be called a preſent death, then a continued life; ſeeing that our continuall corruption and declining towards death, may rather be tearmed a long or continuall death, then euen a very momentarie life.